Free software, take 2

I really dislike the search feature in Windows XP:

• click on the Start button,
• then find the Search link on the right side of the menu,
• then click on "files and folders on this computer" (or whatever that link is called),
• and then enter part of the file name in the search field.

Well, the standard Search function is now a thing of the past. Or at least, it can be. Introducing Windows Search 4, a spectacularly better search tool. And it's from Microsoft! I'm sure there's a reason that it's now a standard part of XP, and I'm sure I can't imagine what that reason is. Windows Search 4 puts a search field in the task bar at the bottom of the screen. It's always there, just waiting for you to use it. You search for a file just by clicking in the search field and entering your search terms. Simple, no? But the best news: Those search terms don't have to be part of a file name; they can be any words in a file. Looking for your recipe that uses coconut milk? Type 'coconut milk' into the search field, and in a few seconds a window pops up to tell you that the recipe is a file called 'Salmon Fish Stew.doc' which is stored in My Documents. Click on teh file name and the file itself opens. Oh, Happy Day!

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Want to download a Flash Video file from YouTube (or some other popular video site) -- like maybe somebody's Red Belt test? Magic's Video - Downloader, an add-on to Firefox, does the job, no sweat.

But it would really be nice if that file you just downloaded could be converted into a format that you could burn onto a DVD and show on your TV, wouldn't it? Enter Quick Media Converter *. I've only used it on one file, but it worked fine. It converted the Flash Video into Windows Media Player format. I then used Cheetah DVD burner, to convert the WMV file into the format required for a video DVD. (Cheetah is not free, but we already own it so I used it; I'll bet you can find a free program that will do the same job. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised to find that Quick Media Converter itself can do it.)

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* It's not real easy to find the link that initiates the download. It's is near the bottom of the page; look for the words "Download Quick Media Converter (latest version) V3.5.7 Final and Stable"