Toys 'R XP: Free tweaks and add-ons for the new OS.

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It's something of a tradition: Every new Windows release is accompanied by a set of PowerToys, a collection of tweaks that aren't built into the operating system. They're like sweet nuggets, though probably not to everyone's liking. The set for XP is available on the Microsoft site and includes enhancements for digital media, XP's user interface, and a few innocuous and useless ones. Keep in mind that while the toys are endorsed by Microsoft, they aren't "sanctioned," which means the company doesn't offer any technical support for them.

Tweak UI

This toy encompasses a variety of interesting tweaks not found in the default system settings to tweak the user interface, which you can make without having to fiddle with the registry. It loads separately into the start menu. You can tweak settings, mouse sensitivity, the speed at which cascading menus open, among others. The start menu is easy to customize here, by adding or deleting programs that appear in the frequently used programs sections. There's also a grouping tweak that lets you decide how you want applications to be grouped.

Power Toy Calc

This toy provides a variety of mathematical conversions (length, mass, time, velocity, temperature) and functions (addition, subtraction, and trigonometry, among others) for those who need to use them. Another nice feature is a graph. If you only do simple calculations, you probably won't need this tool, but the toy could be useful for anyone whose work requires more sophisticated number crunching or work with graphs.

Image resizer

Windows XP is digital media happy, especially for those interested in playing around with photographic images. Several new tools work to that end. An image resizer allows you to select resolutions from those small enough to fit on a PDA or large enough to fit on an LCD screen. An advanced feature also lets you resize the original photo without creating a copy of it.

A wizard helps you create three types of slide shows: simple, advanced, or full screen. When the slide show launches, you can advance through the pictures. My Pictures has its own option for a slide show, but using the wizard allows you to bring several pictures from different places on your hard drive, including those that have been burned onto a CD. Other handy tools include the HTML slide show wizard, which adds HTML source code to photos, and lets you effortlessly create a slide show that can be placed on a website.

Taskbar magnifier

Of all the XP PowerToys, this is one useless tweak. To access the feature, right-click on the taskbar, then select Toolbars, then Taskbar Magnifier. On the right side of the task bar you can view magnified text, whether it's from a webpage or a Word document. Unfortunately, the viewing screen is too small to read anything beyond a few words or a few icons. Try it out to see how it looks, then quickly uncheck the option to use it. If you need to magnify text, you can find a slightly better application that's bundled in the OS (Start > All Programs > Accessories > Accessibility). The more magnified the screen, the more pixilated the text and graphics.

Super-fast switcher

This handy little tool speeds up an already fast feature. Fast user switching represented a nifty enhancement to the Windows platform. It allows several users to be logged on at the same time and retain their preferences, settings, and open applications. To access the power toy, just hit the Windows key and then the Q key and user names that are currently logged on pop up one at time. When your user name appears, release the Q key and enter your password to access your regular XP setup. Unfortunately, there's no way to undo a selection if you inadvertently release the key too quickly. You can't re-access super-fast switching until you log on and press the Windows and Q key again.

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