And Windows Vista is the worst. Since getting my new Vista machine about a year ago, it’s given me nothing but headaches — even after regularly fine-tuning it and scanning for registry and other issues with great apps like System Mechanic. My 5-year-old XP machine typically runs faster, so I often switch to it while Vista is experiencing some performance problem.

That all changed almost instantly today when I happened to discover the profound impact that Windows Visual Effects can have on the degradation of system performance.

Although they’re nice to have, I really don’t care about all the silly Visual Effects like the following:

• Animate controls and elements inside windows
• Fade or slide menus into view
• Show shadows under mouse pointer
• Show translucent selection triangle
• Use drop shadows for icon labels on the desktop

All these Visual Effects just add up to slowing the performance of your system.

If you really want Windows Vista to fly and get incredibly fast performance — to have your computer really live up to the potential of its processor speed — then disable the Windows Visual Effects.

Here’s how to disable the Windows Visual Effects in Vista:

1. Click the Start menu.
2. Type (or copy & paste) systempropertiesadvanced.
3. Hit Enter.
4. The Advanced tab of System Properties displays.
5. Under the Performance section, click Settings:
   
6. On the first tab, Visual Effects, select the radio button to Adjust for best performance:
   
7. Click Apply and wait a few minutes while your system adjusts the settings.

It may look shocking at first — just like Windows 98, in fact — but you’ll notice an immediate boost in speed that, to me, is well worth the sacrifice in aesthetics.

And, of course, you can play with re-enabling the various Visual Effects settings, if there are some settings you can’t live without. For example, if you like seeing photo thumbnails in Windows Explorer, make sure you re-enable the option to Show thumbnails instead of icons.

You do lose out on some cool Vista features I’ve gotten used to, like being able to Alt-Tab and click your desired application, but I’m willing to live without that.

And you can still set your display to ClearType after you make this change, too:

1. Click Show desktop.
2. Right-click on your desktop and select Personalize.
3. Click Window Color and Appearance.
4. Click Effects and select the checkbox to Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts (notice my sweet new Windows 98-style window in below screenshot):
   
5. Select ClearType from the drop-down menu and click OK.

Enjoy having an insanely fast Windows Vista experience!

Note: One issue I noticed after disabling all Visual Effects is that Chrome kept crashing. But installing the Chrome Beta fixed that problem (thanks, @articulatebrian, for that Chrome Beta tip).

I already had a Garmin Connect account and had even used it to successfully upload some old data off my FR 305 way back when, so I almost immediately jumped on the news and started uploading all of my more recent runs to the site. I was immediately hooked.

Along with basic run data like your total distance, pace per mile, and more, you get to visualize data like the following:

• Elevation
• Heart rate (I just re-ordered the heart rate monitor I lost last year in Puerto Rico)
• Speed

You can review all the cool Garmin Connect features here.

One of the coolest features is the ability to Replay Activities, which allows you to play back your run while you watch your route on an integrated Google Map, and your changing pace, elevation, and distance traveled.

You can track goals, see split data, and run reports. You can customize the name, description, and type of each activitiy, and choose whether each one should be public or private, so that you can share links to your runs with your friends, or keep them private.

As a technology guy who’s also hooked on running (training for my third marathon this summer), I love this stuff. I just finished off a record month today (215.8 miles) with a 15-mile run. And now, with Garmin Connect, I can analyze my run data like never before.

Google acquired the company for more than $50 million in 2007 and just recently relaunched the service as Google Voice, adding some cool new features. Currently, only those of us with GrandCentral accounts who activate Google Voice can use it, but you can request an invite here (or try to buy an account on eBay).

In the meantime, here are some of the highlights of Google Voice:

• All incoming calls to one number: Though I haven’t jumped on board yet, I could give out my single number to everyone I know, and control when and where those calls ring.
• Custom ring schedules: One of the really cool things about Google Voice is that you can set up custom ring schedules for each of your phones. For example, if I’m using Google Voice to direct work-related calls to my home number, I probably only want that to happen during weekday business hours and not on weekends. Done. Likewise, if I’m traveling and don’t want to miss a call from my customers, I probably want to have my Google Voice number go directly to my iPhone and not even bother ringing my home number. Done.

  

• Free outgoing calls: Call anywhere in the U.S. free of charge. Other people will even see your Google Voice number as the caller ID number. And like Skype, there are nominal charges for international calls.
• SMS Messages: You can send and receive text messages right through your Google Voice account. I tested this using my account on my iPhone with a friend and his iPhone, and it worked great. It was smart enough to use the iPhone text messaging app and to display the text as coming from my Google Voice number.
• Call groups: Using your Google contacts and groups, you can control whose calls ring which of your phones. So if I always want calls from friends and family to ring through only to my iPhone and even play a particular voicemail greeting, I can do so.

  

• Voicemail transcription: If you miss a call or have it sent directly to voicemail, get an email with the transcribed voicemail and a link to the message. You can even opt to receive notification of new voicemails via text message.

Gmail-style user interface: The entire Google Voice experience is managed through a slick, Gmail-like interface that will be familiar to anyone who already uses Gmail:

Lots more features are outlined here.

Google loves to be the inbox for the world’s information, and the company is giving us a lot of incentive to make the switch and manage all of our incoming calls through Google Voice. I’m likely going to make the jump.

Read TechCrunch’s recent review of Google Voice here.

Unlike many of those emails people forward to you, this virus is real and if you’re using a Windows PC, it doesn’t hurt to take some quick preventive measure. You can Google it to learn more, or check out this CNET FAQ.

The two best things you can do are the following:

1. Make sure you run Windows Auto Update.
2. Run the BitDefender Removal Tool (either the Web-based version on the left of that page or the downloadable EXE version) to scan your system and, if necessary, remove the virus.

After you run the scan, if you see something like this, you’re good to go:

So spread the word and make this virus a non-issue.

(Thanks, Adam, for the heads-up.)

I launched the app, typed in my user credentials, clicked the “Activate” button, and thought I was on my way to a quick and easy way of using salesforce.com wherever I was. But lo and behold, I was presented with an error screen.

I replied to the email from salesforce.com that had promoted the new “Lite” version of the app — a smart move on the company’s part since previously salesforce.com was charging for mobile use and it just didn’t seem worth it for my company to pay them even more than we already are just to access our data from an iPhone app — and my first instinct was to type the details of the error message from my iPhone into the email.

“Wait,” I thought, “that’s silly.”

The iPhone is a Web device with a very simple and handy feature: Screen capture. Just as you can do at your computer (using built-in OS features on your Mac or PC, or using an even more powerful tool like SnagIt), the iPhone allows you to take screenshots of whatever you see on screen (haven’t you always wondered how they get those screenshots into all those reviews?).

Here’s how to take iPhone screenshots:

1. Hold down the home button.
2. Press and release the sleep button (top right of device).
3. You’ll hear a camera click and the screen will flash white.
4. Go to your Camera Roll and voila! There’s your new screenshot (saved as a .JPG photo).
5. Tap the photo and email it away.

So that’s exactly what I did when I got that Salesforce Mobile error. Rather than describing the problem to salesforce.com support, I showed them this screenshot:

Enjoy!

On my Windows computers, I’ve started using a “Junk” folder at the root level of my hard drive (C:\Junk) with a corresponding alias / shortcut on my desktop to stash all the temporary files with which I work during the day and don’t want cluttering up my desktop. It also allows me to save disk space by regularly purging the folder’s contents, and not including unnecessary files in my automated backups (via Mozy).

I do, however, keep a handful of program and folder shortcuts on my desktop. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to keep those organized — and even hidden or displayed with just a double-click on the desktop?

With a really cool little utility called Fences, now you can.

After installation, Fences offers to organize your current desktop items for you: It groups them into logical categories and creates virtual “fences” around each group, giving you the ability to move each group of icons where you want it on your desktop.

Then you can double-click to make all fences invisible, giving you that clean desktop. You can even specify which fences or individual icons you don’t want to hide.

It’s a simple concept, but really goes a long way in helping you feel more organized when working on your computer.

(Thanks, Adam, for the tip.)

I’d heard of Microsoft OneNote and had even tried it out way back when, but didn’t like that all the notes and information I created were “stuck” on my local computer and not accessible via any Web browser.

Enter  Evernote — it was like a Web-based version of OneNote, Tim said, where your data gets indexed, tagged, and even OCR’d (Optical Character Recognition), such that any text in documents you scan gets automatically converted to digital text and searchable in your account. I was intrigued.

I soon signed up for a free account and have found Evernote to be even better than I expected. The idea is simple and the tagline is really true: Remember everything. The application creates a timeline of documents for you, so that you can get a virtual history book of your digital life for everything you input to it — be it simple notes, task lists, PDF docs, photos you take (e.g., wine labels, birthday cards, business cards etc.).

Say you have a stack of business cards you don’t want laying around. Just scan them all (or take photos of them), upload them to your Evernote account, add some tags (or let the OCR do its thing), and you can always search for these business cards alongside every other piece of information in your life.

You can input via a number of methods:

• Web app
• Desktop app (Windows or Mac)
• Mobile device (iPhone or Windows Mobile)

I did, of course, immediately install the Evernote iPhone app and it’s quickly become one of my favorites.

As outlined on the company’s site, I can capture a number of different input types via my iPhone from anywhere, enabling me to do all of the following:

• Create and edit new notes on the fly
• Snap a photo right into your account
• Record a quick voice memo
• Easily access all of your notes
• Select notes for offline viewing

The sync between the iPhone app and my Web-based account happens almost immediately. I can then jump into my Web account and email myself (or anyone else) any of my notes, reminders, or documents.

The basic account is free and allows 40 MB of uploads per month. The premium account is $5/month or $45/year and gives you 500 MB of uploads per month, additional file type support, stronger security, and more. I haven’t upgraded to premium yet, but the more I start using and depending on Evernote, the more likely it is that I’ll upgrade.

Start organizing and remembering all those little inputs in your life today.

Happy New Year!

Since my first interaction with it during its beta period, Mint.com has consistently impressed me and stood above the rest, for its simplicity, comprehensiveness, and ease of use.

Plus, it’s almost totally automated: You configure your accounts once and from then on, it automatically downloads and categorizes all of your transactions and account balances for all your cash, credit, and even investment accounts.

Along with being very secure, Mint.com provides a number of other great features:

• One-time setup (followed by automatic updating of accounts)
• Automatic expense categorization (you can tweak)
• Accessible anywhere (all you need is an Internet connection & a Web browser… or iPhone)
• Beautiful, interactive charts (in the Trends tab)
• Suggestions on ways to save (better credit card offers, etc.)
• Lots more…

Mint.com won the TechCrunch 2007 and since last year, I’ve really seen lots of improvements in the site (no doubt the $17 million of venture capital funding helps).

Every time I spent a little time with Mint.com, I question while I’m still using Quicken (maybe for the historical data?). Intuit keeps trying to get me to pay for an upgrade to Quicken 2009, but rather than doing that, maybe I’ll just invest more time in what Mint.com offers for free.

There’s even a new iPhone app for Mint.com, which I’ve already installed and is really cool in providing a snapshot of your finances, details on recent transactions, etc.:

Intuit now offers its Quicken Online free of charge, likely in an effort to compete with Mint.com and other free online financial management apps.

 How to Configure Windows Vista to Login Automatically:

1. Go to the Start menu and type netplwiz in the Start Search field.
2. Hit Enter and the advanced User Accounts dialog will open.
3. Highlight your primary user in the list and uncheck the box Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer:
   
4. Click OK.
5. Type in your Password and again in the Confirm Password field:
   
6. Click OK.

That’s it! From now on, when you restart your computer or turn it on, you won’t have to worry about typing in your password.

But I digress.

The coolest app I’ve seen in a while and which I bought earlier this week is Ocarina, billed as “the first true musical instrument created for the iPhone.” Further, “Ocarina is sensitive to your breath, touch and movements, making it even more versatile than the original.”