New Version of TweakUI Available (Home/Pro SP1, 2003 Server)

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It’s not referenced on the Powertoys site for XP, but there is a new version available for download direct from Microsoft:

• http://download.microsoft.com/download/f/c…wertoySetup.exe%5B/url%5D%5B/list%5DIt’s got a lot of new nifty little add-in items, and is well worth downloading. For starters, there are additional items for Internet Explorer, the ability to customize what accounts appear on the logon screen, and Access Control all in one place. You can now also copy your personal settings (animations, colors etc) to the logon desktop. You can even specify, for the first time in TweakUI, how many folder customizations Explorer will remember.

  You must remove any previous versions before installing this one.

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It is listed at the Powertoys page, just NO flag that it is new and or revised.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/dow…s/powertoys.asp%5B/url%5D

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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A good reporter always does his own research, ne c’est pas? I just spied this when looking at Microsoft’s download page.
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Version 2.10 supports Windows XP Service Pack 1 and Windows Server 2003.

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[/indent]Shame they don’t tell some of the things that were changed, there though. I had read about it at http://www.wininformant.com/Articles/Index…ArticleID=39614%5B/url%5D and rushed off to try it without veryifying Paul Thurrott’s claim. Ostensibly, that changed after his news story went out. Oh well!

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Thanks–I hadn’t hit any sites today that announced it. It will be fun to see what they have included.

SMBP

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I downloaded it yesterday after seeing the WinInfo article announcing its availability. One thing that struck me immediately was the fact that the version 2.10 download is 147KB. The previous version was 564KB. Makes one wonder!!??

I haven’t had a chance to fully explore it yet, but can anyone tell me what the “General/Alt+Tab” branch and its columns and rows is all about?

Cheers,

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I assume that you know that you can use Alt+Tab to switch between applications. If you hold down the left Alt key and briefly press Tab, you’ll see a window displaying icons of the active applications – see screenshot. The TweakUI setting determines how many columns and rows are used to display the icons. In the screenshot, I had 9 active apps, the first row contains 7 icons, and 2 are moved to the second row.

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This determines the size of the pane that is opened when using “Alt+Tab” to toggle from task, to task listed in the taskbar. This is the keyboard action of clicking each entry in the taskbar.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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Paul–

While you should always with Tweak UI, uninstall the previous version of that[/i] Tweak UI if there is an upgrade (as in this example the previous Tweak UI XP), now that you have it in you can probably bring the other back and if you want to compare them[/i] and make sure to install it to a different folder. I have Tweak UI 1.33 Download Tweak UI 1.33 or Download Tweak UI 1.33 here PC World co-exisiting with Tweak UI XP, so Tweak UI XP April 23, 2002 and Tweak UI XP July 16, 2003 probably co-exist fine but definitely uninstall the first one before downloading the second as you have.

I did this because I just wanted to compare them–I know James Eschleman at Aumha Tweak UI discourages concomittant 1.33 but it doesn’t cause harm.

From the groups, a lot of people co-exist them. I know there is 1.0 but I have never felt the need to go after that because I didn’t think it would have anything to offer me in XP, and probably was geared prior to the Win XP Era for Win 95 through 2000.

Underground Upgrades for Windows 95

I did this with the first Tweak UI XP and Powertoys that was released around the October 25, 2001 launch and then pulled shortly after and then released April 23, 2003 and they co-existed fine.

I don’t mind being a guinea pig for this. It’s a good, interesting question. If I see any threads comparing them or why on this on the Beta sites, I’ll let you know.

SMBP

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Mark

Do you know if any of the other Power Toys which are not TweakUI (CMD Here, Image Resizer, Power Calc, Task Switch, Magnifier, etc) have an SP1 update?

Thanks!

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In fact, I do not – but I doubt that they would have been revised much, actually. I think the new TweakUI simply takes advantage of a few things that were enabled/present in XP SP1 and Server 2003. Certainly worth investigating this evening!

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Thanks for the whack on the side of the head. I don’t use Alt+Tab to switch applications but, now that you mention it, it all becomes clear.

Anyone figure out why the install package for this version is only 1/4 the size of the previous version?

Cheers,

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Paul–

As to the size difference, it’s possible that the newer version is using a different installer and using some of the previous installer components that are already part of the OS instead of repackaging a redistributing installer components). If you look at a lot of utilities and apps, a lot of them are actually very small (100 KB and less) but when the installer is factored into the equation the size can then swell to over IMB–and I think that’s what’s going on here. When I get time, I’ll try to run it down with help from MS.

SMBP

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Another noteworthy feature that returns things to “normal” is tucked in among the bottom half of Explorer settings.

If you clear the “Use intuitive file name sorting” checkbox, sorting by file name will be done the old fashioned way, as in previous versions of windows and all (?) other operating systems.

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List of New Features

SMBP

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I’m glad you pointed that out Tim, but I guess I’m one of the weird ones who likes to have file 5 listed before file 10! It’s also worth noting in the Infinisource link provided by SMBP a “bug” in the My Computer section of TweakUI that I NEVER would have figured out. It’s a simple thing about how drive letters are shown in My Computer (or Windows Explorer):[indent]

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this Drive Letters section is mixed up as follows:

* Show all drive letters before the label is in fact Show network drive letters before the label, and show local drive letters after the label
* Show network drive letters before the label, and show local drive letters after the label is in fact Never show drive letters
* Never show drive letters is in fact Show all drive letters before the label

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Not that weird If the option to do intuitive sorting were selectable by user (or folder!) there are situations where it would make sense. Unfortunately, it’s a system level choice. (The option says it is a per-user setting, but that ain’t the way it plays on my Home SP1 system?)

A couple of other beefs I have about it are that MS pretty much just made a unilateral decision for us (at least there is a choice now), and that the intuitive sorting is only partial, making it inconsistent. While ‘5’ does come before ’11’, ‘eleven’ comes before ‘five’ and ‘ix’ comes before ‘v’

That correction about the drive letters was good, especially for anyone not prepared to fiddle to find out what really goes on (previous TweakUIs had similar “cosmetic” errors).

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Al and Tim–

Thanks for pointing this out. Would not have picked up on it.

SMBP

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