Windows tweaking programs – are they to be trusted?

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There are quite a few out there and I would like opinions about them in general and if any can be recommended.

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It depends upon what you want them to do – I wouldn’t touch a tune up program as they can indiscriminately clean the registry and can do more harm than good.

Windows has its own tools for maintaining its system.

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Ditto! Most are “snake oil” salesmen.

Image or Clone often! Backup, backup, backup, backup......
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Home Built: Windows 10 Home 64-bit, AMD Athlon II X3 435 CPU, 16GB RAM, ASUSTeK M4A89GTD-PRO/USB3 (AM3) motherboard, 512GB SanDisk SSD, 3 TB WD HDD, 1024MB ATI AMD RADEON HD 6450 video, ASUS VE278 (1920x1080) display, ATAPI iHAS224 Optical Drive, integrated Realtek HD Audio

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Agree re tune-up and similar, to be avoided.

However, there are great tweak suites out there, maybe that’s what the OP means. Examples:
Sysinternals
Nirsoft
Glary

At least, they used to be “great”, I haven’t used or researched them in ages. So make sure to do your backups before starting a serious tweak–which will also save you from user error.

A more recent one I’ve seen mentioned in a few places is WinAero.

Lugh.
~
Alienware Aurora R6; Win10 Home x64 1803; Office 365 x32
i7-7700; GeForce GTX 1060; 16GB DDR4 2400; 1TB SSD, 256GB SSD, 4TB HD

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Check out Ultimate Windows Tweaker 4 for Windows 10 released. There*are versions for*previous Windows versions (8,7,Vista) too.

--Joe

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Thank you for the replies.

I have looked at the following

http://www.intowindows.com/10-awesome-tools-to-tweak-customize-windows-10/

http://www.guidingtech.com/52049/customize-windows-10-tools/

http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/ultimate_windows_tweaker_for_windows_10.html

http://www.thewindowsclub.com/ultimate-windows-tweaker-4-windows-10

http://www.tweaking.com/content/page/windows_repair_all_in_one.html

http://winaero.com/blog/category/winaero-tweaker/

I have JV16’s Power Tools installed. I used to run the registry cleaner occasionally but have stopped doing so in view of the dire warnings about registry cleaners in general.

The claims made by the purveyors of tweaking software are quite seductive but I am beginning to look at self awarded accolades with a jaundiced eye.

Would it be sufficient to rely on a restore point before testing any of these programs?

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The claims made by the purveyors of tweaking software are quite seductive but I am beginning to look at self awarded accolades with a jaundiced eye.

Good thinking!

Would it be sufficient to rely on a restore point before testing any of these programs?

Probably… (it depends on which specific “tweaks” you perform, I’d imagine).
Personally, before experimenting, I always create a disk image. Restoring a disk image turns back time completely (only BIOS changes survive a complete restore).

Image or Clone often! Backup, backup, backup, backup......
- - - - -
Home Built: Windows 10 Home 64-bit, AMD Athlon II X3 435 CPU, 16GB RAM, ASUSTeK M4A89GTD-PRO/USB3 (AM3) motherboard, 512GB SanDisk SSD, 3 TB WD HDD, 1024MB ATI AMD RADEON HD 6450 video, ASUS VE278 (1920x1080) display, ATAPI iHAS224 Optical Drive, integrated Realtek HD Audio

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Two of many best practices:
— using any Windows tweaking tools like a surgeon uses a surgical knife [**]
— have full images of “c drive” / Windows OS partition and Data partition on reliable external media
[**] – I’ve been using Auslogics and Wise registry cleaners, disk cleaners for years in that manner; I also have jv16 Power Tools, sparingly used in the aforementioned manner. Such tools, if never “shotgun-run”/”automatic-run”, can cause more joy than grief.

"Take care of thy backups and thy restores shall take care of thee." Ben Franklin, revisted

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… have full images of “c drive” / Windows OS partition and Data partition on reliable external media

How would I separate the OS and the Data into two partitions? I had always assumed that a disk image would have everything on the C drive.
If it is possible to separate them, what are the pros and cons?

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How would I separate the OS and the Data into two partitions? I had always assumed that a disk image would have everything on the C drive. If it is possible to separate them, what are the pros and cons?

I’m under the weather, cannot give you a comprehensive answer. If you have both your OS and your data folders/files on one partition — leave it. You can still make weekly backups onto external media. For those who split OS and data, they normally have a “C drive” and a “D drive”. They would make a full image backup of each partition on a routine basis. The main advantage of separate OS and data partitions: when it’s time to do a restore of the OS, the restore does not over-write changes made to data folders and files.

"Take care of thy backups and thy restores shall take care of thee." Ben Franklin, revisted

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Two of many best practices:
— using any Windows tweaking tools like a surgeon uses a surgical knife [**]

For as much financial gain as possible w/o getting sued TOO much? :cheers:

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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For as much financial gain as possible w/o getting sued TOO much? :cheers:

:coffeetime: (Probably not what Roland meant.)

Image or Clone often! Backup, backup, backup, backup......
- - - - -
Home Built: Windows 10 Home 64-bit, AMD Athlon II X3 435 CPU, 16GB RAM, ASUSTeK M4A89GTD-PRO/USB3 (AM3) motherboard, 512GB SanDisk SSD, 3 TB WD HDD, 1024MB ATI AMD RADEON HD 6450 video, ASUS VE278 (1920x1080) display, ATAPI iHAS224 Optical Drive, integrated Realtek HD Audio

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I have personally used Ultimate-Windows-Tweaker (4.2.1) and WinaeroTweaker (0.6.0.8) and found them very useful and without problems.

Both programs have a portable version. UWT just gets unpacked into a folder. Winaero allows you to select a portable install during setup.

I did not have to make a backup image or create restore points. The programs just worked as advertised.

I hope you find them as useful as I did.

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Syncopator
As Roland indicated, if you haven’t previously segregated your data from your OS then stay with your present setup (at least for now).

Roland
You may be under the weather but – in regard to your response above – I think you expressed yourself well.

Image or Clone often! Backup, backup, backup, backup......
- - - - -
Home Built: Windows 10 Home 64-bit, AMD Athlon II X3 435 CPU, 16GB RAM, ASUSTeK M4A89GTD-PRO/USB3 (AM3) motherboard, 512GB SanDisk SSD, 3 TB WD HDD, 1024MB ATI AMD RADEON HD 6450 video, ASUS VE278 (1920x1080) display, ATAPI iHAS224 Optical Drive, integrated Realtek HD Audio

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Thank you Roland.

Hope you are well soon.

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Equal rights for equal responsibilities. Equal opportunities for equal abilities. — Syncopator
I like that sig! Who quoted that?

"Take care of thy backups and thy restores shall take care of thee." Ben Franklin, revisted

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It’s an original Roland.

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I use CC Cleaner once in awhile but less and less often over the years. It’s never given me problems but does have more aggressive settings you have to use with understanding. The defaults are usually fine.

A friend of mine downloaded a trumpet-tooting “repair” tool – it deleted many of his file associations. (if it ain’t broke…) To open a file, you had to open the program, then browse to the file to open it. It also made the computer quite a bit slower. I tried to reset the main associations but even that didn’t stick. And he had no backup, even after almost loosing months of work in another hiccup.

I separate data as Roland mentioned. An additional benefit is the type of backup. Imaging the OS is superior but if you have a system problem, that can cause data access issues. If you have work to get done, thats a problem. I simply mirror the data to a backup drive (NAS) so its always available. If the system goes down, another computer can access it easily. Then I can tackle the system problem on my own time.

Fred used to recommend separating the data but doesn’t consider it necessary anymore. Having seen the above, I still find it valuable.

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When I first started in 2010 I could have had my fingers burned quite badly when I bought Uniblue Powersuite, but I had the foresight to create a system image before I used it and it was just as well that I did because it took out critical system files.

I restored with the image then contacted Uniblue with the complaint and demanded a refund – which I got.

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