1. Take a Spin Around the New Interface: Still glassy, glossy and damn near glittery, the Windows 7 interface is actually a major progression for Microsoft: It's not just easy to use, it's a whole new paradigm with the revamped taskbar and Aero Peek making multitasking with multiple windows more natural than ever.

2. Turn Off Everything You Don't Need: While Windows 7 is missing some odd things, like a mail application, the flip side is that you can turn off pretty much every major feature you don't want. Internet Exploder 8? Gone. Windows Media Player? Poof. And if you're used to tweaking the crap out of Windows, you still can—a lot of the old tricks, like for manipulating context menus, still work.

3. Move All Your Crap from Your Old Machine: Windows 7 actually has pretty decent built-in powers for moving all your crap from your old and busted PC to your new pride and joy, though you need to download Windows Easy Transfer separately onto XP if you're pulling stuff from that.

4. Master All of the New Keyboard Shortcuts: Why deal with flipping around a mouse or scribbling on a trackpad when you do the same thing in a tenth of a second with a keyboard combo? The Start key (oh sorry, Windows key), which I've always neglected as a useless monotasker, is supremely useful in Windows 7, as the underpinning for a metric ton of keyboard shortcuts.

5. Get It to Play Nice With All of Your Gadgets: The good news about Windows 7 is that, unlike Vista, most of your gear that worked with your computer a couple years ago with Windows should still work. And newer gear interacts with Windows in a fancy new way with a big ol' splash graphic and easy access to all the stuff you'd wanna do with it. While even simple things, like adding a second monitor, are more straightforward now, here's a device-by-device breakdown on getting everything to touch Windows 7 appropriately.

6. Share Stuff With Your Other Computers, 'Cause It's Easier Now: The networking UI hasn't just gotten a facelift to make it more accessible, it's actually easier to use with HomeGroups—join a HomeGroup, and all of the stuff you want to share with other computers spreads like herpes to the rest of the HomeGroup, no arduous networking required. Also, network in general—like with Macs—seems to just work better with Windows 7.

7. Stream Your Music and Videos Everywhere: Connecting your PC to a TV sounds so 1999. Well, you might not know this, but your Windows 7 PC is a badass music and video streamer, DVR, photo viewer, video aggregator and everything else you'd want out of a multimedia box, all thanks to Windows Media Center. The living room PC is legit now. Not to mention Play To, which beams music (and video and photos) to any compatible device on your network, no setup required (really!). All it takes it a right-click, and those Sonos speakers on the other side of your house will magically start yelling the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

8. Upgrade Your Netbook to Windows 7 Home Premium: If you got a Windows 7 netbook, there's a good chance you got stuck with the artificially gimped out Starter edition, which sucks. The cheapest way to fix this is to buy Windows 7 for $30 using a valid .edu email address, then follow our guide to installing Windows 7 on any netbook.

9. Set Up Some Network Storage: A fresh computer is a fresh start—meaning it's a perfect time to start a new life with fully networked storage for backup, especially if you're using your machine as a DVR with Windows Media Center. (But skip on faster drives.) One awesome option? A Windows Home Server machine, which can do backups and stream out media to all of your computers.

10. Remote Control It From Anywhere with VNC: While diving deep into the system and futzing with your network at the same time, you might as well set up a VNC server so you can control your computer from anywhere, whether it's to pull files or schedule downloads.

That's it from us. Share your own tips and tricks in the comments, and Merry Christmas!

Called Confluence, the new look blends some of the best features of XBMC's previous default skin (PM3.HD) with several other popular skins for pretty impressive results. It's definitely a different look from what we've seen in the Boxee beta, but the two media centers continue to deliver really impressive (and most importantly free) offerings.

(See all the images on one page here.)

You can read the condensed changelog on their blog, but some highlights include:

• Better support for multi-monitor setups
• High Definition, Surround Sound, and Subtitle Flagging and Filtering in Video Library
• Speed up RAW image loading and handle more file extensions
• Performance improvements to SQLite (database) queries (help is always wanted here)
• Ability to scrape and scan TV Shows into the video library by air-date via TheTVDB.com

If you're an XBMC user, it's an update well worth grabbing. XBMC is a free download for Windows, Mac, Linux, Apple TV, and pretty much anywhere else you want to put it. Also, good news for people who followed our guide to building a silent, standalone XBMC media center on the cheap: The latest release of the Live version looks like it supports our machines out-of-the-box without custom third-party builds.

AV-Comparatives.org ran a series of real-world tests running through common scenarios like downloading, extracting, copying, and encoding files, installing and launching applications, and they also ran through an automated testing suite as well. Once the dust had settled, it became clear that not only is MSE one of only three products that both blocks and removes malware well, but it's also very light on system resources.

Out of all the products tested, Microsoft Security Essentials was the best-performing free antivirus solution, and one of only two that received "very fast" on each of the real-world tests, earning it their top award: an "advanced+" ranking. We've been telling you for a while that you don't need to pay for Windows security, and now with MSE ranked alongside the top paid apps in both malware removal and performance, you might want to consider making the switch.

Hit the AV-Comparatives link for the full report in PDF form, or check out the PC Mag story for the overview—if you can deal with some irritating in-text ads.

The main focus of this new design is the App Button, a space-saving touch which will feel familiar to Windows 7 users. In essence, it "provides a unified location for menu items" and cuts down on all the toolbar clutter.

You can check out Horlander's site for plenty of details about the design and explanations behind some of the new elements, but before you go, tell me: Do you prefer this App Button sort of element? Or do you prefer the plain ol' menus we're used to? [Stephen Horlander via Neowin]

What You Need

• A Windows PC (Linux dudes, you already know how to do this, right?)
• A Mac
• A router to connect them

Before we get into sharing between computers directly, are you sure you don't just want a NAS?

Talk to Me, Girl

So, assuming that your PC and Mac are both sitting comfortably on your network, wirelessly or otherwise (if you haven't gotten that far, you need more help than I'll be providing right here), there are a couple of different ways for the various machines on your network to talk to each other and share files. Think of 'em sorta like languages.

• SMB (Server Message Block) aka CIFS (Common Internet File System) is Windows' preferred network file sharing protocol, and luckily, Macs speak it, so this how your computers will most likely be talking and sharing stuff. Vista and Windows 7 use SMB 2.0, which is mo' faster for file transfers.

• FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is one you know and love, if you've ever spent any time on the internet. It's one option for sharing stuff between your Mac and PC.

• NFS (Network File System) is the protocol Unix-based systems like to use for sharing files, which both Windows and Macs can understand. A lot of NASes use it.

• AFP (Apple Filing Protocol) is like a secret language for Macs, 'cause Windows sure as crap don't speak it. But from Mac-to-Mac, it's what makes sharing just work (when it does).

Things That Will Help

My goal here is to show you how to share files between your PC and Mac easily, and for the most part, without worrying about things like IP addresses or diddling with your router's settings. But! If you want to make troubleshooting easier—this kind of networking is more voodoo than science—there are a few things you could stand to know and do beforehand.

1. Know your router. Or really, know how to get into it. For most routers, punching the number soup 192.168.1.1 (Linksys, for instance) or 192.168.0.1 (D-Link, for example) into your web browser will take you to the router's settings, where you can fiddle with things (which you hopefully already did to protect your network).

2. Make everything static. If you take your computer on and off the network a lot, odds are, your router isn't going give it the same IP address every the computer jumps back on, because it hands those addresses out dynamically (you might recognize this as DHCP in action, if you're wondering what that acronym refers to). For consistency's sake, it's not a bad idea to assign your computers static IP addresses on the network, so they'll always have the same address—I at least give my desktop PC and Xbox static IP addresses—just in case something else is broken.

Look in the router settings for a reference to DHCP reservations or static DHCP, which is most likely under the general settings tab. Hit that up, like so, and you should see a list of computers on your network, along with their MAC addresses (an ID tied to the actual networking card in your computer) and currently assigned IP address (something like 192.168.1.102). If your computer's already connected to the network and listed here, it's real easy to give it an unwavering address on your network, a matter of a couple checkboxes.

If, for some reason, your computer's not on the network and you wanna give it a static address, like 192.168.0.104, you're gonna need to know its MAC address. On a Mac, just open the Network Utility app and select AirPort—it's the "hardware address." In Windows Vista and 7, go to Network & Sharing Center, and tap view status link next to your connection. Hit "details" in the pop up box and note the "physical address." On XP, bring your network connections, double click the one you want, flip to the "support" tab, and hit details. It's the physical address. Now that you have the MAC address for your computers, you can assign a set IP address to each one, that it'll have every single time it's on the network, which is a handy list to have.

Getting Ready

Okay, let's get our machines ready. We'll start with the Mac, 'cause it's a little easier.

Mac
1. Setup a user account for sharing, either under Accounts or Sharing -> File Sharing in System Preferences. (Unless you just wanna log in from Windows using your regular Mac login, then you can skip creating a sharing account.) Click the little plus sign under users, and then you pull can a name out of your address book to use for the account, or setup a whole new one.

2. Open system preferences, go to sharing if you haven't already, and check the box for file sharing. Click options, and enable AFP (if you've got other Macs you wanna share with) and SMB. Crucially, make sure the account you're gonna be logging in from Windows with has SMB enabled.

3. To pick the folders you wanna share with other users, click the little plus sign and browse to the folder you wanna give access to. Maybe it's your pictures, maybe it's your whole Home folder. You'll need to add each folder individually, especially if you wanna give different people access to different folders. (If you're logging in from Windows with your standard Mac account, you'll have access to your whole hard drive anyway.)

After you've picked the folder you wanna share, then you just pick the user you want to share with, and how much access you want them to have. Read-only, write-only or read and write.

4. Note your computer's name on the local network. It's sitting on top of the main file sharing setting page. And, if you've got AFP turned off, you'll get this dialog, noting the IP address Windows users can access your stuff.

5. Go back to the main system preferences page, then click on Network. Go to the main connection you'll be using, like AirPort, and click advanced. Go to WINS, and set your Workgroup to the same one as your Windows PCs (probably either WORKGROUP, on newer Windows machines or MSHOME on XP).

Windows 7 and Windows Vista
In Windows 7 and Vista, the Network and Sharing Center is where we'll be spending our time. (Here's Microsoft's own guide, if you wanna check it out.)

1. First, make sure in your little path to the internet up top, you've got a picture of a house sitting between your computer the internet globe at the top. That means you've got it set to private network, so stuff's a little more exposed to other computers on the network. If not, click customize to the right of the network name, and set it to private network.

2. In Vista, you'll notice the big ol' Sharing and Discovery section up front and center. In Windows 7, it's under advanced sharing settings. Go in there, and you'll want to enable network discovery, and make note of your Workgroup (so you can make sure your Mac is on the same one) which is listed here. Also, you have the option to turn off password-protected sharing, so that you don't need an account on the machine set up for sharing. Obviously, it's less secure, but if you prefer convenience, that's up to you.

3. Now for some voodoo that's not required, but it'll make life easier and might be something you need to come back to if stuff isn't working, because OS X and Windows shake hands like goons (really it's about tweaking the LAN Manager Authentication Level, so OS X has an easier time connecting to Windows). If you have Windows 7 or Vista Ultimate, go to the Control Panel, then Administration Tools, then local security policy. Hit local policies, then security options, and look for Network Security LAN Manager Authentication Level. There, you want to switch it to "send LM & NTLM, use NTLMv2 session if negotiated."

If you're in Windows 7 or Vista Home Premium, you don't have access to that, so you'll need to registry hack it up. Open up regedit, and look for this:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\LSA\

Double click on LmCompatibilityLevel, and set the value to 1.

For more on this, just Google "vista mac NTVLM2." (Sans period.)

4. Now, we'll need to set up an account to share with. (Again, you can skip this if you're just going to use your regular Windows login from your Mac, though you'll need to have a password on the account for it to work best in Vista.) Go to User Accounts in Control Panel, then to Manage Accounts. Create a new account.

5. If you're going to be logging in with your main administrator account, you can skip this step, since you'll have access to everything anyway. For all other accounts, go to the folder you want to share, right-click on it and hit properties. Click the sharing tab, hit "share," and then you can add users to the share list, along with their permissions. Windows will share it, and give you the network path where you can access it. Alternatively, go to Computer, right-click, and check out the system properties and note your computer's name on the network and its Workgroup (make sure the Workgroup is the same as your other computers, it makes life easier).

Windows XP
XP's interface feels pretty damn ancient when it comes to Networking. Anyways, it's mostly the same stuff, just with a slightly uglier interface. I found this guide helpful when I was trying to remember where everything was.

1. Like before, you'll need a user account and password setup. Go to control panel, user accounts and create a new one, if you need to.

2. Make sure you're on the same workgroup as everything else—XP Home defaults to MSHOME, so if you need to change it, right-click on My Computer, hit properties, then go to Computer Name, and go to "Change" if you need to switch up the Workgroup.

3. Go to the folder you wanna share, right-click, hit properties, and switch over to sharing. Allow it to be shared over the network, and allow users to change files.

Sharing Stuff

Okay, if you've done everything correctly, and the gods are pleased, what you should see on your Mac in your Finder Sidebar under the Shared tab is your Windows computer. (Make sure Shared is enabled in your Finder sidebar preferences, or you won't see it.) Then, you should be able to just click on it, enter your user account and password, and voila, you can get right at everything just like you hoped.

On your Windows 7 or Vista machine, you should be able to click Network, and see all of your connected computers, including your Macs. To login, as Ross McKillop points out, your username is the name of the Mac followed by the OS X username, like this, minus the quotes and period: "MATTBOOK-PRO/matt." In XP, you'll go to My Network Places or Workgroup, and it should be the same deal, though you can just stick to the actual Mac username and password. Life's good.

Update: BTW, if you have Apple's Bonjour—Apple's zero configuration networking dealio, which powers music sharing in iTunes—installed on your Windows machines (it comes with iTunes), the discovery part of the guide above—the parts pertaining to locating the other machines on your network, should just work. That is, your Windows machines should just show up in your Finder sidebar and your Mac in your PC's Networking page, though you still need the accounts setup properly to actually share stuff.

Sometimes, things don't work like that. PCs don't show up in the Finder automagically, you can't login easily from your PC. Network discovery just isn't always that reliable. In that case we go all manual mode. Remember earlier, when I had you note your computer's name on the network and setup a static IP? That's where this comes in handy. So, know either your computers names, or their IP addresses on your network.

On a Mac, it's pretty simple. Go to Finder, tap command+k and punch in:

smb://computername or smb://192.168.X.XXX

The latter is the PC's IP address, which should be something like 192.168.0.105—unless you have a weird setup—though the last two numbers of it will obviously vary. The computer name is easier and usually better, especially if you don't have a static IP address set up.

It'll ask you what volume to mount (what folder you want stuck on your Finder Sidebar under shared, essentially), and a login, and then you're good to go. If prefer the cmd+k approach, you can add computers you tap a lot as a favorite, so you don't have to type it in every time.

It's pretty simple in Windows too, actually. Either in the Windows Explorer address bar, or the Run command type:

\\MACNAME\Folder or \\192.168.X.XXX\Folder

And it should give you the option to login there, giving you access to all of your stuff. Using the full address of the folder you're trying to get to will help with making sure the authentication pop-up appears—otherwise you might just see automatically what's publicly shared and not the stuff you're trying to log into.

Shortcuts

Logging in every single time would be a pain in the dick, but luckily you can make shortcuts to this stuff. On a Mac, as Gina points out here, under Accounts, you can add a network share to login items, so it'll connect every time you start up your computer. In Windows, you can either create a shortcut by right-clicking on the share, or you can add your Mac's shared folder as a mapped network drive, so it'll connect to the folder every time you fire up your computer.

Your Tips and Tricks

There is more than one way to tackle this particular angry bear, so if you've got your own tips and tools to share, please drop some links in the comments-your feedback is hugely important to our weekend How To guides.

And if you have any topics you'd like to see covered here, please let us know. Happy sharing!

Other Helpful Networking How Tos:
• How to Remote Control Your Computer From Anywhere With VNC
• How to Back Up All Your Stuff for Free, No Hard Drive Needed
• How to Kick Your BitTorrent Addiction with Usenet

Crispin Porter Co-Chairman Alex Bogusky (profiled here) posted the shot to demonstrate CP's massive real-time job management system, which clearly lists two ad campaigns, on January 4th and 8th, for "Windows Phone," first as "Windows Phone Q3 Media Refresh" and second as "09 Windows Phone Banners." So who knows what the actual timing for these ads will be, but its a safe bet that ads will be previewed at CES in some way. (Crispin Porter, by the way, was responsible for the Seinfeld Ad campaign).

Just like the most popular desktops in 2008, this list is comprised by the popularity of the post in 2009. You can click through to the original post for details regarding how each user put together his/her killer desktop. So check out the top 13 featured desktops below, including Enigma, the one that started off the year with a bang.

The Enigma 2.0 Desktop

The updated Enigma Desktop set the tone for the entire year—it all started with the first 2.0 version being released with an installer, followed with Rainmeter 1.0 bringing the Enigma desktop to everyone as the default theme, and then the year came to a close with Rainmeter 1.1 making it even easier to use with tools that let you modify your theme without mucking around in code. Impressive work, Kaelri!

The Starlight Desktop

The Reader rykennedyan's Starlight desktop was far and away the most popular single desktop of 2009, and with a beautiful wallpaper like that, it's not hard to understand what drew readers in—but the theme had much more going on, with an entire set of launchers and system information in a bar at the bottom of the screen.

The Halo 3 HUD Desktop

Barely a week went by after the amazing Starlight desktop before rykennedyan blew us all away again by transforming his desktop into an impressive recreation of the popular Halo 3 first-person shooter, complete with system stats and information blended into the screen.

The SpiderMac Desktop

Reader zackshackleton's desktop took a comic book panel and blended the system stats right into the conversation bubbles, making one of the most fun desktops we've seen all year—and sparking a wave of desktops with stats integrated directly into unlikely background images.

The Windows 2019 Desktop

Reader Painkilla05's stylish desktop was inspired from a Microsoft research video showing what computer interfaces might look like in the year 2019, with system stats and information wrapped around the sides of the screen—just like they might be on a futuristic tablet.

The Star's Memory Desktop

Reader Chaebi69 took the Enigma desktop customization, transformed it with an artistic wallpaper, and blended the whole thing together into one of the first great looking desktops of the year—and it didn't hurt that he included the Hulk.

The LCARS for Mac Desktop

What desktop nerd-fest would be complete without at least one LCARS desktop? Reader momoses answered the call for one of the most often-requested customizations and turned his Mac into a lookalike for the computer display in Star Trek: The Next Generation.

The Gothic Century Desktop

Reader chaebi69 continued his artistic flair with this stunning display of useful information blended perfectly into a simple wallpaper. Between the vertical calendar, customized dock, and Century Gothic font, it was an amazing theme that fit together extremely well.

The OS X Alpha Geek Desktop

If there was a prize for the nerdiest desktop, there's no question at all that reader Andreas would win, and while it's not the most beautiful desktop in the world, the incredible amount of information that he was able to pack into one screen is simply amazing.

The Minimalist OS X Desktop

Reader нawk went an entirely different route—instead of overloading the screen with loads of information, he stuck with a simple wallpaper and just the important system stats, ending up with a clean, minimalistic look that sparked a wave of minimal desktops.

The Gaia Desktop

The Gaia desktop suite transformed reader Sweetshop Union's Windows 7 desktop with widgets, wallpaper, Rainmeter, and a visual style to match, resulting in a polished, unique, and beautiful overall look.

The Retro Enigma Desktop

Reader Cody took the Enigma desktop customization and combined it with a retro vector wallpaper to make a slick, colorful, and completely awesome theme.

The Neon Rings Desktop

Reader TDuck's OS X desktop was all about the beautiful wallpaper image, but if you look closely you'll see that he blended circular system information graphs right into the slick overall theme.

Have a favorite featured desktop from 2009 that wasn't featured here? Let's hear about it in the comments.

Click on the image above for a closer look.

T3Desk works on all versions of Windows but it really shines in Vista and above where it can take advantage of Aero. After installing T3Desk you can use keyboard shortcuts to minimize and maximize windows to the edges of your monitor, arranging them in a pseudo-3D fashion. T3Desk can be tweaked in a variety of ways including how the windows are angled, animated, their level of transparency, the apparent distance from the viewer, and how they transition from the virtual desktop back into use.

You can drag windows and dock them to the four sides of the monitor, use Aero Peek to see which windows are on the virtual desktop, and set an always include/exclude list for applications to easily exclude applications from the effects of T3Desk.

Some caveats about T3Desk: the biggest issue is that it won't work with multiple monitors. All 3D windows are pushed onto the primary monitor. Another minor issue is the inability to customize the application's hot keys. Those complaints aside, it works as promised and provides a novel way to arrange and view open applications.

T3Desk is free and Windows only. Have a favorite application for tweaking the appearance of Windows and managing your applications? Let's hear about it in the comments.

Once you've installed the tiny VirusTotal Uploader application, you can simply right-click on a file and use the Send To -> VirusTotal option, which will take a hash of the file (a unique fingerprint that identifies the file) and submit it to the VirusTotal service. If the file has already been scanned by VirusTotal, you will see a message saying that the hash was found, and your default browser will be opened to the scan results instantaneously. If the file hasn't already been scanned by VirusTotal, it'll continue uploading the file; you can also choose to re-upload an already-scanned file if you wish.

You can also now open the VirusTotal Uploader window directly, choose from running processes, upload multiple files, or even download a file from a URL and automatically upload it to VirusTotal (without storing the file on your PC).

It's a great update to an already excellent way to find out if a file really has a virus. VirusTotal Uploader is a free download for Windows only.

As with 2008's most popular free Windows downloads, keep in mind that the apps featured here are chosen by the popularity of the associated post we published in 2009. Many were new, some were improvements to already loved apps, and others were simply new-to-us. Here's a quick look back at the 19 or so most popular Windows downloads of 2009:

Windows 7—from Beta to Release Candidate and So On

2009 was a big year for Windows, and Windows 7 was the most important ingredient in Windows' solid year. (In fact, you'll notice that several of this year's most popular downloads are related to Windows 7 in one way or another.) Sure it's not exactly an application but rather a full-blown operating system, but it only makes sense that a new version of Windows would top the list of Windows downloads for the year. It started with the Windows 7 beta download in January, which had a ton of hiccups. It was released, then pulled, then released again, then extended because of the trouble Microsoft had handling the demand. (Actually, we just think they underestimated the web.) Later, in May, Microsoft released the Windows 7 release candidate. You even jumped on the chance to try Windows 7's beautiful new themes.

Folks who were still using Vista also flocked to Vista's Service Pack 2 (32-bit; 64-bit) to keep their PCs secure and up to date.

Enigma Desktop 2.0 Released, Adds Installer, Widget Manager, and Templates

One of our very own readers released his popular desktop configuration as a installable utility that brings a handful of great customization and productivity tools to your desktop. It's called Enigma 2.0. Then Rainmeter, another very popular desktop customization tool, set Enigma as its default desktop. Fancy pants.

Portable Ubuntu Runs Ubuntu Inside Windows

Ever wish you could enjoy some of the finer tools available to Linux but stay comfortably in your Windows desktop? Sure you could run a virtual machine, but Portable Ubuntu for Windows runs an entire Linux OS as a Windows application. Better yet, it's portable.

Seven Remix XP Makes Windows XP Look Like Windows 7

The release of Windows 7 left a lot of XP users wishing they could get in on some of that snazzy new eye candy. Seven Remix XP is a free utility that does its best to bring Windows 7's comely looks to XP.

Ninite Bulk-Installs Great Free Windows Apps

Another result of the Windows 7 launch: A whole lot of us were rebuilding systems from the ground up, which often means a lot of tedious downloading and installing one app at a time. Ninite makes it easy, streamlining the download and installation processes for tons of the most popular free Windows apps, including most of our 2009 Lifehacker Pack.

Windows 7 Shortcuts Enables the Best Win7 Shortcuts in XP or Vista

Apart from all the new eye candy, Windows 7 really tickled our fancy with tons of incredible new keyboard shortcuts. For folks still chilling out with XP or Vista, we released Windows 7 Shortcuts, a lightweight utility written to bring some of the best new shortcuts of Windows 7 to previous versions of Windows.

Computer Repair Kit Packs Dozens of Tools in One Portable Package

By virtue of reading Lifehacker, you're more likely than not the most schooled person among your friends and family when it comes to fixing a bum PC. It's a dubious honor, because it also means you generally are the person who gets called when something goes wrong. Computer Repair Utility Kit puts a handful of useful PC repair utilities in one handy, portable suite. Update: It appears the surge of readers looking to download this one brought down the server; luckily helpful reader Richard offers a mirror of the download on his own server here.

Fences is a Seriously Awesome Desktop Icon Organizer

Like to keep items you want to access frequently easily accessible on your desktop but don't want to deal with the added clutter? Fences arranges your cluttered desktop icons into containers so you can clean up the mess into useful groups of shortcuts—or optionally hide them altogether.

AVG 9 Free Antivirus

We're of the mind that Microsoft's security tools are good enough—including the new and impressive Microsoft Security Essentials antivirus app—but that doesn't mean many of you don't get excited when the AVG 9 Free update is available. It's still the favorite antivirus app of Lifehacker readers (who doesn't love free), though we're sensing a slow but steady sea of change on this one.

Google Chrome—Stable, Beta, and Dev Releases

Google Chrome is just over a year old, but it's made huge strides among early adopters. Chrome came out with its stable 2.0 release in May, then followed up with a Chrome 3.0 release in September. Early adopters willing to try their luck in the beta and dev channels get more features, which we detailed in our power user's guide to Google Chrome. Whichever version of Chrome interests you most, it's clear that it was a pretty good year for Chrome.

Hulu Video Downloader Saves Your Favorite Shows for Offline Enjoyment

Hulu Video Downloader was a fun little app that lasted about as long as you could say Hu... that is, it doesn't work anymore. But when it did, it grabbed videos from the popular video service for your offline viewing pleasure, and you were eager to try it out.

Safari 4 Tempts with Good Looks

Safari's 4.0 beta release for Windows came with a lot of bugs and some serious eye candy, but despite the interest at release, we can't imagine many people still stick with Safari on Windows over, say, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, etc.

Namebench Helps You Find the Fastest DNS Server for Your Computer

Google very recently announced a free DNS service they boasted as fast, but rather than take their word for it, we pointed you toward namebench (and several readers also pointed toward the excellent DNS Name Server Benchmark). It tests various popular DNS servers to find what's really going to be the fastest choice for your system.

Google Earth 5.0 Beta Released, Looks Incredible

We're sort of junkies for maps and 3D, so when Google Earth 5 was released, we were pleased as punch. The update featured historical imagery, ocean maps, and improved world touring capabilities. Maybe we just like saving ourselves some dough in these tough economic times with a little Google Earth sightseeing.

And Then There Was Firefox

The notorious Firefox memory slow-downs may have some of us down on the reliable old 'fox, but that doesn't mean we aren't all still eager to grab the latest and greatest releases and stick with it as our default browser—whether it's the big Firefox 3.5 release or the Firefox 3.6 beta (1, 2, 3, or 4). We're looking forward to more great Firefox'ing in 2010.

Motion Detection Is an Effective, Dead Simple Security Camera App

If your webcam is sitting around collecting dust, try out Motion Detection, a free, motion-detecting security camera application. It'll snap pics and video when it detects movement, can upload the results via FTP, and more fun at-home security stuffs.

Thunderbird 3 Officially Released with New Features, Improved Look

Sure it was two years since Thunderbird's 2.0 release, but at least they didn't disappoint. Thunderbird 3.0 comes with solid new search and filtering tools, better looks, and a great new tabbed interface.

HandBrake Updates to 0.9.4 with Over 1,000 Changes, 64-Bit Support

Free, open-source DVD ripping and encoding tool HandBrake released a pretty saucy update last month with a ton of fixes and improvements. It's no coincidence that it's always been our reader's favorite video encoder, and this year's big-ish (but still not 1.0) update should only help keep it there.

DeskHedron Adds 3D Virtual Desktop Eye-Candy to Windows

Linux users have a killer desktop management tool called Compiz Fusion that puts multiple desktop management on a 3D cube that we've always been jealous of on Windows. Open-source application DeskHedron brings a similar three-dimensional desktop management tool to Windows users.

Got a favorite Windows download from 2009 that you'd add to your list of favorites? Let's hear about it in the comments. If you're craving still more popular Windows downloads, you can also take a look back at the most popular free Windows downloads of 2008.

Features Include:

* 4.3 inch touch-color LCD display with a resolution of 480 x 272
* ARM9 processor
* 1GB flash
* 256MB SDRAM
* Built-in speaker and microphone
* 3-axis motion sensor
* Ambient light sensor
* Capacitive buttons
* Windows Embedded CE 6.0 R2
* Microsoft Media Center support
* Support for 100 devices
* Activity and learning function
* Rechargeable 3760 mAh battery
* Firmware upgrade and rechargeable from mini-USB
* 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi
* Z-Wave
* Photo Sync from live.com

No word on pricing yet, but I'm sure it's not going to be cheap. Kind of absurd really, when you consider that a smarpthone and a standard remote can handle much of this functionality (not to mention an inexpensive HTPC). [SIlver PAC via Krunker]

What is a Pagefile and How Do I Adjust It?

Before we get into the details, let's review what the pagefile actually does. When your system runs low on RAM because an application like Firefox is taking too much memory, Windows moves the least used "pages" of memory out to a hidden file named pagefile.sys in the root of one of your drives to free up more RAM for the applications you are actually using. What this actually means to you is that if you've had an application minimized for a while, and you are heavily using other applications, Windows is going to move some of the memory from the minimized application to the pagefile since it's not being accessed recently. This can often cause restoring that application to take a little longer, and your hard drive may grind for a bit.

If you want to take a look at your own pagefile settings, launch sysdm.cpl from the Start menu search or run box (Win+R) and navigate to Advanced –> Settings –> Advanced –> Change. From this screen you can change the paging file size (see image above), set the system to not use a paging file at all, or just leave it up to Windows to deal with—which is what I'd recommend in most cases.

Why Do People Say We Should Disable It?

Look at any tweaking site anywhere, and you'll receive many different opinions on how to deal with the pagefile—some sites will tell you to make it huge, others will tell you to completely disable it. The logic goes something like this: Windows is inefficient at using the pagefile, and if you have plenty of memory you should just disable it since RAM is a lot faster than your hard drive. By disabling it, you are forcing Windows to keep everything in much faster RAM all the time.

The problem with this logic is that it only really affects a single scenario: switching to an open application that you haven't used in a while won't ever grind the hard drive when the pagefile is disabled. It's not going to actually make your PC faster, since Windows will never page the application you are currently working with anyway.

Disabling the Pagefile Can Lead to System Problems

The big problem with disabling your pagefile is that once you've exhausted the available RAM, your apps are going to start crashing, since there's no virtual memory for Windows to allocate—and worst case, your actual system will crash or become very unstable. When that application crashes, it's going down hard—there's no time to save your work or do anything else.

In addition to applications crashing anytime you run up against the memory limit, you'll also come across a lot of applications that simply won't run properly if the pagefile is disabled. For instance, you really won't want to run a virtual machine on a box with no pagefile, and some defrag utilities will also fail. You'll also notice some other strange, indefinable behavior when your pagefile is disabled—in my experience, a lot of things just don't always work right.

Less Space for File Buffers and SuperFetch

If you've got plenty of RAM in your PC, and your workload really isn't that huge, you may never run into application crashing errors with the pagefile disabled, but you're also taking away from memory that Windows could be using for read and write caching for your actual documents and other files. If your drive is spending a lot of time thrashing, you might want to consider increasing the amount of memory Windows uses for the filesystem cache, rather than disabling the pagefile.

Windows 7 includes a file caching mechanism called SuperFetch that caches the most frequently accessed application files in RAM so your applications will open more quickly. It's one of the many reasons why Windows 7 feels so much more "snappy" than previous versions—and disabling the pagefile takes away RAM that Windows could be using for caching. Note: SuperFetch was actually introduced in Windows Vista.

Put the Pagefile on a Different Drive, Not Partition

The next piece of bad advice that you'll see or hear from would-be system tweakers is to create a separate partition for your pagefile-which is generally pointless when the partition is on the same hard drive. What you should actually do is move your pagefile to a completely different physical drive to split up the workload.

What Size should my Pagefile Be?

Seems like every IT guy I've ever talked to has stated the "fact" that your pagefile needs to be 1.5 to 2x your physical RAM—so if you have a 4GB system, you should have an 8GB pagefile. The problem with this logic is that if you are opening 12 GB worth of in-use applications, your system is going to be extremely slow, and your hard drive is going to grind to the point where your PC will be fairly unusable. You simply will not increase or decrease performance by having a gigantic pagefile; you'll just use up more drive space.

Mark Russinovich, the well-known Windows expert and author of the Sysinternals tools, says that if you want to optimize your pagefile size to fit your actual needs, you should follow a much different formula: The Minimum should be Peak Commit – Physical RAM, and the Maximum should be double that.

For example, if your system has 4GB of RAM and your peak memory usage was 5GB (including virtual memory), you should set your pagefile to at least 1GB and the maximum as 2GB to give you a buffer to keep you safe in case a RAM-hungry application needs it. If you have 8GB of RAM and a max 3GB of memory usage, you should still have a pagefile, but you would probably be fine with a 1 GB size. Note: If your system is configured for crash dumps you'll need to have a larger pagefile or Windows won't be able to write out the process memory in the event of a crash—though it's not very useful for most end-users.

The other size-related advice is to set the minimum and maximum size as the same so you won't have to deal with fragmentation if Windows increases the size of the pagefile. This advice is rather silly, considering that most defrag software will defragment the pagefile even if Windows increases the size, which doesn't happen very often.

The Bottom Line: Should You Disable It?

As we've seen, the only tangible benefit of disabling the pagefile is that restoring minimized applications you haven't used in a while is going to be faster. This comes at the price of not being able to actually use all your RAM for fear of your applications crashing and burning once you hit the limit, and experiencing a lot of weird system issues in certain applications.

The vast majority of users should never disable the pagefile or mess with the pagefile settings—just let Windows deal with the pagefile and use the available RAM for file caching, processes, and Superfetch. If you really want to speed up your PC, your best options are these:

• Upgrade your RAM.
• Clean off the crapware—the biggest cause of system slowdown.
• Switch to Microsoft Security Essentials and stop paying for bloated Windows security packages.
• Windows 7 handles multi-tasking much better than Windows XP did.

If you want to read more extremely detailed information about how virtual memory and your pagefile really work, be sure to check out Mark Russinovich's article on the subject, which is where much of this information was sourced.

The How-To Geek has tested pagefile settings extensively and thinks everybody should just upgrade to Windows 7 already. His geeky articles can be found daily here on Lifehacker, How-To Geek, and Twitter.

Rafael Rivera discovered that there was only a shortcut to the feature that was disabled; the feature itself is still there. All you have to do is type "adhoc" into the Windows search bar in the Start Menu and it'll show up, as illustrated above. Done and done.

You know what else is taken out of Windows 7 Starter? Their screenshot snipping tool. Yeah. They were too cheap to let netbook users have a SNIPPING TOOL. Thankfully the printscreen button combined with Paint (they didn't take that out!) still works. [Within Windows via Neowin]

Paul Thurrott traces the arc from start to finish:

When Microsoft first briefed me about the Family Pack back in July, I was told that it would be a limited-time offer "until supplies last" (sic) in the United States and "other select markets." I communicated Microsoft plans for the Family Pack in various articles over the next few months, noting that it was a temporary offer only.

Unfortunately, that's just now becoming obvious to potential customers here in the United States, where the Family Pack has apparently completely disappeared. Numerous email messages this week complain that attempts to find the Windows 7 Family Pack online or at brick-and-mortar electronics retailers have proven fruitless, killing plans for planned holiday presents.

In other words, stocks have run dry, as Microsoft said they eventually would. Minor issue! Seeing as Windows 7 is software, any limit on the supply is totally self-enforced. It's possible that they set aside a certain number of licenses at launch, and they've just burned through them faster than planned. It's also possible that they planned this arbitrary supply excuse so they don't look like assholes when the cost of upgrading a household's worth of PCs to Windows 7 suddenly doubles right before Christmas.

How am I supposed to tell my parents I love them this Christmas, if not with a box of vouchers for OS upgrade licenses? [WinInfo]

Is it running Windows Mobile 6.5, Android, or another platform? Engadget is pointing at the lack of buttons as being a telltale sign it's running a "homegrown" OS, but we're rather interested in the addition of the ExtUSB port, considering HTC was meant to be pursuing the microUSB connection.

HTC, if this leaked Touch.B is running Android, we'll be very interested. WinMo 6.5? We'll give it a chance, sure. But we're slightly worried about these proprietary-platform stories we've been hearing. [MobiFrance via Engadget]

UPDATE: Word reaches us that it's running Qualcomm's BrewMP platform, and has a 2-megapixel camera (lame), 3G and Bluetooth, but no Wi-Fi.

Of course, this is just based on a series of postings on Microsoft Careers, but it's not exactly far fetched that the company switch gears at the beginning of a new fiscal year. [Ars Technica via Engadget]

I kinda want to see a Steve Jobs made out of kernel panics and beach balls now. [Poorly Drawn Portraits via Fake Steve]

"Once we complete our investigation, we will provide detailed guidance on how to prevent or address these issues."

Security software maker, Prevx, first reported the problem surrounding the November 10 update, and has created a tool to fix the issue if you're affected: [Prevx via PC World and TechFlash]

Okay, actually, I kind of like this one. [YouTube via NeoWin]