On 13 Mar 00, at 18:22, Kathleen wrote:

> referencing the trouble that  Tweaku brings..
>
> I haven't used it yet, but did just download it in the hopes that it would
> provide me with some of the features of Power Toys that I miss so badly.  I
> just learned that one can't use it with W98 :-(

Hi Kathleen,

There is certainly a Windows98 version of TweakUI.  I don't have a URL
for you, but I know that there is a 98 version.  Somebody will post the
URL I'm sure, or you can check the MS site.  You cannot use the
Windows95 version in 98, however, unless you're begging for some
problems.

> Can someone tell me what the pros and cons are of Tweak?  I would like to
> be prepared before I start to work  with it (Perhaps I won't use it after
> all).......

The Pros:

It's a graphical front-end for registry editing.  If you are afraid to go into
the registry and edit or delete keys yourself, this program will do it for
you.  And it will do things that you don't know how to do in the registry.

The Cons: (As I see them.)  ^_^

You don't really know what the program is doing to your registry,
because it doesn't tell you.

Another con is that most of these edits are untested (betawise), and thus
not really supported by MS.  The registry is a complex database, and to
be quite frank with you, no one, and that includes MS engineers, can
precisely know the impact of changing or deleting certain keys in the
registry, especially when done in large combinations, because many of
them interact with other keys.  They cannot know without extensive
testing.  So when the systems "Go Gold", they have been tested and
deemed to be within an acceptable error level, but only "as is".  (And we
know the acceptable error level is still pretty high in any case.)  <g>
They have not been tested with some of these modifications, or with the
various combinations of modifications possible, and thus MS doesn't
support them directly.  And the more modifications you make, the
greater the chance of disturbing the system to the point that it will rebel.
<g>

> Is there anything out there that mimics the great things of Power toys for
> W98? One of my favorite things was the fact that I could get rid of those
> little arrows on the shortcuts..

As I say, there is indeed a Windows98 TweakUI.  Now, as for getting rid
of the shortcut arrows, which was one of the main reasons I first explored
TweakUI, the following regedit will do that without the unknown overhead
of the rest of the TweakUI:

Open regedit, and go to the following key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/lnkfile

(That is an L, not an I, but for some reason, this key is the only beginning
L that I can find in that section of the registry that is in lower case, so you
will find it nestled among the upper-case Ls.)

Highlight the key.  In the right window you will see a value called
IsShortcut.  Highlight that, and hit delete, and then yes to the
confirmation.  Close regedit, reboot, and you will never see those
useless and ugly arrows again.  <g>  Any that you have will be magically
gone.

HTH,

Yuki ^_^

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