FrontMotion Login is a software that replaces your dry and boring default Windows Login window with a more interactive and cool looking one. What makes it stand out from other such software is the fact that it makes use of Macromedia Flash. Thus the login windows are animated and interactive.
FMLogin provides 6 English and 1 Chinese theme out of the box. Click on the thumbnails below for a preview.

Luna Green

Bubble OS Blue

While using FMLogin I didn’t notice any large slowdowns as far as startup and shutdown is concerned. However, this depends largely on the theme. Heavy themes can cause some slowdowns.By default, FMLogin replaces the associates itself with the shortcut Ctrl+Alt+Del, and presents a menu instead of opening the task manager directly. I found this annoying (unfortunately this is also the default behaviour in Windows Vista). However, it can be disabled very easily. It fully supports Startup/Shutdown, Standby, Hibernate, Logon/Logoff and Fast User Switching. It also retains the support for inserting Legal Notice Caption and Legal Notice promt, which are little known features in Windows buried deep in the registry.
A part from replacing logons another useful function that FMLogin provides is the ability to lock the screen while you are away from your pc. FMLogin is a really nifty software, however its greatest strength is also its greatest weakness. While the use of Flash makes it possible to add great effects, it also makes creating new themes more difficult. In fact there are just a handful of skins available. To make matters worse there is no central repository for storing skins so often users make skins, upload them at free uploading services which gets deleted and lost with time.Overall, this is one impressive software.

My Rating : 7/10
Price : Free for personal use
Visit Official Site

After a pretty long lay-off I am back to blogging again. Hopefully, I will manage to (read: I will not be lazy) to update my blog more often. Anyway, let me first start off with some news about Opera.

i ) Opera v9.02 RC2 released : Opera v9.02 RC2 was released a few hours ago. Do check it out. Among other things live.com now works better in the RC builds.
For Windows, Mac, Unix .

ii) Opera attempts to patch Yahoo mail beta : Last year I had blogged about the new Yahoo Mail beta not supporting Opera ( link ). Opera dev Hallvord had then left a comment stating Opera soft will be working on it. He has kept his promise. Today or so (in Hallvord’s words) OddPatch 0.1 Beta will be launched. It will attempt to fix the flaws in Yahoo mail’s scripting through Opera’s browser.js . He writes in his blog :

iii) Trond Werner Hansen leaves Opera : Trond who was involved with design and UI development related activities for Windows version of the browser, since 1999 left the company last week to pursue interests in music. He wrote a farewell message here .

iv) Opera’s CTO Hakon Wium Lie gets interviewed by Zdnet : A must read for any Opera fan. As usual, Mr. Lie didnt mince his words as far as Microsoft and Internet Explorer is concerned.

Excerpt from the Interview :

Part 1 | Part 2

v) Nintendo showcases Opera for Wii : Nintendo has released a bunch of videos showing Opera for Wii in action.

Searching Google
Zooming and playing Multimedia in Opera
Browsing Google Maps
Source

vi) Opera.com is redesigned : Opera has decided to simplify their home page ( Screenshot of old page and new page ). All details about Opera for Mobile and other devices have been moved to separate pages, which is a good thing in my opinion.

Thats all for now