When asked if and how they plan to match Microsoft Office's unparalleled feature set, most online office suite vendors simply switch the subject, touting the superiority of their Web-based collaboration, and low or free price.

ZoooS is one of the few vendors that won't dodge the question.

[ Discover the top-rated open source software that received InfoWorld's Bossie awards, and read the Test Center review "Office killers pack some heat." ]

At the Office 2.0 conference in San Francisco this week, the California-European startup will preview a Web office suite that is based on the free, open source OpenOffice.org, Microsoft Office's main desktop competitor.

ZoooS offers Google Docs-like collaboration, such as letting users simultaneously edit the same document. And despite OpenOffice's size -- version 2 for Windows requires 440MB of disk space when installed -- ZoooS offers speedy access to 95 percent of the features and look-and-feel of OpenOffice.org, said ZoooS' CEO and co-founder, Hisham El-Emam.

"It's almost all JavaScript, so it runs really fast, you don't even need Google Chrome," El-Emam said.

ZoooS already has a "few thousand" paying users at several medium-sized companies and its major client, the German Ministry of Education, making the 20-employee startup already profitable, El-Emam said. The basic cost is $999 for a perpetual server license for 10 users, which includes installation support and a few basic support incidents after that. The price per user decreases as the number of users increases, he said.

This isn't El-Eman's first attempt at a Web office suite. The German-trained lawyer co-founded Ajax13, an early online office vendor.

Trying to match Microsoft Office breadth-wise, however, hurt Ajax13's depth, said a Computerworld review last year.

El-Eman split with Ajax13's co-founder, MP3.com founder Michael Robertson, last year, though Robertson retains a small stake in ZoooS.

El-Eman's new approach delivers OpenOffice.org's deep feature set, multilingual capabilities (36 languages), and user interface, which is close but not identical to Microsoft Office.

ZoooS's framework translates the OpenOffice.org code, making it browser-friendly. By the end of this year, the company hopes to have plug-ins and widgets for Firefox, Opera and several other browsers for both on- and offline access. An Internet Explorer version is targeted for the first half of 2009.

El-Eman said a main goal with ZoooS was to target existing users of Microsoft Office. ZoooS can be more attractive on price against Microsoft, he said, and, at the same time, will be appealing to users who are resistant to switch to something free (such as Google Docs) or very low-cost (such as Zoho) because they may be lacking in features.

ZoooS is also developing "skins" for Office 2003 and Office 2007. Thus, users would get the Office user interface of their choice, even though the functional back end remains OpenOffice.org, he said. The only catch: files are natively saved in OpenOffice.org's OpenDocument Format (ODF), rather than native Office or Office Open XML. ZoooS is working on making opening and converting of Office files as fast and true as possible, said El-Eman.

He concedes that ZoooS competes with the desktop version of OpenOffice.org. As a result, attempts to forge an alliance with the open source group "weren't really successful," he said, despite promises to release ZoooS' code as open source via the GPL (General Public License) within the next six months.

El-Eman also admits that ZoooS isn't even the first to take OpenOffice.org online. That would be Ulteo. El-Eman says Ulteo has no offline version today, unlike ZoooS, and differs in other technical ways.

What if making a dent into Microsoft Office's dominance proves too difficult? El-Eman has a Plan B: to use the ZoooS framework to help desktop app vendors take their products online.

ZoooS has already reverse-engineered a prototype of Apple's personal database, FileMaker Pro, which can open FileMaker files and mimic some of its features and user interface. However, it cannot use FileMaker's proprietary code as its functional back end.

Computerworld is an InfoWorld affiliate.

Samsung is eyeing a possible acquisition of memory chip-maker SanDisk. The company, which is the world's largest computer memory maker in the world, said it was "considering various opportunities" with regard to SanDisk "but nothing has been decided yet."

The comment came after Korean online news service Edaily reported that Samsung had engaged JPMorgan Chase to advise on the acquisition of SanDisk.

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In response, SanDisk issued a brief statement that, as is standard in such cases, didn't directly address the report in question.

"SanDisk periodically has conversations with multiple parties, including Samsung, regarding a variety of potential business opportunities. We evaluate all of these opportunities, but maintain a policy of not commenting on market rumors or speculation," it said.

SanDisk has seen its share price sink from just under $80 at the beginning of 2006 to $14 on Thursday. So far this year its share price and thus the value of the company has more than halved.

The acquisition buzz comes as the two companies are currently battling each other in court over the April 2006 termination of a patent licensing agreement. Samsung disputed the termination of the agreement and the two entered arbitration, which ended in May this year with a panel deciding the contract had been properly terminated. On July 24 Samsung petitioned the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York to vacate the panel's final award. SanDisk said it intends to fight the Samsung petition.

SanDisk has close ties to Toshiba, a rival to Samsung, and the two jointly operate flash memory production factories through their Flash Alliance joint venture. They also closely cooperate on design and development of new memory chips so an acquisition by Samsung could mean big competitive changes in the memory chip market.

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission may gather enough data through wireless testing this week in Seattle to quiet debates over the potential interference that could result from a proposed spectrum auction.

The FCC has proposed auctioning off spectrum and requiring the winner to offer free wireless broadband services in a portion of the spectrum. But the wireless industry contends that the technical rules that the FCC is proposing for the spectrum will lead to interference for 3G phone users, causing a degradation of their services.

[ Get the latest on mobile developments with InfoWorld's Mobile Report newsletter. ]

T-Mobile, one of the more vocal opponents of the FCC plan, has already conducted tests that it says clearly demonstrate the harmful interference. "But what we've been asking for is joint testing with the FCC," said Kathleen Hamm, vice president of federal regulatory affairs for T-Mobile.

The FCC is conducting some of the same tests T-Mobile has already done plus some additional tests, focusing on interference between handsets running on the different frequencies, said Julius Knapp, chief for the FCC's office of engineering technology.

Some of the tests that the FCC is repeating involve using handsets connected to WiMax or UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications Systems) networks running on spectrum the commercial providers would use and then issuing signals using the proposed new service and spectrum. The engineers note at what signal strength the proposed service causes the WiMax or UMTS call to drop or prevents the calls from even connecting. "That's where views differ," Knapp said.

In addition, the FCC is testing how filter technologies deployed on the handsets might work to mitigate some of the interference from the proposed service, another hotly debated issue, Knapp said.

After the testing is complete, potentially at the end of the day Thursday or on Friday, the FCC will issue a report with its findings. The commission may or may not officially ask for comments on the report, Knapp said. "But we're confident people will weigh in on what it means," he said.

In addition to T-Mobile and FCC representatives, engineers from AT&T, M2Z Networks, Nokia, Metro PCS, CTIA, and XM Sirius are attending the testing, which is taking place at a Boeing facility in Seattle.

M2Z was one of the first companies to propose that the FCC distribute the debated spectrum for wireless use. The company contends that many tests into potential interference conducted around the globe have proved that operations in the spectrum wouldn't cause undue interference to nearby services. In some other countries, operators have already been allowed to offer services on the basis of those tests.

But T-Mobile, which operates a service in a similar type of situation in the Czech Republic, argues that the FCC proposal is different than the others around the world. "Given the rules that the FCC is laying out, there are significant differences from what's occurring in Europe," said Hamm.

In addition, in the Czech Republic, the comparable spectrum and the nearby bands were both auctioned off at the same time. "So everyone knew what they were signing up for," said Sara Leibman, director of federal regulatory affairs for T-Mobile.

"I know everyone gets excited about the free broadband concept," said Hamm. "T-Mobile doesn't have a problem with that but we do have a problem if it comes at the expense of our broadband deployment, particularly when we paid dearly for that."

T-Mobile, like other mobile operators, paid billions of dollars for the nearby spectrum that it is using to build a 3G network.

The FCC had originally hoped to vote on its proposal on June 12 but has delayed the vote due to objections from operators. Two lawmakers, Representatives Anna Eshoo, a California Democrat, and Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, recently urged the FCC to move forward with the plan, alleging that mobile operators are asking for unnecessary testing in hopes of delaying potential new innovative competitors from entering the market.

A Google executive Thursday heaped praise on Apple's iPhone, even with his company set to challenge Apple in this same space with its Android mobile computing platform.

During the cloud computing-focused Office 2.0 conference, Google's Matthew Glotzbach, product management director for Google Enterprise, revealed his list of 10 things that can be done in the cloud today that could not have been done a year ago. Although the list focused on Google technologies, including its newly introduced Chrome browser, the tenth spot on the list was reserved for praise of Apple's iPhone.

"I'm a huge Apple fan, I'm a huge iPhone fan. It?s really opened up computing in the mobile world," Glotzbach said, emphasizing the iPhone's impact on cloud computing. With his iPhone, he said he can perform tasks such as accessing e-mail and documents and even flip through the presentation he was set to give Thursday morning. "The mobile landscape has really been transformed by the iPhone," he said.

Google, however, has its upcoming Android mobile platform, which could become a formidable challenger to iPhone. Asked after his presentation whether he would switch to an Android unit, Glotzbach took a wait-and-see approach. "We'll have to see when it comes out. I use the best device that there is for getting what I need done," he said.

Glotzbach is not the first Google executive to tip his hat to iPhone recently. Rich Miner, Google group manager for mobile platforms, did so at the eComm conference in March but did temper his praise with some criticism.

Much of Glotzbach's presentation served as a pitch for the company's application technologies such as Chrome browser and Google Talk, which supports translation between different languages.

There are 500,000 businesses using Google Apps, which includes the company's in-the-cloud business applications, Glotzbach said. There are 3,000 businesses each day signing up for Google Apps, he said.

Touting the ability to run fast, secure, and stable Web applications as another top-10 trend, Glotzbach touted Chrome, which was unveiled earlier this week.

"Obviously, the browser today is the gateway to the cloud," Glotzbach said. Chrome presents a leap forward in terms of speed, usability and its capability for the next generation of Web applications. He also emphasized the browser's V8 JavaScript engine, saying it is much faster than what Microsoft offers in Internet Explorer.

Microsoft even could adopt V8, since it is open source, Glotzbach pointed out. "I'd love it if Microsoft took some of the innovations we [put] in the browser and built on them," he said in an interview after his presentation.

Other trends cited on Glotzbach's list included the ability to search through several years' worth of e-mail. Google's Gmail enables this capability, according to Glotzbach. Users also can e-mail from an IMAP client.

Another trend, the capability to chat with customers and partners in any language, was enabled by Google Talk and Google's translation capability, Glotzbach said.

The ability to collaborate simply and securely, cited as another trend, is being enabled by Google Docs, Glotzbach said. "It?s changed the way I collaborate. It's broken down those barriers."

Other trends cited included:

* The ability to organize business travel via e-mail, through the third-party TripIt application. * Easy collection of data from coworkers and customers via forms, also via Google Docs and Spreadsheets. * The building of scalable business applications in the cloud, such as what Salesforce.com offers via Force.com. * The ability to create templates in Google Docs. * Sharing of video inside Google Apps.

The Americas' SAP Users' Group (ASUG) is forming a new global community for customers of Business Objects, the business intelligence vendor that SAP bought earlier this year, the organization announced this week.

Membership in the Global BusinessObjects Network will be free until 2010. The organization is hoping to get existing user groups to join and serve as local chapters, while the GBN provides marketing and operational support.

[ Discover the top-rated IT products as rated by the InfoWorld Test Center. ]

The GBN will officially launch at the Business Objects User Conference in Dallas in October. Starting on Oct. 20, users can sign up at the conference or through the Web site www.gogbn.org.

ASUG officials were not immediately available for comment Thursday.

Dave Rathbun, a member of the group's initial steering committee, said in a recent blog post that the new group is a rebranding of the Business Objects Community Alliance.

"There are various reasons for the change, some of which have to do with naming conflicts but mostly having to do with the desire to emphasize the independence from anything run by SAP," said Rathbun, who works for Integra Solutions, a Dallas consulting firm.

Rathbun expects the group to sponsor user conferences in Europe and Asia-Pacific next year, as well as one in the United States.

He added that because GBN wishes to emphasize its independence from SAP, he expects shows won't be held in conjunction with the vendor's SAPPHIRE events.

In an interview Thursday, steering committee member Jamie Oswald also emphasized the need for user groups to have independence from vendors.

Years ago, Oswald said, he couldn't get endorsement from his employer to attend local user group events because they contained too much input from Business Objects' marketing department and not enough educational content.

"The groups were run typically by people who cared a lot, but a lot of their support ... came from Business Objects," said Oswald, who now works as a senior business intelligence developer with Sisters of Mercy Health System in Chesterfield, Missouri. "That's how [Business Objects] got a lot of their content pushed in."

"I think it's gotten better over time, but now that this new independent group is in charge, it's going to shift even further into the educational side" at both local events and user conferences, he added.

This story was updated on September 4, 2008

Dell Thursday started selling a mini-notebook with Microsoft's Windows XP Home preinstalled, the first time that the world's largest computer maker has had a PC to sell with that operating system since Microsoft retired XP from general service in June.

The 2.28-pound Inspiron Mini 9 starts at $399 when equipped with XP Home, and sports an 8.9-inch display, 512MB of memory, an 8GB solid-state drive (SSD) composed of flash RAM and 802.11g wireless capability. A pricier $499 configuration boosts memory to 1GB and the SSD to 16GB.

[ Get the latest on mobile developments with InfoWorld's Mobile Report newsletter. ]

Dell is also selling a $349 model with 512MB of memory and a 4GB SSD that comes with Ubuntu, a popular Linux distribution, in place of Windows XP.

All Mini 9 configurations are powered by a 1.6GHz Atom processor that Intel debuted in early June.

The Inspiron Mini 9 is Dell's first system to pack Windows XP Home since June, when the Round Rock, Texas-based computer maker yanked the operating system from its lines. Microsoft had set June 30 as the retirement deadline for Windows XP -- it would stop shipping copies to large computer manufacturers and cease selling to retail -- and Dell complied by ending sales June 26.

However, in early April Microsoft announced that it would let makers of small, inexpensive laptops -- which it labeled as ULCPCs, short for "ultra-low-cost PCs," a name that never stuck -- install XP Home through June 2010, possibly longer.

At the time, Microsoft maintained that it offered the loophole not to stymie Linux, which was the only available OS for the tiny, cheap computer, but because users and hardware vendors alike had demanded XP.

"One thing we've heard loud and clear, from both our customers and our partners, is the desire for Windows on this new class of devices," said Michael Dix, general manager of Windows client product management, in a Q&A posted on Microsoft's Web site.

Dell and other big-brand computer sellers, including Hewlett-Packard and Lenovo, have continued to preinstall Windows XP Professional on business-oriented machines by taking advantage of Windows Vista's downgrade rights. According to data from PC metrics vendor Devil Mountain Software, a third of new PCs are downgraded from Vista to XP Professional, either at the factory or by users after they buy.

The Inspiron Mini 9 can be purchased from Dell's online store. Dell is also running a special beginning Friday for U.S. customers only; people who purchase a Studio 15, XPS M1530 or XPS M1330 laptop through early Tuesday, Sept. 9, can also buy a Mini 9 for $99.

Comcast, the second-largest broadband provider in the United States, has filed a court appeal of a U.S. Federal Communications Commission ruling last month saying the company couldn't delay some peer-to-peer traffic on its network.

The FCC, on Aug. 1, voted 3-2 to prohibit Comcast from slowing BitTorrent p-to-p traffic in an effort to reduce network congestion. Commissioners voting against Comcast said the traffic throttling violated FCC net neutrality principles.

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Comcast on Thursday asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to review the FCC decision, saying the commission had no hard rules against the company's network management practices. The FCC's net neutrality principles, adopted in 2005, set out general guidelines, but no specific prohibitions, Comcast said.

Comcast filed the appeal to protect its legal rights and to "challenge the basis on which the commission found that Comcast violated federal policy in the absence of pre-existing legally enforceable standards or rules," David Cohen, Comcast's executive vice president, said in a statement. "We are compelled to appeal because we strongly believe that, in this particular case, the Commission's action was legally inappropriate and its findings were not justified by the record."

However, Comcast will abide by the FCC's order during the appeal, and it will continue with plans to move toward other network management techniques by the end of the year, Cohen added. "We will follow through on our long-standing commitment to transition to protocol-agnostic network congestion management practices by the end of this year," he said. "We also remain committed to bringing our customers a superior Internet experience."

Last week, Comcast announced it would put a 250GB-per-month bandwidth cap on residential customers. Customers may get a warning if they go over the monthly cap, and after their first warning, Comcast will suspend their service for a year if they go over the cap a second time.

That cap, which goes into effect Oct. 1, received mixed reactions, with some Internet users saying a cap is preferable to blocking or slowing specific applications. Some critics complained, however, that the cap could penalize certain types of subscribers, such as those who download movies frequently. The average Comcast user uses less than 3GB per month, Comcast said.

A spokesman for Public Knowledge, among the three organizations that asked the FCC to investigate the Comcast BitTorrent traffic throttling, said he was not surprised by the appeal. "We expected that they'd appeal," said Art Brodsky.

Comcast's traffic management was unveiled by press reports in late 2007. The company didn't tell its subscribers that it was slowing BitTorrent and other p-to-P traffic until the press reports. Comcast later said it was slowing p-to-p traffic only during times of network congestion, but FCC chairman Kevin Martin and some independent tests suggested Comcast was slowing that traffic around the clock.

Firefox 3 was released just this June, and many Firefox fans believe the new version is clearly the best browser you can get. You can make it even better with free add-ons, which integrate directly into the browser and offer loads of useful new features.

Want to increase your security and privacy, synchronize bookmarks among multiple PCs, dress up Firefox tabs, juice up Google, and more? Then I've got the add-ons you need. These 15 great downloads make the world's best browser even better -- and, like Firefox itself, they're free.

[ Slideshow: What are InfoWorld's Paul Venezia's picks for the best general-purpose and developer Firefox add-ons? ]

Foxmarks Bookmark SynchronizerIf you use Firefox on more than one PC, you most likely spend a lot of time trying to keep their bookmarks in synch, or else you've simply given up the attempt. Otherwise, every time you add, delete, or edit bookmarks on one PC, you have to remember to make the same changes on the others. Not a pretty picture.

The Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer solves the problem. Install this tool on each of your PCs, and then, with a click or two, you can synchronize any changes. In fact, you don't even need to click because you can set the program to synchronize automatically.

The utility offers other benefits as well. Your bookmarks are automatically backed up to a server, so if for some reason you lose them on your PCs, you can always restore them. You can also log into the Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer Web site and edit your bookmarks directly there. In addition, if you're using someone else's PC, you can use your bookmarks straight from the Foxmarks server.

Download Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer | Price: Free

Secure LoginIf you often log into Web sites and forget or lose your password, Secure Login will be a great time-saver. It directly integrates with Firefox's password manager, and will log you into any Web site without you having to remember or look up the password. When you're on a page that requires a login, simply click the icon. Better yet, use a hot-key combination to log in faster.

The program also helps keep you safe online -- it prevents hackers from stealing your passwords by halting malicious JavaScript code. It also protects against other password dangers, such as cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks.

Download Secure Login | Price: Free

BugMeNotRegistering with a Web site often means making a deal with the devil. You give the site information such as your name, e-mail address, and potentially more private data such as your mailing address, phone number, and age. But what happens with that information? You may be inundated by spam, your name may be sold to mailing lists and advertisers, and possibly worse. But for many Web sites, if you don't register, you can't log in and use the site.

This add-on solves the problem. Go to a Web site, right-click in the user name or password field, and select BugMeNot. A valid user name and password will then be entered into the form. You can then use the site without having to register. The add-on works in concert with the BugMeNot Web site, which has many user names and passwords for multiple sites.

Download BugMeNot | Price: Free

Better Gmail 2From my point of view, Gmail has one primary drawback -- it gives you little that you can customize. Basically, what Google gives you is what you get and nothing more. This add-on changes that. It lets you customize Gmail in a variety of ways including skinning it to change its colors and appearance, customizing the sidebar (for example, hiding the spam count), adding HTML signatures automatically to your mail, and more.

Download Better Gmail 2 | Price: Free

Adblock PlusDoes it seem as if the Internet has become the equivalent of a digital Las Vegas with flashing neon ads wherever you look? Banner ads, ads that are placed willy-nilly, videos that start without your permission -- these are just some of the things can distract you and make pages load more slowly.

The answer? Adblock Plus. This add-on blocks just about any ad, but still lets you view the content you want. It claims to eliminate 99 percent of ads on the Web, and that just might be true. When you first start the program, you have your choice of filters to use. If you're the extremely adventurous type, you can try to build your own, but you'll be much better off picking one that already exists. If you browse primarily English-language sites, just choose the EasyList (USA) option. If a banner somehow manages to make it through, right-click it, select Adblock from the context menu, and you won't see it again.

Download Adblock Plus | Price: Free

Sage-TooLooking to keep up with your favorite blogs, news sites, and other fast-changing information resources? You need an RSS reader, which grabs feeds in RSS formats, then lets you browse through and read only what you want. Sage-Too, an update of the venerable Sage reader, makes subscribing to, managing, and reading RSS feeds exceptionally easy. When you're on a page with an RSS feed, click a button, and Sage will find the feed for you and subscribe to it.

The reader itself is very slick, and displays the feeds inside Firefox, including graphics. You'll see a summary of each posting; to get to the full posting, click it. It is also easy to reorganize and automatically update your feeds. Plenty of display options exist, as well.

Download Sage-Too | Price: Free

Google PreviewGoogle may be the best search tool on the planet, but it's still missing a very useful feature -- the ability to preview a site before you visit it. A simple text listing and site description usually isn't enough.

Google Preview adds such a previewing capability to Google search results by displaying a thumbnail image of each site to the left of its description. That way, you can better see whether it's a site you want to go to. The add-on also offers site thumbnails when you search using Yahoo.

Download Google Preview | Price: Free

CustomizeGoogleIf you're a big user of Google (and face it, who isn't?), you'll want to install this add-on. It customizes Google in just about any way you could imagine, and no doubt in many ways you couldn't. For starters, it will block Google's ads as well as Google analytic cookies (some people believe these cookies invade their privacy). Additionally, it anonymizes your Google user ID.

That's just the beginning, though. The extension adds links in your Google search results to other search engines, such as Yahoo and Ask.com, among others. It will also filter out search results from Web sites known to be spammers, and it will let you customize not just Google, but its various sites and features such as Gmail and Google News. In short, if you're a Google user and want to tweak the way Google works, make sure to download this one.

Download CustomizeGoogle | Price: Free

FireFTPThe FTP file transfer protocol, one of the earlier ways of transferring files on the Internet, has plenty of life in it. Since many ISPs these days limit the size of files you can transfer via e-mail, FTP remains a very effective way of sharing files.

Normally, you shouldn't try using your browser to transfer files via FTP -- that's not what browsers are built for. But with FireFTP, you get the best of both worlds with a full FTP client right within Firefox itself. It has plenty of useful features, including the ability to compare directories and subdirectories, keeping directories in sync, and automatically reconnecting and resuming file transfers.

You may become somewhat confused the first time you use the program. Don't expect to type in an FTP location into the Firefox address bar and get FireFTP to work, because it won't. Instead, you have to first open FireFTP by choosing Tools, FireFTP. Then create a new account for each FTP site from a button on the top left-hand side of the screen. After that, it's all straightforward.

Download FireFTP | Price: Free

NoScriptOne of the best things about the Web -- its interactivity -- is also the most dangerous. Tools like JavaScript, Java, and Flash Silverlight make the Web a far more entertaining and useful place. But they can be used in malicious ways as well. You'd like to run only the good interactivity, and leave out the bad. Sounds impossible, doesn't it?

That's exactly what NoScript does: It blocks all JavaScript, Java, and Flash Silverlight scripts by default, and then lets you allow them to be run on safe sites. As you browse the Web, a small icon runs in the bottom right of your screen telling you the status of NoScript. If any scripts are being blocked, you'll be shown details in a bar at the bottom of the page. To customize how scripts should be run on the site, click the icon, and you'll be able to allow scripts through from the site or block them -- permanently or temporarily -- along with other options.

Download NoScript | Price: Free

Video Download HelperVideo sites such as YouTube and others are certainly entertaining, and at times even useful. But there's one problem with them: You can't download videos to your PC to play them later. You have to revisit the site each time you want to see a video.

Video DownloadHelper does away with this limitation. It will let you download videos from YouTube and many other sites and store them on your hard disk, so you can watch them whenever you want. When you're on a site, all you'll have to do is click the Video DownloadHelper icon and save the video. You can also do the same for graphics and audio clips.

Some video and music files can be quite large, so the program gives you the option of not downloading files over a certain size. It can also work with any video converter program that you may have installed to convert videos to more useful formats.

Download Video Download Helper | Price: Free

ColorfulTabsThere's no two ways around it -- Firefox's tabs are just plain dull. A bit like the Model T, they come in any color you want as long as they're the same shade of gray. If you'd like to dress up your tabs and make it easier to distinguish among them, you'll want this simple extension. You can either stick with the default colors, or choose your own color for each tab. You can even have the program remember the color for each URL you visit. You can control more than just the basic color of each tab. You can also have the colors fade, and you can even put a background color on each.

Will this add-on change your browsing life? No. Will it make it more visually pleasing? Without a doubt, and that's enough reason to give it a try.

Download ColorfulTabs | Price: Free

WOT (Web of Trust)It isn't news that the Web is full of innocent-seeming sites harboring bad intentions: Sites that host spyware or malware. Sites that spam you. Sites that scam you. Sites that invade your privacy, or that children shouldn't view.

Unfortunately, there's no simple way to tell the good sites from the bad. WOT, however, acts as just such a screener. It rates every site for trustworthiness, vendor reliability, privacy, and child safety, and shows you the results using simple, instantly interpretable colored icons (red for bad, green for good). When you do a search in Google or another Web site, you'll see the icons and know what you're in for if you visit. You can also visit the WOT rating for each site to see why it was given its rating.

It offers other protections as well. When you visit a site with a red rating, you first get a big warning on your screen. That way, you can either navigate away or click through at your own peril. And when you're on any Web site, click the WOT button in Firefox, and you'll be shown details about the site's rating as well.

Download WOT (Web of Trust) | Price: Free

Mini Map SidebarGoogle Maps and other mapping services are among the most useful sites on the Internet. But they do have one inconvenience: You have to visit them to get their information. Wouldn't it be nice if you could get mapping information no matter where you were on the Web?

The Mini Map Sidebar does just that. Open it as a Firefox sidebar, then drag and drop address names or links to it, and a map of them will open right in the sidebar. You have your choice of map services, including Google Maps, Yahoo Maps, and others. You can then zoom in or out, get directions--in short, do pretty much anything you can do on the mapping site itself. In fact, you can do even more because Mini Map Sidebar includes some nice extras such as traffic information.

Download Mini Map Sidebar | Price: Free

All-in-One SidebarThe Firefox sidebar is one of the browser's more useful tools, but most likely one of its least used. It serves plenty of purposes -- you can browse your history and view your bookmarks there, for instance. And many add-ons, such as Sage-Too, use it as well.

This clever tool lets you quickly switch among all your sidebar panels, and gives you a great deal of information about your Firefox use. Want to see your entire download history in the sidebar? It can do that. It will also show you all of your add-ons with details about each, give you information on the current page you're visiting, and more.

If you don't regularly use the Firefox sidebar, give this add-on a try, and you might change your mind. And if you do use it regularly, this one will be a keeper.

Download All-in-One Sidebar | Price: Free

Last word: You can find all the files in this story in this Editor's Downloads Collection.

PC World is an InfoWorld affiliate.

Vista, thy name is bloat! The latest Windows packs a lot of code -- more than any version of Windows ever -- and some of it is just plain unnecessary. All of that excess code has a way of slowing down an operating system. You can regain some PC performance by removing unneeded features.

I've identified a dozen Vista features that you can turn off right now. Some are shiny baubles that slow down graphics performance, while others are optional utilities that hog memory when they shouldn't. A few can actually be quite useful, though they play a major role in bogging down your PC.

[ Get the analysis and insights that only Randall C. Kennedy can provide on PC tech in InfoWorld's Enterprise Desktop blog. And download our free Windows performance-monitoring tool. ]

Should you really turn off all of the following features right this minute? That depends on your computer, your work habits, and your tastes. (I've turned off only seven and a half on my PC, because while none of these features are required for Vista to function, some are still kind of nice and my computer is fast enough to handle them.)

Just to be on the safe side, make sure to create a restore point before you turn any of the items off. That way you can quickly return your machine to its present state should you decide that you don't like the change. To make a restore point, click Start, type sysdm.cpl, and press Enter. Choose System Protection, Create, and then follow the prompts.

I list the features in the order that would make them easiest to turn off. For instance, I've put features that you can remove in the same dialog box next to each other.

SidebarYou pay a heavy performance price for the analog clock, thumbnail slide-show viewer, and Microsoft-centric RSS news feed that dock in the Windows Sidebar. Turning the whole thing off gives you a big speed boost, especially at boot time.

To remove the Sidebar, right-click anywhere on the Sidebar and select Close Sidebar. Uncheck Start Sidebar when Windows starts, and then click OK.

AeroMicrosoft put a lot of Vista's visual enhancements under one technological and marketing umbrella: Aero. Among those features are the thumbnails of your windows that appear when you hover the mouse pointer over the taskbar, as well as the Flip 3D view you get by pressing Windows-Tab. Aero adds a little practicality and a lot of panache to the Vista user interface, and personally, I like it.

If your PC is underpowered or overloaded, however, Aero may be more trouble than it's worth. To turn it off, right-click the Windows desktop and select Personalize, Window Color and Appearance. In the resulting "Window Color and Appearance" dialog box, click Open classic appearance properties for more color options (if you don't see the option, that means Aero is already turned off). Select Windows Vista Basic and click OK.

Assorted Interface Beautification OptionsYou can save some additional clock cycles by turning off all or some of Vista's pretty interface options, not all of which are directly connected to Aero.

To see the options, click Start, right-click Computer, and select Properties. Click the Advanced System Properties link, the Advanced tab, and then the Settings button inside the Performance box.

You can uncheck all of the listed options by selecting Adjust for best performance, or you can simply uncheck the ones you don't care for. I unchecked Fade or slide menus into view, Fade or slide ToolTips into view, Show shadows under menus, and Slide open combo boxes. The rest I left on.

Remote AssistanceDon't worry about turning this item off if you run Vista Home (Basic or Premium). You don't have it. If you run Vista Business or Ultimate, though, you can use Remote Assistance to control one PC from another--a useful tool if you regularly provide tech support for a relative living far away.

On the other hand, if you're not providing long-distance support, or if you prefer a third-party remote-control program, Remote Assistance is just a waste of resources. To get rid of it, click Start, right-click Computer, and select Properties. Click Remote Settings. Uncheck Allow Remote Assistance connections to this computer.

Internet Printing ClientDo you ever print documents over the Internet? Neither do I. Chances are, you won't miss out on anything by disabling Vista's Internet Printing Client.

Open the "Programs and Features" control panel and click the Turn Windows features on or off link on the left; you'll get the Windows Features dialog box. Expand the Print Services section and uncheck Internet Printing Client.

Click OK at this point, and then wait several more minutes for the system to ask to reboot. Or you can move to the next page and read the next three items in this article, which also use this dialog box.

Windows Meeting SpaceI like Windows' built-in peer-to-peer collaboration program, Meeting Space, which lets you share files across a network while editing them with a remote colleague. But I don't have any use for it in my daily life, and neither do most of the people I know.

So I shut Windows Meeting Space off. You can, too. Simply uncheck Windows Meeting Space while you're in the Windows Features dialog box. If you're not in the Windows Features dialog box, see the tip on the previous page for instructions on getting to it.

Windows Ultimate ExtrasOne of the best things you can do exclusively in Vista Ultimate Edition is turn off the really pointless features that are found exclusively in Vista Ultimate Edition. I refer, of course, to Ultimate Extras, a set of downloadable add-ons available only to Ultimate users. If you didn't pay for the most expensive version of Vista, these useless add-ons aren't a concern.

If you do own Ultimate, go to Windows Update (Start, All Programs, Windows Update), click View available updates, and check out all the worthless stuff Microsoft has made available exclusively to people who paid through the nose for the most bloated version of Vista.

As of this writing, the extras include a poker game, some BitLocker and EFS enhancements that hardly anyone uses, several sound schemes, and an odd tool called Windows DreamScene that lets you waste your precious system resources by using video as your wallpaper. If PC World ever asks me to write an article on pointless ways to slow down Vista, I'll start with DreamScene.

You can turn Windows Ultimate Extras off in the Windows Features control panel by clicking Turn Windows features on or off to open the Windows Features dialog box, and then unchecking Windows Ultimate Extras.

Tablet PC StuffI own a tablet PC, and I love Vista's tablet-oriented features -- especially the Input Panel for writing with the stylus. But if you don't have a tablet, these features are useless to you.

Turning off Vista's tablet features is a two-step process: Start in the Windows Features dialog box. If you're not already there, see the tip on the previous page for instructions on getting to it. Once there, simply uncheck Tablet PC Optional Components.

You complete the job in the Services window, which you open by clicking Start, typing services, and pressing Enter. Find and double-click Tablet PC Input Services. In the "Startup type" drop-down menu, select Disabled, and then click OK.

ReadyBoostIf you're not using this much-hyped Vista feature--which supposedly speeds up Vista by caching memory to a flash drive -- it's actually slowing your system down a tiny bit. (And if you are using ReadyBoost, it's probably still a drag on your PC. For an explanation, read "ReadyBoost Flash Drives Lack Significant Boost.")

You turn off ReadyBoost in Services. If you aren't already there, click Start, type services, and press Enter. Find and double-click ReadyBoost. In the "Startup type" drop-down menu, select Disabled, and then click OK.

Search IndexingThis one is a real trade-off. Turning off Vista's indexing will slow searches to a crawl -- I'm talking minutes, not seconds. But ditching this convenient feature could very likely speed up your general PC use significantly.

In other words, turning off indexing will help your PC's performance only if you seldom search by file content, or if you use a third-party search tool such as Copernic Desktop or Google Desktop (in which case you probably have two indexing routines running at the same time, which is an even bigger waste).

If you match either of those descriptions, turn off indexing by clicking Start, typing services, and pressing Enter. Find and double-click Windows Search. In the "Startup type" drop-down menu, select Disabled, and then click OK.

Offline FilesIf you work on files stored on a server somewhere, and you can't depend on that server always being available, Vista Business and Ultimate's Offline Files feature makes your life easier by copying the files to your hard drive and keeping them synced.

Of course, that sort of thing isn't for everybody, which is probably why Microsoft didn't include Offline Files in the Home editions of Vista. But if you have Business or Ultimate and still don't need Offline Files, turn it off by clicking Start, typing services, and pressing Enter. Find and double-click Offline Files. In the "Startup type" drop-down menu, select Disabled, and then click OK.

Windows Error Reporting ServiceEvery time Windows experiences an error -- either with its own processes or with a third-party program -- it offers to report the problem to Microsoft. In theory, doing so can help the company locate problems with its OS (and heaven knows that would be a good thing). But more than likely, your report will either go unresolved or just end up in a big ol' pile of other people's reports on the same problem. Either way, you're wasting your system's precious resources on a feature that isn't doing you any good.

To disable this unhelpful service, open the Services window: Click Start, type services, and press Enter. Find and double-click Windows Error Reporting Service. In the "Startup type" drop-down menu, select Disabled, and then click OK.

UAC: Boon or Bloat?One of Windows Vista's most controversial new features is User Account Control (UAC), which attempts to protect your system from malware by forcing you to authorize certain system-altering actions by clicking through a dialog box from time to time. To some people, this feature is an unwanted annoyance that must be eliminated. Other users appreciate the added security. While I wouldn't go so far as to lump UAC in with the other wasteful features in this article, I can certainly understand why some folks would like to turn it off -- or at least minimize its intrusive behavior. For tips on taming UAC, see Scott Dunn's excellent article "Annoyance Buster: Make Vista's User Account Control Work for You."

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Red Hat has expanded its support for virtualization technologies with the acquisition of Israeli software company Qumranet, developer of the open-source KVM (kernel-based virtual machine) project, for $107 million.

KVM is an extension to the Linux kernel that allows it to be used as a "bare-metal" hypervisor, running directly on the underlying hardware and hosting guest operating systems, said Red Hat CTO Brian Stevens.

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Hypervisors allow several operating systems to run independently on the same processor at the same time, with the hypervisor managing resources and ensuring that they don't interfere with one another. Depending on the technology used, the operating systems may be different from one another, or different instances of the same operating system.

A closer hold on KVM will be useful for Red Hat, which announced in June that it is building an embedded hypervisor with Web-based management capabilities, Ovirt, based on the software.

"Through this acquisition, Red Hat is assuring that KVM will remain open," Stevens said Thursday, on a conference call with the press.

Red Hat also sees the acquisition as a way to maintain a lead in the market.

"VMware runs on a version of Linux, and Citrix runs on a clone of Red Hat. Both companies need to wait for Red Hat to introduce new features," Stevens said.

Until now, Red Hat has concentrated its virtualization efforts on a rival open-source hypervisor, Xen. That project is hosted by XenSource, a company acquired in 2007 by Citrix Systems.

However, Red Hat will continue to provide support for Xen to users of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 at least until 2014, and will continue to contribute to development of the Xen project, Stevens said.

Qumranet also develops Solid ICE, a virtual desktop infrastructure that allows enterprises to host multiple virtual Windows and Linux desktop operating systems on a server running KVM.

All Qumranet employees, including the executive team, will join Red Hat, the companies said.

"We see this as a great opportunity to extend the KVM vision. We couldn't find a better partner for KVM and Solid ICE," Qumranet CEO Benny Schnaider on the same conference call.