14 DAY TRIAL // You have all experienced the power of Windows XP, there's no doubt about that. And most of us claim that we know even XP's dirtiest, darkest secret. I will not argue about that, and I am not ashamed to admit that I do not know absolutely everything about XP OS.
But do we all accept XP with everything it has? Have you ever tried to customize it? I am sure that you have tried a series of shell replacements in order to change its looks, to make it more personal. I did that too. But I always wanted to do more, like disabling different options, buttons and fully customize it.
Recently, I put my hands on a piece of software especially designed to do just that. Its name is SetMyWin XP and the developer is Harso Bagyono. The price for his beauty is $20, and of course, there is an evaluation period of 15 days. The software just reached its 1.0 version not long ago (October 2nd 2006).
The sole purpose for the creation of this software is to provide the user a front end interface for the hidden settings of Windows XP that do not have their own GUIs (Graphical User Interface). There are so many settings to be done with the software that I'd better get to it. I will not present all the settings that the application provides, because you have to discover some new elements by yourselves, also.
The interface of the program is neither stunning nor flat. The elected color is a bit inappropriate, but you will soon pass by that when you see the access it grants. There are four menus, all arranged vertically on the left side of the main application window. The Main menu provides the gate to the settings of the heavy utilities of the OS. The Extras menu, as its name says, provides actions for less significant details of XP. The XP Tools menu is merely a shorter way to Windows XP's main utilities.
In Options the user can configure the software's settings. Log will just keep track of the settings you make for the Operating System.
I will focus on the Main menu, as it deals with settings for your Windows. A total of 25 different actions are available in this menu. The user can choose options like disabling the Recycle Bin properties (the Empty Recycle Bin options will no longer be available) or enable the cheat code for MS Hearts (the default game). But this is kids stuff compared to disabling the Add/Remove Programs or the Add New Programs Button.
If you think that Command Prompt was a bad idea (let's just be absurd and suppose that) than you can disable it by going to the Command Prompt icon and checking the box. The Set Desktop settings include disabling the desktop, the Internet Explorer shortcut or the My Network Places shortcut. Be frank with yourselves and think how many times have you accessed the network settings from your desktop, or do you still use IE as your default web browser?
But if you are hyped up about IE, there is an option that helps you sweep off the unwanted from the web browser and keep only the useful stuff.
With the help of this little utility, the user can strip XP off of the tabs and buttons that are of no use for the user. The Start Menu settings is the place to do this. Configure this right and you will no longer have to manually clear the documents history or see the My Pictures and My Documents menus again.
The Extras menu allows you to meddle with the settings for the Windows Registrant Information or hide certain hard drives. The feature that is most comfortable here is setting Windows to display a message at your Logon.
The XP Tools menu is just a shortcut to the most used places of your OS: Control Panel, DirectX Diagnostic Tool, Disk Cleanup and Defragmenter, registry Editor or System Restore.
The software's Options menu has just a few functions, but it allows you to set a password so that nobody else but you will be able to mess with the settings for your Windows XP.
The Good
The software is easy to use and makes available settings that otherwise would have been very difficult to be accessed.
The Bad
The only bad thing about the software is the timing, considering that Vista is on its way to the computers of the Windows users.
The Truth
The application proved to be a useful tool in setting up my XP. The price is a bit high for me, as I grew accustomed to my XP and all those buttons and shortcuts no longer bug me as they used to.
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
