Looking to tweak and customize just about any part of Windows 7? Win7Zilla will let you change an astonishing number of Windows 7 features. This program is free until Windows 7’s release, which is scheduled for October 22, 2009. When Windows 7 is released, Win7Zilla will cost $16 after a 15-day free trial.
The features you can tweak with Win7Zilla are grouped into six major categories: Taskbar and Task Menu; Desktop and Personalization; System and Security; Control Panel; Internet Explorer; and Windows Explorer. Each of those groups has up to several dozen individual customizations, which means the program has hundreds of tweaks. Especially useful is that unlike most tools for tweaking various versions of Windows, Win7Zilla displays graphically ahead of time what the effect of your tweak will be. Also useful is that before it makes changes, it offers to create a Restore Point, so you can easily restore your PC to its previous setup.
I did find some problems with the tweaking–for example, when I used the program to hide the volume icon in the System Tray, it worked fine, but there was then no setting to display the icon again. I couldn’t undo the change. I found similar problems with other tweaks as well.
Win7zilla does more than just tweak Windows 7; it also displays system information, lets you change your Windows logon screen, remove startup programs, and more. The heart of it, though, is system tweaking. It does that very well, although the lack of a clear way to undo the changes you make–apart from having to use System Restore–is problematic.
All that is to the good. The question, though, is whether it is worth the $16 pricetag. If you’re a dedicated tweaker who absolutely has to be able to customize every part of Windows 7, Win7Zilla might be worth your while. Otherwise, it’s probably not worth spending the money.