The "Tweaking" Tweak Guide
Posted: June 18, 2000
Written by: Keith "Farrel" McClellan

Introduction

In the other guides here on Tweak3D, there are several things that are assumed of our readers that sometimes come back and bite us in the ass. We assume (I, personally, am bad about this) that the people reading and applying our guides are for the most part computer literate, have a decent grasp of general computing aspects, and are willing to take a few risks. Back in the 'old days,' this wasn't a big issue for us for two reasons. The first reason is that we weren't quite as knowledgeable then as we are now (as reader input has come in and we have developed new methods for discovering tweaks, we have learned as much, if not more than we have taught). However, the second reason is really the kicker - we were a lot smaller site then and our readership was mainly made up of tech-savvy users trying to squeeze the most out of their systems. We now have a much more diverse readership and it is going to effect how we do business.

The problem with having a more diverse readership is that we get people trying to do some of the stuff we discuss without really understanding what they are doing to their systems, and more importantly, how to get themselves out of self-made jams. In an effort to help those people out without bulking up our guides with a lot of redundant information (although we are definitely making the shift to being more newbie-friendly by (hopefully) explaining our recommended settings better where possible), I am writing this guide. In it will be included information on the basic steps to applying a tweak, removing an unsuccessful tweak, backing up your original information, and things that should be avoided at all cost. And just so that we don't leave our more experienced tweakers out, information on developing and testing a new tweak will be included.

Pre-Tweaking

There are a few things you can do to facilitate the recovery of your system if some mishap occurs and the system dies on you after performing certain dangerous tweaks. Do as many of these as possible before tweaking - some of them, however, are redundant and unnecessary if you have done others.

- Back up system files (msdos.sys, win.ini, system.ini, autoexec.bat, config.sys, etc…). - Back up your registry (using the export command in regedit) to a *.reg file.
- Make a 'copy' of your Windows folder in another subdirectory on the hard drive or another drive.
- Back up your entire hard drive (disk image).
- Grab a notebook (or a word processor and a printer if that is more to your liking) and outline what you have in your computer, the location of your backups, any custom settings that might NOT be preserved by the above method(s) you chose, etc.

If all else fails and you can't recover from a tweak on your own, these things will definitely come in handy.





Applying a Tweak

This section can't be too specific, because every single tweak that I can think of is applied in a different way. However, there are certain things that should always be done or at least considered before applying a tweak. The first step would be to read over and make sure you understand the tweak in question. If you don't understand what the tweak does and have at least an idea of what it will do to your system, don't apply it until you do. While we here at Tweak3D strive to explain each tweak to the best of our abilities, it is sometimes difficult to explain obscure settings and procedures to less technically savvy readers.

The next step in applying a new tweak would be to somehow record the previous setting along side the new setting. If the setting isn't a relatively simple tickbox or other rudimentary situation, sketching out a brief description of where the setting was added and how it was added can also be useful if you run into a problem. Many times, this information won't be needed, but it can be a nice way to remember how to reconfigure a system if the OS is reinstalled at some point in time.

The final step would of course be the actual application of the new tweak. While many of the tweaks that are described here on the site are relatively simple, just as many take a reasonable amount of comfort and expertise with computers. And remember, don't apply a tweak unless you are comfortable with taking a few risks - the occasional unforeseen configuration error can be a killer. Hope you wrote down the old setting and know how to fix it!

Removing a Tweak

This section is another one that can't be too specific, but I will certainly try to give some general guidelines on fixing an unsuccessful tweak. If you can boot up into windows and you have taken the appropriate notes, removing a tweak is as simple as applying the 'new' old setting and rebooting the computer. If you didn't take any notes while you were tweaking, then you may be able to extract the information from the tweak guide that you got the information from, but that isn't always true.

You only really run into problems when you can't boot into Windows. It is rare that a tweak will do this to a system, but there are a few (such as the Win9x DMA tweak) that can cause this kind of problem if the hardware doesn't support the setting. The best way to handle this is to try to boot the computer into safe-mode, remove the applicable setting (or if that isn't possible, try removing the whole subsystem that is causing the problem [ex: driver]) and reboot. If that isn't possible, hopefully you performed some of the pre-tweaking steps described earlier.

Remember, you can always go into safe-mode by rebooting a PC and hitting the F5 key immediately after the BIOS information screen.





Things to Avoid at All Cost

This is a list of things that I have either personally done or know of people who have done them. It isn't, by any means, a definitive list, and some of them may seem silly, but I assure you they have all been done. Remember, these are things you shouldn't do!

- Don't enable DMA on a 6-year-old hard drive without DMA support
- Don't delete anything without backing it up first
- Don't lose the list of locations of your backups
- Don't forget a boot disk
- Don't perform any kind of tweaking while groggy.
- Don't forget to backup all settings you change
- Don't get cocky and assume that just because you are the Tweakmeister™ that you don't need to take precautions with your system.
- Don't forget that anything with the Microsoft name on it is finicky and can die at any time.

Developing a New Tweak

There are several things you can do to begin the process of discovering a new tweak. One of the most important things you can do is read - read everything. Even things that don't directly relate to tweaking can hint at settings that might be changed for a speed increase. PC magazines, hardware and gaming web sites, as well as books can all point you towards things that you might be able to turn into a performance or usability enhancing tweak.

Usability enhancing tweak? I guess I better define tweak in the terms that I use it. A tweak is a small adjustment to how something works to make it work better. 'Working better' is a pretty broad term, but when you apply it to computers it can either be something that makes the computer itself faster, or something that enables the user to work faster. Dan very affectionately calls Tweak3D a 'hot-rod shop for PC's,' and while hot rods are generally known for their speed and looks, they are comfortable beasts as well - and it's important to remember that. Just because a tweak doesn't speed up how the computer does business doesn't mean that it doesn't speed up how you work.

Once you have an idea on what you are looking for, it's time to delve into the depths of the system to make the changes. If you were lucky and got a big hint from a source then go straight to where you think the setting is and start puttering away. If you only got a very vague hint, or perhaps just an idea, you've got your work cut out for you.

If the tweak is for a specific program, the best place to start is to look inside the program for a preferences menu. If you don't find anything there, then it is time to break into Explorer and browse to the programs subdirectory on the hard drive and look for any files that might contain configuration data (possible extensions being .ini and .cfg, among others).





Developing a New Tweak (cont.)

If you find any files like this, go ahead and open them up in notepad (or another text editor, but NOT a word processor) and start fiddling a bit. Another effective way of getting tweaks (particularly out of games with some kind of command console) is to open up the exe file in wordpad (you won't be saving anything so it doesn't matter that it's a word processor) and scan the gibberish for readable words that might give you hints as to undocumented settings. If all else fails, you can search the registry for the program's key entries and attempt to edit settings from within there.

If the tweak idea you have is a general system tweak (some undocumented feature you found out about or whatnot) and you don't know exactly where to find the setting, there are a few very useful things you can do to facilitate your search. The first would be to run sysedit (Win9x only) and browse through your text-based system files (system.ini, autoexec.bat, etc.) looking for the setting. The next thing to do would be to make sure nothing was overlooked in the Control Panel. If that doesn't help, the last place I would search would be the registry.

Because the setting that you are looking for (or maybe you aren't looking for anything in particular) isn't likely to have its own key by an easy to remember name, it is likely that you, as a daring experimenter, will have to go though the registry key-by-key. This is a long and tedious process, and you don't want to have to ever do it more than once, so as you are searching for a particular setting, be on the lookout for anything else of interest. If you find something, record the location of the key do you can go ahead and go back to the setting later. To help in facilitating your search, if you find a large number of very similar entries that aren't helping you out, it is unlikely that any of them will help you out and you should probably skip over them.

Testing a New Tweak

If the new tweak is a usability tweak, it is a simple process of enabling it and rebooting your computer. If the new tweak substantially helps you work more effectively on your computer, leave it on. If there is no perceptible change, or if you find it is nearly useless, change it back. However, if it is a performance tweak, things can be a bit more complicated.

There are three different types of performance tweaks. The first is the common-sense tweak. This is a tweak that likely has a very small performance impact by itself (some of the TweakUI setting suggestions fall into this category) but can make an impact if coupled with other such tweaks. Because it would be nearly impossible to test these tweaks separately (any differences in benchmarks would be so insignificant that they could be attributed with the slightly fluxuating frequency of the bus clock), they generally have to be taken by logic. If the setting disables a usability tweak or removes some kind of silly, unnecessary feature (system sounds), it likely falls into this category.







Testing a New Tweak (cont.)

The second type of tweak is the obvious performance increase tweak. These can be things like upping the sample rate on your mouse, causing you to notice smoother mouse motion, to lowering the delay on menus within Windows. These are things that don't need to be benchmarked not because they necessarily couldn't be, but because it is obvious they have been applied just by using the computer.

The third type of tweak is one that makes a significant impact on the speed of the computer but is not immediately obvious to the user. There are several ways of testing that kind of tweak. Synthetic benchmarks such as 3D Winbench, 3Dmark 2000, and SiSoft Sandra all include the necessary features and information to compare a system before and after tweaking, and certain standard game timedemos (such as the Unreal flyby loop) can also be helpful depending on the type of tweak.

Remember that these aren't necessarily hard and fast rules, and depending on the tweak, your particular system configuration, and just how long it has been since you reinstalled Windows, can all effect your results and how effective a tweak is - or how well a benchmark performs. Don't give up on a tweak just because you run into what seems like a brick wall - very often that brick wall is just a piece of glass that needs a hammer to be shattered. Perhaps you need a companion setting for the tweak to do its job, or maybe something in the BIOS or system configuration is holding you back. Whatever it is, find it - you won't regret the search, and you might learn something new about your computer along the way.

Conclusion

Hopefully this tweak guide will help you when you are working with our other tweak guides, or perhaps it may even help you discover your own tweak. Tweaking is an art, and as such it takes a patient hand to guide it to a new discovery. As I said earlier, there are no hard and fast rules when you are talking about a tweak - what will work on one person's computer could very well kill someone else's - a fact that is all to important to remember when messing around with your computer's internals. Experiment a bit, however, and you will be pleased with the results. And if you are pleased with the results, feel free to email me and let me know what you discovered - no use keeping your new found information bottled up inside and not sharing it with anyone. Oh, and as always, if you have any comments or questions about this guide - feel free to email me about them.

Want to return to the normal guide? Click here!

All Content Copyright ©Dan Kennedy; 1998-2000