The dream of any passionate computer user is to be the master of puppets when it comes to their machine.

That means that every piece of software, every automatic action that is done on the operating system should be in your complete and utter control.

Of course, this rarely happens. Windows has all kinds of software which have automatic updates, for instance. Everything is designed to come to our aid, but perhaps that's not what we want.

A very practical utility tool that can help in this matter is XP-Antispy.

This small application is free, and it allows you to disable some automatic updates, as well as authentication processes in Windows.

Installation is extremely easy, and the user interface is quite plain.

XP-Antispy is straightforward, so it offers you the disabling options from the very beginning.

For example, you can control the functions in Media Player, like disabling automatic acquisition of licenses, automatic codec download, sending information about player usage to Microsft, allowing its uninstallation (oh joy!), and others.

Plus, you have control over the network, Internet Explorer (e.g. disable automatic or scheduled updates), services, MSN Messenger, and tweaks.

Each disabling option comes with a quick information on the bottom of the window, in case you have doubts about its functional role.

CPU and memory usage is minimal, but that doesn't even come close to how many resources you're going to save after disabling some features.

Be careful though, as you might tamper with some essential tools for Windows. For instance, you can completely disable the firewall, leaving you unarmed against malicious online threats.

What else can be said here? Everyone should have a copy of this free software, in order to adjust the mind of their computers. The best thing about this software is that it also works with newer versions of Windows, contrary to its title name.