brijmin on Tech

Microsoft’s FixIt solutions generally work well, but sometimes they just take way too long to run — especially on Vista and Windows 7. Some of them also require a little more interaction than I’d prefer: I know where the registry key is to fix that stupid bug where DVD drives disappear from My Computer, I [...]

Snowbird is a file search utility for Windows that’s much faster than the search tools built into Windows XP. But it’s also much lighter weight than programs like Google Desktop and Windows Search 4.0 which index every file on your hard drive and save the data in huge index files to speed up future searches. [...]

Reader mattjb’s netbook desktop is designed to make Windows XP more friendly for the tiny display—with giant icons for each of his most important tools.

For some, downloading software is a daily habit. Spot, download, install, forget. Problem is, a lot of applications don’t have built-in tools for staying updated. Instead of checking each program-manually-to see if it’s up-to-date, RadarSync checks and updates all the apps on your system for you.

One of the highlights of Windows Vista’s new UI is the task switcher thumbnail feature, which provides a large thumbnail preview of applications minimized on the Vista Taskbar. Simply hover your mouse pointer over the taskbar button for any program to open the image.

There are plenty of hardware-free solutions for squeezing a little bit more gaming performance out of your Windows system. Heck, there are even a number of tools built right in to Windows that you can use to cut down on background performance drains before you fire up your favorite game – like services.msc, for example.

It may seem as if Hewlett-Packard is arriving somewhat late to the Netbook game with its Mini 1000, but the company’s business division has offered a similar system, the 2133 Mini-Note PC since the spring of this year. That model scored points with the best Netbook keyboard we’ve seen and a solid metal construction, but [...]

The system theme pack installer from NiwradSoft gives your crayola-inspired Windows XP desktop an impressive Windows 7-ish look-without wasting time hacking system files yourself.

FastAero is a Windows XP utility that adds a transparency effect to some program windows. The effect is similar to one of the components of the Aero Glass interface on Windows Vista: You can see through borders of some programs and more easily see what’s going on behind the program window.

The dark blue, modern-looking “Embedded” theme for Windows XP, designed and signed by Microsoft. That means no file hacking—just install the package and switch your theme in your desktop preferences. Here are two direct download link.