Every time Microsoft delivers a new OS it's possible to get many of the features of a Windows upgrade in the previous version of Windows. Windows 7 is no exception. Here's a roundup of a few things you can do to make Windows Vista as Windows 7-like as possible, without shelling out for the new OS.

We'll start out with a couple tweaks, then tell you about four free apps you can download. And a tip of the hat to the amazing Gina Trapani at Lifehacker, from whom I picked up several of these tricks.

First the taskbar. Windows 7 lets you "pin" apps to the taskbar and we can approximate that in Vista. Here's how.

Right-click on your taskbar.

Select toolbars.

And choose Quick Launch.

Now drag the icons you wish to "pin" into the left side of the taskbar.

Right click on the taskbar again and uncheck "lock taskbar."

Now click on the three rows of dots, hold down the mouse, and drag the bar over until you see all your icons.

Now, they look a little small like that, so let's make them bigger. Make sure the taskbar is unlocked.

Now right click on the taskbar again.

Select the view menu and choose large icons.

That's OK. But if you want a real Mac-like dock, forget all that and install RocketDock. It gives you a whole new Macish dock that you can put down at the bottom of the window instead of the taskbar.

But your Windows still looks all Vista-y. One more interface tweak before we move on. Download VistaGlazz 1.3. It's a utility that changes some system files to allow you to implement third-party themes on Vista. Launch VistaGlazz and, if you're sure, agree to allow it to modify your system files. I did it, and had no issues. But I make no guarantee.

Microsoft recently released Windows Live Movie Maker for Vista. Those acquainted with Windows Movie Maker for XP or Vista may be scratching their heads right now--is this an update? Actually, Microsoft intended for it to be a distinct new product for Vista and Windows 7, though you may not guess it based on the almost-identical naming convention.

At any rate, a few points set Windows Live Movie Maker apart from its cousins. Its audience, for a start. While the free application was always intended for the average Windows user (as opposed to a prosumer or professional), this edition strives even more toward simplicity. With the AutoMovie button on board, you're able to create a movie from start to finish--using your photos and video clips--within a minute or two. The software automatically adds transitions, zoom and pan effects, and a title page. It also prompts you to add music. True, your final product may not be particularly creative or personal, but it's certainly a starting point, and making adjustments and embellishments after the fact is fairly easy.

Second, the Windows Live Movie Maker team wants to get movies off the computer and to their final destination--YouTube, Facebook, your Xbox, cell phone, a DVD, friend's e-mail in-box, or your TV. The sharing features are fairly expanded, and accessible with a click.

What the application achieves in accessibility, it loses in advanced features. There are some light audio and video-editing tools like fading and splitting, but not much beyond. Its basics will polarize those intermediate users who are ready to go into slightly more complex editing territory. It is worth noting that there are a few more movie formats supported on Windows 7. You should also be aware that the app installs as part of the Microsoft Essentials pack, but you can opt out of all else to install Windows Live Movie Maker alone.

To review all this information and more, check out the full Windows Live Movie Maker review. To watch us make a movie (not this one), watch the First Look video above.

Watch the show on CNET TV.

Things we crave:

Fast Finger Keyboard has keys in alphabetical order.

Cheap 802.11n access point turns your old router into an N router. First Look:

Air Mouse 1.5

Download of the week:

Cocktail

Onyx

Insider Secret:

Dual boot Windows 7 beta

Your calls:

Fabio from Brazil wanted to know a good basic setup for podcasting. I use an Alesis mixer with two Shure microphones and a second laptop all running via USB into a MacBook Pro. Then I upload to Archive.org and use a Wordpress blog combined with Feedburner to publish the RSS feed. Here's a WikiHow on starting a podcast that has some other good ideas and resources. Your calls:

Can you dual boot OS X Leopard on a Vista machine? Yes. Daily Apps has an excellent guide to doing just that. You'll have to provide your own OS X that works on a PC though. For that, head to the OSX86 project.

Can you run Windows Vista on an Acer Aspire One? Sure. Probably only Vista Basic and it's not going to run like blazes, but if you like to try this kinda stuff, we say go for it.

You can boot from a USB thumbdrive in OS X; even boot Linux if you want. Take a look at this wiki. E-mail us!
Whether it's a regular text note, or a recorded video question, you can send it to cnetlive@cnet.com. Keep your videos to 15 seconds or less, post them to a Web site like Youtube, and then e-mail us the link.

Want to speed up Windows Vista? Got a flash drive? Good. You can make your computer faster. Watch this video and then refer to the steps below.

One of the cooler things in Windows Vista is something called ReadyBoost. Normally if a system is slow, you have to open it up and add RAM. ReadyBoost lets you use external storage for that. Nothing new there. Windows 3.1 let you do that, but ReadyBoost makes it really simple.

1. Plug in your USB flash drive.
2. You will be given a menu. Choose "Speed up my System." You can access the same option by right-clicking on the USB drive in the computer section and choosing "properties," then the ReadyBoost tab.
3. Next select "use this device." You can adjust how much of the device will be used for memory, leaving the rest of the space for file storage.
4. Press OK.

That's it! You now have a slightly faster computer, no screwdrivers needed.

In the last two weeks we've gotten a large number of reports of choppy video on CNET TV. The symptoms were so odd that I had to reproduce them myself before our engineers would believe them. Users have reported that they hear the audio on CNET TV just fine, but to get the video to play smoothly, users reported, "I have to move my mouse in circles."

The good news is we have narrowed this down to a bug that occurs in earlier versions of the Flash Player when running Windows Vista, with IE 7 in Protected Mode, with a site that has two Flash components that need to talk to each other. The not-as-good news is that we can't fix it on our side, but you can easily fix it on your side. Just follow these simple steps:

1. Uninstall the Flash player. You can download a small application from Adobe that will do this for you:

Flash Player Uninstaller

2. Install the latest version of the Flash Player.

Even if you have the latest version and you are having this problem, you'll need to uninstall it and reinstall it to solve the problem.

If this doesn't solve your problem, please let us know--either via the feedback link on CNET TV or in the comments here--and we'll try to help. Let us know:

1) What OS you are running?

2) Did you upgrade to that OS?

3) What browser and version do you use?

4) What version of Flash are you using? (Find your version of Flash here)