Appendix D. Power Toys and TweakUI

Since the release of Windows 95, Microsoft has made available a set of "Power Toys," which is a suite of extra little utilities that Microsoft feels power users would appreciate. A new set of Power Toys has been released especially for Windows XP and can be downloaded for free.

You can download the entire Power Toys package from http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/powertoys.asp and install them selectively. (If this link becomes unavailable for whatever reason, the Power Toys package will always be available at http://www.annoyances.org.) Power Toys for Windows XP comes with the following tools:

TweakUI

This Power Toy gives you access to system settings that are not exposed in the Windows XP default user interface, including mouse settings, Explorer settings, Taskbar settings, and more. By far the most useful component of the Power Toys package, TweakUI is discussed further in the subsequent section.

Note that TweakUI 1.33, which was designed for Windows 2000, Windows Me, and Windows 9x, will also work on Windows XP, but it won't provide the XP-specific settings available in Version 2.0.

Open Command Window Here

This Power Toy allows you to right-click any folder and select "Open Command Window Here" to open a Command Prompt window (as described in Chapter 6), with the current directory set to the selected folder.

You can also implement this feature manually with the Registry Editor (see Chapter 7). Navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell , and create a new key called cmd . Open the new key, double-click the (default) value, and type Open Command Window Here . Then, create a new key called command. Open this key, double-click the (default) value, and type cmd.exe /k " cd %L ".

Alt-Tab Replacement

This Power Toy adds a preview of each window to the Alt-Tab window. Although it's a little more awkward than the standard Alt-Tab window, it can be particularly helpful when multiple sessions of an application are open.

Power Calculator

This enhanced calculator is an alternative to the standard Calculator (discussed in Chapter 4), and adds expression solving, graphing, unit conversions, and customizable constants.

Image Resizer

This Power Toy (see Figure 1) allows you to quickly resize a group of image files to one of several predefined sizes, or to a custom size you specify.

Figure D-1. The Image Resizer

CD Slide Show Generator

You can view images stored on a CD as a slide show with this Power Toy.

Virtual Desktop Manager

The Virtual Desktop Manager doubles or quadruples your Desktop area. More accurately, it simply allows you position application windows off screen and easily view or hide them.

Taskbar Magnifier

Use this Power Toy to magnify part of the screen from the Taskbar. See "Microsoft Magnifier" in Chapter 4 for a similar tool.

HTML Slide Show Wizard

This wizard generates a series of HTML files, allowing you to create a web-based slide show of your digital pictures.

Webcam Timershot

The Webcam Timershot takes pictures with your webcam at specified time intervals, and saves them to any location. The images can then be uploaded to a web server with a WSH script (see Chapter 9), or simply saved on a folder for later viewing.