Windows PowerToys
Microsoft released a series of small utilities for Windows XP under the banner of PowerToys. They don’t seem to have an equivalent for Vista so I only install these on Windows XP.
The actual tools I’ve chosen to install are:
- ClearType PowerToy – adds a control panel applet to set/tweek ClearType settings. Now that most computers use LCD monitors this is a valuable tool to have around.
- TaskSwitch PowerToy – changes the ALT-TAB task switch functionality to add a slightly more graphical interface. This is certainly nothing like what can be achieved under Vista but is at least a little more intuitive than the standard capability in XP.
Microsoft’s PowerToys are available here.
For the two tools I install, this is how I do it:
XP_ClearTypePowerToy.exe /S /v/qn XP_TaskSwitchPowerToy.exe /S /v/qn
(This article is part of a series about the build disc I use to standardise system builds. The series starts here and this particular article follows on from this one.)

(1 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)