I am a huge fan of the redesigns that the Windows Start Menu went through in Vista and Windows 7, but I know everyone doesn't share the same enthusiasm. Microsoft's decision to not include a classic Start Menu layout irked many, but at the same time that opened the door to plenty of third-party developers.
Both Windows 7 and Vista (32-bit or 64-bit) users can take advantage of Blink, which is an awesome free utility for letting you login to your computer using facial recognition. It's actually pretty cool how it all works, and in my own testing I was surprised that it could pick me up even with modifications to my appearance.
I'm always on the lookout for great apps that take full advantage of the Aero interface in Windows 7 or Vista, and OnTopReplica is undoubtedly one of the more handy ones. When you run this free (and portable) app you'll see a clear glass window. All you have to do is right-click, and select which of your currently open windows you want to clone on the screen.
I've always been pretty good about defragmenting my computer, and I think it was a good choice when Microsoft decided to make defragmenting PC's a scheduled job on Vista and Windows 7 by default. For some users the built-in defragmenting is still not good enough, and that's where third-party apps like O&O Defrag come into play.
One of the new features in Windows 7 is Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) 7, and Microsoft decided to also offer the most of the same functionality to Windows XP and Vista users. Many of you will probably shrug this off as a pointless update, but it has something that is really useful to me. What is it?
One of the things that I noticed with my desktop computer is that I'm constantly deleting large files, and after awhile it can consume quite a bit of space. I restart the computer a few times each week, and I decided that upon startup would also be a good time to have the Recycle Bin emptied.
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.
For the last few years I've been using a Windows Vista Media Center machine to record television shows, stream media to my Xbox 360, and perform backups of other computers in the house. When I made the switch from XP to Vista I contemplated installing the 64-bit version of the operating system, but I didn't feel like hassling with any driver issues.
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.
April was a big month for us. Some of you may recall that it was then that we took the plunge and bought MacBook Pros. Thinking back, our first week was a bit painful. It took time to "re-train" our brains to think differently.
Everyday when I'm at work I'm dealing with dozens of different servers that I have to connect to using the Windows Remote Desktop.
The other day I had someone who ran into a big problem that many of us hope to never come across. What happened was the user had forgotten the administrator password for their Windows Vista machine, and had no idea how they could log on.
When it comes down to it, what most people want in an operating system is stability. They want something that works well out of the box, and they really don't care too much about the extras that come with it because they can always download them at their convenience.
At this point I believe Microsoft could release just about any Ultimate Extra and it will surpass the things that they have already done. To my surprise, however, they've actually released a game called Tinker that isn't all that bad. It's a simple puzzle game where you try to guide a robot from point A to point B by traversing through obstacles.
Some of you have probably seen some bits of information on the web over the last day about Microsoft canceling the Bill Gates/ Jerry Seinfeld ad campaign to focus on a "new" campaign.
Last week when Microsoft aired their first Windows ad, a lot of you had lots to say about it. Some of you thought that the commercial simply wasn't funny while others of you thought that despite the fact there was no direct message, at least they were getting the logo out.
Back in the beginning of June we told you about how Microsoft is serious about improving their brand by hiring a big name in the advertising market to put together a campaign for them.
One of the things that Apple hasn't made easy for iPhone owners is providing a way to create custom ringtones in Windows. If you're a Mac owner you can use GarageBand, but Apple doesn't provide that application on Windows.
Lately we've been finding ourselves discussing applications that we really like for one operating system, that would be great on another.