14 DAY TRIAL // We all felt the discomfort of switching to a new operating system. It is not a pleasant transition at the beginning, as there are new options you are not familiar with, and the bunch of features available do nothing else but hold you down from your work. That is until you learn to get around the new environment and learn to appreciate the progress you are faced with.
The same happened with Vista. At the beginning, the voice of the skeptics was so loud that it covered the few praises of those that trusted the new release from Microsoft. Little by little, Vista grew in popularity and people learned about the flexibility and ease of use of the operating system. The skeptics started to lose force and were compelled to admit that the new Windows is an improved version.
However, the settings and the options available still had to be handled the easy way and for this to happen several developers have released several tweak tools designed to help you configure Vista to your own advantage.
Vista Smoker Pro is a $39.95 solution for tweaking Microsoft's WoW and make it adopt your own style. The seven days testing period or the maximum limit of 50 uses of the trial version are more than enough to allow a proper evaluation of the software.
The nag screen at the launch of the software informs you about the number of uses and days left until the evaluation release expires. As there is no other limitation except for the above mentioned ones, the user can benefit from the full force of the software and form a personal opinion on how it works and how well it does its job.
Wrapped in a user-friendly interface, Vista Smoker Pro lists its menus on the left hand side of the main application window and the options on the right. The expandable windows define the ergonomics of the interface and take up the smallest amount of space.
The first menu is called Tweaks. It features menus for configuring the performance of Vista, manage the startup processes, the services, deals with the much blamed UAC (User Account Control) or Shell Tweaks. To make it easier for you to tune the system it also sports an Auto Tuner that applies all your settings and more. Actually, it will clear the temporary folders, process idle tasks to improve the performance, defragment the boot files and clean the prefetch files.
Regarding the last option, I am not that sure that it is a smart idea as Vista's super-prefetch ability actually speeds up the launching of the various programs on your computer as well as the booting. After all the tuning has been done, you will not perceive an increased speed on the spot as you will have to reboot your computer just for the settings to settle down and take effect.
Performance section in Tweaks is composed of six different sections covering options for file system optimization (clearing the pagefile on shutdown, optimize the HDD while idle, optimize the prefetch and super-prefetch options), memory (use large system cache, disable paging of kernel, unload DLLs), CPU priority (set it for background services or for the running programs), CPU (set the L2 cache limit), TimeOuts (program, low level hook and service timeouts) and CD ROM/RW optimization which - judging by the name - should no longer exist at this time, as CD ROMs are obsolete for quite a while now.
There is a special section for gamers also, designed to free up RAM and CPU cycles by closing some resource eating services. The option can be enabled before starting your gaming session and disabled at the end so that everything runs smooth. Defragmenting your disks is also possible in Vista Smoker in Performance II window. However, this option is just a launch of the proprietary tool appended to Windows, Disk Defragmenter.
My expectations for Shell Tweaks were pretty high, but the software proved to be a huge disappointment in this chapter. Not only are there very few options available, but it'll cover areas like starting the Update service, restoring the IE toolbars and clearing the search history in Internet Explorer. There aren't too many shell-related options here, so you'll have to make do with the available options.
As usual, Miscellaneous area covers the best options in any software. Here it deals with clear type enabling, disabling of balloon tips, removing the arrows from the shortcuts on the desktop, disable Recycle Bin or Windows Messenger. Of course that almost all of these can be achieved from various areas of Windows Vista, but it comes extremely handy to have them all gathered in the same place.
The thorny User Account Control feature in Vista that most users blamed and disagreed with at the beginning can be dealt with in Tweaks menu. You can disable it and configure it for both users and administrators. Thus, you will no longer be bothered by the prompt screen asking you to grant or not the right to some application to write in sensible areas of the HDD.
Maintenance tools are also present in the application and they let you clean your disks of junk data, see the folders that take the most space on each drive, eliminate the invalid DLLs, fast access to deeply buried system folders, system information (shares comprehensive information on the computer and its components by using Windows Management Instrumentation) and a toolbox that can add a plus of functionality by creating desktop shortcuts for fast restarts and shutdowns and Command Prompt, copy/move functions or by disabling certain functions in Vista.
When an operating system is discussed, security issues are never avoided. And Vista Smoker Pro does the same thing by letting you make the necessary settings in order to protect your computer from other users. However, in Start menu and Taskbar Settings areas there is a little ambiguity starting with the first option: you have a single box to check for "Hide or Display Administrative Tools Menu". Now what are you to understand from this? Is checking the box going to hide the menu or display it?
Other settings in the section comprise similar options (but not that ambiguous) enabling you to hide certain areas of the system (system tray icons, Control Panel, My Network Places, Games, taskbar clock etc.). Documents and Folders can also be messed with, and Favorites, Recent Documents, My Pictures or My Music can vanish without a trace. Applying the settings inevitably requires a reboot of the computer but restarting explorer.exe will do the trick just fine. This way, you can notice the effect faster.
According to Vista Smoker Pro, protecting your system from unauthorized access to the drives (both fix and removable), disabling System Restore Tools and Settings restrict access to the event logs or restart the shell automatically (the answer for the automatic restart is in help menu). However, the access to my memory stick was not disabled and other accounts of the computer were able to access it without the least resistance.
Moving lower in the menu, we have the Control Panel security settings to tackle. Here, you can disable the Control Panel and thus fix all the trouble. Control Panel will not be present anywhere in the interface so there will be no concern about all other settings: display control, Add/Remove Programs restrictions or disabling the addition/deletion of printers.
Under Defender section, there are some very interesting settings. One would expect all of them to be related to Windows Defender, the Vista integrated protecting tool. Well, things are a bit different because, besides Windows Defender restrictions, you get to make some other limitations for softwares that are not related by far with an antivirus. Thus you can restrict Movie Maker, Side Bar, Sound recorder, Windows Calendar, disable the Welcome sound (but not the Good Bye one) etc.
Firewall Control Center lets you add or remove applications from the firewall. There is nothing else available here. And if you come to think a little, you can do this directly from Vista's Security Center. In fact, that area will give you more options than Vista Smoker Pro.
From the moment I began analyzing this application, I had only one thought in mind: how can it ensure that the settings are not changed by an unauthorized user of the computer? Well, the answer is in Passwords menu. Here you get to secure your configuration with a password.
So that you don't mess things up with all these settings (the terminology is quite ambiguous and the number of settings is overwhelming), the application will create a restore point from the first start of the program. This way, you can always return to the previous configuration of your operating system without much hassle.
The Good
Working with the application is quite simple as it is just a matter of checking the desired boxes. After running the Auto Tuner, the computer booted faster and the overall performance increased.
The Bad
Some of the options are not working and after making a setting, you will have to reboot your computer. So, if you decide to apply only one restriction you will have to restart your computer as soon as you exit the application in order to see the effect. However, it's a matter of one simple restart of Windows Explorer.
Also, the terminology is a killer, especially Security's Control Panel. A beginner is not given a hint on what those settings mean. They are not properly explained, neither in the interface nor in the Help menu.
Defender submenu is not restricted to Windows Defender options and integrates other settings destined to additional Windows applications.
During the automatic tune up of the system, you will be prompted to tell the software if you have File and Printer sharing turned on or off, but if you are unsure, you can safely click yes. What is the purpose of this pop up anyway? If I have it off and am not aware of it, I click yes anyway so it's quite the same thing, as the software will check it automatically.
The Truth
Most of the changes the software allows you to make can be found in Windows Vista. Though there are a myriad of settings to configure, Vista Smoker Pro manages only to scratch the surface of tweaking Microsoft's latest OS.
An average user will not be able to properly test it with restarts required after every change. And if you accidentally check a box and then uncheck it, you will still be prompted to restart the computer for the "change" to take effect.
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
