You know what's the most intriguing part about Windows Vista? I told you a few times before that, as far as I am concerned, it works just great, I have no reliability problems, and most programs I ran so far on it didn't encounter any compatibility issues(remember that I said "most," and not "all"), but the parts I really can't stand are the so-called "security innovations"("UAC" should say it all) and the "new, streamlined, amazing interface," which really sucks, if you ask me. Since more and more people get back to XP, I thought that talking about downloadable Windows XP skins would be a good idea, although there will be some saying "Windows XP is dead," and I respect their opinion. I just wish them a happy life with Vista, so now we can get to the subject...

While "downloadable Windows XP" skins often involves patching your Windows or installing some of the programs I will mention later, there are also Windows themes(themes, skins, call them as you wish, it's the same thing) available right from Microsoft and, most important, officially supported by them, in most cases, if you really need support for such a thing. Unfortunately, I can't say I was impressed by the content I found on Microsoft.com, but you should spare a few minutes to check the Windows XP Desktop Enhancements page.<-336x280 Large Rectangle - right-> Apart from Windows Media Player skins, you can also find screensavers, wallpapers, and a few desktop themes, as I was just saying.

Moving to more serious things, we have TuneUp Utilities 2008, a very good all-in-one system optimizer that features "Individual Windows styling." Now, the program is priced at $39.95, but you can get the trial version and play with it for a while, or simply go to this page and see the visual styles available for TuneUp Utilities users. You'll need the program to use them, anyway, but I think this is the easiest way to see what you'll get.

For a long time, Aston was my favorite Windows XP customization choice, but I had to drop it along the way due to some strange incompatibilities. Anyway, the idea is that, for most Widows XP stylers, this program is a heavenly gift. Just check its official page for a few minutes, and you'll get the idea(just to let you know...when they say this is faster than the default Windows shell, it's more than just advertising!).

Other than the above, there are also WindowsBlinds, StyleXP and many others(your hints are welcomed!), but the best resource when it comes to downloadable Windows XP skins remains ThemeXP, probably the richest Windows XP graphics resource on the Web(who knows a better one, step forward and say it out loud!).

These being said, I conclude this article, hoping the information presented here will help you make your Windows XP look as cool as can be, and make your Windows Vista friends envy you! One more thing - if you find a great Windows XP theme, don't be a bad boy/girl, and get back here to tell us about it, all right? Good luck!

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Apart from antiviruses, most fake programs I have seen so far are related to video conversion. What is a fake program? Well, think about a program that you pay for, and you end up with an empty interface that does...absolutely nothing! Anyway, I am not going to talk about that now, because I have to tell you about a free video converter, or maybe more than just one. More is better, right? OK, ready or not, here we go...

For most users, until starting to have DVD burning problems, the most annoying problem is that of the video conversion. Why? Well, think about a new camcorder or a new digital camera with decent movie making capabilities - what do they usually have in common? I am not talking about a certain brand, the maker of these devices doesn't really matter.

From my own experience, and from what I heard from my friends and other people I talked to, virtually all digital cameras and camcorders come with video conversion software that can be described by a single, meaningful word: disaster<-336x280 Large Rectangle - right->
(you can also think about the "F word," it describes perfectly one of the first words you'll say out loud after using those conversion programs for only a few minutes).

If you want to know more about this kind of "free video converter," then let me add two more things - these programs always sacrifice power to be as user friendly as possible, and the range of video formats supported is usually extremely limited.

About two weeks ago, when we talked about free DVD player downloads, I told you about one of those programs that saved the day for me a few times, VLC. Just read that article, get the program, and once you start to find your way through its not-so-friendly interface, you'll surely be rewarded by its very good video conversion capabilities, but now...

...let me tell you a few words about today's free video converter, namely VirtualDub, described by its author as "a video capture/processing utility for 32-bit Windows platforms (95/98/ME/NT4/2000/XP)."

Unfortunately, while this software comes with extended audio and video processing filters, plugins and options, its main target is to work with AVI files, and while it can open MPEG files and convert them to AVI as you wish, it doesn't work properly with other formats popular with digital cameras and camcorders, like MOV, for example. VirtualDub has support for third party plugins, so it can be pushed pretty far, depending on what kind of plugins you can find for your tasks.

These being said, I think I'll leave the next free video converter for another time... What do you think? After all, you have a lot to work with today, especially if you missed grabbing a decent free video player so far!

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When looking for free DVD player downloads, you should check what you have inside your computer already, because you may end up with a few big surprises! Don't worry, I am not going to state the obvious here - we all know that Windows Media Player is capable of playing DVDs, but it's far from being perfect, and - if you ask me - its interface leaves a lot to be desired. Even worse, Windows Media Player doesn't exactly come for free, since you need Windows to run it, so let's get busy going through a few free DVD player downloads for everyone, with some of them being available on all platforms, just as...

...VLC is! Don't know what VLC stands for? VLC media player is a cross-platform media player AND a streaming server, coming with support for an impressive amount of audio and video formats, and the downloads counter on its official website is getting closer to the 100,000,000 mark!

Its interface is rather basic, and most people may find themselves lost inside VLC's maze of settings, but there are a lot of rewards coming with this program, like speed, portability (most video and audio file work without the need of installing any additional codecs), and a very nice feature for the Mac version, that allows you to browse Internet TV and Radio stations. Priceless!<-336x280 Large Rectangle - right->

VLC is free to download and use for all platforms you can think of, and a few extra ones, and some of its minor drawbacks, apart from the user friendliness missing in action, are the inability to jump inside FLV files, some minor issues with DVD menus that occur sometimes, and poor performance when playing HD MKV files. All in all, VLC is a great choice!

The interesting part is that, where VLC fails, GOM Player fills the gap wonderfully. For example, this one has much easier to use image and sound adjustments, it easily jumps through FLV files, and also plays DVDs pretty well. Unfortunately, it's only available for Windows, and sometimes needs codecs, when VLC doesn't. Well, nothing is perfect, but VLC + GOM Player is one of the best "2 in 1" free DVD player downloads you can get!

Both players above can handle incomplete or damaged AVI files, and they are both free to download and use. Unfortunately, Mac and Linux users will have to be happy with VLC and other programs, but both platforms have a pretty rich offering of free DVD player downloads, so it's not a hopeless cause.

At last, I have to tell you about one of the favorite free DVD player downloads of my friends, namely KM Player. This one is probably worth more than VLC + GOM Player, only that I didn't manage to dig in deeper just yet. Since this is also a free program, I am talking about its value in features, of course, and here's what you can get with it: compatibility with an impressive number of video and audio formats, including QuickTime, RealMedia and DVDs, as well as the capability of capturing audio, video, and screenshots, audio and video effects, a wide range of skins, and an insane amount of settings. Despite the above, it still manages to be quite user friendly, and since it's free...I hope you know what to do!

My friends, these are the free DVD player downloads I've been able to offer you today. If I think well, you don't even need more than the above, but if you do, just ask...I got a feeling some may need DVD ripping and burning tools, and that's something not too easy to find in the free DVD player downloads realm...

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My friends, here's a good question from a special category of issues everyone is trying to solve, especially those new users in the emerging Internet countries that just got their hands on this wonderful resource we all know as the World Wide Web! Unfortunately, giving a good answer to those asking "Where can I watch movies absolutely free?" is not such an easy task, because there are a lot of traps on the way to the truth. The first trap a lot of them fall into is to simply type "free movies," "download movies for free," or even "Where can I watch movies absolutely free?" in a certain search engine, and wait for the results to drop in...

Obviously, the results to the questions above will be quickly delivered by the search engine, as long as your Internet connection is not incredibly slow, but you'll usually end up downloading illegal content, if you manage to download something. Absolutely free movies are available on the Web, but they don't show up when you get to search answers for the logical questions, so let's see some "replacements," shall we?

"Free Online TV" may not be that close to "Where can I watch movies absolutely free?" as some may think, but it gets the job done. <-336x280 Large Rectangle - right->Apart from various live streaming sites that you may find(not that easy, anyway, because most of them also provide paid content, and the free user experience may be rather frustrating), there are a bunch of interesting programs, like Joost, Miro(formerly known as Democracy Player), and even paid programs like ChrisTV PVR, but...since the question we started with contains "absolutely free," I guess this one doesn't qualify...

More and even better than live streaming sites, you have the community-driven video sites we all got to know about when YouTube became popular, and now there's an incredible amount of them available, with Metacafe, Vimeo, or Vreel, currently still 2 weeks away from the launch into a new Beta version, just waiting for your visit!

Other than the above, let me give you one idea - try to sneak in your neighbors' backyard and watch their movies through the window, if their TV set is properly seated. If not, cook something nice and go to their door, right when they come home with the last movies they have rented. Well, that's not really "absolutely free," but should get the job done, and increase your charisma in the neighborhood, too!

At last, you could consider borrowing movies from your friends - that's usually free, but leaves you with a debt that needs to be repaid one day...

I know all the above may not be that much, but if you know more than I do, feel free to answer the big question - "Where can I watch movies absolutely free?..."

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If you ever tried to burn a DVD, most chances are you run into some problems. If that didn't happen at first try, it surely occurred somewhere along the way. Even more, if you managed to burn your discs successfully, but after one or two years, they started failing when read, that's still a DVD burning problem, as we're going to see today. Nothing is perfect, and even the most notorious manufacturers of optical media can deliver "duds," but when talking about DVD burning problems, there are usually two main causes: the DVD burning tools(software and hardware), and the lack of knowledge of the user behind(usually in front of...) it.

There is no perfect DVD burning recipe, as there are plenty of good burning programs, and if you are using the same settings, there won't be any big difference in burning quality. The following advices are a direct result of my experience as a user, and also what I managed to learn from the experiences of my friends. These being said, no matter if you're a beginner or experienced CD/DVD burner, here's my list of tips and tricks!

1. Use reliable media. The Media section on CDFreaks is one of the best sources of information regarding a certain CD/DVD disc. Don't be fooled by the name on the disc - it's the manufacturer that really matters! I got to know this when I ended up with a bunch of "no-name" CDs, but when I researched for the manufacturer online, I found out they were made by...Taiyo Yuden! Since then, I've been looking for media manufactured by them all the time, and I never looked at the name on the disc again. Anyway, this doesn't mean Taiyo Yuden media is the only good choice, so feel free to use whatever you want, as long as it's not a type of disc that already got bad reviews.

2. Use reliable burning software! I am not talking about crashes here, I am talking about updates. Here's why I say this - while most power users advise others to keep their burning software up to date, I am not doing that. The reason is very simple - when I got Nero 7, I ran into a lot of problems(to be read "broken DVDs"), only to find that Nero 6.6.1.15 is the best version I could ever get. No matter the software you're using, if the version you have works well, and the new version doesn't offer any feature you need, do NOT update!

3. Get to know your burning software's settings! Fine tweaking your burning software can spare you a lot of problems. Label your discs properly, use LightScribe, <-336x280 Large Rectangle - right->if you are burning media supporting it, and be careful with those burning speeds...

4. Use that knowledge! The main part about using the knowledge you got about your program is to always use "advanced mode" and set all the options for burning manually. I never trust a computer! Some discs support very high burn speeds, but the resulting discs are not as reliable as those created at lower speeds. This is not something noticeable at first sight, but you may get to this conclusion in time. After all, what's 5 minutes, what's 10 minutes? Patience is a virtue, my friends!

5. If you're not burning discs for your enemies, be sure to make a quality check after burning each disc! While most burning programs allow you to test the burning quality, I recommend Nero CD-DVD Speed or VSO Inspector, both available free of any charge. Usually, discs that are read very slow right after being taken "out of the toaster" are very likely to fail in time faster than others.

6. Don't forget to choose your hardware wisely, and not based on your favorite brand or price! If a certain hardware manufacturer comes up with great motherboards, amazing video cards, and best monitors on the market, that doesn't necessarily mean its optical drives are also great. Try not to buy hardware that just arrived on the market, but at least a few months old, so you can check user feedback, and remember that burning quality is more important than noise levels, looks, or reading speed. As long as it supports LightScribe(if you intend to use that feature, of course) and it is compatible with a wide array of media, go get it!

7. If your computer is powerful enough, you can even play games while burning discs, but I don't recommended it at all! I am not saying to close all other applications, because we're in 2008, and most people have at least 1GB of memory(I was burning discs without any problem while surfing the Web on my old computer, with only 512MB of memory), but be sure not to open/close big applications, like Photoshop, while burning the disc. Even more, if you're browsing the files on your computer, be careful not to access the optical drive - it will result in a broken disc!

8. Be careful when labeling discs! Most of the time, I choose to catalog them using WhereIsIt, and since I usually buy bulk discs, I place them into envelopes, writing the number on the envelope, and nothing on the disc. As long as you can keep things in order, everything is great with this strategy.

9. Handle your discs with care! Try to avoid placing your fingers on any side of the disc - I guess I don't have to explain how to avoid that... Also, be sure to keep them in a cool, dry place, and NEVER move them from a very hot room to a cold one, or the other way around. Do that a few times, and you can buy a coffin for your beloved collection afterward!

10. Don't allow dust to get inside your DVD burner! If you're cleaning the house, better keep the computer aside until you are done(I am not talking about a weekly sweep, I am talking about tearing down the walls, changing the stairs, stuff like that), and no matter how clean your computer room is, NEVER leave the DVD drive tray open! Open, insert the disc, close, that's all you have to remember...

This is it for now, if I remember anything else, I'll get back to the topic, you can be sure of that! What else can I say now than.... Good luck, and may all DVD burning problems stay away from you and your discs!

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