TweakVI
- Price: £15 ($29.99: Premium); £20 ($39.99
Ultimate). Basic Edition (Free)
- Supplier: Totalidea Software
- Web:
http://www.totalidea.com
System Requirements:
Windows Vista compatible PC 32/64 bit; 35MB free
disk space; Internet connection for product
activation of TweakVI Premium and Ultimate.
Tweaking an operating system isn't always easy,
particularly when you are not sure whether the tweak
you are applying will adversely affect your system
or not.
Just knowing which registry key to change can
make the difference between having a PC that
performs as it should, and one that refuses to even
boot correctly.
Wouldn't it be so much easier if someone else
could do the tweaking for you, leaving you to get on
with the more important things in life? Well,
Totalidea software have done just that! TweakVI is
an easy to use tweaking and performance application
that really does take the sting out of tweaking
Windows Vista.
In Control
TweakVI opens to a rather stylish graphical
interface with a feature bar menu on the left hand
side of the main window.
Fig 1: TweakVI Main Window
This main feature bar consists of seven
individual categories, comprising:
- System Information and tweaks.
- Miscellaneous tweaks.
- Visual tweaks.
- Internet tweaks.
- Utilities.
- Auto Optimize system.
- Restore settings.
Click on any one of the feature bar options and a
sub menu of available tweaks and enhancements
appears. For example, should you click on the
Miscellaneous tweaks feature bar the resulting sub
menu will offer the following: Tweaks for changing
system folders, mouse tweaks, media player tweaks
and auto start settings.
Fig 2: Once one of the main
feature bar options has been clicked you are offered
numerous tweak options
Of course these are just a few tweaks that are on
offer. By looking more carefully at each menu option
you will find a host of other useful tweaks and
enhancements.
Plug-In
In order to accomplish tweaks and performance
enhancements within the Windows Vista environment,
TweakVI uses a series of 'plug-in' modules; these
plug-ins being loaded by the system as and when they
are needed. The number of available plug-ins varies
depending upon the TweakVI edition you subscribe to.
For this review we have used the Ultimate edition of
TweakVI which currently supporting a total of 28
plug-ins.
Fig 3: Tweak and performance enhancements are
controlled by a set of updatable plug-in modules
Auto Tweak
While it is convenient to move from one feature
bar to another selecting individual tweaks and
enhancements, for those users that don't want the
trouble, TweakVI comes with an extremely useful
Auto-Tweak option. This allows TweakVI to
automatically tweak cosmetic, internet and
networking, performance and Direct X settings. It
should be noted, however, that while the auto tweak
option is a God send, in order to increase
performance TweakVI is likely to turn off many of
the 'eye candy' features of Windows Vista.
Free or Commercial
TweakVI is distributed in three editions - Free,
Premium and Ultimate. Incidentally the TweakVI
edition naming conventions have nothing to do with
the version of Windows Vista you use on your PC. The
Free, Premium and Ultimate editions of TweakVi can
be used on any version of Windows Vista.
As one would expect, the free version does have a
number of restrictions. Physically, though, the
interface of the free edition is the same as that of
the Premium or Ultimate edition, the only exception
being, in the free version, a number of the more
advanced features have been disabled.
While the free version is not to be sneered at,
both the Premium and Ultimate editions have slightly
more to offer, including:
- Memory optimisation.
- Auto-start controls.
- Auto-shutdown.
- Password generator.
- Sidebar restrictions.
Subscription Based
Both the Premium and Ultimate editions of TweakVI
are subscription based. This means that for an
annual subscription of £15 or £20 ($29.99 -$39.99)
you have free technical support for the duration of
your subscription, along with access to the
subscriber download site to download updates and new
plug-ins
Verdict
TweakVI is easy to use and contains a host of
tweaking features allowing the user to complete
simple tasks such finding the Windows Vista product
code number, removing the arrows from desktop icons
or more complex activities such as tweaking and
optimising internet connections. It even gives you
the option to quickly and easily disable the User
Account Control should you fine UAC a nuisance.
At some time or other everyone attempts to tweak
their system; with TweakVI you will find it so
useful that, compared to other tweaking software, it
is simply in a league of its own.
Rating:
- Ease Of use: 9.0
- Features: 10.0
- Value for Money: 9.0
- Overall: 9.0