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Vispa does quick but advanced tweaking of Windows 7 and Vista
Ages ago, a friend of mine introduced me to xpy -- a handy tweaking app for more advanced (and possibly reckless) users of Windows XP. Its developer later crafted a Vista-compatible version called Vispa and has been updating it ever since.
Recent builds have added Windows 7 compatibility, and Vispa remains an awesome tweaking app. It's definitely not for casual users, though -- if this means you, check our one of the 7 tweaking apps for Windows 7 we covered a while back. If you know a bit more about the services running on your system, editing your registry, and reinstalling from scratch when you screw something up, then Vispa is for you.
Recent builds have added Windows 7 compatibility, and Vispa remains an awesome tweaking app. It's definitely not for casual users, though -- if this means you, check our one of the 7 tweaking apps for Windows 7 we covered a while back. If you know a bit more about the services running on your system, editing your registry, and reinstalling from scratch when you screw something up, then Vispa is for you.
There's no flashy interface -- just a laundry list of items you can enable and disable along with a drop-down menu with 6 preset configurations. Vispa is especially focused on background communications and can help you disable excess chatter between your system and Microsoft, Google, and Apple servers. Many of the usual system tweaks are available, like disabling low disk space warnings and error reporting, deleting the pagefile at shutdown, and more.
As with any tweaking app, it's a good idea to create a system restore point prior to applying Vispa's tweaks (or even imaging your system if you want to be extra-careful). The author also states that Vispa sometimes registers a false positive with certain antivirus apps, though Microsoft Security Essentials on my system gave it the thumbs-up.
Comments
4
Subscribe to commentsDon GoldsmithFeb 25th 2010 10:18AM
Thanks Lee...I d/l'ed this from the authors website and it hose my system despite having symantec running and fully updated. Infostealer virus that symantec is having a hard time getting rid of. OTHERS BEWARE!
Lee MathewsFeb 25th 2010 10:09AM
I'm going to offer the following advice here.
1) Vispa is open source. While it's not impossible for a piece of OSS to be malicious, it's not as likely -- since anyone who wants to can insepect the code.
2) it's available from Softpedia, who are very rigorous about checking for malware
3) it's packed with registry hacks -- with apps like Norton love to squeal about and report false positives.
Don GoldsmithFeb 25th 2010 10:29AM
Sorry...rereading the comment I guess it came off harsher than I meant it. BUT with that said, the link in the article did not result in a d/l from Softpedia (whom I agree are VERY stringent and trustworthy, but directly from the authors website at vispa.whyeye.org. I WISH it had linked me to a Sofptpedia d/l!
I never got to execute the program but got hit just trying to unzip it. Be careful is all I am saying.I have loved your articles in the past and will continue to follow in the future. I just don't understand why this occured.
Thanks and keep up the good work
polobunnyFeb 25th 2010 8:28PM
"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."
Right on the main page.