HIDE ANYTHING WITH SECRET FOOT SWITCH

So there you are at the office playing Solitaire. You know who you are. Yes you know you should be working on those important documents to meet yet another deadline but your mind keeps wandering and wouldn't it be nice if you could just play a game or two. Of course it's just at that very moment when you're about to win a game that your supervisor happens to stroll by. Busted. And what makes it worse is that it could have been avoided if you just took a simple precaution by installing a StealthSwitch.

Billed by its creator as "The World's First Desktop Cloaking Device," the StealthSwitch is a small switch that's activated by your foot. With a simple click of the switch, you can configure the StealthSwitch to perform a multitude of functions. In my opening Solitaire example for instance, stepping in the StealthSwitch would instantly conceal the Solitaire game and throw up your Microsoft Word or any other application of your choice complete with a working document so you can instantly begin entering data without so much as skipping a beat.

OK so I know it sounds like I'm encouraging you find ways to goof off at work. But actually the StealthSwitch has some redeeming qualities that I'd like to point out. And besides, I'm not harboring any guilt here because if you're inclined to goof off at work, you're going to do so whether you know about this or not anyway. Now back to those redeeming features. The StealthSwitch has the ability to literally hide an application and not simply minimize it. Applications are made completely invisible. The StealthSwitch also has the ability to mute the sound, hide the taskbar, hide all desktop icons all with the simple click of the foot switch. This makes the StealthSwitch ideal in areas where computer security and privacy are of importance. You can literally get confidential materials off the screen in a moment. So in this day and age of computer security, the StealthSwitch offers a unique way to keep your data away from prying eyes. This certainly is a lot better than reaching over to turn off the screen or re-booting the computer when someone walks into your office or cubicle.

The included software gives you lots of configuration controls. For example, the control panel enables you to hide the current window, hide all open windows, or hide all open windows except certain specified windows which you've previously defined. You can configure StealthSwitch to automatically run at startup time, or start in the system tray only. The latter lets you activate it only when you think you may need it. In addition, a password protection scheme insures that only you can restore access to the cloaked applications as well as the configuration control panel.

Other features include the ability to actually launch a specified application when hiding a window if the application isn't already open. This is especially convenient so you don't have to keep running applications that you don't need in anticipation that you may have to use the StealthSwitch. Just step on it and it does it all for you. And if you're not around to step on the switch, a timed hiding feature lets you hide windows after a specified period of inactivity.

The StealthSwitch comes with the one-button footswitch and a 6 foot USB/PS2 compatible cable. The StealthSwitch sells for $39.99 and is available at the ThinkGeek website. So go ahead and play that game confident in knowing that at a moment's notice, you can just step on your StealthSwitch and look like you're hard at work. But if I were you, I'd make sure your jealous co-worker over there didn't unplug it while you weren't looking. Uh oh. Is that the boss I hear just around the corner?

www.thinkgeek.com