Take control of Vista with Vispa

(Credit: Jan T. Sott)

Is a 0.1 version release really worth looking at? I mean, don't these beta releases increase global warming by making my machine belch blue smoke? Maybe in some cases, but Vispa 0.1 is one program that gives you a clearer Vista.

It's a minuscule, butterfly-size program--weighing in at 63kb--but with a targeted punch to the heart of Windows Vista's control panel. In one simple interface, Vispa collates some of the most obscure Vista functions, heretofore accessible only through the Registry or in deep corners of the Control Panel. Not surprisingly, it's not for beginners, either.

The tools here are powerful and can mess up your machine if you're not careful. Based on XPY 0.9.8, Vispa lets you alter and disable the settings in several categories: General, Services, Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, Usability, and Delete Files. Within each are heavy-duty controls, like deleting the LMHash or Net Crawling, as well as aesthetic changes that let you instantly change the theme to look like Windows XP.

Even though the app asks you if you'd like to restore settings when you launch it after you've made changes, it can't restore everything back to the way it was. But if you know what Null Session connections are and you want an easy way to disable them, Vispa might be the way to go.