Crapfixer is the latest open source Windows tweaker by serial developer Belim. He calls it “the tool Microsoft would build, if they hated bloatware as much as we do”. I have reviewed several of his tools in the past, including the tweaker TidyOS, the app remover NoBloatBox and the tweaker ThisIsNot11.
The main idea behind Crapfixer is to create a simple tool that gives users control over popular tweaks. These tweaks improve privacy, remove features, or even applications that come preinstalled with the operating system.
With Crapfixer, it is as easy as it gets. Run the program with elevated rights after you have downloaded its 150 kilobyte executable. Windows may throw a SmartScreen warning, which is displayed because the app is new and relatively unknown, not because it is malicious.
The app displays all available tweaks in a sidebar on the left. Hit the analyze button to check if tweaks are already applied. You can uncheck some of the tweaks so that they are not checked by the tool.
Recommended tweaks are marked in red and you may apply them all at once with a click on the CFixer button. It is recommended that you check them first to avoid that a feature is changed or removed that you require.
As far as tweaks are concerned, you find the usual assortment of tweaks supported by the application. From disabling the “First run experience” over “showing full context menus in Windows 11” to disabling Power Throttling and Game DVR.
While the tweaker does not support as many tweaks as WinAero Tweaker, which many consider the richest when it comes to tweaking Windows, it does support major tweaks that you come to expect from an app of its kind. Even new AI tweaks, such as turning off Recall in Windows 11, are supported.
The application is easy to use and the description displayed for each tweak is sufficient in most cases. You can press F1 after selecting a tweak, or right-click and select Help, to display more information. This is usually just a sentence though and may not be enough sometimes to determine its use or usefulness.
CrapFixer features a restore button, which restores functionality. All in all, it is a good tweaker for Windows, but not that special when compared to Belim’s other tools or popular tweakers by other developers. If you have not used a tweaker yet, this could be it. Anyone else may not find much use anymore in that tool.
When I first saw the the name of the tool I thought it was some kind of medication to relieve constipation.
As for Windows 11, I rarely use it these days and prefer my Win 8.1 machine which seems to be a whole lot faster, probably because of the ‘crap’ Microsoft has included in its latest OS. So “Crapfixer” may well prove to be useful although at this stage I haven’t experimented much with these kind of innovative tools.
Still, always useful to be aware of them so many thanks to Martin for the review.
“CrapFixer features a restore button, which restores functionality.”
Thinking–not so sure about the ability to restore functionality. Reasoning–something is changed in the system when any tweaker is used–it could be a simple modification of a registry key which is given a value of “0” or deleted altogether.
Say a user likes Kerish Doctor, which I’ve found to be a superior cleaner/optimizer; in the process of optimizing, numerous “useless, valueless keys and junk files and folders” are all deleted.
After running Kerish, I’ve never had issues, but my guess is it wipes away any OS files/registry keys that a tweaker is modifying/deleting. A key or value or file no longer in use or needed by the system is registered as “junk/useless.” Gone.
I do use UWT and WinAero–no issues; yet, when I look at some of the modifications I see in the screenshot, it looks like a user’s computer could end up a total mess if he/she “tweakeed” then cleaned all the garbage the tweaks generate [in good faith].
Only a hunch, but if one doesn’t want the bloat, TinyOS or one of the newer Windows 11 pre-debloated distros may provide a better experience.
I didn’t like this app. I think I couldn’t figure out which checkbox I didn’t uncheck, but it made my menus black. I used system restore twice. But this app is pointless to use. The developer of this app will abandon it like any other of his apps. In a previous article I already expressed this opinion with negative examples of apps, that this developer works on one of his apps for a few months, then abandons it and starts working on another of his apps. A few months pass and he abandons his app again and starts working on another of his apps.
How annoying that comments here have to be approved, because publishing my opinion will still take 24 hours… Instead of just leaving user opinions without needing approval, as if we are a dictatorship and someone from the nomenclature is needed…