How To Install Tweak UI for Windows 2000

Level of difficulty: Intermediate

Tweak UI was introduced as part of the PowerToy utility package designed for computer systems running under the Microsoft Windows Operating System platform making its debut under the Windows 98 environment. This particular utility provides the user with the ability to tap the hidden functionalities of the Operating System. These include settings for the taskbar, mouse, and Explorer which would usually involve some type of modification of the associated Windows Registry entries. By using the Tweak UI package, the user can implement some configuration modifications to improve the overall performance of the Operating System in a safe manner and without the need for advanced technical expertise. In the desire of Microsoft to make this modification package file smaller (to allow for faster downloading), it has become somewhat less user-friendly making the installation process a bit difficult at times.

Materials Needed:
- Computer
- Internet connection
- Web browser
- Floppy disk
- Floppy drive
Step 1
Before beginning the installation of Tweak UI, it must be downloaded from Microsoft's website. Launch the Web browser and navigate to the http://www.microsoft.com/ntworkstation/downloads/powertoys/networking/nttweakui.asp page. Make sure that you download the correct version for your operating system.
Step 2
After locating the right version of Tweak UI, simply click on the Download Now option to initiate the saving of the file to the hard drive.
Step 3
Once the download process has been completed, open the downloaded file (may require a ZIP archive format extractor utility). Select the Unzip to option to expand the contents of the archive. Take note of the exact location where the files will be extracted.
Step 4
Launch Windows Explorer and go to the folder where the files have been extracted. Look for the tweakui.inf file.
Step 5
Right click the icon of the file and click on the Install option from the context menu. The About Tweak UI window should be displayed upon completion of the installation process.
Step 6
After reading the textual contents of the window, close it along with the Zip extractor window.
Step 7
To verify that the TweakUI package has been installed in the Windows 2000-based system, click on the Start button and choose the Settings option.
Step 8
Click on the Control Panel link to launch the Control Panel window. The Tweak UI icon should appear in this window. Double click on the icon to launch the utility.
Step 9
If the icon does not exist, go back to the downloaded ZIP format file and extract the contents to another folder. Preferably, create a new folder named TEMP in the root directory.
Step 10
Launch Explorer and go to the TEMP directory. Repeat step 4.
Step 11
If the installation process is still a failure, extract the contents of the ZIP archive file into a floppy disk. Reboot the machine.
Step 12
After the Operating System has completely loaded, insert the disk in the floppy drive and access the contents via Windows Explorer. Do step 4.