Windows XP in a Nutshell

Appendix D. Power Toys and TweakUI

Since the release of Windows 95, Microsoft has made available a set of “Power Toys,” which is a suite of extra little utilities that Microsoft feels power users would appreciate. A new set of Power Toys has been released especially for Windows XP and can be downloaded for free.

You can download the entire Power Toys package from http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/powertoys.asp and install them selectively. (If this link becomes unavailable for whatever reason, the Power Toys package will always be available at http://www.annoyances.org.) Power Toys for Windows XP comes with the following tools:

Tweak UI

This Power Toy gives you access to system settings that are not exposed in the Windows XP default user interface, including mouse settings, Explorer settings, Taskbar settings, and more. By far the most useful component of the Power Toys package, TweakUI is discussed further in the subsequent section.

Note that TweakUI 1.33, which was designed for Windows 2000, Windows Me, and Windows 9x, will also work on Windows XP, but it won’t provide the XP-specific settings available in Version 2.0.

Open Command Window Here

This Power Toy allows you to right-click any folder and select “Open Command Window Here” to open a Command Prompt window (as described in Chapter 6), with the current directory set to the selected folder.

You can also implement this feature manually with the Registry Editor (see Chapter 7). Navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell ...