Adam Pash

Google's free calendar application,Google Calendar, has several handy features that make it relatively simple to manage your schedule. If you don't already have a Google account, you'll need to sign up for one before you can use Google Calendar.

Quickly add any event to Google Calendar, using plain language.

Google Calendar by itself is fine and dandy if you're comfortable living your life in your browser, but if you prefer to keep your data local and accessible when you're offline, you can take advantage of most of the great things Google Calendar has to offer without giving up your desktop calendar.

Google Calendar Sync integrates Outlook with Google Calendar in perfect, bidirectional harmony.

Since you're not always sitting in front of a computer, being able to access your calendar only when you're at a computer isn't all that useful. Imagine that you parked your car in the morning, but you have to move it by 5 p.m. to make way for street cleaning or you'll get a ticket. It's easy to forget to add an item like "Move my car by 5pm" to your calendar if you have to wait until you get to a computer to add it. The solution to this problem: Hook your phone into your calendar.

There are a couple of ways to add Google Calendar to your cell phone, whether you own a cutting-edge smartphone or a bare-bones "dumb" phone.

Note: This review addresses v2.51 of the software.

Win 7's Aero Peek feature turns windows transparent, giving you X-ray vision for determining what lies beneath. Its Aero Shake function lets you minimize every window but the active one via a simple shortcut. The free WinShake app brings similar capabilities—and then some—to most of Win 7's precursors.

Your life is busy, and you have got enough on your plate without needing to remember to move your car every week, pay oddly timed bills, or show up for one-time weekend appointments. Luckily, a finely tuned calendaring system can help.

Take a service like Google Calendar. With the right setup (which we'll detail below), you can access it from any Web browser, plug it into your favorite desktop calendar, and manage it from your phone so you can quickly add any item to your schedule no matter where you are.

Editor's note: Adam Pash is a technology guru and the editor-in-chief of Lifehacker, a popular Website that focuses on technology, productivity, and making your life easier with your computer.

Greasemonkey improves just about anything it touches, whether it's adding must-have features to Gmail, streamlining your social life in Facebook, or speeding up your blog posts The best part? Thousands of Greasemonkey scripts are freely available for download, and installing them is literally as simple as clicking a single link.

Note: This link takes you to the add-on's page at Mozilla.org, where you can automatically install the file into your Firefox browser.

Lock Down Your PC

Protect your PC with the following four downloads and services, all free. We've also chosen four great no-cost antivirus apps.

Passwords play a prominent role not just in computing but also in everyday life. Download KeePass to organize and protect all manner of important data, from ATM codes to Social Security numbers to Web passwords. You need remember only a single password--this download remembers the rest.

Top Timesavers

Use the six resources below to avoid repetitive typing, to reboot a PC efficiently, and to gain time in other ways.

You have enough to worry about without taking the time to prune your cluttered Desktop or Downloads folder. Instead, turn to the system-tray app Belvedere, an automated file manager that moves, copies, renames, and deletes files based on rules you define. Disclosure: This app was written by article coauthor Adam Pash.

Find Great Video

These eight no-cost utilities and services can help you find, organize, and wrangle your media files--or enjoy some great video online.

Boxee Beta: This open-source app offers an attractive and powerful way to play back desktop and Web-based media seamlessly on your HDTV.

Windows 7 Bling for Your Older OS

These five free utilities will give your Windows XP or Vista machine some Windows 7 pizzazz.

AeroSnap: Maximizing a window on today's large monitors is often a waste of screen space. In Windows 7, a feature called Aero Snap lets you automatically resize a window to fill half of your display when you drag the window to the screen's edge. Kick a space out of the feature's name, and you have AeroSnap, an app that brings the same feature to XP and Vista.

Make the Most of Your Browser

Our five Web-savvy tools and services can help you recover the information you typed into forms, add narrations to presentations, turn PDFs into editable documents, and more.

CeeVee: Register to build a polished-looking résumé with this Web service, and then share it online via Facebook, Twitter, or a custom Web address. It's fast, easy to use, and proof positive that you're a Web-savvy applicant.