Tweak UI -- The control panel applet for Type A personalities

0. Meta-information

0.1. Install

    To install Tweak UI, right-click the tweakui.inf file and select
    Install.  The inf file will do the rest.  When it is finished, you
    will have a new control panel applet called "Tweak UI".

0.2. Run

    To run Tweak UI, go to the Control Panel and double-click the
    "Tweak UI" icon.

0.3. Uninstall

    To uninstall "Tweak UI", go to the Control Panel and double-click
    the "Add/Remove Programs" icon.  From the list of programs,
    double-click "Tweak UI" to uninstall it.

Here follows a description of each tweakable.

1. General

    Items on the General page affect all applications.

1.1. Menu speed

    "Menu speed" allows you to control the speed at which cascading
    menus automatically open themselves when you move the mouse over
    them.  The fastest setting causes them to open immediately.  The
    slowest setting will wait for you to click explicitly on the menu
    item in order to open the cascading submenu.

    To test the menu speed setting, right-click on the test icon.
    Note that some systems do not support interactive testing of the
    menu drop speed.  On such systems, right-clicking on the test
    icon won't do anything, and the instructions telling you to do
    so will not appear.  However, the changed settings *will* take
    effect the next time you log in.

    This is a per-user setting.

1.2. Mouse sensitivity

1.2.1. Double click

    This setting allows you to control how close together two mouse
    clicks need to be (in pixels) in order to be considered a
    double-click.  This is the spatial counterpart to the double-click
    time setting in the mouse property sheet.

    To test the double-click sensitivity, click twice on the test icon
    with the left mouse button.  If the two clicks were close enough
    together both temporally and spatially, then the icon will change.

    This is a per-user setting.

1.2.2. Drag

    This setting allows you to control how far (in pixels) the mouse
    must move with the button held down before the system decides that
    you are dragging the object.  Increase this value if you find that
    you are dragging objects accidentally when you click on them.

    To test the drag sensitivity, try to drag the test icon with the
    left mouse button.  The icon will begin dragging when you have
    moved the mouse the necessary distance.

    This is a per-user setting.

1.3. Effects

1.3.1. Window animation

    The "Window animation" check-box allows you to enable or disable
    the window animation effect that occurs when you minimize,
    maximize, or restore a window.

    This is a per-user setting.

1.3.2. Beep on errors

    Windows normally plays a beep sound (customizable in the "Sounds"
    control panel) when an error occurs.  Removing this check box
    causes Windows not to play a beep sound.

    This is a per-user setting.

1.4. Restore Factory Settings

    The "Restore Factory Settings" button sets all the options on the
    page to the default settings.

2. Explorer

    Items on the Explorer page affect the Windows 95 Explorer.

2.1. Shortcut overlay

    Use this area to customize the effect used by Explorer to indicate
    that an icon represents a shortcut.

    "Arrow" is the default setting, which overlays a bold arrow in the
    lower-left corner of the icon.

    "Light arrow" is the same as "Arrow", but uses a more subtle
    arrow.

    "None" removes the effect completely.  With this setting,
    shortcuts are indistinguishable from normal files.  Use this
    setting with caution, because you might end up deleting a file
    instead of a shortcut by mistake, so don't say I didn't warn you.

    "Custom" allows you to choose any icon in the system to be used as
    the overlay effect icon.

    The shortcut overlay effect is a system-wide setting.  When
    changing the overlay effect, it is your duty to inform all users
    of the machine of the change, particular if you change the effect
    to "None".  Restore the shortcut overlay effect to the system
    default before calling Microsoft Product Support.  (Remember,
    PowerToys are provided as-is with no support.)

    If you uninstall Tweak UI, the customized shortcut overlay is
    uninstalled as well.

2.2. Settings

2.2.1. Prefix "Shortcut to" on new shortcuts

    By default, the name of a shortcut is "Shortcut to", followed by
    the name of the target.  Unchecking this box causes the shell not
    to prepend this phrase to new shortcuts.

    Note that some systems do not support dynamic changing of the
    prefix setting.  On such systems, the changed settings will
    take effect the next time you log in.

    This is a per-user setting.

    If you uninstall Tweak UI, this customization is uninstalled as
    well.

2.2.2. Save settings on exit

    By default, when you close an Explorer window, the shell remembers
    the settings of that window and restores them when you reopen that
    folder.  Moreover, when you shut down, it also remembers the settings
    of all the open Explorer windows and reopens them when you log on
    the next time.

    If you uncheck the "Save settings" box, then these settings are not
    saved when you close an Explorer window or shut down.

    Note that the shell remembers the settings for only the 50 most
    recently visited folders.  When you visit the 51st folder, the
    folder setting you visited least recently is discarded.

    This is a per-user setting.

2.3. Restore Factory Settings

    The "Restore Factory Settings" button sets all the options on the
    page to the default settings.

3. Desktop

    Items on the Desktop page affect the Windows 95 Desktop.

3.1. Special desktop icons

    As you've noticed, the Windows 95 desktop contains several special
    icons which cannot be manipulated in the traditional manner.  This
    page allows you to tinker with these special desktop icons.

    You are presented with a list of all possible special desktop
    icons; next to each one is a check-box indicating whether it is
    currently on the desktop or not.  Click on a check-box to add or
    remove special desktop icons to or from the desktop.

    Some of the icons won't have a box next to them.  These icons
    cannot be placed on the desktop as special desktop icons, but
    you can still use Create As File (below) to put them on the
    desktop, or anywhere else for that matter.

    You can rename an icon by double-clicking its name.  However,
    changes to the name may require manually refreshing the desktop
    after you close the property sheet.  (Sorry.)

    Note that the status of special desktop icons is a system-wide
    setting.  Removing a special desktop icon removes it from
    everybody's desktop.  The one exception is the Network
    Neighborhood, which is a per-user setting.

    Note that removing the desktop icon merely removes the icon.
    Any software associated with the desktop icon remains installed.
    This page exists so you can (1) get rid of pesky icons that
    refuse to go away by other means, or (2) restore icons after
    you accidentally nuke them.

    If you add or remove the Network Neighborhood, you must log off
    and back on for the changes will take effect.

3.2. Create As File

    If you select a special desktop icon, then click the "Create As
    File" button, Tweak UI will create a special file which behaves
    just like the special desktop icon, but with the added feature
    that, since it is a file, you can drag and drop it anywhere you
    want.  For example, if you want to move The Internet into a
    folder, first remove it from the desktop by unchecking the
    check-box, then click "Create As File", and place it in whatever
    folder you want.

    A fun place to save special desktop icons is on the Start Menu.
    (Control Panel is everybody's favorite.)  Try it!

    Suppose you want to let your young children use the computer, but
    don't want the Inbox on their desktop, because they might
    double-click on it and mess up your mail.  After creating a
    separate login for your kids and configuring the system to use a
    different desktop for each user, you can delete the Inbox from the
    system-wide desktop, then create the Inbox as a file on your
    private desktop.  When you log in, you get an Inbox on your
    desktop, but your kids don't.

4. Templates

    The Templates page allows you to do stuff with document templates.
    There isn't much here right now.  Someday, I may write more.

4.1. Create New Document Template

    If you drop a file onto the Create New Document Template area,
    Tweak UI will automatically convert it into a document template,
    which will then appear on the list of document types when you
    right-click and select "New".

    When you drop the file, one of a few things can happen.

    0.  "Drop only one file at a time, please."

	Tweak UI can create only one document template at a time.

    1.  "No application is associated with this file."

        This means that the file type was not recognized.  Go
        to the Explorer, View, Options, File Types dialog and create
        an association for the file, then try again.

    2.  "A template for this document type has already been defined."

	Somebody else beat you to it and created a document template
        already.

    3.  "Unable to copy the file to the templates folder."

	There was an error copying the file into the templates folder.
        Tweak UI doesn't tell you what sort of error actually happened;
        that's left for you to figure out.

    4.  "The document template was created succesfully."

	Oh frabjous day.  You can now right-click the desktop and
	select New, and look! your document is on the list of
        document templates.
	
    Yes, you may have noticed that there is no keyboard interface to
    this feature.  If you're such a propeller-head that you don't want
    to use the mouse, you probably didn't need this applet in the
    first place.

\*
\*  Strange things happen if you drag a folder, but fortunately we
\*  stop before things get out of hand.  (Albeit with a weird error
\*  message.)
\*

5. Boot

    The Boot page allows you to customize UI-related aspects of the
    Windows 95 boot process.  This page won't appear if you are
    running Windows NT.  (Duh.)  It also won't appear if Tweak UI
    can't find your Windows 95 boot configuration file.

    Obviously, any changes made on this page won't take effect until
    the next time you reboot the computer.

5.1. General

5.1.1. Function keys available for nn seconds.

    Uncheck the "Function keys available" option to disable the
    various function keys that modify the boot process, such
    as F5 and F8.

    If the option is enabled, you can adjust how long Windows 95
    will pause after the "Starting Windows 95" message to see
    if you are pressing a function key.

5.1.2. Start GUI automatically

    Uncheck the "Start GUI automatically" option to make Windows 95
    stop the boot process once it has reached a command prompt instead
    instead of continuing to the GUI automatically.

5.1.3. Display splash screen while booting

    Uncheck the "Display splash screen" option to suppress the
    Windows 95 splash screen that appears during the boot process.

5.1.4. Allow F4 to boot previous operating system

    If you check the "Allow F4 to boot previous operating system"
    option, then you will be able to press F4 when the "Starting
    Windows 95" message is on the screen to cause Windows 95 to
    load the operating system that you were running before installing
    Windows 95.

    Of course, this assumes that you (1) actually had a previous
    operating system, and (2) didn't delete any files required
    by the previous operating system in the meantime...

5.2. Boot menu

5.2.1. Always show boot menu

    Check "Always show boot menu" to see a boot menu every time you
    start Windows 95.  Normally, Windows 95 will show a boot menu
    only if it detected that there was a problem with the previous
    boot.

5.2.2. Default menu option

    Changing the default menu option allows you to choose which
    option on the boot menu will be highlighted automatically.

5.2.3. Continue booting after nn seconds.

    Setting the value of "Continue booting after" controls how long
    the boot menu will remain on the screen before the default action
    is taken.

5.3. Restore Factory Settings

    The "Restore Factory Settings" button sets all the options on the
    page to the default settings.

z. Other stuff

z.1. The speaker on the TaskBar

    To enable or disable the speaker on the task bar, go to the
    Control Panel, select Multimedia, and then check or uncheck
    the box that says "Show volume control on the taskbar."

    Or you can right-click the speaker icon on the taskbar and
    select "Adjust Audio Properties".  Then check or uncheck the
    box that says "Show volume control on the taskbar."

z.2. Save as default Explorer settings

    To save the current window settings as the default Explorer
    settings for all new windows, hold the Ctrl key while you
    click the "X" button.  Note that "Save settings on exit"
    must be enabled for this to work.
