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Tweak UI -- The control panel applet for Type A personalities
0. Meta-information
0.1. Install
To install Tweak UI, right-click the tweakui.inf file and select Install. The inf file will do the rest. When it is finished, you will have a new control panel applet called "Tweak UI".
0.2. Run
To run Tweak UI, go to the Control Panel and double-click the "Tweak UI" icon.
0.3. Uninstall
To uninstall "Tweak UI", go to the Control Panel and double-click the "Add/Remove Programs" icon. From the list of programs, double-click "Tweak UI" to uninstall it.
Here follows a description of each tweakable.
1. General
Items on the General page affect all applications.
1.1. Menu speed
"Menu speed" allows you to control the speed at which cascading menus automatically open themselves when you move the mouse over them. The fastest setting causes them to open immediately. The slowest setting will wait for you to click explicitly on the menu item in order to open the cascading submenu.
To test the menu speed setting, right-click on the test icon. Note that some systems do not support interactive testing of the menu drop speed. On such systems, right-clicking on the test icon won't do anything, and the instructions telling you to do so will not appear. However, the changed settings *will* take effect the next time you log in.
This is a per-user setting.
1.2. Mouse sensitivity
1.2.1. Double click
This setting allows you to control how close together two mouse clicks need to be (in pixels) in order to be considered a double-click. This is the spatial counterpart to the double-click time setting in the mouse property sheet.
To test the double-click sensitivity, click twice on the test icon with the left mouse button. If the two clicks were close enough together both temporally and spatially, then the icon will change.
This is a per-user setting.
1.2.2. Drag
This setting allows you to control how far (in pixels) the mouse must move with the button held down before the system decides that you are dragging the object. Increase this value if you find that you are dragging objects accidentally when you click on them.
To test the drag sensitivity, try to drag the test icon with the left mouse button. The icon will begin dragging when you have moved the mouse the necessary distance.
This is a per-user setting.
1.3. Effects
1.3.1. Window animation
The "Window animation" check-box allows you to enable or disable the window animation effect that occurs when you minimize, maximize, or restore a window.
This is a per-user setting.
1.3.2. Beep on errors
Windows normally plays a beep sound (customizable in the "Sounds" control panel) when an error occurs. Removing this check box causes Windows not to play a beep sound.
This is a per-user setting.
1.4. Restore Factory Settings
The "Restore Factory Settings" button sets all the options on the page to the default settings.
2. Explorer
Items on the Explorer page affect the Windows 95 Explorer.
2.1. Shortcut overlay
Use this area to customize the effect used by Explorer to indicate that an icon represents a shortcut.
"Arrow" is the default setting, which overlays a bold arrow in the lower-left corner of the icon.
"Light arrow" is the same as "Arrow", but uses a more subtle arrow.
"None" removes the effect completely. With this setting, shortcuts are indistinguishable from normal files. Use this setting with caution, because you might end up deleting a file instead of a shortcut by mistake, so don't say I didn't warn you.
"Custom" allows you to choose any icon in the system to be used as the overlay effect icon.
The shortcut overlay effect is a system-wide setting. When changing the overlay effect, it is your duty to inform all users of the machine of the change, particular if you change the effect to "None". Restore the shortcut overlay effect to the system default before calling Microsoft Product Support. (Remember, PowerToys are provided as-is with no support.)
If you uninstall Tweak UI, the customized shortcut overlay is uninstalled as well.
2.2. Settings
2.2.1. Prefix "Shortcut to" on new shortcuts
By default, the name of a shortcut is "Shortcut to", followed by the name of the target. Unchecking this box causes the shell not to prepend this phrase to new shortcuts.
Note that some systems do not support dynamic changing of the prefix setting. On such systems, the changed settings will take effect the next time you log in.
This is a per-user setting.
If you uninstall Tweak UI, this customization is uninstalled as well.
2.2.2. Save settings on exit
By default, when you close an Explorer window, the shell remembers the settings of that window and restores them when you reopen that folder. Moreover, when you shut down, it also remembers the settings of all the open Explorer windows and reopens them when you log on the next time.
If you uncheck the "Save settings" box, then these settings are not saved when you close an Explorer window or shut down.
Note that the shell remembers the settings for only the 50 most recently visited folders. When you visit the 51st folder, the folder setting you visited least recently is discarded.
This is a per-user setting.
2.3. Restore Factory Settings
The "Restore Factory Settings" button sets all the options on the page to the default settings.
3. Desktop
Items on the Desktop page affect the Windows 95 Desktop.
3.1. Special desktop icons
As you've noticed, the Windows 95 desktop contains several special icons which cannot be manipulated in the traditional manner. This page allows you to tinker with these special desktop icons.
You are presented with a list of all possible special desktop icons; next to each one is a check-box indicating whether it is currently on the desktop or not. Click on a check-box to add or remove special desktop icons to or from the desktop.
Some of the icons won't have a box next to them. These icons cannot be placed on the desktop as special desktop icons, but you can still use Create As File (below) to put them on the desktop, or anywhere else for that matter.
You can rename an icon by double-clicking its name. However, changes to the name may require manually refreshing the desktop after you close the property sheet. (Sorry.)
Note that the status of special desktop icons is a system-wide setting. Removing a special desktop icon removes it from everybody's desktop. The one exception is the Network Neighborhood, which is a per-user setting.
Note that removing the desktop icon merely removes the icon. Any software associated with the desktop icon remains installed. This page exists so you can (1) get rid of pesky icons that refuse to go away by other means, or (2) restore icons after you accidentally nuke them.
If you add or remove the Network Neighborhood, you must log off and back on for the changes will take effect.
3.2. Create As File
If you select a special desktop icon, then click the "Create As File" button, Tweak UI will create a special file which behaves just like the special desktop icon, but with the added feature that, since it is a file, you can drag and drop it anywhere you want. For example, if you want to move The Internet into a folder, first remove it from the desktop by unchecking the check-box, then click "Create As File", and place it in whatever folder you want.
A fun place to save special desktop icons is on the Start Menu. (Control Panel is everybody's favorite.) Try it!
Suppose you want to let your young children use the computer, but don't want the Inbox on their desktop, because they might double-click on it and mess up your mail. After creating a separate login for your kids and configuring the system to use a different desktop for each user, you can delete the Inbox from the system-wide desktop, then create the Inbox as a file on your private desktop. When you log in, you get an Inbox on your desktop, but your kids don't.
4. Templates
The Templates page allows you to do stuff with document templates. There isn't much here right now. Someday, I may write more.
4.1. Create New Document Template
If you drop a file onto the Create New Document Template area, Tweak UI will automatically convert it into a document template, which will then appear on the list of document types when you right-click and select "New".
When you drop the file, one of a few things can happen.
0. "Drop only one file at a time, please."
Tweak UI can create only one document template at a time.
1. "No application is associated with this file."
This means that the file type was not recognized. Go to the Explorer, View, Options, File Types dialog and create an association for the file, then try again.
2. "A template for this document type has already been defined."
Somebody else beat you to it and created a document template already.
3. "Unable to copy the file to the templates folder."
There was an error copying the file into the templates folder. Tweak UI doesn't tell you what sort of error actually happened; that's left for you to figure out.
4. "The document template was created succesfully."
Oh frabjous day. You can now right-click the desktop and select New, and look! your document is on the list of document templates. Yes, you may have noticed that there is no keyboard interface to this feature. If you're such a propeller-head that you don't want to use the mouse, you probably didn't need this applet in the first place.
\*\* Strange things happen if you drag a folder, but fortunately we\* stop before things get out of hand. (Albeit with a weird error\* message.)\*
5. Boot
The Boot page allows you to customize UI-related aspects of the Windows 95 boot process. This page won't appear if you are running Windows NT. (Duh.) It also won't appear if Tweak UI can't find your Windows 95 boot configuration file.
Obviously, any changes made on this page won't take effect until the next time you reboot the computer.
5.1. General
5.1.1. Function keys available for nn seconds.
Uncheck the "Function keys available" option to disable the various function keys that modify the boot process, such as F5 and F8.
If the option is enabled, you can adjust how long Windows 95 will pause after the "Starting Windows 95" message to see if you are pressing a function key.
5.1.2. Start GUI automatically
Uncheck the "Start GUI automatically" option to make Windows 95 stop the boot process once it has reached a command prompt instead instead of continuing to the GUI automatically.
5.1.3. Display splash screen while booting
Uncheck the "Display splash screen" option to suppress the Windows 95 splash screen that appears during the boot process.
5.1.4. Allow F4 to boot previous operating system
If you check the "Allow F4 to boot previous operating system" option, then you will be able to press F4 when the "Starting Windows 95" message is on the screen to cause Windows 95 to load the operating system that you were running before installing Windows 95.
Of course, this assumes that you (1) actually had a previous operating system, and (2) didn't delete any files required by the previous operating system in the meantime...
5.2. Boot menu
5.2.1. Always show boot menu
Check "Always show boot menu" to see a boot menu every time you start Windows 95. Normally, Windows 95 will show a boot menu only if it detected that there was a problem with the previous boot.
5.2.2. Default menu option
Changing the default menu option allows you to choose which option on the boot menu will be highlighted automatically.
5.2.3. Continue booting after nn seconds.
Setting the value of "Continue booting after" controls how long the boot menu will remain on the screen before the default action is taken.
5.3. Restore Factory Settings
The "Restore Factory Settings" button sets all the options on the page to the default settings.
z. Other stuff
z.1. The speaker on the TaskBar
To enable or disable the speaker on the task bar, go to the Control Panel, select Multimedia, and then check or uncheck the box that says "Show volume control on the taskbar."
Or you can right-click the speaker icon on the taskbar and select "Adjust Audio Properties". Then check or uncheck the box that says "Show volume control on the taskbar."
z.2. Save as default Explorer settings
To save the current window settings as the default Explorer settings for all new windows, hold the Ctrl key while you click the "X" button. Note that "Save settings on exit" must be enabled for this to work.
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