Smokin'

By Ian Urie

Windows being what it is, tends to lead to niggling little (and big) problems.
In fact, whole industries have grown up around Windows trying to repair problems.

website

This magazine normally has at least one article on how to repair problems each issue.
I was told about this neat utility on a newsgroup and was so impressed, I actually went out and got it.
click on the website grab to go there, as usual.

With the dollar conversion being in our favour at present, it makes sense to buy American software at lower prices.
As you'll see, you don't have to buy this software to use it, though.

XP-Smoker is a performance booster for XP and works well.

download            runit

Simply download it from the website and install.
As you can see, it will bring up a warning, just ignore it , in this instance.

Once installed, run the beast.
smoker

smoker2

At this part, simply click on the trial option.

smoker3

There we go, you can trial the program to your heart's content and decide if you want to spend the money to get it.
With the dollar rate being over 2 dollars to the pound, you can get the PRO version for around £20 , which isn't all that much.

The program itself has hundreds (literally) of tweaks for your Windows setup.

warning

The program is careful about your current setup and warns about setting a restore point BEFORE you monkey around.
The makers stress that with something as powerful as Smoker, you could damage your setup.
I'll show some grabs to give an idea of some of the tweaks, but with so many, it's nigh impossible to show them all in a quick article.

action

The program also brings up a small hint tip of the options when you hover over them

action2

settings

settings 2

Starting to fluster already?
Let me guess, you wouldn't want to play with all those settings?
I'd point you to the first option on the top right part of the grab.
The part labelled Auto Tuner.

tune1

tune2

tune3

tune4

Job done.
A one button fix.
As seen from the fist auto tune screen......
The program checks your system, sets the settings it thinks you need, defragments the boot files, then warns you that you will need to reboot once you've finished.

Ther are other tweaks in the PRO version you might like as well.
For instance, there's an internet setting tweak

internet

internet2

internet3

Now, how great is it that Internet Explorer just downloads anything on a webpage without asking you?
Brilliant, isn't it. Every piece of spyware in the world comes in like that.

Luckily, this program also helps stop that.
spyware

spyware2

All tweaks are reversible.
Making a mistake won't kill your machine.
For £20 , this program could be a godsend, and I haven't mentioned half of its functionality yet.
Click on the webpage link and go see for yourself.
You might be glad you did!













© RIYAN Productions