I've been using PCLinuxOS on my second machine for over a year, and since then I've tried several other Linux distros but I always come back to PCLOS, it just works! The Livecd does not contain non-free stuff like libdvdcss2 or win codecs, but they are available in the repositories after installing. PCLinuxOS is the fastest and most complete Linux distro I've found, I highly recommend it to anyone who is looking to explore the world of Desktop Linux. It truly deserves its slogan of "The distro-hopper-stopper"!

If you want something that just works, is very fast and friendly as well as good looking, I urge you to try PCLinuxOS, http://www.pclinuxos.com

How about saving custom settings/preferences without having to do it manually? It always drives me crazy when I install and customize an app, then on the next run my customizations are gone because I forgot to save them and the app didn't save them for me automatically or even bother to warn me before closing that my settings had changed... I actually prefer apps that give you the option to save settings on exit, or not, as you prefer.

Metacreations tried (IIRC with Kai's Power Goo, for example) to introduce to concept of the interface growing as the user progressed and became more knowledgable... actually hiding features at the onset and revealing them gradually as you progress. I, for one, HATED that aspect of the program! I suppose the idea looked good on the drawing board but didn't really pan out very well... it made using the app very frustrating from the beginning for me.

No, you would need one from XP Pro so you may be out of luck there... Try this page for an alternative (read carefully the entire page before trying any changes) http://www.mike-devlin.com/windows/key.htm[^] -- modified at 21:32 Monday 10th April, 2006

You might try this Windows XP Product Key Modifier. Of course you will need a valid product key to use with this utility... hey it's worth a try! :-D

AnyDVD is free for a trial period and really works well, some of the newer stuff out there won't decrypt successfully with just DVD Decrypter (ie. Bewitched w/ Wil Ferrell & Nicole Kidman). If you have problems with decrypting a particular DVD check out Doom9's Decrypting Forum[^].

mp3DirectCut from http://www.mpesch3.de/[^] :)