Clicky Gone is a great program to use if you need to hide your selected windows from public view.  The idea here is to no longer close applications that are taking up too much space in the Windows task bar.  Instead, let Clicky Gone hide them for you.

This application is very small and really gets the job done.  It also comes enabled with a “Boss Mode” that should help you hide your eBay searching, and show you working, just in case the boss happens to stroll by your desk.    The Boss Mode will also mute your sound too.

Some of the other features included are:

• Click and Hide by holding down keyboard modifiers
• Run hidden windows application’s in the background, i.e Low priority
• Toggle all windows to hide and show
• Boss Key support, hide the active window and mute the sound
• A fancy menu that shows you all your hidden windows
• Prevent click hiding on full screen applications, i.e. Games
• Hide menu on applications caption and taskbar icon
• Process priority menu on applications caption and taskbar icon

Go download either the regular or portable version of Clicky Gone on its official web site.  It is one of the best freeware programs out there to hide your active windows.

Once installed, all you have to do is start the program up, click the check mark box for “Always Start with Windows” and “Drag Tabs” then click the button labeled active.  Now you can drag and drop to arrange your Windows taskbar the way you see fit.  This program is a blessing for anybody who has multiple windows open throughout the day.

It also comes with several other options such as:

• Scroll through tabs with your mouse wheel
• Show the desktop or restore all maximized windows when you middle click the taskbar
• Maximize the current window when you middle-click on it’s tab

The program is free to use, although the creator would like it if you could register and possibly give a little cash in appreciation. Taskix is simply the best lightweight Windows taskbar tab reordering tool.

Once you install it, the setup is pretty easy to understand.  You just setup how you want you desktop to be split, hit the OK button and it is done.  If you find yourself overwhelmed by having too many programs or windows floating around your desktop – give MaxTo a shot.  Previously I had been doing this same type of desktop reorganization on my own, but MaxTo does it for me – and in turn saves me a lot of tweaking time.

The eno Vista Port visual style for Windows Vista keeps things simple, but doesn’t look awful when doing so. The only thing I miss in comparison with Vista’s default theme is the search box is missing in the start menu.   

As a word of warning, switching your Vista visual styles is a ‘bit more tedious of a task than it was in XP.  If you are looking for a good guide to hold your hand durring the process, check out:  How to Patch Windows Vista to Enable Custom Themes (Visual Styles)

Searching around for various plugins and scripts to add onto the already pretty great Windows Live Writer I stumbled upon a tiny program that will let you do that.  Windows Live Writer System Tray is a small application that lives in your system tray giving you quick access to these Windows Live Writer features:

• Start a New Post
• Open an Existing Post
• Show Options
• Exit

This is the system icon that will be placed in your system tray when the app is started.  You can grab the free download on the Windows Live Writer System Tray web site.  If you enjoy Windows Live Writer as much as I do, I know you’ll appreciate being able to keep it handy in the system tray at all times.

Is it just me, or is Apple starting to remind you more of the Real Player more and more? Or perhaps, maybe Adobe and the 10,000 unrelated updates it asks for?

Want to keep up to date whenever your Google Reader has fresh new content to read through?  There are several browser plugins that will do this, but not many for the operating system itself.  I have three solutions though to cover all of the operating system bases:

• Google Reader Notifier (for Windows)
• Reader Notifier (for Macs)
• GrNotify (for Linux)

Now you should have no problems at all keeping up with my RSS feed.  Feel free to subscribe and pass it around to others. 

Here are a few of the Windows XP programs I have tried (all good solutions by the way) that just haven’t gotten the job done thus far.

• Folderico
• Xentient Labels
• iColorFolder

So I am asking you, do you know of a good Vista folder customizer out there?   I need something that would allow me to quickly change the colors to kind of help organize things a ‘bit in my PC.   Better yet, how do you organize your “My Document” folders?

It is both Mac and Windows friendly too.  Just download, unzip and you’ll be off on your own music creating adventure.  Here is an example video I found via the ‘ol YouTube:

Shadow Explorer

This program makes it a quick and easy job to browse through the shadow copies of your files created by the Windows Vista volume shadow copy service.  Without, it is kind of hard to hunt down an exact file backup, but with it – it gives you a familiar interface to find all your backed up files.  I would still recommend backing up using other means, but this is just one more nice Vista addition to have handy.

Logon Studio Vista

Tired of how your default Windows Vista logon screen looks?  This free download will allow you to change that background picture you see on the logon screen to whatever you desire.  They also have several you can download and use too.  Sure, this is just an eye candy improvement, but we all like for things to look nice, right?

Lifextender

This tool, used with Vista Media Center, is an application designed to remove any and all commercials from the video that you record.  I have used it a number of times for the various cable shows I watch and it has yet to let me down.  Might just set it up to work overnight, so it doesn’t get in the way of your day to day work.

For some more applications to make the Vista experience better, check out Ave’s Vista Stuff.  There are a handful of neat little application there that will add a few more perks to your shinny new OS.