There are a lot of things that are often overlooked when designing a new operating system whether it be Windows, the Mac operating system, or any of the various distributions of Linux.

One trend that I've noticed as bandwidth and hard drive storage space continues to grow is that sending CD/DVD's over the Internet is becoming a preferred way for distributing media. These files are typically in an ISO or BIN/CUE format, which most people will then burn to a CD/DVD before using them.

I'm sure some of you have been using a 64-bit version of Windows for a few years now, but have experienced frustrations when coming across problems such as driver incompatibility. That might become a thing of the past as 64-bit Windows PC's become more prevalent.

I think Microsoft did a great job with the Aero transparency interface in Vista, but there might be times were you'd want to turn it off. Maybe you're trying to take a screenshot and don't want to include the contents seen through the window? The normal process that you would have to go through takes several clicks of the mouse:

Last week we told you about how Microsoft set-out to find people who didn't think very highly of Vista. They interviewed them on video to ask them about their impressions of Vista, and then showed them a "new" operating system called Mojave.

Often times we find ourselves wondering whether Vista's harshest critics have ever used the operating system for more than an hour or two, if at all, because their complaints aren't usually justified.

One of the things that I've always done on my Windows computers is have them show all of the hidden files. Some people think I'm crazy because this adds a lot more clutter, but it always seemed as though I frequently had to access files there were otherwise hidden.

Everyday many of us have to open various files on our computers whether they are documents, music, or photo files. It's something we do out of habit without even thinking, so you probably haven't really stopped to think about the process of browsing for files.

It has been over a year and a half since the consumer release of Windows Vista, and the Sunbelt Personal Firewall is finally compatible with it. The new version has better network performance, enhanced packet filtering, improved stability, Vista (32-bit) compatibility, and more. Plus, like always, it comes in both free and paid flavors.

In less than ten days Windows XP will no longer be an option when purchasing most computers, despite the fact that over 208,000 people requested that the XP deadline be extended even longer. It's time to move on people, or is it?

Are you using Windows XP but prefer the Firefox 3 theme for Vista, or vice versa? Unfortunately Mozilla decided that Windows users shouldn't be given the option between the two themes, but it was only a matter of time before someone duplicated them for everyone to use. As you can see above I'm running Windows XP, but Firefox 3 has the Vista theme enabled.

One of the things that people complain the most about in Vista are the User Account Control (UAC) prompts, but they have actually started to prove themselves worth while. Over the past few months several people have asked me why the prompts can take awhile to appear, and also why the background dims itself.

Several months ago the highly-respected AV-Test.org ran a test to rank various antivirus applications. In that test they had 30 rootkits that were tested on both Windows XP and Vista. On Windows XP none of the seven antivirus suites could detect all of the rootkits, and only four of the 14 anti-rootkit tools proved to be 100% successful. Those aren't very good odds.

In the past we've written about Windows Photo Gallery and what a great job Microsoft has done with it. Not only is it a great way to manage photos, but it is also helpful for "fixing" (cropping, removing red-eye, etc.) them as well.

I've read about how a lot of people have chosen to disable User Account Control (UAC) in Vista because of the headaches that can result from it. That's mostly because of applications that have not yet been programmed to run in a general user mode, and they are still accustomed to running as a privileged user just as they did in XP.

In about another month Windows XP will no longer be an option for people and businesses looking to buy a new computer, despite the fact that hundreds of thousands of people have signed a petition wanting to keep XP alive. In Israel today Steve Ballmer told the press that Vista is selling very well, and that it is the operating system of choice for nearly 100% of new consumer PC's.

We've mentioned the "SAVE XP" Petition that InfoWorld has put together before and at last count in mid-April, over 164,000 people had signed it. The purpose of the petition is to ask Microsoft to extend the date that XP will be available. InfoWorld has just updated the petition count and at this point, over 200,000 people have signed it.

These days, it can be difficult to manually keep track of contact information for family, friends, and co-workers. Not only is there usually a phone number to remember, but often times there are multiple phone numbers, email addresses, fax numbers, pager numbers, etc. One way to solve the problem of trying to keep up with all of your contact's information is to use an application for managing them.

Today we're taking a look at Apple's Front Row vs. Windows Media Center. We're not really sure if Front Row can be compared to Media Center because right now, they serve different purposes. Front Row is more of an interface for controlling the media already on your computer while Media Center will do that in addition to recording television shows.

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.