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What you need: Window 10 Toggle Tweaker; Windows 10 Time required: 30 minutes

With the launch of Windows 10 some useful Windows 7 tools were no longer available – such as Windows Photo Viewer, its Task Manager, the Calculator tool and DVD Player. Windows 10 Toggle Tweaker is a free program that lets

you restore these tools with just a few clicks. The program uses a Command Prompt-like interface, but it’s easy to use and has some handy features that let you speed up your PC and manage your Windows user accounts.

STEP 1

The program makes changes to your PC’S system settings and registry, so it’s a good idea to create a system restore point before using it. To do that, press the Windows key, type system restore, click ‘Create a restore point’. Next, click Create 1 , give the restore point a name 2 , then click Create again 3 . Click Close when you see a message saying it has been created.

STEP2

Toggle Tweaker comes as a compressed file so you need a file-decompression program to access it. One of our favourites is Peazip. Go to www.peazip.org, then click the Free Download button at the top for your Windows version. Next, click Download Peazip, run the downloaded setup file to install it, then click Finish. To download Toggle Tweaker, go to www. snipca.com/23599 and click the top Download@majorgeeks link 1 .

STEP3

Open the downloaded zipped file, select the folder, click Extract at the top, then click OK. Now open the ‘Toggle-tweaker-master’ folder. Drag and drop the ‘Toggle Tweaker.bat’ file 1 to your desktop 2 to create a desktop shortcut. Upon launch, Toggle Tweaker will update itself in the background. Click Yes when prompted to provide Admin privileges.

STEP4

This opens Toggle Tweaker’s interface. If the interface is difficult to read (it may be affected by your Command Prompt settings), rightclick the title bar 1 , click Properties, click the Font tab 2 , select a font size of 20 3 , then click OK. Now reopen the ‘Toggle Tweaker.bat’ file to relaunch the program. You should now see 14 options, including Search 4 and Exit Toggle Tweaker 5 .

STEP5

Clicking each option takes you to another screen with further options. For example, click ‘Windows/office KMS activation’ on the main screen, then click Check Windows Activation Status 1 to find out if your version of Windows is an original or a copy. Likewise, you can click Check Office Activation Status 2 . In both cases, you’ll also see how many days you have remaining on your license (assuming it’s not a permanent license). Click Operation Completed Successfully, then click Go Back 3 .

STEP6

To restore Windows 7 tools, click ‘Manage Built-in apps and restore old ones’ on Toggle Tweaker’s main screen. On the left, you’ll see options to uninstall or restore Windows 10 apps 1 (see Step 8). On the right, you’ll see options to restore Windows 7 tools - including Windows Photo Viewer 2 , Calculator 3 , Task Manager 4 , the DVD Player 5 and the Paint app. Click any option – such as ‘Restore Legacy Calculator’. You’ll see an option saying ‘Downloading and installing necessary files’ (this process can take a few minutes).

STEP7

After that’s done, click the ‘Operation completed successfully’ message to return to the previous screen and restore any other tools you may want. Windows 7 tools are installed directly on your PC, so you won’t find any downloaded setup files in your Downloads folder. The best way to access any program you have restored - say, Windows 7 Calculator 1 – is to search for it 2 . You’ll now see Windows 10’s Calculator app 3 and Windows 7’s restored Calculator tool 4 among the search results.

STEP8

The options on the left of the ‘Manage Built-in apps and restore old ones’ screen (see Step 6) let you uninstall and restore Windows 10 programs/apps – such as Cortana, Edge, Internet Explorer and Onedrive. Click an option, then Uninstall… 1 , then Yes 2 . The program then saves relevant files and settings (in case you want to restore that program/app in future). In the window that opens you’ll see a message at the bottom saying your option is uninstalled. Restart your PC to confirm the change. The process is pretty much the same if you want to restore a program 3 .

STEP9

Windows 10 Toggle Tweaker has other useful features. For example, click ‘Enable/disable stuff in Windows 10’ on the main screen. Here, you’ll see options to quickly turn various Windows 10 features on or off, including Windows Defender 1 , Windows Firewall 2 , the eye icon which appears in your password field (to let you check your password) 3 and the icon that tells you when it’s safe to remove hardware connected to your PC 4 .

STEP 10

Another useful setting on the main screen is Speed Up PC Performance 1 . Each of the six options here give you an estimate of how much junk you can remove (in MBS) by clicking it. Similarly, clicking ‘Manage Microsoft Edge browser’ 2 gives you the option to enable a dark theme, add a favourites bar and get a confirmation prompt when you’re about to close multiple tabs. Manage User Accounts 3 lets you add or remove User Accounts and change your user-account password. ●