Tweak UI - History

History

Tweak UI started as a control panel applet available for download on Microsoft's website, released shortly after the release of Windows 95. It was originally written by Raymond Chen and later included as part of Microsoft's Power Toys collection, a set of tools developed by Microsoft's Shell Development Team.

An updated version of Tweak UI was included on the install disc for Microsoft's Windows 98 operating system. This was deemed a "disaster" by Chen, as it resulted in additional work for Microsoft's product-support teams when diagnosing problems. Consequently, the applet was not included with Windows 98 Second Edition or later versions of Windows.

With the release of Windows XP, the Tweak UI applet was retooled and re-released on Microsoft's website as a separate application, "TweakUI.exe", (as opposed to the Control Panel applet for earlier versions). It was again updated to version 2.10 for Windows XP Service Pack 1 and Windows Server 2003. Chen also wrote an updated Windows Vista version of the utility, but it wasn't released because it violated the policy of "no unsupported downloads."

An unofficial 64-bit version of Tweak UI was created by NeoSmart Technologies for Windows XP Professional x64 Edition. Versions of Tweak UI for Windows XP work on Windows Vista and Windows 7, including 64-bit, if run as administrator and Compatibility Mode set to Windows XP SP2/SP3 (for 32-bit Windows 7/Vista) or Windows Server 2003 SP1 (for 64-bit Windows 7/Vista) using Application Compatibility Toolkit for Windows 7/Vista.