One thing that has always annoyed us about Windows is how it brings up an AutoPlay menu asking if we’d like to burn a disc, watch a movie, or perform some other action. Or if you have selected an option, Windows may just automatically launch a program.

To our relief CleanHandler came along. It is a freeware program that helps you remove or fix entries from the AutoPlay menu. Sadly there’s no option for adding new programs to the AutoPlay menu. If your media player of choice doesn’t support AutoPlay, there’s not much CleanHandler can do. But it can clean up bad registry entries.

Go download it

eBay has just release eBay Desktop 1.0. Right after Adobe Air 1.0. Which they did purposely. It provides a desktop alternative to the eBay website. eBay users can use it to search, browse, bid, keep track of their auctions, and more. And because it uses Adobe AIR, it runs on both Windows and Max OS X.

The eBay Desktop installer is just 7 MB (Adobe AIR installer included). Installation was fast and simple, starting up the program was a little difficult because it crashed, but it finally opened.

When you first start the program, you are shown a video introduction to the eBay desktop. The eBay desktop home page allows you to track all your bidding and watching activity, and there are separate tabs for finding items, tracking and paying for your winning bids, and a feeds tab.

eBay has spent some time creating this program, and it shows. The user friendliness is a major plus. One drawback is some features are not available for sellers. Sellers are not able to track the items they’re selling or past sales.

If you love to customize your computer, we have the program for you. Vista Visual Master 1.0.2, a freeware program created by Vista123.net. The program features the most sought after tweaks for Vista and offers them up in a small package.

Vista Visual Master offers great customization, including the ability to:

Remove the arrows from the shortcut icons
Show the Windows version of your desktop (who doesn’t want a jumbled mass of numbers in the bottom corner of their screen?)
Change system and file icons
Change the boot and logon screens

Vista Visual Master also features a boot screen file creator, making it possible to create a boot screen using any image of your choice.

Vista Visual Master is freeware and supports Vista only, Doh.

Download it

Have you ever thought that your mouse pointer should have a look? Well now it can. CursorFX, is a new mouse cursor customization program from Stardock, gives your mouse pointer some style.

CursorFX, formerly CursorXP, changes the look of the pointer and adds support for fluid animations, alpha blending, effects, real-time shadowing, color changing, trails, and much more. The newest version now is compatiable with Windows Vista and also works with XP and includes many new feature enhancements and fixes.

CursorFX comes in two versions a free version and a Plus version ($19.95). The free version will work for most users, but those who want even more features can buy the Plus version.

Mozilla recently released the third update of Firefox this month, version 2.0.0.11, which fixs a stability problem. Like always Mozilla strongly recommends that users upgrade to the latest version.

The Firefox browser update came soon after version 2.0.0.8, released October 18, version 2.0.0.9 from November 1, and version 2.0.0.10 from November 26.

Like we said before, Firefox 3 Beta 1, is not recommend. Unless you are a user that does not mind running a buggy program.

DeskUNPDF Pro is a PDF converter. It can covert office documents, pictures, and much more to PDF format. There are already free converters available, some we like are Primopdf, and doPDF. They are easy to use and get the job done.

The thing that the free ones do not do is convert PDF files to other formats. DeskUNPDF Pro which came out today lets users convert PDF files to DOC, ODT, XLS, CSV, XML, HTML, xHTML, SVG, BMP, PNG, TIF, and JPEG formats. The price for this piece of software will cost you $60.00. But it is worth it for people who need to convert many documents quickly. We will stick with the free alternatives.

Rating:

Version tested: 2.5.1

Most of us laptop users are concerned about battery life. For Apple users there now is a utility called CoconutBattery.

This tiny utility lets you know about the battery in your computer, like what the current battery charge is and whether the battery is currently charging or not. But it also tells you some out of the ordinary information, like the maximum battery charge & current battery capacity, and original battery capacity, all in mAh.

It also is able to tell you how old your Mac is, and how many times the battery has been recharged. Great info from a little app.

Compatibility: Mac OS

Rating:

Version tested: 1.0.1

Any Audio Converter is a freeware audio converter. It allows you convert audio files between MP3, WMA, ACC, or OGG audio format. It can also demux (extract) audio tracks from most video files, including FLV and DVD video VOB files, and provides a preview screen so you can set beginning and end points for audio extraction from a video.

Features:

Converts audio files from one format to another

Lets you specify frequency, number of channels, bitrate and other parameters of your output files before you convert your audio files

Allows you to apply fine tuning of parameters for MP3 and OGG formats when you convert your audio

Converts files in batches (including videos).

Visually judge the progress of the audio conversion process

Displays the audio bitrate for input files

Allows you to modify extra text information in existing audio files such as Title, Artist, Album, Comment.

Compatibility: Windows 2000, XP, Vista.

Via Freegenius