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Opera - Now the world's best browser is Free!

With the new version 8.5 Opera becomes completely free. It is considered as the best browser in terms of features and performance. Only FireFox can match it with performace. It has lots of features builtin. A great download manager, email client, RSS feeder, Multi tab Browsing, Password manager, Zoom function, built in search option etc. Now it also supports voice browsing. Yes, you need to download a 10 MB update. The main installation package without java is only around 3.5 MB. So any dial up user can download it within half an hour. And it is very light on system resources also. So you can open 20 or thirty web pages simultaniously. A thing that is never possible with Internet Explorer using a low end system. The page rendering is very fast when compared to IE.

What should you do?

It is a must have browser if you 're using Internet Explorer. Even firefox users can try it out because it is simply the best browser in terms of features. If you 're already using an ad supported previous version of opera, then u are recommended to install it since it is having only a small download size. But don't expect a lot more features. Enable voice browsing by downloading the voice packages if you want to surprise your friends.

Well, no software is perfect and opera is not an exception. One area where it should improve is the web page save feature. It saves every supported files in the root folder. It is very incovenient considering that IE saves supported files in a sub directory. It would be nice if Opera can do this in their next versions.

Two thumbs up for Opera!

My Rating: Must try software

Links: http://www.opera.com

Desktop Enhancement Tools

There are lots of desktop enhancement tools available on the net. Some of them are free and some of them are not. Some so called desktop enhancement tools do no enhancements other than skinning your applications. Some of them changes wallpapers regurlary, shows calendars, clocks and other useful informations in the desktop. One example is Webshots. It is a very popular tool.
Do you need them? If performance is the only thing you want from your system then the answer is NO. But if you like some eye candy on your desktop then go for it.

My recommendations
I have used Style XP, Window Blinds and Talisman. Comparing them is ofcourse difficult. Style XP is the simplest one and some argue that it is also the faster. Well! I am also one of them. Using Style XP you can change desktop themes, icons, boot screens, cursors, explorer tool bars etc etc. And you can find a lot of them from websites.

Window Blinds is a skinning engine from Stardock. This company offers lots of desktop enchancement tools. WIndow FX, Icon changer etc are one of them. The latest offering is Desktop X. Desktop X do more than skinning. It is your desktop changer. You can place
objects instead of just links. An object can be a calculator, calendar etc. You can also download additional objects from their site.

Talisman is not just a skinning tool. It is more similar to Desktop X than Style XP or Window Blinds. It offers a complete replacement of the standard explorer shell. (A shell is the interface when you start Windows. It is Explorer by default.) It may not be recommended for basic users. I would have strongly recommended this for power users if it was free. You can only try 1 month. (Well! ;) - you know what i mean. right? :) )

In my opinion, Style XP is the best if you only want some eye candy desktop themes. You can find a huge number of themes, icon packs, visual styles, boot screens etc. Desktop X is also a must try software. I recommend Talisman for advanced users who wants full control of their desktop.
Links
Style XP - www.tgtsoft.com (download size around 16 MB)Window Blinds - www.stardock.com (download size around 6 MB)Talisman - www.lighttek.com/talisman.htm (download size aroud 6 MB)