Mmmm, power

There's a reason why xp-AntiSpy has been on our Week's Best list. This is one of the more powerful and enticing little programs to have for tweaking your system the way you wish it could have been delivered to you on day one.

This is probably one of the more authoritative and power-user oriented tools that is currently on the net and if you download it, you'll know exactly why. xp-AntiSpy lets you disable some of that built in and annoying update and authentication features that always seem to come up unexpectedly.

xp-AntiSpy's latest version lets you get past the down and dirty method of going through your system and having you manually set each power feature. Instead, it supplies you with most of the quick fixes you were already looking for (usually for power users) and lets you check them off and BAM, you're done.

You might be thinking that if this program does in fact do all the things you can do yourself, then why would I want to download it? Well, I'll try not to sound like a telemarketer, but it's free, it works and it works well. That's how I can put it bluntly.

Your interface is simple, it's fairly easy for most users to click on what they want/need and to take care of business without wasting much time.

What's in Store

xp-AntiSpy 3.95-1 has the following feature sets: Media Functions, Error Reports, Miscellaneous Settings, IE6, Services, Microsoft Messenger and a Regsvr32 dll's setting. From here, you're able to change your computer's moods at will.

The biggest thing I should stress is that this program isn't for most newbies, although they could learn a thing or two by using it. Since everything within has a pretty well defined summary of what it does, it's a good hands on way for most users to get a feel of what's tied into what and what goes where.

But be sure to not change anything without knowing what it's a part of or what it will do. The program itself has a list of profiles that you can choose from: Neutral, Suggested, Windows Update, System Default, or you can even create a specified profile for your needs. If you know you're going to be playing some system draining video games, why not have something set-up for just that occasion?

The same can go for when you're running some pretty high detailed CAD models or if you need more speed for rendering. xp-AntiSpy has what you need and it will let you set your system accordingly. It's easy to bend it to your every will.

The 'Standard' and 'Accessible' modes aren't anything to be in awe about since they just tell you if anything is enabled or disabled, but it does help to quickly identify what's on and off.

Some Options

I guess that most want to know what sort of options xp-AntiSpy gives, so I'll give you a list of a few… The Media Player functions have eight main options to choose from. The ones that caught my attention were the disabling of the automatic codec fetching and adding data to the media library. Since it's possible for this info to be retrieved from the net, it doesn't really entice me to share what I'm viewing (along with other avid movie watchers) with the whole Internet world.

The Miscellaneous Settings had a few things that stood out, for me, these were mostly the 'Enabling fast shutdown' and the ability to hide my computer in the network. There was an IE 6 setting that increased my MaxConnectionsPerServer to 10 and in the 'Services' department, I especially liked the ability to disable the firewall/connection sharing service and Security Center.

There were a few other things that you could play around with (2 other categories: MSN Messenger and Regsvr32 dll's settings, but what fun would it be if I told you all of them?), but I'll leave that up to you guys to figure out for yourself.

The Good

This is a powerful program that will be a Godsend to power users. It has a lot of functionality and best of all, it's all free. Enjoy.

The Bad

You're going to have to pay attention to what you enable/disable because of the fact that it is so powerful. For the slightly inexperienced, this might be a bit much.

The Truth

If you like to tweak your computer a certain way and you don't want to spend a lot of time doing it, seriously consider xp-AntiSpy, you'll find that it's a great utility with a lot to offer. A good time saver with a lot of built-in power.

Check out the screenshots below.