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Review of Stardock's TweakVista

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the needs-all-the-help-it-can-get dept.

mikemuch writes "The new TweakVista utility from Stardock surfaces some of Vista's more obscure settings, giving access to diagnostics and making suggestions for services that you should be running. ExtremeTech's review of TweakVista generally likes the software, and though it's called version 0.9, it is for sale — $19.95 — and feels feature-complete. More suggestions on system optimization, however, would be helpful. From the review: 'According to TweakVista, on July 1st, the "Windows Shell Services DLL service took 651ms longer to shut down than usual." That's nice. Other than this stark presentation, there's no digestible information as to why the shell services DLL took over half a second longer to shut down. And there's no hint as to what to do about it.'"

17 of 191 comments (clear)

  1. Vista For Dummies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Chapter 1:

    Stick with XP.

    The End.

  2. I hate that usage of "surface" by catbutt · · Score: 4, Insightful

    just feel like burning some karma to say that

  3. taskmanager? by pedramnavid · · Score: 3, Informative

    Ctrl-Shift-Esc is an even better shortcut for taskmanager. Does that still work with Vista?

  4. It's called debugging. by Short+Circuit · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Other than this stark presentation, there's no digestible information as to why the shell services DLL took over half a second longer to shut down. And there's no hint as to what to do about it. It's called debugging. You recognize a symptom, identify the problem, fix the problem. The software solves step 1; It recognizes when your computer is running slower than usual. Then it helps you with step 2; It gives you an idea of where to look to fix it.

    Without the software, you'd still be wondering why your computer took a half-second longer to shut down, not why a particular process took longer. With the software, you can focus on the process, paying less attention to the computer as a whole.

    The software doesn't fix your computer, it's a diagnostic aid.
    --
    tasks(723) drafts(105) languages(484) examples(29106)
  5. Performance Center. by Henry+V+.009 · · Score: 5, Informative

    The "took longer to shut down" messages are from Windows itself. They're exactly what you get from the Performance Center. It's actually very useful when you're trying to find out which applications are making your startup or shutdown times go slow. It's something that Vista has done right, actually.

  6. slashvertisement tag by damn_registrars · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Anybody?

    --
    Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
  7. Amazing... by misleb · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It is amazing what developers can sell in the Windows world. $20 for a pretty interface to features that are already in the OS? WTF? Have I just been spoiled by using Linux for 11 years, or what?

    Not that things are much better on the Mac (which I use mostly now on the desktop). I downloaded this program, RDC Menu, to launch multiple instance of Windows Remote Desktop Client. There's the standard "trial" and "paid" versions. The author wanted money just to enable the "bookmarks" feature so you could save your connection profiles and select them from a list in the statusbar. I said screw that and I just wrote my own damn program to do it. Took me all of a few hours to get it working the way I wanted. Only functional difference between the two programs is that RDC Menu is more polished (graphics, icons, language translations, etc).

    Don't get me wrong, I think programmers should get paid for their work if they want and they're certainly free to charge whatever they want, but how much are we paying of "polish?" Doesn't it seem strange that a simple GUI front end for standard OS features is like 1/5th the cost of the entire OS itself (depending on the version you buy) which probably has 1,000 times the man-hours behind it?

    I dunno, when you look at the trivial utilities that people pay $20 or more for, it makes Microsoft products seem pretty damn cheap! That is, if you compare lines of code...

    -matthew

    --
    "THERE IS NO JUSTICE, THERE IS ONLY ME." -Death
    1. Re:Amazing... by MontyApollo · · Score: 5, Insightful

      They have to charge $20 since not many people (relatively speaking) will purchase it. If they knew 50 million people were going to purchase, then they could charge a lot less.

    2. Re:Amazing... by plague3106 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Took me all of a few hours to get it working the way I wanted. Only functional difference between the two programs is that RDC Menu is more polished (graphics, icons, language translations, etc).

      So how much do you normally get paid an hour? Unless its $10 or less, you've spent more money writing it yourself than if you just paid $20.

    3. Re:Amazing... by Senjutsu · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The author wanted money just to enable the "bookmarks" feature so you could save your connection profiles and select them from a list in the statusbar. I said screw that and I just wrote my own damn program to do it. Took me all of a few hours to get it working the way I wanted. Only functional difference between the two programs is that RDC Menu is more polished (graphics, icons, language translations, etc). I don't know about you, but I bill at $89/hour for software development. At "a few hours to get it working the way I wanted", it would be a far more rational for me to just throw the guy a $20 and use my time more productively.

      I'd also say that the idea that "polish" isn't worth paying for, and is something optional and unnecessary is one of the biggest problems remaining problems with the FOSS software development community.
  8. CMD shell here is about same as the XP power toy by Blahbooboo3 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Especially this one: Shift-RightClick on a folder and you can open a CMD shell at that location!! Fucking A! no more reg hacking.

    You do realize this is just about the same thing as the Windows XP Open Command Window Here power toy?
    Here is the link to get it for XP
  9. You're complaining about 651ms in Vista? by TheDarkener · · Score: 3, Funny

    'According to TweakVista, on July 1st, the "Windows Shell Services DLL service took 651ms longer to shut down than usual." That's nice. Other than this stark presentation, there's no digestible information as to why the shell services DLL took over half a second longer to shut down. And there's no hint as to what to do about it.'

    Seriously, if you're complaining about 651ms when you're using Vista... You need to get out of the house more. ;)

    --
    It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
  10. slashdotforsale by nuzak · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How the fuck was this even remotely newsworthy? Shall I just take every announcement on nonags and pipe it here?

    --
    Done with slashdot, done with nerds, getting a life.
  11. Startup by Mazin07 · · Score: 5, Funny

    As one of the screenshots clearly shows, the guy's computer is infested with Norton AntiVirus and iTunes. Don't worry, I have a utility that can remove programs like those, and it only costs $19.95.

  12. Nothing new by dalmiroy2k · · Score: 4, Informative

    You can do manually whatever this GUI does and for free:

    http://www.speedyvista.com/

  13. Free version by Island+Dog · · Score: 4, Informative

    I would like to make an addition that wasn't included in the review. There will be a free version available, and the $20 is for the premium version with additional features. It will also be included for people with subscriptions to Object Desktop by Stardock.

  14. Re:CMD shell here is about same as the XP power to by fbjon · · Score: 4, Informative

    The folder icon for the current folder is up in the left corner, you can right-click there. It always was there, AFAIK.

    --
    True confidence comes not from realising you are as good as your peers, but that your peers are as bad as you are.