One of the Firefox extensions that I've absolutely fallen in love with is Update Scanner. It is capable of scouring any website for changes, and can display a notification within the browser when it finds that the content is different. That's handy for websites that don't have RSS feeds, or maybe you're waiting for an online store to get something in stock.

Windows only Wouldn't it be cool if there was a way for you to dominate those "shoot the monkey" ads that popup all over the place? Just imagine all of the fame and glory you would receive from your friends! You just need one tool to get the job done... a mouse auto-clicker.

Windows only When it comes to photo editors there is definitely no shortage of them available. It's almost a guarantee that a Windows user can find a freeware application that will do all the things they want, and more. Some prime examples are Paint.NET, PhotoFilter, and the feature-rich Photoscape. Today we've got another one that we would like to add to our favorites: Photo! Editor.

Windows only One of the things that I thought was pretty cool with my Mac was that it lets you rotate your desktop backgrounds at set intervals using images on your computer. That got me wondering what kind of solutions are available for Windows users that do something similar, and what I happened to stumble upon is a real gem.

Google Docs just added what I consider to be a feature that is needed to help bridge the gap between desktop and online word processing. They added a page view (as expected) that is typical of any desktop word processor, and it's almost like getting a live print preview while you work. To access the new setting go to the View menu, and select the fixed-width page view option.

Mac only When on a Windows computer one of the things I always did was make the Taskbar twice the normal height. The reason I did that was because it would then show the date in addition to the time, which is something I use quite regularly. Sure I could have hovered my mouse over the time to see the same information, but that often took more time than was necessary.

Windows only Today we've got an amazing freeware application for Windows that actually serves two different purposes. Give a hardy welcome to LocatePC. First and foremost it will keep you informed of your computer's whereabouts by sending you an email either on a daily basis or anytime the IP address of the machine changes.

Windows only It seems as though Apple's Expose feature has really struck a chord with Windows users. There have been Expose clones for what seems like forever, but it wasn't until Switcher that I became really impressed with what a feature like Expose could offer to a Windows user. Unfortunately to use Switcher you have to be running Vista with Aero enabled.

Yahoo, just like Google, has decided that they need to start taking steps to protect users from malicious search results that they might be serving up. They're calling the new feature SearchScan, and it is powered by McAfee's SiteAdvisor.

This article might seem familiar to some of you because we've covered shutdown utilities quite a bit in the past, but rest easy knowing that this is going to be different than anything you may or may not have read. We're going to cover some of the best shutdown programs and tips out there since, as Ashley has pointed out, this coming Saturday is Shutdown Day.