If you go into your Vista or XP registry, you can make a number of changes that will improve your computing experience. Playing around in the registry can be troublesome at times and dangerous if you don’t know what you are doing or you are having a bad day.

VistaTweaker reduces the risk of typing errors. You can see some of the more popular registry tweaks, and change them, with one easy to use interface.

It works very similarly to how TweakUI has for previous versions of Windows, allowing you to change things that aren’t easily found in Windows.

I would always prefer to use a program like this to alter the registry, rather than manually changing keys around.

I am always amazed at how many items can be tweaked in the registry, and how many of them seem to default to dodgy settings after a fresh install of Windows. I am sure Microsoft have their reasons.

VistaTweaker will also allow you to change some keys in XP, though you won’t know which will work or which will not until the next version is released. Trial and error is the best bet. If you install a key XP does not recognise, Windows will ignore the key and the change will have no effect.

Vista Tweaker is available for free from Ajua Online. The current release is in RAR format. The file contains a Windows Executable(exe) file. You may need to get Winrar at the same time to open it up if you do not have suitable software to open up the file.