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.

Last week Download Squad dug up a real gem when they found a website called AlternativeTo. This website lists out a lot of really popular applications like Photoshop, Nero, Dreamweaver, and the various Microsoft Office products. Then for each of them it provides alternatives (both free and commercial) that users can choose from.

Searching for a specific image on the Internet can be like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Some sites, such as Google Image search, try to make the process easier, but shuffling through one page after another of results can quickly get tedious.

Mouse gestures are something that I've gotten into the habit of using for years now, and giving them up would almost be like giving up the ability to use keyboard shortcuts. Some gestures have become second nature to me, and when I'm on a computer that doesn't have that capability I get rather frustrated.

I'm a big fan of file renaming utilities because they can save a ton of time when you have hundreds of files or photos who's filename needs to be cleaned up. There are a few different tools that I used in the past to do this, but lately I've found myself gravitating to a freeware application called Ken Rename.

Media players are becoming an increasingly important part of our daily lives. Many of us listen to music while we work, study, or just browse the Internet. The chances are pretty good that you're using a media player such as iTunes, Windows Media Player, or Winamp, but there's one more that's worth checking out.

Most of the time I use my computer's desktop as a temporary holding place for things that I need to organize later on. It's normally filled with attachments that have been downloaded from emails, apps I've downloaded to try out, and more. My goal is to always have a clear desktop because that means I've filed everything away, but that rarely happens.

It's normally safe to say that diehard geeks like to know what's going on inside their machine. If you fall into that category then you've probably already tried tools that manage and monitor your PC, but there is also another free task manager that does a great job of adding functionality onto the semi-decent tool that's included with Windows.

Have you been wanting to get your DVD library onto your PC, but are trying to figure out the best way to do that? A free application called bitRipper might be just the solution you're looking for.

There is a good chance that you've had a program crash on your while you were away from your computer, and it probably caused quite a headache. Maybe you have a web server or FTP server at home, and the application running it crashed when you were at work leaving those files inaccessible.

The other day Ward pointed out in the comments a simple little application that's available for Windows users who are looking to convert movies to a video format that the iPhone and iPods can play. We talked about being able to do this using the SUPER video converter, but a lot of you are probably just wanting to go from AVI to MP4. If that's the case the iPodME program is just what you need.

About 6-weeks before the end of each year some DonationCoder members start planning out what kind of app they'd like to create for the NANY (New Apps for the New Year) challenge. The end result has to be offered for free, and this year 44 coders pledged to release a program.

My favorite blogging software has always been Windows Live Writer because of the tremendous job Microsoft has done maintaining and adding more and more useful features to it. The interface is nice, inline spell checking catches mistakes as I make them, and the overall experience is very positive.

We've written about PhraseExpress before because of the fact that it's a free application for personal use ($50 for commercial users).