Improve Windows XP with Powertoys

If you want to make Windows XP more personal using Microsoft’s Powertoys, you've come to the right place. Install some or all of these free tools and soon you’ll be working faster and smarter in Windows. Here’s how to do it.

What are Powertoys?
Unlike typical PC users, the programmers behind Microsoft Windows have the ability to tweak the operating system in pretty much any way they want ­ because they wrote the code that makes it work. So, if there’s an aspect of Windows they don’t like, they write some new code to make it work the way they want.

These bits of improvised code aren’t part of Windows because they haven’t passed through the endless testing processes that Microsoft requires before a commercial release of the software. However, Powertoys are the fruits of the after-hours labours of various Microsoft engineers that have been made available to the public, albeit with a caveat ­ – there’s absolutely no guarantee from Microsoft that they will work, and no support if things go wrong.

Now, ordinarily that last bit might put off the inexperienced PC user but when you hear that Powertoys for Windows XP have been around for seven years and are used daily by millions of people without problem, you’ll understand that really, there’s no risk to using Powertoys ­ – they’re tried, tested and quite safe. And, as we said at the outset, they’re free, quick to download and install and can improve Windows in lots of ways.

Bring on the toys
Begin by visiting the Powertoys page of the Microsoft website. At the last count, there were 14 tools in the Powertoys kit bag, the majority of which have been around for years and can be considered reliable ­ – even if Microsoft offers no guarantees.

We’re going to concentrate on the three that we consider to be the most useful and which are likely to have the broadest appeal ­ – Tweak UI, Alt-Tab Replacement and Virtual Desktop Manager. Once you’ve seen how to download, install and explore these three, the rest will seem straightforward.

Alt-Tab Replacement
We’ll start with Alt-Tab Replacement, which, as you may guess, is an enhanced substitute for the existing Alt-Tab window-switching system used by XP. Rather than simply showing program icons when using the Alt and Tab keyboard combination to flit between open program windows, with Alt-Tab Replacement installed Windows will display icons that include a preview of what is displayed in the program window.

For example, instead of a generic Internet Explorer icon, the Alt-Tab Replacement switching window will show a thumbnail version of the website currently displayed in the Internet Explorer window. It makes selecting the correct application window more efficient.

To see this in action, download and install Alt-Tab Replacement. Scroll down the Microsoft Powertoys website and look for the ‘Taskswitch.exe’ link on the right-hand side of the page. Right-click it and select Open from the pop-up menu.

When XP displays a security warning dialogue box, click Run (note that you can use the Save button to first Save the Powertoys to, say, the Windows Desktop, but as they’re so small, it barely matters). If your web browser displays another security warning, click Run to allow the Alt-Tab Replacement installation to proceed.

Work through the installation, accepting the licence agreement (which basically says that Microsoft cannot be blamed if this tool breaks your PC) and click Next to move through the various dialogue boxes. If prompted, ensure that a ‘Complete’ install is selected and then click Install followed by Finish.

And that’s it ­ – you’ve installed your first Powertoy. To try it out make sure you have at least a couple of application windows open and then use the Alt and Tab keyboard shortcut to switch between them (in the unlikely event you haven’t done this before, this means holding down the Alt key while repeatedly tapping Tab; when you release the Alt key, the selected program window will be brought to the fore).