Luckily there are several utilities that can enhance the standard Windows file dialog.

Traditionally, File-Ex (for $19.95) was one of the best. It adds lists of favourite and recently used locations to the bottom of the file window. But sadly it doesn’t work with Vista and there’s no sign it will be updated to do so.

FileBox Extender, which is free, adds some extra buttons to the title bar at the top of the open and save windows, giving a selection of favourite and last-used locations. These are remembered automatically and you can configure favourites yourself.

Two other buttons let you roll up a window to just the title bar — which is handy if you want a quick look at something behind — and another ‘pins’ the window so it’s always on top. Also FileBox Extender can be set to open the dialogs at a much larger size than standard.

Folder Guide is more basic, but still very useful. It appears in the menu when you right-click in the open or save window and you can choose from a list of destinations which you have set yourself.

I use FileBox Extender and Folder Guide and there seem to be no problems running both.

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I log out of my main Facebook profile and create a new silly profile for a laugh. I click in the email they send me to confirm and immediately there is a message in the new profile saying that David (one of my existing friends on the main profile) has added me as a friend. I confirm his request.

Except that he never did. How could he add the silly profile as a friend when I had only just created the profile a minute earlier and he knew nothing about it?

So, full access to David’s profile when he never actually added me as a friend. Meanwhile David had disappeared as a friend on the main profile but reappeared later.

I message David from the silly profile and he replies ‘who the *@#! are you — I never added you!’.

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I tried the latest version recently and the few niggles I had previously have all have been ironed out. I can honestly say that if I used my PC for writing letters and running my business, surfing and chatting, watching videos and listening to music, there’s absolutely no doubt I’d be on Blag right now and saying goodbye to Microsoft.

The sad fact is that Linux has nothing to match Vegas Video for video editing and Dreamweaver for web development. Two tools I simply can’t do without.

I know some Linux enthusiasts will point to NVU for HTML and CineLerra for video, but I’ve looked at those and they simply aren’t up to the job for one reason or another.

As I remember the horribly invasive player that is Apple Quicktime for Windows, I was in two minds about whether to try Safari. But I did…

Well it’s a piece of junk so far. When I start it, the top menus have white text on a white background, so I can’t see or do anything.

OK so it’s a beta. It may be fixed next time. Maybe it’s some quirk of my system. But I can’t remember the last time I tried beta software and it presented me with a bug as stupid as this one.

So safari has been uninstalled. I’ll stick with Opera and Firefox.

Other reviews say it seems like a ‘rushed if not a botched’ job.

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What if I happened to be on dial-up right now and needed to have a quick chat with someone? Who wants to be forced to download a 10Mb file over a dial-up connection and install it before they can make a call?

I really don’t like control-freak companies. This is my PC and I will decide what ‘must’ be upgraded and when.

Furthermore new versions of software aren’t always better. They can be bloated, less stable and even have fewer features in some cases. In fact there are websites that provide old versions precisely for that reason.

I’ll think I’ll be sticking to voice chat on MSN from now on.

This is great. It can grab a full length web page, scrolling if necessary. Free for personal use.

I like to keep copies of the pages I design.

Also today I discovered that Opera 9 can save a web page as a self contained web archive file (.wht extension).