100 Reasons to Use Vista

Microsoft posted a web page with 100 reasons why everyone's so speechless. It basically give 100 reasons why Vista is so amazing and why people should upgrade to Vista? This is so amazing that they can come up with 100 reasons. For me, I only able find 2 reasons as stated in my previous post on whether we should upgrade to Vista or not.

First reason is Windows Aero. It is a very cool UI feature, it gives the feel of Macintosh. But remember it eats performance and your battery life (if you're using laptop). Based on some reviews on Windows Aero's performance, it consume 4-5% more power than XP. So if power and performance is not a top priority concern, Windows Aero is cool.

Second reason is the security. I feel better with the User Account Control and it gives me peace of mind from hackers or intruders.

Oppss... that's all I can come up with. Are those 100 reasons crap? Are these 100 reasons the key feature? Do we really need them? or it is just something not essential? I don't know, you tell me. Feel free to let me know if you have any "real" reason to upgrade to Vista in your personal opinion.

Useful PowerToys Software for XP

Althought I have been switching to Vista but my office PC is still using XP. So for those who are still using XP, the PowerToys is the additional software add-on into XP to improve the windows experience. However not every softwares from PowerToys are useful. Sadly that most of the softwares are useless (to me) or I already have a solution.

These are the software I have tried as I think they're useful (to me):

1. ClearType Tuner (Recommended)
   
2. Open Command Window Here (Recommended)
   
3. Virtual Desktop Manager (Not Recommended)
   

ClearType Tuner
This is the most useful PowerToy in my opinion. This is especially for those who are using the LCD screen and has difficulty read the fonts (i.e. not clear enough). You can give it a try.
After installed, you can run the ClearType Tuner and it appears some kind of Wizard to allow you to choose the best font that best suit you. After the Wizard, your font will be configured and looks clear.

If you're using CRT monitor, I don't think it gives you huge improvement but you can give it a try.

Click here to download

Open Command Window Here
If you're the Unix user, you probably get used to running command from console. Installing this PowerToy, it allows you to access to the command prompt directly from the explorer. I personally find this useful as I don't need to CD to the directory every time I open the command prompt window. I can use the Windows Explorer to browse to the directory and "Right Click" and click "Open Command Window Here" to open the command window. The command window shows the same current directory where I "Right Click" from the Explorer.

Click here to download

Virtual Desktop Manager

I love virtual desktop. Therefore, I have been trying many virtual desktop software tools in Windows platform. I tried the Open Source and also this one but none of them satisfy me. The reason is all of them are somehow unstable. It ether cause my PC hang, or my things in Desktop 1 move to Desktop 2, or my whole Application's UI is missing and many more. Therefore I do not recommend to try this. If you have ever known any "Stable" Virtual Desktop in Windows platform, feel free to let me know.

Click here to download (If you still want to try)

To see the full list of software provided by PowerToys, click here.