In Windows it's not so obvious that frequency scaling is taking place. I'd be interested to know how many people knew that their laptop CPU's in Windows seldom run at full speed. The other day I found a application for Windows that sits in the system tray and not only shows the current frequency, but also allows you to switch CPU schemes easily. Speedswitch XP is a great addition for any Windows power user. I love being able to see the current CPU frequency and change the frequency scheme at will.

Let me know of any other useful utilities for Windows that you have run across.

I found VirtuaWin - Virtual Desktops for Windows that allows me to do the same thing in Windows. Now I can have my myriad of applications open, all in their own desktop.

The same basic efficiency is what irks me when I try to delete a file on a Windows computer. First, you highlight the file. Then you press delete. Then you confirm that you really do want to recycle the file. Finally, you empty the recycle bin, only to be prompted again on whether you really want to delete those files. YES, dangit! Delete the files!

A single confirmation is still a good idea, so here is how to bypass most of those steps and just get rid of the files: press shift-delete. Yep, that's it. You will still be asked to confirm, but this time your actions cannot be undone. The file(s) will be gone forever, without seeing the recycle bin.

For the Linux world there is something else you can use called "lsof." See here for a good article covering its use.

Happy process hunting!

* Norton PartitionMagic is a trademark of Symantec

The problem is that occasionally I need to mount an ISO image so I can access it like a normal CD-ROM. In Linux this is easy, but Windows does not come with any utilities to do this. Buried deeply within the Microsoft web site is this page, which mentions:

Mounting ISO files virtually
The following tool for Windows XP allows image files to be mounted virtually as CD-ROM/DVD-ROM devices. This tool is provided here for your convenience, and is unsupported by Microsoft Product Support Services.

• Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel for Windows XP

Contained within that self-extracting archive are two files: VCdControlTool.exe and VCdRom.sys. What I like about the Microsoft solution is that you don't need to load a driver at system startup, and you can load/unload this driver at any time.

To mount an ISO image:

• First (obviously) double-click VCdControlTool.exe to start the program. You will be presented with the following dialog
  
• Click on "Driver Control" then "Install Driver"
• You will be presented with a "Open" dialog where you choose the driver. Navigate to where you extracted VCdRom.sys and open that file.
• Now, click "Start" and the driver will be fully loaded and activated.
  
• Click "OK"
• Now, from the first dialog click "Add Drive"
• Click "Mount" and navigate to the ISO you would like to mount as a drive
• You can now see this new "drive" and use it like you would any other CD-ROM drive
• At this point you are free to exit from this program. The driver and ISO image will still remain.

To unmount the ISO and remove the driver:

• Start VcdControlTool.exe again
• In the list of drives highlight the one that you mounted and then click "Eject"
• Now click "Remove Drive"
• Go to "Driver Control"
• Click "Stop"
• Click "Remove Driver"

There are a lot of steps to remember, but once you've used it a time or two you'll get the hang of it. Like I said, I like this solution because there are no programs to install -- just copy the exe and .sys files to wherever you want to keep them. This driver can also be unloaded at will and doesn't need to startup at boot time. I know there are lots of other ISO image mounting programs for Windows. Most are commercial (you actually have to pay for it -- gasp!) and have more features, but for what I do this is all I need.