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.

Naturally Windows XP users have been wanting to upgrade to the latest and greatest Service Pack 3, but it seems as though some users are getting an unexpected surprise. If you have a desktop by HP/Compaq with an AMD processor you may find that your computer shows a blue screen of death (BSoD) when starting up. And to top it all off it won't stop rebooting.

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.

Did ya miss us? We've been out of town since last Thursday, and since then there were some pretty big announcements that we wanted to be sure to cover. It appears as though the last few days before last weekend was the prime time for acquisitions. ;)

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.

Earlier this month we asked CyberNet readers, "How old is your primary computer?" Over 950 of you responded and as it turns out, 30% of you, larger than any other group, are using a computer that's less than one year old. Coming in next was 21% of you who said that you are using a computer that's 1-2 years old.

Last week we posted some mirrors for the Windows XP SP3 download, and today was supposed to be the golden day that Microsoft delivered it to the public. That won't be happening. Microsoft found a last minute show-stopper that they decided needs to be addressed before offering it to the public.

Back on April 15th, we wrote about how Dell was offering a Windows Downgrade Service which would give buyers the option to have XP factory-installed on their computers. Part of the deal is that Dell gives the buyer the DVD for Vista so that when they are ready (if ever), they can install it.

So Windows XP SP3 was finally completed on Monday which goes along with the release schedule that we had previously provided. TechNet and MSDN subscribers were furious that they would not be given the download until after it was released to the public, and looked at it as a slap in the face from Microsoft.

Ever since the very first version of Windows launched, technology has changed and improved by leaps and bounds. Today we're looking at the history of Windows system requirements which by itself, helps to show how technology has changed. We'll start with Windows 1.0 and work our way up to Windows Vista. As you can imagine, the changes that have occurred are pretty drastic. Take a look:

For Today's MyFive, we're taking a look at the computers that we (meaning Ryan and I) have owned over the last several years. We're also interested in hearing what computers you've owned over time and which you have found to be the best.

I know that many of you are anxiously awaiting the release of XP SP3, but it's almost as if Microsoft has kept it out of the public's hands to put all eyes on Vista SP1. After a mirage of release dates it looks like we may have some more that bare consistency with what we've heard thus far.

Grouping similar Taskbar buttons in Windows is either a feature you love or hate. It's nice because when your Taskbar starts to get full it will start grouping applications together to conserve space.

Google Apps users who have years (or just a few months worth) of emails stored in Outlook, Outlook Express or Thunderbird, now have a very simple way to upload those messages to a Google Apps mailbox (Gmail). Google just launched an open source desktop utility called Google Email Uploader that gets the job done.

Last year Microsoft decided that it would be smart to continue offering Windows XP for sale until June 30th, 2008. That way consumers and businesses who didn't want to be an early adopter of Vista had an alternative available. As that deadline approaches a petition was started by InfoWorld earlier this year to save XP again, and as of last week it had accumulated over 106,000 signatures.

Last week Microsoft pushed out Release Candidate 2 for Windows XP SP3. At the time the only way to download it was using Windows Update, and I'm not sure about you but I hate downloading Service Packs over Windows Update. It seems like the download goes a lot slower, and it's a lot of wasted bandwidth if you have more than one computer that it needs to be installed on.

I've been using a Vista Media Center computer for over a year to record all of my favorite shows, and overall I have been really impressed with it. The commercial skipping add-on is a real gem, and the WebGuide add-on makes it possible to access and schedule shows no matter where I am.

Ever since I released the Vista Flip3D mouse shortcut I've received a few emails from people who still prefer the Alt+Tab application switching (especially XP users who don't have Flip3D). I have since modified my Flip3D AutoHotkey script, and spun it into a different variation that works great with the Alt+Tab key combination.

Whenever I'm at home I hookup my laptop to a secondary 24" monitor to drastically increase the amount of screen space available to me. When I'm working on programming projects I will rotate my monitor so that it is oriented vertically (a.k.a. portrait mode), which I think is something most programmers do when they have widescreen monitors.

I had been wondering whether Windows XP SP3 got lost somewhere in the Microsoft abyss, but it looks like it is alive and kicking after all. Microsoft slowly but surely rolled out Release Candidate 2 yesterday, which is available for download via Windows Update.