Microsoft is on the move, trying to fix the messes that IE6 and IE7 have brought upon us all as discussions about Internet Explorer 8 intensify. Why anyone would surf the web using anything but Mozilla Firefox is something that baffles me at times. For those of you that are looking forward to a better experience with Internet Explorer, this could be the answer to some of the problems.

Dash is a new program by Dash Command that aims to increase productivity on Windows XP and Windows Vista by executing applications through text commands. It's a small program that could potentially make a big difference with anyones daily work flow. It is an application that I have been using on a daily basis, and you might too.

With a quick glance at Dash, you might just ask yourself what is so great about this application; what does it do? That was my exact response while trying it for the first time. I only knew that it was an application launcher, and so I decided that I would try something simple.

I pressed the Windows (located between control & alt) and dash (minus) keys on my keyboard together, and the interface came up which prompted me to "Type your command." The first program I wanted to access was a tech geek's best friend--Firefox. I then proceeded by typing the first three letters, "Fir," and I saw that "Firefox" was automatically completed in the command entry. After pressing the enter key, Firefox was up and running. That was pretty easy, and I became further intrigued by Dash.

I then took a few moments to think of one of my favorite artists. I typed in "music," pressed the space-bar, and then typed in Tiesto. I was given a list of songs by DJ Tiësto, and by using the up and down keys, I was able to navigate through all his songs available on my hard drive.

Sure I could have spent some time navigating my way to my music folder, but this only took about seven seconds to accomplish. With the continued use of Dash, I am sure that a simple task like finding and playing a song on my computer could be done in a second or two. Extremely efficient I say.

Customization in Dash is also pretty easy. Specifying keywords is the key to making the most of what Dash is capable of. By typing "keywords" in Dash's command prompt, the keyword editor was displayed. There I was able to customize actions that I do on a daily basis to improve my work flow. Any application can be executed, and I am also able to access websites directly in my browser via Dash.

There is so much more that can be accomplished with this application, and you should check out all the available features to get an even better idea of what Dash is capable of. Skinning, accessing system configurations, and even doing math is possible with Dash, and it can get things done faster than when compared to the use of a mouse.

Dash can be purchased at a special price of $19.95 for purchasing before the official release. A new version is scheduled to be released soon as well. If you like to get things done faster, or if you love using a command line to execute programs and other functionality, then Dash is certainly worth a try.

If Dash is not your thing, or if you would prefer an open source alternative, you should look into Launchy which won the 2007 Community Choice Awards on SourceForge.net.

If you have an application that helps you get things done faster, then be sure to let everyone know in the comments section below.

Microsoft has publicly announced the intent to release Windows 7 (codename "Vienna") by the end of 2009. This release is intended to be a major release and is rumored to have immense improvements over Windows Vista. Yet all of this makes me question why anyone would have purchased Vista in 2007 with this knowledge? Is Vista to blame for the early announcement of Windows 7?

Vista has many problems, and some of which that should be huge concerns:

• Windows Vista performs very poorly against its younger brother Windows XP.
• Vista has not really had the backing from game developers thus far.
• Vista is a disappointment when compared to features that were promised in development.
• There have not been any essential features added that would be useful to personal usage.
• Hardware compatibility is still not up to par when compared to XP.
• Open source alternatives to Vista are equal, if not considerably better in quality and security.

Ben Fathi, corporate vice president of development with Microsoft's Windows Core Operating System Division even admitted to shortcomings in development, "We put Longhorn on the back burner for awhile." He further states, "Then when we came back to it, we realized that there were incremental things that we wanted to do, and significant improvements that we wanted to make in Vista that we couldn't deliver in one release.

There is allegedly one good thing about Vista. The system has managed to implement tighter security, but even that is being questioned. Other than that, what happened to all the other great features that Vista was promised to have?

There is only so much that can be done with Vista development. The company needs to focus heavily on either the improvement of Vista, the development of Windows 7, or the development of both to ensure that the company does not make the same mistakes again.

However, we have Windows 7 to look forward to. The details of the Windows 7 release have been sketchy. It is very likely that the operating system will include the new file system, WinFS, that was cut from Vista. I would also expect to see significant performance improvements. It would be a wise plan for Microsoft to deliver on any features they announce will be in Windows 7.

The announcement of Windows 7 was clearly put into action because of the shortcomings of Windows Vista. The company must secretly feel that they have not fully delivered with Vista's offerings and are working on a new product to make up for the failures.

This could be a wise move considering the rapid growth of open source operating systems. Microsoft certainly does not want all their future customers switching to Ubuntu, even though I believe it would serve as a great lesson to Microsoft if they did.

Miro, one of the best applications and multimedia players combined for downloading and managing online video, is being prepped for an official Miro 1.0 release. The Participatory Culture Foundation is also in the hunt for a good PR consultant; this is clearly to provide as much good exposure for their big release happening within the next few weeks.

Miro, which was formally called Democracy, has been going strong with over 200,000 downloads in the last month alone. The application could use some great PR as the non-profit company which supports it is in need of donations to keep the project maintained well.

Both new and returning users will hope to see many improvements and features to entice new users. My primary complaint is the fact that there is no way to throttle your download speed within the application. This ranks as a significant problem for me, and possibly for others who need to use their computer while Miro is working.  However, that does not take away from the greatness of this application.

That one issue aside, Miro is a wonderful project that everyone should try. No other project gives you the ability to find, download, and manage video content so easily. I wish great things for Miro and the Participatory Culture Foundation. For now, you can check out the 2nd public preview which is completely free and available for most operating systems today.

When I get my hands on the final release I will be sure to break down the new features, and possibly even give it a review.

It seems like every month I am asked the question of why a certain video file will not play. My first thought to solving the problem is questioning if the proper codec is installed. In nearly every case so far I have been wise in my questioning. I think it is about time that we forget about decoders, file formats, errors, and other problems that may arise while attempting playback. The solution is simple really. Use the VLC media player by VideoLAN.

The problem with today's digital video is that there are many different file formats, and many ways to compress those files. Codecs have been developed to maintain video performance and quality, while decreasing file size. Complications arise for people because operating systems do not have the decoders to playback those files correctly.

VLC solves this problem by having most of the required decoders installed with the application. This means that even if you do not have a decoder installed on your system you can still play it in the VLC media player.

This application also works well for dropping in a DVD and having it play correctly. I have had a few messages sent to me through YouTube asking why their newly purchased DVD will not play on their computer, but will play on their DVD player. It is because that the proper decoder to play that file is not installed. In the future we can only hope that there will be easier ways of dealing with problems like these. For right now, VLC is the best way to address most of these issues.

VLC media player is available for Windows, Mac, Linux, and a few other operating systems. The quality of this program is unrivaled from what I have seen. There has not been a media file which I have attempted to play in VLC that has failed.

VLC might not sport the prettiest default interface, and this is of course why developers implement the ability to skin applications. There are currently over 20 skins available for download on the VideoLAN site. Enjoy the look of Windows Media Player 11? Skin it to VLC! Check out the screen capture on the right; that is VLC in action.

You can download the VLC media player on the VideoLAN site for absolutely free. It is open source, and that my friends is always a good thing to support.

If you want to read any future content first, be sure to subscribe to the Tech In Demand RSS Feed so you never miss out! If you use VLC, share you thoughts about it below.