A Windows 10 and 11 tweaker for privacy, system features and File Explorer, with a memory limiter for programs such as Chrome and Discord and a troubleshooting check for lags, crashes and conflicts. Tick the tweaks you want, press Apply, and press Revert to put the original values back.
Beta. This is a test version and it is not stable yet. Use it at your own risk.
Download: blagotech.uk/simpletool or the latest release on GitHub.
On the first run SimpleTool shows its terms of use and works only after you accept them. They are shown again if they change; the sidebar has a link to read them at any time. What changed in each version is in the changelog.
SimpleTool goes online only when you ask it to: the Help menu at the top of the window has Check for updates, which asks blagotech.uk for the number of the latest version. The same menu has What's new (also shown once after an update) and Report a problem: bug reports go to service@blagotech.uk with the PC's specifications filled in.
The interface is in English, Russian and Ukrainian, with three colour themes (Navy, Midnight and Light). SimpleTool picks the language of Windows; switch language and theme in the top right corner.
At startup SimpleTool scans the system and shows which Windows services related to telemetry, location, performance, Xbox and security are on, off or not installed. If something cannot be read, it says why and how to fix it (usually: run as administrator). Every tweak and service has a detailed explanation, and each tweak lists exactly which registry values, services and tasks it changes and their current state.
The Troubleshooting page looks for the usual causes of lags, freezes, crashes and conflicts. It only reads: nothing is changed and nothing leaves the PC. The check runs the first time the page is opened and takes a few seconds; Scan again repeats it. Every finding says what it means and how to fix it, and most have a button that opens the right Windows tool or settings page.
| Group | What is checked |
|---|---|
| Performance | memory use and the programs that take most, installed memory and memory Windows cannot use, one memory module, mixed modules or a kit below its rated speed, memory held by drivers (a leak), the page file and the commit limit with the low-memory warnings Windows logs, processor load and its top programs, the microcode of Intel 13th and 14th Gen processors, AMD's driver for Ryzen 9 X3D processors, the power plan, the power mode, turbo boost and processor caps, the graphics driver (or none: the Microsoft Basic Display Adapter), a disabled graphics card, a monitor plugged into the processor's graphics while a graphics card is installed, a card on too few PCIe lanes, programs set to the power-saving graphics, the refresh rate, startup programs, several lighting programs at once, background game recording, boot options that limit processors or memory, test mode, kernel debugging, a forced HPET timer, Driver Verifier and disabled graphics driver recovery, a desktop slowed down by its firmware, time since the last restart, programs and drivers with documented problems (Nahimic and Sonic Studio, the inpoutx64 driver, Killer and cFosSpeed, an old RivaTuner next to Overwolf, VMware under core isolation, unwanted "optimizers" and "repair tools") |
| Drives | free space, drive health and SSD wear (as administrator), Windows on a hard disk, eMMC, a memory card or a USB drive, TRIM turned off for an SSD, drive and file system errors in the event log, temporary files and who fills them, the servicing log fault that fills the disk |
| Stability | blue screens and sudden shutdowns (with the power button held, or a hang while shutting down or going to sleep), program crashes and hangs and the module they crash in (overlays, the graphics driver, the drive, unstable memory or processor settings), graphics driver crashes, NVIDIA driver errors and graphics engine hangs, hardware (WHEA) errors, the last Windows Memory Diagnostic, devices with driver problems or resource conflicts, services that keep failing, important services disabled by "optimization" tools, damaged system files (as administrator), an old or missing Visual C++ runtime, the Media Feature Pack on N editions, battery wear, crash reports that browsers, Electron apps, Steam and game launchers keep outside the Windows log, hangs recovered without a blue screen (live kernel dumps), the dump files of blue screens and of program crashes |
| Protection, updates and network | antivirus (none, out of date, or two at once), UAC and the Spectre and Meltdown mitigations turned off, memory integrity and its cost in games, UEFI, Secure Boot and TPM 2.0 for anti-cheats, Windows Update (turned off, idle, or updates that keep failing), a pending restart, the end of support of this version of Windows, IP address conflicts and a wired connection at 100 Mb/s, a proxy server, the hosts file |
Findings are Problem, Warning, Note or OK; what could not be read is listed as Not checked with the reason. Most checks work without administrator rights.
| Category | Tweaks | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Privacy | 13 | Windows and NVIDIA telemetry, advertising ID, settings sync, data collection tasks, location |
| System | 8 | startup delay, AutoPlay, Ctrl+Shift layout switch, classic Photo Viewer, automatic registry backup, detailed sign-in messages |
| File Explorer | 9 | file extensions, This PC on Win+E, long paths, recent files history, menu delay, no Store in Open with, no Spotlight icon |
| Context menu | 11 | classic Windows 11 menu, Copy to and Move to folder, take ownership, block a program in the firewall, file hashes, copy image, This PC tools |
Every tweak shows its current state: Applied, Partly, Not applied, or Not found when the service or task it targets is not on this PC.
The Memory limiter page keeps chosen programs within a RAM limit. SimpleTool lists the programs installed on this PC (from Start menu shortcuts, the installed programs list and known Microsoft Store apps), with the ones running now first and the memory they use. Pick one, or choose any running program, then set the limit and the mode:
- Soft (default). The limit is for the whole program, all of its processes together. When it is exceeded, SimpleTool trims the working sets of the largest processes first until the program is back under the limit, and leaves the program alone while it stays within it.
- Hard. Windows caps the RAM of every process of the program (a hard working-set maximum). It holds the limit firmly, but a program that really needs more memory can slow down. SimpleTool removes the caps when you turn the limiter off, switch the program to soft mode, remove it or exit.
Neither mode takes memory away from a program or closes it: pages it is not using right now move out of RAM to the standby list or the page file, and Windows brings them back when they are needed, which can cause a short pause. System processes (Explorer, svchost, csrss and others) cannot be added.
The limiter checks the programs every 2–30 seconds while SimpleTool is open. When it is on, closing
the window hides SimpleTool to the notification area; open it again or exit from the tray icon.
Starting SimpleTool a second time shows the running copy instead of starting another one. The list is
saved in %LOCALAPPDATA%\SimpleTool\limiter.json. Programs that run as administrator can only be
limited when SimpleTool also runs as administrator.
You need Windows 10 or 11 and Python 3 with Tkinter (tested with Python 3.12).
python main.pyRun it as administrator. Without administrator rights SimpleTool says so at startup and locks the tweaks that change system-wide settings, services and scheduled tasks; per-user tweaks still work.
Run it from an account that has administrator rights. If a standard user starts SimpleTool with another account's administrator password, Windows runs it as that other account: per-user settings (File Explorer, the context menu) and SimpleTool's own data then belong to that account, and SimpleTool warns about it at startup.
If something goes wrong, SimpleTool writes the details to %LOCALAPPDATA%\SimpleTool\error.log.
Send that file to service@blagotech.uk when you report a problem (Help → Report a problem).
Build a single SimpleTool.exe that runs without Python installed:
python build.pyThe file appears in dist\SimpleTool.exe, next to dist\THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.txt with the licences of
Python, Tcl/Tk and PyInstaller that the exe contains; publish both. The build needs Python 3.12 and
uses a pinned PyInstaller. Copy the exe to a USB stick and run it on any 64-bit Windows 10 or 11 PC. Snapshots, backups and settings stay on each PC in %LOCALAPPDATA%\SimpleTool, because a
snapshot describes that particular PC and must not travel to another one.
The exe is not code-signed, so the first time Windows SmartScreen may say "Windows protected your PC": choose More info → Run anyway. Some antivirus products flag PyInstaller executables by mistake.
- SimpleTool changes the registry, services and scheduled tasks. Before it applies anything it asks for a Windows restore point: if there is none from the last 24 hours, it offers to create one, and turns System Protection on for the Windows drive if it is off. Going on without a restore point takes a second warning and a tick that you take the risk. The System snapshots page has a button for a restore point too.
- Snapshots. SimpleTool saves the state of every setting it can change before each Apply,
Revert and restore. The first time it runs as administrator it also saves the original state,
which is kept forever, as are the snapshots you make yourself; of the automatic ones the latest 20
are kept. Restore any snapshot from the System snapshots page. Snapshots are JSON files in
%LOCALAPPDATA%\SimpleTool\snapshots. - Before a tweak is applied for the first time, its original values are also saved to
%LOCALAPPDATA%\SimpleTool\backup.json. Revert restores them; without a backup it sets the Windows defaults. - Some changes take effect after you restart Explorer, sign out or restart the PC.
- On Windows 11 the context menu items are under Show more options.
The repository is public, so every commit is checked for secrets, personal data and files that must not be published. Turn the pre-commit hook on once per clone:
git config core.hooksPath .githooks
python tools/check_secrets.py --history # manual run over the whole historyGitHub Actions runs the same check and gitleaks on every push and pull request.
The release workflow (.github/workflows/release.yml) builds and publishes a version when its tag is
pushed. Nothing is built or uploaded by hand:
- Set
VERSIONinmain.pyand describe the version in a## <version>section of CHANGELOG.md; a test fails until both match. - If the terms of use changed: change
VERSIONinterms.pytoo (SimpleTool then asks everyone to accept them again) and runpython tools/terms_md.py, which writesTERMS.mdandterms.json. On the website,node tools/sync-terms.jscopiesterms.jsoninto the terms page; deploy it with the release. - Commit, push, then tag:
git tag v0.6.1andgit push origin v0.6.1.
The workflow checks that the tag matches VERSION, runs the tests, builds the exe with build.py,
signs a build provenance attestation for it, and creates the release with SimpleTool.exe,
THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.txt and notes made of the changelog section and the SHA-256. Anyone can check
that a downloaded exe was built by this workflow:
gh attestation verify SimpleTool.exe -R danilablagorodniy37/SimpleToolThe website's download button, its counter and the update check read the latest release that is not
a prerelease, and the asset named exactly SimpleTool.exe. The last step of the workflow warns if
the terms on blagotech.uk are not the ones the program shows.
python -m unittest discover -s tests -t . -vThe tests cannot change your system. Registry access is redirected to a sandbox key
(HKCU\Software\SimpleToolTest) and any access outside it fails the test; sc.exe and schtasks.exe
are replaced with fakes, and so is the service manager. Nothing goes online: the update check is
tested against fake answers. Inside the sandbox every tweak is applied and reverted, alone and all at
once, and the result must match the original state exactly. A catalog audit checks that no tweak
touches UAC, Defender, Winlogon, startup entries, the boot configuration, critical services or
Windows Update tasks. The memory limiter is tested on fake processes and, with real Windows calls,
only on a copy of Python that the test starts under its own unique name, so no other program is
trimmed or capped. GitHub Actions runs the tests on Windows for every push.
The source code is released under the MIT License. It is provided as is, without
warranty of any kind: you use SimpleTool at your own risk. The terms of use that the
program shows on the first run say the same in plain words; they are generated from terms.py by
python tools/terms_md.py.
The MIT License does not cover the blagotech brand. The blagotech name, the b!t mark and the
images in assets/ are trademarks and artwork of blagotech, all rights reserved.
You may not use them to name or identify your own software or services. If you publish a fork or a
modified version of SimpleTool, replace the logo and remove the "by blagotech" label.