Introduction

In the other guides here on Tweak3D, there are several things that are assumed of our readers that sometimes come back and bite us in the ass. We assume (I, personally, am bad about this) that the people reading and applying our guides are for the most part computer literate, have a decent grasp of general computing aspects, and are willing to take a few risks. Back in the 'old days,' this wasn't a big issue for us for two reasons. The first reason is that we weren't quite as knowledgeable then as we are now (as reader input has come in and we have developed new methods for discovering tweaks, we have learned as much, if not more than we have taught). However, the second reason is really the kicker - we were a lot smaller site then and our readership was mainly made up of tech-savvy users trying to squeeze the most out of their systems. We now have a much more diverse readership and it is going to effect how we do business.

The problem with having a more diverse readership is that we get people trying to do some of the stuff we discuss without really understanding what they are doing to their systems, and more importantly, how to get themselves out of self-made jams. In an effort to help those people out without bulking up our guides with a lot of redundant information (although we are definitely making the shift to being more newbie-friendly by (hopefully) explaining our recommended settings better where possible), I am writing this guide. In it will be included information on the basic steps to applying a tweak, removing an unsuccessful tweak, backing up your original information, and things that should be avoided at all cost. And just so that we don't leave our more experienced tweakers out, information on developing and testing a new tweak will be included.

Pre-Tweaking

There are a few things you can do to facilitate the recovery of your system if some mishap occurs and the system dies on you after performing certain dangerous tweaks. Do as many of these as possible before tweaking - some of them, however, are redundant and unnecessary if you have done others.

- Back up system files (msdos.sys, win.ini, system.ini, autoexec.bat, config.sys, etc…). - Back up your registry (using the export command in regedit) to a *.reg file.
- Make a 'copy' of your Windows folder in another subdirectory on the hard drive or another drive.
- Back up your entire hard drive (disk image).
- Grab a notebook (or a word processor and a printer if that is more to your liking) and outline what you have in your computer, the location of your backups, any custom settings that might NOT be preserved by the above method(s) you chose, etc.

If all else fails and you can't recover from a tweak on your own, these things will definitely come in handy.

Applying a Tweak

This section can't be too specific, because every single tweak that I can think of is applied in a different way. However, there are certain things that should always be done or at least considered before applying a tweak. The first step would be to read over and make sure you understand the tweak in question. If you don't understand what the tweak does and have at least an idea of what it will do to your system, don't apply it until you do. While we here at Tweak3D strive to explain each tweak to the best of our abilities, it is sometimes difficult to explain obscure settings and procedures to less technically savvy readers.

The next step in applying a new tweak would be to somehow record the previous setting along side the new setting. If the setting isn't a relatively simple tickbox or other rudimentary situation, sketching out a brief description of where the setting was added and how it was added can also be useful if you run into a problem. Many times, this information won't be needed, but it can be a nice way to remember how to reconfigure a system if the OS is reinstalled at some point in time.

The final step would of course be the actual application of the new tweak. While many of the tweaks that are described here on the site are relatively simple, just as many take a reasonable amount of comfort and expertise with computers. And remember, don't apply a tweak unless you are comfortable with taking a few risks - the occasional unforeseen configuration error can be a killer. Hope you wrote down the old setting and know how to fix it!

Removing a Tweak

This section is another one that can't be too specific, but I will certainly try to give some general guidelines on fixing an unsuccessful tweak. If you can boot up into windows and you have taken the appropriate notes, removing a tweak is as simple as applying the 'new' old setting and rebooting the computer. If you didn't take any notes while you were tweaking, then you may be able to extract the information from the tweak guide that you got the information from, but that isn't always true.

You only really run into problems when you can't boot into Windows. It is rare that a tweak will do this to a system, but there are a few (such as the Win9x DMA tweak) that can cause this kind of problem if the hardware doesn't support the setting. The best way to handle this is to try to boot the computer into safe-mode, remove the applicable setting (or if that isn't possible, try removing the whole subsystem that is causing the problem [ex: driver]) and reboot. If that isn't possible, hopefully you performed some of the pre-tweaking steps described earlier.

Remember, you can always go into safe-mode by rebooting a PC and hitting the F5 key immediately after the BIOS information screen.