For some users, Microsoft Windows 7 can never go fast enough. There is always a tweak or Registry edit that can squeeze more speed and performance out of the operating system. This Quick Tip shows you how to speed up the display of menu items in Windows 7 with a simple Registry edit.
Web spies are getting stealthier and stealthier. Recently they've been caught peering into our browser histories to determine the sites we've visited, even in so-called privacy mode with cookies disabled, as Dan Goodin described earlier this month on The Register.
Many of the companies whose sites were discovered using the technique claimed to have had no idea and immediately decried the spying. Julia Angwin reported on many of these surprise responses on the Wall Street Journal's Technology site.
If the owners of the spying sites aren't even aware of the activity, what are unsuspecting visitors to do? Well, you could wait for the government to take action, as CNET's Declan McCullogh reports in the Privacy Inc. blog.
Or you could rely on the online advertising industry to police itself, despite the marketers' inability to determine which spying practices violate their own guidelines, which Julia Angwin describes on the WSJ's Digits blog.
Personally, I'd rather take matters into my own hands. Here are five ways to reduce the chances that your browsing habits are being recorded.
Five ways to avoid being tracked on the Web | Security - CNET News
Email attachments sizes are limited from the best services to the worst. While Gmail allows you to attach files of 25MB, you cannot send them to to any other account except to a Gmail one. With restrictions like these and the fact that file sizes are now only getting bigger, Kicksend offers you a viable solution. Kicksend is a web service that comes with an Adobe air based desktop application for Windows and Mac. The service can be used to send files of up to 150MB but the desktop application lets you send files of any size you want. You can add contacts or import them from Gmail. Files that you send as attachments are uploaded to the service, a link to the file is sent in the email for the recipient to download from. All files that you upload are deleted automatically after two weeks. The desktop application only allows you to send or download files, to add contacts you will have to use the web interface.
Now that your entire music collection, your audio books, and videos, (and even your family recordings from when you were eight) are on a hard drive, you might want to have a dependable, user-friendly tool to convert across different audio formats, as well as for performing various tasks such as merging audio files or extracting audio from video files.
Microsoft recently caught my attention with the release of a performance-related hotfix. Blog readers should pay attention to KB2555428. It fixes an issue which can cause Windows 7 to boot extremely slowly. The culprit is System Restore with the slowdown occuring when many restore points have been created.
Extremely Slow Bootup? Restore Points Might Be The Enemy! » TuneUp Blog about Windows
Google's search engine is now fighting against a strain of malware that secretly intercepts Web browser activity on Windows PCs.
Infected users will see a big yellow box at the top of search results, directing them to a Google Web page that explains how to remove the malware. That page urges users to download or update their antivirus software, and also provides manual instructions for removing the malware from Windows computers. (To see if you're infected, run any search on Google.com and look for the yellow box.)
Infected users will see this box at the top of their search results.
Google doesn't explain the threat in detail, saying only that the malware routes Internet traffic through intermediary servers called proxies, and that the search engine is able to detect when traffic is coming from those servers.
Google's search engine is now fighting against a strain of malware that secretly intercepts Web browser activity on Windows PCs.
Infected users will see a big yellow box at the top of search results, directing them to a Google Web page that explains how to remove the malware. That page urges users to download or update their antivirus software, and also provides manual instructions for removing the malware from Windows computers. (To see if you're infected, run any search on Google.com and look for the yellow box.)
Google doesn't explain the threat in detail, saying only that the malware routes Internet traffic through intermediary servers called proxies, and that the search engine is able to detect when traffic is coming from those servers.
Microsoft has created a Fix it Solution Center with "automated solutions for your issues." They are organized by broad topics or tasks.
The topics are:
- Top Solutions
- Windows
- Internet Explorer
- Windows Media Player
- Entertainment
- Office
- Other
Many of the Fix its are broad checkups rather than specific tasks. For instance, Diagnose and fix Windows security problems automatically checks the status of many Windows security features (DEP, ASLR, Smartscreen, etc.) and offers to enable them if necessary. Diagnose and repair Windows File and Folder Problems automatically checks problems like inability to connect to drives and behavioral issues in Windows Explorer.
Many Quick Fixes in Microsoft Fix it Solution Center - Security Watch
If there's one thing everyone dreads, it's rebooting their computer. It may only take a minute or two, but it can seem like forever. Here are our top 10 tweaks that'll make your computer boot a little faster.
StartMenuXP will replace the standard list of programs with a dropdown menu in the Windows XP style. Apart from this, the program features numerous improvements that will help you find and launch programs much faster
One of the unwelcome changes that Microsoft introduced in Service Pack 1 was the removal of some of the easy ways to get to the Search screen: the start menu button and folder context menu item. Thankfully we can easily add the “Search…” item back to the context menu with a simple registry tweak.
Bring a seemingly-dead laptop battery back to life, to a usable condition, although not quite like-new. It could be almost as good as a replacement laptop battery and a lot cheaper than a universal external laptop battery.
Like the rest of us, Senior users are susceptible to cybercrime, and like the rest of us, need to protect their computers against the ever increasing exposure we all face to Trojans, Spyware, Viruses, Phishing Scams, and Identity Theft, while connected to the Internet.
The products are almost exclusively free with some exceptions: products where there is no free alternative, good products that offer a lifelong license, and exceptional products. In some cases the links point to executables. In such cases replace [dot] with . and the link will work.
Can you repurpose a phone that can’t make a call?
Yes, there are a few things you could still use your old phone for.
Emergency 9-1-1 only phone (United States)
Even with no number assigned to the phone, it still can place a call to 9-1-1 for emergency purposes.
Alarm Clock
If the phone has an clock alarm feature, it can be used as such without any number assigned.
Calendar Reminder Alarm
Most phones that have an alarm feature can also do calendar reminder alarms as well.
A month or two back, we posted our list of 30 amazing apps under 2MB. We thought it was a pretty fun concept, and apparently you guys agreed, because we got some great feedback, and some excellent suggestions. Our first list was far from complete, of course, so we decided to do some more investigating, and found 20 more great apps. They're all free, all easy to download, and all great at what they do. Read on, and hit the comments if we've still missed any of your favorites.
Maximum PC | Tiny, Free and Kick-Ass: 20 More Awesome Apps Under 2 MB - Page 1
Can you believe it? As I sat down this morning to write this column, I got hit by a drive-by download of FakeAV.
My computer is infected with pop-up warnings and file scans telling me I have security problems, and Internet Explorer has been hijacked to keep sending me to a website where I can "purchase the software." Pop-ups are coming from my taskbar, showing up in the middle of the screen, and rifling through my files with a fake scan. My computer is being held for ransom.
How did this happen? And what am I going to do about it? I mean really, as a security manager you'd think I would be immune to this kind of problem. My antivirus software is up to date and actively scanning, and my system is fully patched. That's more than most people are doing.
Not Even Security Managers Immune to FakeAV Infection | PCWorld
One of the unwelcome changes that Microsoft introduced in Service Pack 1 was the removal of some of the easy ways to get to the Search screen: the start menu button and folder context menu item. Thankfully we can easily add the “Search…” item back to the context menu with a simple registry tweak.
The nice thing about the folder context menu is that the search window will be already set to search only that folder.
Virustotalis a web service that provides on-demand scanning of your local files for worms, trojans, and all kinds of malware detected by antivirus engines. It allows you to upload any local file up to 10 megs in size and will perform a scan across 30+ different virus scanning engines (which include all of the leading heavy-hitter virus killer engines on the market).
VirusTotal delivers the collective wisdom of 32 viruskillers on-demand | freewaregenius.com
Need to send someone a big batch of files? Don't attach one after another after another to your e-mail. Instead, compress the files into one smaller, easier-to-manage file. In other words, "Zip" them.
The Zip file format has long been used to compress and archive data. Suppose you have, say, 50 Word documents that have a combined size of 5MB. By zipping them, you end up with a single file that's much smaller--maybe 1MB or even 500K. Imagine stuffing all your clothes into a tiny, lightweight suitcase--that's what compression does. Even better, when you open the suitcase, everything comes out wrinkle-free.
If you're already using a utility like PKZip or WinZip to compress and decompress files, there's little point in changing. But did you know Windows has Zip capabilities built right in? Here's how to use them on the fly, using the aforementioned e-mail as an example:
1. Compose your e-mail message, then click Attach File (or whatever is your mail client's equivalent).
2. Using the file selector that appears, find the files you want to attach. (They all need to be in the same folder.)
3. Select all the files you want to zip. (To select multiple files at a time, hold down the Ctrl key while clicking each one in turn.)
4. Right-click any of the selected files, then choose Send to, Compressed (zipped) folder.
5. Windows will quickly compress the files and create a new, zipped file that's immediately ready to be renamed (if necessary--if not, just press Enter).
6. Attach your newly created Zip file to the e-mail.
That's all there is to it! Granted, that's pretty much the extent of Windows' Zip capabilities, but if that's all you need, why bother with third-party tools?
Takeaway: In this issue of the Windows Desktop Report, Greg Shultz describes how the Windows 7 Live File System format works and how you can use it for backups or additional storage.
If you are looking to augment or expand upon your existing data storage options and you have a CD- or DVD-burner on your Microsoft Windows 7 System, then you need to investigate the Live File System format. This new system will allow you to essentially use a CD-RW or DVD-RW disk just like a USB flash drive. In other words, you’ll be able to incrementally add individual files or groups of files to the disc over time.
Augment your data storage options with Windows 7 Live File System format | TechRepublic
If you continue to use Adobe Reader, make sure you install the latest version. Users who continue running older versions of Adobe software (not uncommon), is a major element in cyber crooks successful manipulation of this application.
Better yet – don’t even consider running Adobe Reader. Instead, choose one of a number of much faster, more streamlined free applications.
FOUR Free Alternatives To Adobe Reader Malware Magnet | Bill Mullins' Weblog – Tech Thoughts
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