Acronis True Image v10.0 FREE :) 
If you have a Maxtor or Seagate hard drive, you can download their utility, which is actually Acronis True Image v10.0. It works with Windows XP, Vista and OSX. The only feature missing I believe is the incremental part which means you have to make a complete Image everytime.
Seagate Discwizard: Seagate HDD
Maxtor Maxblast 5: Maxtor HDD
UPDATE: I downloaded both and these are the version numbers:
Seagate DiscWizard: 10.0.0.5077
Maxtor MaxBlast: 10.0.0.5077
It is 104MB, so you will need Broadband or a lot of patience. J
Windows Server 2008 Trial Rocks!
If you have been on the fence about Windows Vista because of all the bad press, you may want to download and install Windows Server 2008 Trial. It is tweaked and tuned and had a lot more time to be developed.
- Download the Trial: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/trial-software.aspx
- Convert it to workstation guide: Download
- 240 day evaluation: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/948472
It is also great that you can use it for 8 months, plenty of time to test it throughly.
XOBNI for Outlook
Xobni is the Outlook plug-in that saves you time finding email conversations, contacts and attachments.
After a quick install, you’ll see the new Xobni toolbar appear in Outlook - and suddenly information will become much easier to find. When a new email arrives, the sender’s full communication history appears in the Xobni sidebar, including past conversations, attachments and contact details. Xobni also includes a blazing fast email search tool.
How to fix aero when it is disabled
Click start then Run and type regedit and click OK.
Find these keys and reset them to 1 and 2 like below:
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\DWM\Composition (set to 1) *right click on Composition and choose modify and set it to 1* ♣ continue reading How to fix aero when it is disabled
Stop UAC blacking your desktop
When you receive certain messages from the UAC (User Account Control) your desktop becomes ‘blacked out’, which is a feature called Secure Desktop. Some people find this annoying, especially users with less powerful machines where the ‘blacking out’ of the desktop can take a few seconds to complete, slowing them down. Although this is a helpful security feature of Windows Vista, which prevents malicious programs from sending information after the UAC has displayed a message; you may still want to remove this.
In the Business, Ultimate and Enterprise versions of Windows Vista open the Start menu and type in gpedit.msc into the search box, and press Enter.
On the left-hand menu click to expand Computer Configuration and navigate to Windows Settings > Security Settings > Local Policies > Security Options. In the policies window on the right scroll down to the User Account Control: Switch to the secure desktop when prompting for elevation policy and double-click it. Change the option to Disabled and then click OK.
To accomplish this in Windows Vista Home Basic and Home Premium editions, you will need to edit the registry. Please be warned that incorrectly editing your registry can damage your computer, so proceed with caution.
Click on the Start menu, type in Regedit.exe and press Enter. Expand HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and locate the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System registry key. Double-click ProptOnSecureDesktop, change its value to 0 and then click OK.
