Have you ever been downloading a file in the background, and then open a menu and go through a series of submenus only to find that you totally screwed up the download? Yep, it happens, but it can be prevented with Menutasking Enabler.

Menutasking Enabler is a small system extension that will allow processing in the background while you are holding down a menu or the mouse button. This means that downloads can continue, file copies can keep copying, etc.. I have not had any problems or conflicts with Menutasking Enabler, under Mac OS 7.6.1 or Mac OS 8.

The only problem with this extension is that it will not work in foreground applications. That means that if you are downloading in Netscape, and Netscape is your active application, and you hold down a menu in Netscape, the processing will stop. The author says that he will fix this in the next version.

Does your desktop get cluttered with windows often? I know mine does. I have always wished that I had a simple "window" menu that would let me choose what window I wanted to be active, instead of sorting through layers of windows to find the window I was looking for.

Finder Windows solves this problem, by adding a "window" menu to the finder, from which you can choose which window you want to be active, as well as stack and arrange the windows. The control panel is very straightforward, letting you choose whether you want the window menu to be an icon or to say "window," and letting you customize the letters for the arrange and stack shortcuts.

Power Windows is another fine title from the famous author of ~Aaron and Kaleidoscope. Power Windows is a small system extension that makes your windows solid when you drag them. Normally, when you drag a window, you just see an outline of the window. Not with Power Windows. I would call this a WYDIWYG program. That is "What You Drag Is What You Get." Greg also includes a "Translucent Power Windows" extension that makes the windows translucent when you drag them, instead of totally solid.

Be aware that both solid and translucent dragging of windows, especially larger ones, is very processor intensive, and works well on only the fastest power Macs. My Power Mac 6100/60 had a hard time handling this, with a lot of skipping, while my 6400/200 handled it pretty well.