menu

If you've got more than one PC, you probably also use more than one operating system. For instance, the PC I use at work runs XP, the machine in my home office uses Vista, and my laptop dual-boots Vista and Windows 7. Of the three, I'll take Win7 any day of the week and twice on Mondays, but if you prefer XP's look and features, a free program lets you make all three operating systems appear and act like XP.

Two other freebies improve two other Windows 7 weak spots: its built-in firewall and word processor.

Maximize … Read more

It is well-known that there are hidden menu options available in the OS X system and contextual menus, that can be used by holding various modifier keys while clicking the menus. If you need to find these functions, the easiest way is to browse through and press various combinations of modifier keys to reveal the hidden commands. While you may be aware of this for the system menus, similar options are also available in a number of menu extras. This feature is often overlooked, but can be exceptionally useful, especially when troubleshooting your Mac.… Read more

Lammer Context Menu stands out from the context menu-enhancing crowd by sticking some cool features into your Windows Explorer habit. Granted, there are a number of excellent tools for doing that, but Lammer offers some neat extras that set it apart.

The tools that Lammer comes with can be fairly advanced, but that shouldn't scare off novice users. Select by type, for highlighting files with the same extension, is one of the easiest-to-use power options in Lammer, and many of the others include additional options menus. Batch rename, for renaming multiple files at once, can add sequential numbers to … Read more

Lammer Context Menu stands apart from the context menu-enhancing crowd with some pretty neat features to improve your Windows Explorer experience.

Lammer's tools can be fairly advanced, but that shouldn't scare off novice users. Selection by type, for highlighting files with the same extension, is one of the easiest-to-use power options in Lammer, and many of the others include additional options menus. Batch rename, for renaming multiple files at once, can add sequential numbers to files or insert text in the middle of a name. The search-and-replace feature is equally robust. Note that certain obscure functions, such as … Read more

The icons that reside in the Windows notification area (near the clock in the taskbar) convey much useful information at a glance. Is my network link live? How's my notebook's battery? Is there really yet another Windows update ready to be installed?

But one bit of information I often want to know is how much of my CPU is in use at any given time. Now the notification area gives me the lowdown on my processor as well. All I did was add a Task Manager shortcut to Windows' start-up folder and set the shortcut to open minimized.… Read more

It took a while to get used to the new Office 2007 interface. Nothing was where it was supposed to be, and the now-ubiquitous ribbon was a foreign concept. Hours sifting through menus and the Help file sometimes failed to locate familiar features from previous versions of Office. If you're having problems adapting to Office 2007, you may find that Classic Style Menus and Toolbars for Microsoft Office 2007 is exactly what you need to bring back that old familiar feel.

The program is deceptively simple. Once it's installed, users will find that their Word, Excel, and PowerPoint … Read more

OS X supports a number of menu bar additions (known as "menu extras"), which can be convenient to use; however, you may run into problems where placing your mouse over the icons will give no response and may show the spinning beachball. When this happens, items such as the clock and network graphs will freeze; however, regular applications and the system menus to the left that they use will still function properly.… Read more

AutoRun is the handy Windows feature that automatically starts a program when, for example, you insert a CD-ROM in your PC's drive. Whether you're a network administrator or a newbie, an installation program that starts right up with a professional-looking interface is a reassuring sight. Good installation programs don't design themselves, though. Someone put it all together and put it on disk. You can, too, with AutoRun Pro Enterprise II from Longtion. It's designed to let anyone create interactive front ends for downloads, CD-ROMs, and other such applications, regardless of skill level. It lets you bring … Read more

The system maintenance and troubleshooting utility "MainMenu" may cause a problem with Expose in Snow Leopard where a phantom window will appear when Expose is invoked. When highlighted, this will look like a large blue square next to any other window you may have open that's showing in the Expose view.… Read more