Services Tweak

Specifically designed for Windows XP, Services Tweak is a lightweight and portable application you can use to customize some OS settings.

It comes packed with an advanced set of options that can be easily configured by all types of users, even those with little or no experience in such software.

The entire tool's packed in a single .exe file that can be saved to a preferred directory on the disk or copied to a removable storage unit, in order to seamlessly run it on any PC with as little effort as possible. It doesn't need DLLs or other components to run, nor does it create new files on the HDD without letting you know about it.

When it comes to the interface, Services Tweak opts for a standard window with a simple appearance and well-structured layout, where you can view two separate columns with low and high priority.

It's possible to enable or disable Windows Prefetch, the firewall, audio, themes, security accounts, print spooler, automatic updates, auto play, system time, networking, Remote Destkop, and the wireless network connections.

The tweaking level can be selected between basic and extreme, with the only difference being that basic mode automatically selects the firewall, audio and print spooler. However, you can make any combination out of the displayed options, as well as later reset the configuration to the XP default mode (for Service Pack 2 and Service Pack 3), in case you change your mind and cannot remember the initial settings.

It worked smoothly in our tests, without triggering the operating system to hang, crash or prompt errors. Modifications were rapidly applied and there was no need to restart the computer. As expected from such a compact tool, it had minimal impact on the computer's performance, running on a low amount of CPU and RAM.

Although it doesn't comes packed with a particularly rich set of options and customization properties, Services Tweak offers a simple and straightforward solution for tweaking some OS features in Windows XP. However, you should keep in mind that it doesn't work for newer Windows versions.