I’m not sure why you would want this, but a new app called PageRage will let dress up your Facebook profile so it looks more like a profile found on MySpace instead. (Yikes!) That’s too bad because one of the nicest things about Facebook is it’s clean and simple look and feel, without the busy backgrounds and image-heavy designs that are so prevalent throughout MySpace.

With the new Facebook app PageRage, you now can customize your Facebook profile with new themes that change both the background and the color schemes of your Facebook profile page. Some of these themes are basic, solid backgrounds, but others are quite busy.

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If you have a Windows Home Server then you’ve probably been having fun trying out the numerous add-ins that have been made available for WHS users. These add-ins let you do all kinds of things from running Outlook to syncing your TV shows from Media Center to listening to the radio and so much more. But what if you’ve been having a little too much fun and have overloaded your server with add-ins? Or, even worse, what if you installed an add-in that wasn’t quite ready for prime time and now it won’t uninstall?Well now there’s an add-in for that!

The Add-In Cleanup Tool helps you clean and uninstall up whichever add-ins you need to get rid of. It will even remove them from the registry, too, after first doing a backup. The tool is installed via Remote Desktop by connecting to your WHS and putting the file ‘addincleanup.exe’ into the C:\Program Files\Windows Home Server folder. You can then choose to add the shortcut to your desktop, if desired. The tool is a free download available from here (zip file).  (via We Got Served)

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Anyone who runs Windows is familiar with Task Manager, the program that shows you which applications and processes are running as well as displaying real-time statistics as to how much CPU and memory those programs are using, among other things. I knew that there were programs available (like our very own Sysinternals app Process Explorer) that let you see far more info than what Task Manager displayed, but I didn’t know that you could actually upgrade Task Manager itself. 

However, it turns out that there is an add-on for Task Manager called Task Manager Extension which will add more features to this program. With Task Manager Extension installed, you’ll have new features like icons in the processes window, Windows processes will be greyed-out so you’ll know to leave them alone, and you’ll have tons more features from the right-click menu including options for displaying the system path and time the process has been running.

I think for casual users a simple tool like this would be much more friendly to use than Process Explorer, for example. Unfortunately, this program only works on XP and lower, and not on XP 64 or Vista. How disappointing! If anyone knows of any similar program for Vista users, please let me know.

(thanks DownloadSquad)

A recent post on the Windows Vista Blog provides info on a great new resource for Media Center PC users just in time for the vice-presidential debates tonight: Election News! Under the TV + Movies section in Media Center, you’ll now see a new title called MSNBC News Beta. This title will be available to Vista Home Premium and Ultimate users in the U.S. and Canada.

Here, you’ll find a selection of MSNBC’s top stories and weather listings, including Editor’s Picks and Most Popular videos. Under the Politics section, there’s a category for “Decision ‘08” where videos pertaining to the current U.S. Presidential elections will be displayed.  As you browse through the videos, you may notice a plus sign “+” appears when you click on a video. Using this plus sign, you can create your own custom news video playlist which you can play back any time you want. There’s nothing to download to start using this new feature so you can simply begin using it the next time you run Media Center.

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According to a recent article in the Seattle Times, a poll of Xbox Live users showed that gamers prefer Obama. The presidential poll, a part of Rock the Vote’s new partnership with Microsoft, returned results showing that 43% of gamers would vote Obama, 31% would vote McCain, 13% were undecided, and another 13% were “Other.” Perhaps they support Master Chief?

No matter what your political preference, you have to applaud the effort of the joint Microsoft/Rock the Vote campaign and how they’re using the Xbox platform as way to reach out to young voters.

Through Xbox Live, gamers can download Obama or McCain Gamerpics and add them to their Xbox Live profile. There are also voter registration forms and info and Rock the Vote videos. Gamers don’t have to hunt through the various blades within Xbox to find the content, either. Thanks to banner ads right on the dashboard, the content is only a click…errr…a button press…away. 

To date, more than 55,000 voter registration forms have been downloaded through the service. That’s a pretty impressive number given the typically apathetic nature of young voters. It’s a testament to not only the efforts of the Rock the Vote campaign, but also those of the newest generation of young voters.

Generation Y, the first generation of “digital natives” is finally old enough to vote so Rock the Vote is trying to reach them on the platforms where they’re known to congregate: on blogs, on YouTube, on Facebook, on MySpace, on flickr, and on the Xbox, too.

There has been much said about this generation; their use of technology, their unique work ethic, their lack of brand loyalty, and their commitment to social change are a few of the hottest Gen Y topics. When it comes to social change, the U.S. election will be the first real test of whether this generation is paying more than lip service to their ideals. Will they actually go out there and vote? We’ll just have to wait and see. But if Rock the Vote can get tens of thousands of new voters engaged enough with the political process when they were just planning on chilling out with an Xbox game, then they are doing something right.  

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