It seems like on Windows I always come across those pesky files I can't delete because another process is using it. Up until a few months ago I had always used a program called Unlocker to get around this, and it has served me well. I had to stop using it, however, when I moved to Vista 64-bit since it only includes support for 32-bit versions of Windows.

I can't even tell you how many people that I know who are truly dedicated to using Notepad for their day to day basic writing tasks. The no-frills design minimizes distractions, and lets you get the job done quickly.

Mozilla just wrapped up the Firefox 3.5 release a few weeks ago, but they are already going to town on what they can do for future improvements. When they redesigned Firefox 3.0 I thought the new designs were okay, but they weren't anything that seemed to be revolutionary.

When Google made the announcement of Chrome OS last week we knew that Microsoft had something planned for toady, and they did.

Ever since we did a browser comparison test last year there have been a lot of emails and comments asking if we were going to update the article to reflect new releases. I thought about adding in the new browsers as they came out, but decided against it for one reason or another. Instead I thought it would be better to just do a fresh article, and include even more stats than last time.

We have written about several other system-wide mouse gesture applications, but I know there are quite a few of you who haven't found one that can rival the functionality of StrokeIt.

Tabs are undoubtedly a hot thing these days with more and more applications moving to some sort of tab-like interface. Web browsers are probably the first thing you think of, but other apps like Microsoft Office even have a tab-like interface with the Ribbon. Why not go a little further? With WindowTabs you can extend the tab interface to pretty much any app.

Last year we ran through a couple performance-friendly desktop search applications for those of you that don't want a program constantly indexing your machine, and today we have another nice alternative. It's a free Windows app called Everything that, unlike the others mentioned in the article I referenced, index your drive automatically over time.

RocketDock is definitely one of my favorite application launchers because of how well it is designed to mimic the functionality of the Mac Dock. It can also be extended with skins to change the appearance, or with docklets to add more features.

When you're working around your computer sometimes it can be useful to pin a window to the top. Basically that will ensure that it will stay on top no matter what other window you currently have focused.