Firefox users have a great number of add-ons at their disposal if they want to download videos from video portals. Some of these add-ons are very specialized and only compatible with one video website while others support dozens if not hundreds of different video sites. The comparison in this article will concentrate on the top rated Firefox video download add-ons based on the ratings at the official Mozilla website. It will only include add-ons that support multiple websites and work in all versions of Firefox 3.

Each add-on is tested if it can be used to download videos from the following sample video portals: Youtube, Dailymotion and Gametrailers. The main goal is to see if the add-ons can download Youtube videos, dailymotion videos and gametrailer videos including the way these downloads are offered. We will take a look at the video portals that are supported by the add-ons and possible usability issues.

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Tags: download-videos, firefox video download, firefox-add on, video download, youtube videos, youtube videos download
Categories: Browsing, firefox

If you ask Windows users how they switch between applications then a majority will likely state they they use the Windows taskbar to do so. But there are others who prefer a keyboard shortcut like Alt-Tab to quickly bring another running program or window to the front. The free software Switcher offers another possibility. The now abandoned program was initially designed to be compatible with Windows Vista but tests have shown that it is fully compatible with Microsoft’s latest operating system Windows 7 as well. Best of all, the application is available as a portable version as well.

Switcher will display a configuration menu after installation which can be used to configure the program. This starts by choosing one of three view modes, animation and appearance settings or the window style over filters, keyboard shortcuts and detailed advanced settings.

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Tags: application switcher, portable software, switcher, windows software
Categories: Windows, software

Microsoft has changed the theme management in their Windows 7 operating system. There is still a lock in place that is keeping users from installing themes that have not been signed by Microsoft but the overall theme manageability has improved. It is for instance now possible to save and load basic themes which opens up several new possibilities like sharing them with friends and family or installing the same theme on multiple computer systems running Windows 7.

This new option made it possible for Microsoft to offer a multiple of the themes that they offered for previous operating systems. The Windows 7 Personalization Gallery over at the Microsoft website contains download links to dozen of themes from country specific themes to sponsored themes. Every Windows 7 user can create basic themes with custom wallpapers, sounds, mouse pointers or desktop icons.

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Tags: windows 7, windows 7 theme, windows 7 theme patcher, windows 7 themes
Categories: Windows

Have you ever asked yourself how you did end up with the email account that you are currently using? Chance is that you have at least one account at one of the three most popular web based email service providers Gmail, Yahoo Mail or Windows Live Hotmail.

This question might have become insignificant in recent years as all three email providers have started to follow suite if one of them raised a limit or introduced a new service. But not everything is equal and some email users might be surprised if they take a look at the differences between these email providers.

Did you for instance know that a free Yahoo Mail account expires after four months of inactivity but is the only one to offer free unlimited storage space?

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Tags: email comparison, email provider, gmail, google-mail, hotmail, windows live hotmail, yahoo mail
Categories: Email, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo

The Opera desktop developers have released the final version of Opera 10.10 after releasing several beta builds in the past weeks. The final build is exactly the build that was released as a beta on Saturday, users who have installed that build are still encouraged to download and install Opera 10.10 from the Opera website.

Opera users who have already been working with beta versions of the release will not find many (if any) changes to previous builds in this final versions. That’s however different for Opera users who have been waiting for the final version release before making the switch.

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Tags: opera, opera 10, opera turbo, opera unite, opera web browser, web browser
Categories: Browsing, opera

Have you ever asked yourself to which software program a specific system tray icon belongs? While it is usually easy to tell by left- or right-clicking on the system tray icon it sometimes can be more difficulty. Inexperienced users might prefer an easier solution to identifying system tray applications. The system tray manager System Tray Cleaner is a system tray analyzer for the Windows operating system. It will automatically recognize visible system tray icons and offer the user to display information about them in the default web browser. The concentration on visible icons diminishes the value of the software program for Windows 7 users where most system tray icons are hidden by default.

A user wanting to lockup these icons would need to make them visible which can be easily done from the available customize link.

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Tags: system tray cleaner, system tray icon, system tray manager, system-tray, windows software
Categories: Windows, software

One of the security enhancements that Microsoft has added to Windows Vista and Windows 7 is the enforcement to only accept digitally signed drivers in 64-bit editions of those operating systems. The operating system would refuse to install and run a driver without digital signature. There are several points of view on the purpose of this enforcement. Microsoft states that it is important for the security of the computer systems, developer’s don’t like it as much as they have to pay for digitally signed drivers and end users don’t like it because it can mean that the operating system is not accepting some of their drivers (even if they would work properly).

The only way to overcome this restriction temporarily is to press F8 during system boot.But this would have to be done on every boot which can become quite a nuisance.

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Tags: driver, driver signature, Driver Signature Enforcement Overrider, windows 7, windows software, windows-vista
Categories: Windows, software