Upgrade Windows with Elegant, Consistent Notifications for Your Favorite Programs

Everyone around Business Hacks headquarters agrees that Windows 7 is a dramatic improvement over older versions of Windows, and there's a polish and shine to the user experience -- stuff like the new taskbar and gestures like Snap and Shake -- which make it a joy to use. But there are still glaring holes in Windows.

Take notifications, for example. Why does every program deliver messages in a different way? Some pop up dialog boxes, other rely on "toast" that appears in the corner of the screen. Some use message balloons. Many programs just stay mute.

There are a few independent efforts afoot to reign in this Wild West approach to program messages, and recently, curiosity got the best of me. My conclusion: Universal notifications are awesome. For the low, low price of free, you can significantly enhance your Windows experience.

Growl is an open source notification platform that supports a few dozen programs right now, and the list is growing. After installing Growl, you need to also install add-ons for your favorite apps, like Outlook, Outlook Web Access (OWA), and iTunes. Then, when those programs have something to say, you get a standard notification in the corner of the screen.

The notifications are extremely configurable. There are several themes to choose from, so your notifications can look like message balloons, toast, or even a transparent banner that runs across the display. You can specify where on the screen they appear, and even choose or not to play a sound with the alert. If the program has multiple types of alerts, you can configure them separately.

If all that sounds underwhelming, then consider that you can easily teach Growl to forward notification to other PCs -- or even push notifications to your iPhone with a $2.99 app called Prowl. (Otherwise, Growl is free.)

Currently, there are about three dozen programs that plug into Growl. Odds are that you only use a few of them, but the real promise of Growl is is how helpful it might become in the future. Personally, I'm sold.