How to: tweak Vista with Vispa

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James Bannan25 June 2007, 12:09 AM

Want to tweak Vista quickly and easily? Vispa gets you under the OS hood with no fuss with lots of options to safeguard privacy and give you more control over security.

Want to tweak Vista quickly and easily? This new tool gets you under the OS hood with no fuss with lots of options to safeguard privacy and give you more control over security.

Vispa is distributed as a light-weight executable (no installation necessary) and available under the GNU GPL 2.0 license.

It lets you modify a whole raft of settings – general system, performance and services tweaks, IE and WMP settings and Windows Explorer tweaks. It has a general focus on safeguarding your privacy.

You can, for example:

disable automatic Windows updates
disable Windows Defender
disable the scheduled task service
disable the firewall
increase the maximum number of connections in IE
force IE popups to open in tabs
block Windows Media Player's automatic licencing downloads

Most settings are pretty benign, but some -- such as disabling the firewall -- can have system-wide implications, so make sure you’re confident about what you're doing and why before committing the changes.

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dateman:

After years of waiting for Vista, we still need 3rd party apps to help us manage it...

Shirley Vista could have been simplified and streamlined to avoid the addons to do the basics...

29 February 2008, 8:31 PM (4 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

Filipe:

After around 6 months of using Vista, I haven't needed any 3rd party app to help me manage it, so no, after years of waiting for Vista, we don't need any 3rd party apps to help us manage it, we need 3rd party apps like any other OS needs 3rd party apps to tweak some complex parts of the OS or do it in another way, parts which most people shouldn't (and don't) ever touch because they don't need to.

"Shirley" you could have learn how to write and learn something about Vista to avoid ignorant comments like these.

29 February 2008, 8:44 PM (4 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

Jerry Gartner:

I've heard folks complain about the UAC or "User Access Control". While I appreciate the concern for security, it is a bit annoying. As an IT administrator, I disabled it. Also, as an IT administrator, I would not disable it for most users - home or business. It really should reduce "drive by" malware installations. Have a look at Windows Vista sure looks nice, but wait… for my opinion about Vista.

29 February 2008, 8:31 PM (4 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

Desktop General:

Spyware Doctor 5 reports the download as malicious. Who did you research?

29 February 2008, 8:31 PM (4 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

ZGeek:

Important: Some antivirus software might report Vispa as Spyware or a Trojan. Vispa is an executable written and compiled using NSIS, false-positives are unfortunately quite common among NSIS compiled programs. The NSIS development team is aware of this situation and constantly works with software companies to solve such issues.

http://vispa.whyeye.org/

29 February 2008, 8:31 PM (4 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

ptillery (New user):

Anyone know how to get the Normal start menu Back after Vispa changes it? I tried its Usability/Use Classic Start Menu. It changed it to something unlike XP or Vista. It won't change back

18 April 2008, 6:47 AM (4 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

ptillery (New user):

I used Vispa to attempt to get "Classic Start Menu" It brought some totally new looking menu. I am unable to go back. It is no longer checked in Standard mode but "Use Modern Start Menu," and two others are checked in "Restore mode" but won't stay unchecked! I don't like this "Modern Start Menu. I want back. How do I do it?

19 April 2008, 8:12 AM (4 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend