Welcome Improvements to Gmail, Your Desktop, Video IM

Check Gmail in a snap, keep or change your desktop to suit your tastes, and enjoy video communication for free.

Laura Blackwell, PC World

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The software and services you use probably work well enough, but wouldn't you prefer that they work better? This month, we look at a Gmail enhancer, a tool to make your Windows desktop more comfortable, and a big improvement to an already-excellent video communicator. Two are free, and one offers a free trial, so there's nothing to lose in checking them out.

Got Gmail? Check, Please!

Checking an empty e-mail box can make anybody feel like Charlie Brown on Valentine's Day. With Google's free Gmail Notifier, you can avoid pointless log-ins to your Gmail account.

Still in beta (just like Gmail), the Notifier takes the form of an envelope icon in your Windows system tray. When you receive e-mail, the subject header and sender info pop up for a moment. If you miss the moment, you'll still get the message: The light blue lines on the icon turn to a dark blue. Right-clicking the icon scores info about the most recent e-mail message--or you can just dive in to check your messages.

Of course, if you have Google Talk, you already have a way to receive Gmail alerts. Google Talk, Google's instant messenger, requires a Gmail account but is also free of charge (and also continues Google's apparent tradition of public beta testing). For more on this instant messenger, read PC World Editor-in Chief Harry McCracken's early look in his Techlog and Narasu Rebbapragada's review.

If you have Gmail Notifier and install Google Talk, a dialog box will ask if you want to keep both programs, which your PC can do with no ill effects.

Display Your Desktop the Way You Like

No matter much you customize your Windows desktop, it gets fractious at times. Icons wander. The screen changes to an awkward resolution. And the desktop itself can flicker disconcertingly while the computer draws it. UIFriend gives you a smoother-loading, easier-to-customize desktop--even on dual monitor setups.

UI Friend addresses problems relating to the sometimes harrowing experiences of starting up or toggling between programs. These include flickering images that can abuse your eyes and programs that, when launched, appear to be only half there for a few heart-stopping seconds. You see these unsettling images because your PC can draw only so much at once; sometimes it takes a breather before finishing. UIFriend eases this process with a double-buffering system that draws the entire image before displaying it.

If you share your PC with someone who prefers a different screen resolution, UIFriend can help you keep your desktop intact. Fast user switching (already part of Windows XP) lets you change user profiles in a snap. When you right-click UIFriend's system tray icon, you can select "Switch User" to bring up the Windows log-on screen and switch profiles. In addition, UIFriend saves resolution options for each user. If you don't use separate Windows profiles, you can switch resolutions from a list that pops up from UIFriend's system tray icon, instead of digging through Control Panel's Display settings to change it.

It's good that UIFriend can help your PC tell one user from another, but the software doesn't stop there. UIFriend recognizes dual monitors as separate entities. When I installed UIFriend, a second icon popped up; UIFriend allowed me to configure my two monitors with different resolutions.

UIFriend also saves your icon layout so you can corral them when they meander from their places. (But if this is the only UIFriend feature that interests you, download the free Icon Restore instead.)

Intrepix offers a 30-day free trial of UIFriend. To keep it running after that, you'll need to register the product for $20.

Noteworthy Update

I've long been fond of World Class award winner SightSpeed, an easy-to-use video conversation tool with accurate lip syncing. Now in version 4.0, SightSpeed has beefed up its free Basic plan to include free unlimited video calling and free unlimited video mail. If the 15-minute limit of the earlier offering kept you from trying SightSpeed, now's the time to check it out.

PC World Associate Editor Narasu Rebbapragada contributed to this story.