Next Mile

"Not Just For the Geeks But For All"

WinBubble is my easy-to-use tweaking utility that focuses on enhancing your Windows Vista Experience. In just two clicks, WinBubble will help you to Customize and Tweak your Windows Vista easily. Its features cover Customization, Security and Optimization.

“My favorite Vista tweaker is a very unassuming, free little program from Lawrence Albert called WinBubble… it sure beats the daylights out of editing the Registry by hand. And the results will perk up your day. Guaranteed.”  - Woody Leonhard, Windows Secrets Newsletter

"it's hard to find something that this remarkable tweaking program can't do. Whether you're a dedicated Vista tweaker, or just getting started, there's something here for you. - Preston Gralla, PCWORLD.COM"

Download Now 

What's new on WinBubble 1.75? (Quality And Quantity)

* Ultimate Update: Increasing the Usability of Icon Tab, Changing Icons without downloading from the Internet
* "Create a Restore Point" Right-Click Menu was updated
* Cleaning your Internet Explorer Context Menu
* IE Startup URL now supports more than four items
* Adding Icons to Desktop was changed to User-Level
* Automatic Back-up of OEM Information was updated
* Anti-Bug feature was updated

Notes Before Taking the Ownership of File and Folder 

WinBubble Homepage 2

Awards and Recognitions:

*Freewarefiles.com Editor's Pick
*Softpedia 100% Clean Award and Editor's 5/5 Rating!
*MajorGeeks.com Editor's Pick
*Featured at Snapfiles.com
*5-Stars Neowin.net Choice Logo
*WinMatrix.com Developer's Badge
*BetaNews.com
*Proudly Listed at PCWorld.com
*Download.hr 5-Stars award and 100% Clean Award
*The Best FREE TweakUI Replacement - Woody Leonhard, WindowsSecrets.com
*Uptodown.com TESTED and AWARDED
*Soft82 5 stars Award and 100% Clean Certification
*CFS 5 Doves Award

Other Tools:

RegDevelop, Create your own Applications that can be shared and updated by any users. (Create your own WinBubbles!)

Downloading Youtube Videos

WinBubble 1.74 new features

*"Set the Ownership to Current User Only" to Folders Right-Click/Context Menu
* "Safely Remove Hardware" in Computer Icon Right-Click/Context Menu
* The Ultimate Tweaking Toolbox Update
* Cleaning of unwanted Internet Explorer Context Menu was added 
* Anti-Bug feature was updated 
* File Download Window - Reset
* Automatic Back-up of OEM Information was updated

Recent Supporters

Thanks to Channel9.MSDN.com for allowing me to post!!!

WINBUBBLE FEATURES

General Customizations and Tweaks

OEM Logo and Information

WinBubble will help you to change your Original Equipment Manufacturer's Information's and Logo without knowing the registry tricks. 

OR, If you want to know how it is done manually, open this article:

Customizing OEM Logo in Windows Vista

Complete Guide in Branding your Windows Vista Computer

Owner Information

Using this tool you can now change the Owner information easily.

Useful Tweaks to Desktop and Explorer's Context Menu:

*Taking the Ownership of a file

This will solve the problem, "Access denied" message when opening / moving / deleting a file.

*Copy to/Move To

This will speed up the arrangement of files.

 

 

 

 

 

*Add Disk Clean-up to Computer Right-Click Menu

*Turn Off/On Aero, This will give a minimal boost in performance for Gaming and good Battery Usage

* Add WinBubble Launcher, No need to create a shortcut for WinBubble.

* Add Internet Explorer Icon, Network Icon, Control Panel Icon and many more... This will save your time in editing the registry one by one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 * Display the Windows Vista Build number on your Desktop

 

 

*Slow-Down animation

If you want to activate the animation, it's easy!

Just go to Windows Customization 1 Tab, Check the "Slow down Animation" and click the Apply button.

 

How to use it? Press Shift key and click the Minimize button

*Turn Off your monitor when not in use to save battery. Despite the name, screen savers do nothing. Flashing images and Windows Aero actually consume more energy during active use.

 

*Add "Open with Notepad" will greatly help you in everyday use of your computer.

 

Unlocking WinBubble Part 2

Customizing Shortcut icons
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No more registry problems. WinBubble can customize the shortcut icon easily.

Just choose and click the Set button.

 

Ugly arrows? Remove it.

 

 

 

Unlocking WinBubble Part 3

Applying Security to your Computer
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*Enable/Disable UAC

A security feature in Windows Vista that always ask permission to run or install some applications. But sometimes, it is so annoying; you want to turn it off.

Note: UAC make your computer more secure and prevent viruses, malware to do something in your computer without your consent. I RECOMMEND that turn off UAC, only if you have an anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti-malware and anti-rootkits installed in your computer. And use firefox when using the Internet because turning off UAC will also turn-off Protected Mode in Internet Explorer.

*Hide ALL Fix Drives
*Hide a specific Drive

This feature will only hide the drive from being displayed. You can still access the drive by manually writing the path to the explorer's address bar, using command prompt and other applications.

*Hide Shutdown button and options in the Start Menu
This will prevent shutdown of computer through the start menu. But you can still shutdown your computer through command prompt, shortcuts and other applications.

*Remove "New" in Explorer's Context Menu

This will remove the New menu in Windows Explorer. Thus, it will prevent anybody to create a new folder, shortcuts and other file formats.

*Remove "Folder Options"

 
Prevent anybody in modifying your Windows Explorers settings.

*Enable/Disable Taskmanager

Did you ever experience before a virus that disables the Taskmanager? Now, you can easily enable it by using WinBubble.

*Disable AutoPlay in All type of media

This will prevent any worms or other viruses to run automatically when a disc/flash drive is inserted.

*Increasing security by forcing to input the Username before entering the windows

This will activate the Interactive Logon setting. It will increase your security but quite annoying.

*Disable RUN command in the Start Menu and Task manager

This feature will remove the RUN command in the Start Menu, Taskmanager and disables the shortcut Win+R.

*Add Encrypt/Decrypt to Explorer's Right-Click Menu (Context Menu)

This is the simpler way, If you use the built-in file encryption in Windows Vista.

*Disable access to Display Property
*Disable access to Control Panel

Prevent access to Control Panel and Display property

*Restrictions in Internet Explorer

Restrictions that is useful in Internet Cafe and schools.

Internet Explorer Security settings 1:

Disable File->New, File-> Open, Save As, View Source, Favorites, Right-Click, Download, Tools -> Internet Options.

Internet Explorer Security settings 2: Internet Options Window

Hide General Tab, Security Tab, Privacy Tab, Content Tab, connections Tab, Programs Tab, Advanced Tab

Unlocking WinBubble Part 4

Screensavers (Bubbles, Ribbon and Mystify)
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Windows Vista was shipped with amazing screensavers. However, when you click the Settings button, it displays the following message: “No options" --- "This screensaver has no options that you can set.”

No more registry problems

Using WinBubble, you can now set it in just two Clicks.

Just Choose and click the Set button.

Viola!

To return the screensavers to their original state, choose the default options and click the Set button.

Unlocking WinBubble Part 5

Optimize your Windows Vista Experience

Optimization 1: Windows Aero

Everybody loves Windows Aero. But it eats-up your computer's battery usage. Turn it off, while on mobile and surfing the net. It can give you a minimal boost in performance and a good Battery Usage.

WinBubble can turn it off in three ways.

Optimization 2: Quick Search

Speed up your search through the different search options.

1. Disabling the search in the File index can have a large difference.
2. Stopping the search in Communication files such as Windows Live Mails removes annoyances.

Optimization 3: Speeding up

What can it do?

1. Decrease your Boot time by clearing the Multiple Monitor Configuration
2. Speeds up Windows Shutdown by decreasing the Shutdown time for Services.
3. Choose between Security or Performance: Clearing the Pagefile at Shutdown can decrease your shutdown time but it will increase your security.
4. Download more than two files on the same server by increasing the number of Internet connections
5. Increase your disk performance by disabling the constant updates of last-accessed dates/timestamp in files and folders.
6. Also, Disable the support for old MSDOS 8-character filenames to increased your disk performance. Make sure that you are not using any old programs.

Unlocking WinBubble Part 6

More Security options

USB Drive/Storage Security

This options can disable writing to USB drive / Flash disk (Read only) and disable the USB drive / flash disk entirely.

User Account Control Options

A security feature in Windows Vista that always ask for permission to run or install some applications and sometimes it is so annoying that you want to turn it off.

When I installed the fingerprint software in my Dell Laptop, It automatically set the UAC options to Prompt for Credentials, which means I need to input my password or use the fingerprint reader again and again.

Because of that, I have included this feature in the new version of WinBubble.

Note: Do not TURN OFF UAC (Elevate without prompting) if you don't have an anti-virus or anti-spyware to your computer. Prompt for consent is recommended.

Unlocking WinBubble Part 7

Miscellaneous Tweaks

Show the Letter first in Windows Explorer

Remove the Drive Letters in Windows Explorer 

*Miscellaneous tweaks added in WinBubble 1.6

• Enable Password protect of screensavers
• Disable/Enable Low disk space checks
• Disable/Enable Balloon tips
• Disable/Enable Mobility Center
• Disable/Enable Windows Sidebar
• Disable Failed DNS caching
• Disable Taskbar Thumbnails
• Disable Win+Letter Keys All at once (Win+E, Win+Pause, Win+D and many more)

Unlocking WinBubble Part 8

Customizing Windows Vista Icons easily

Using WinBubble, Changing selected icons in Windows Vista is now easy. Just click the browse button to set and "x" button to restore.

Using a different Open Folder Icon, it's easy now to search and navigate your Registry and Windows Explorer.

List of Icon Customizations
*Hard Drive Icons (C-Z)
*Documents, Pictures, Favorites, Music, Videos and Contacts Icon Customization and restoration
*Computer, Control Panel, Network Neighborhood, Recycle bin Icon
*Open Folder Icon

The icons shown above came from VistaIcons.com - lots of cool Free Vista Icons.

Enjoy!

More Articles:

Windows Vista Tips, Tricks, How to, Help-guides and Unlocks

Lawrence Albert Ilao - Unlock For Us and Windows Wave author, FreewareForUs.com