tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14940449584566963872024-03-14T07:07:29.875-04:00Kill That Computer!!!Have you ever felt like throwing that computer out the window? Or maybe throwing the Windows out the window?
Okay calm down, we are collecting as many helpful newsletters from experienced guru authors to help you. Of course I actually may write a few myself.
I have been working at computers since the 70's and had my own business for about 17 years. Cpedley.com will give you some good tips about computers and some FREE software! See notice at bottom.computermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10089720734681665451noreply@blogger.comBlogger1986125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1494044958456696387.post-48363337615491082532019-02-07T09:40:00.000-05:002019-02-07T09:40:17.885-05:00This blog was hacked. I do not know how this crap got here. <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I do not know how this crap got here but I did not put it here. I have not been to this blog in years and I cannot find out how to get rid of this stuff. However I have asked Google for help.<br />
I can add this post but I cannot get rid of the others! <br />
Hopefully it will be gone soon.<br />
Charles G Pedley <br />
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1494044958456696387.post-140987721529714002012-08-27T13:32:00.003-04:002012-08-27T13:32:27.987-04:00Gizmo's Tech Treats: Freeware Game of the Week (This game leaves you wanting for more!)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<style type="text/css"> h1 a:hover {background-color:#888;color:#fff ! important;} div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div ul { list-style-type:square; padding-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div blockquote { padding-left:6px; border-left: 6px solid #dadada; margin-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div li { margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:1em; } table#itemcontentlist tr td a:link, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:visited, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:active, ul#summarylist li a { color:#000099; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:none; } img {border:none;} </style> <br />
<div id="emailbody" style="color: black; font-family: Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 2em;" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
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<a href="http://www.techsupportalert.com/view/treats" style="color: #888888; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 22px; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" title="(http://www.techsupportalert.com/view/treats)">Gizmo's Tech Treats: Freeware Game of the Week (This game leaves you wanting for more!)</a> <br /> <a href="http://fusion.google.com/add?source=atgs&feedurl=http://feeds.feedburner.com/GizmosDailyTechTreats"> <img alt="" border="0" src="http://gmodules.com/ig/images/plus_google.gif" style="padding-top: 6px;" /> </a> </h1>
</td> <td width="1%"><a href="http://www.techsupportalert.com/view/treats"> <img alt="Link to Daily Tech Treats" id="feedimage" src="http://techsupportalert.com/images/46best-50px.jpg" style="border: 0; padding: 0 0 10px 3px;" /> </a> </td> </tr>
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<a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/%7Er/GizmosDailyTechTreats/%7E3/-2AYBCJGowI/freeware-game-week-game-leaves-you-wanting-more.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email" name="1" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">Freeware Game of the Week (This game leaves you wanting for more!)</a> </div>
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Posted: 07 Aug 2012 09:42 PM PDT</div>
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<img height="1" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/%7Er/GizmosDailyTechTreats/%7E4/-2AYBCJGowI?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email" width="1" /></div>
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computermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10089720734681665451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1494044958456696387.post-14886655092754232822012-08-27T13:32:00.001-04:002012-08-27T13:32:06.830-04:00Gizmo's Tech Treats: Firefox Extension of the Week (The Mother of all Extensions!)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<style type="text/css"> h1 a:hover {background-color:#888;color:#fff ! important;} div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div ul { list-style-type:square; padding-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div blockquote { padding-left:6px; border-left: 6px solid #dadada; margin-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div li { margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:1em; } table#itemcontentlist tr td a:link, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:visited, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:active, ul#summarylist li a { color:#000099; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:none; } img {border:none;} </style> <br />
<div id="emailbody" style="color: black; font-family: Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 2em;" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<table style="border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%;"> <tbody>
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<a href="http://www.techsupportalert.com/view/treats" style="color: #888888; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 22px; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" title="(http://www.techsupportalert.com/view/treats)">Gizmo's Tech Treats: Firefox Extension of the Week (The Mother of all Extensions!)</a> <br /> <a href="http://fusion.google.com/add?source=atgs&feedurl=http://feeds.feedburner.com/GizmosDailyTechTreats"> <img alt="" border="0" src="http://gmodules.com/ig/images/plus_google.gif" style="padding-top: 6px;" /> </a> </h1>
</td> <td width="1%"><a href="http://www.techsupportalert.com/view/treats"> <img alt="Link to Daily Tech Treats" id="feedimage" src="http://techsupportalert.com/images/46best-50px.jpg" style="border: 0; padding: 0 0 10px 3px;" /> </a> </td> </tr>
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<a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/%7Er/GizmosDailyTechTreats/%7E3/2lTMqy9rviQ/firefox-extension-week-mother-all-extensions.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email" name="1" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">Firefox Extension of the Week (The Mother of all Extensions!)</a> </div>
<div style="color: #555555; font-family: Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif; font-size: 13px; font-size: 13px; line-height: 140%; margin: 9px 0 3px 0;">
Posted: 23 Aug 2012 03:09 AM PDT</div>
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<img height="1" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/%7Er/GizmosDailyTechTreats/%7E4/2lTMqy9rviQ?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email" width="1" /></div>
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computermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10089720734681665451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1494044958456696387.post-11574162764825092792012-08-27T13:31:00.004-04:002012-08-27T13:31:41.550-04:00Gizmo's Tech Treats: Finds of the Week (Killer Mouse tips, Firefox security add-ons, 26 Cross-Platform Productivity Apps, Hubble's Hidden Treasures)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<style type="text/css"> h1 a:hover {background-color:#888;color:#fff ! important;} div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div ul { list-style-type:square; padding-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div blockquote { padding-left:6px; border-left: 6px solid #dadada; margin-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div li { margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:1em; } table#itemcontentlist tr td a:link, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:visited, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:active, ul#summarylist li a { color:#000099; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:none; } img {border:none;} </style> <br />
<div id="emailbody" style="color: black; font-family: Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 2em;" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<table style="border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%;"> <tbody>
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<a href="http://www.techsupportalert.com/view/treats" style="color: #888888; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 22px; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" title="(http://www.techsupportalert.com/view/treats)">Gizmo's Tech Treats: Finds of the Week (Killer Mouse tips, Firefox security add-ons, 26 Cross-Platform Productivity Apps, Hubble's Hidden Treasures)</a> <br /> <a href="http://fusion.google.com/add?source=atgs&feedurl=http://feeds.feedburner.com/GizmosDailyTechTreats"> <img alt="" border="0" src="http://gmodules.com/ig/images/plus_google.gif" style="padding-top: 6px;" /> </a> </h1>
</td> <td width="1%"><a href="http://www.techsupportalert.com/view/treats"> <img alt="Link to Daily Tech Treats" id="feedimage" src="http://techsupportalert.com/images/46best-50px.jpg" style="border: 0; padding: 0 0 10px 3px;" /> </a> </td> </tr>
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<a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/%7Er/GizmosDailyTechTreats/%7E3/p13pLuRnl44/finds-week-killer-mouse-tips-firefox-security-add-ons-26-cross-platform-productivity-apps-hu?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email" name="1" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">Finds of the Week (Killer Mouse tips, Firefox security add-ons, 26 Cross-Platform Productivity Apps, Hubble's Hidden Treasures)</a> </div>
<div style="color: #555555; font-family: Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif; font-size: 13px; font-size: 13px; line-height: 140%; margin: 9px 0 3px 0;">
Posted: 24 Aug 2012 10:33 AM PDT</div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0;">
<img height="1" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/%7Er/GizmosDailyTechTreats/%7E4/p13pLuRnl44?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email" width="1" /></div>
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computermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10089720734681665451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1494044958456696387.post-90437004495586124012012-08-27T13:31:00.001-04:002012-08-27T13:31:17.988-04:00Gizmo's Tech Treats: BleepingComputer.com (Website of the Week)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<style type="text/css"> h1 a:hover {background-color:#888;color:#fff ! important;} div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div ul { list-style-type:square; padding-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div blockquote { padding-left:6px; border-left: 6px solid #dadada; margin-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div li { margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:1em; } table#itemcontentlist tr td a:link, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:visited, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:active, ul#summarylist li a { color:#000099; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:none; } img {border:none;} </style> <br />
<div id="emailbody" style="color: black; font-family: Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 2em;" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
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<a href="http://www.techsupportalert.com/view/treats" style="color: #888888; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 22px; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" title="(http://www.techsupportalert.com/view/treats)">Gizmo's Tech Treats: BleepingComputer.com (Website of the Week)</a> <br /> <a href="http://fusion.google.com/add?source=atgs&feedurl=http://feeds.feedburner.com/GizmosDailyTechTreats"> <img alt="" border="0" src="http://gmodules.com/ig/images/plus_google.gif" style="padding-top: 6px;" /> </a> </h1>
</td> <td width="1%"><a href="http://www.techsupportalert.com/view/treats"> <img alt="Link to Daily Tech Treats" id="feedimage" src="http://techsupportalert.com/images/46best-50px.jpg" style="border: 0; padding: 0 0 10px 3px;" /> </a> </td> </tr>
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<a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/%7Er/GizmosDailyTechTreats/%7E3/HriRqZ8Gus4/bleepingcomputercom-website-week.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email" name="1" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">BleepingComputer.com (Website of the Week)</a> </div>
<div style="color: #555555; font-family: Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif; font-size: 13px; font-size: 13px; line-height: 140%; margin: 9px 0 3px 0;">
Posted: 05 Aug 2012 11:35 AM PDT</div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0;">
<img height="1" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/%7Er/GizmosDailyTechTreats/%7E4/HriRqZ8Gus4?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email" width="1" /></div>
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computermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10089720734681665451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1494044958456696387.post-76488832172240646522012-08-27T13:30:00.000-04:002012-08-27T13:30:30.925-04:00A new outlook on email<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<ol>
<li> <a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1494044958456696387&pli=1#1">Editor's Corner</a></li>
<li> <a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1494044958456696387&pli=1#2">Quotes of the Week</a></li>
<li> <a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1494044958456696387&pli=1#3">Windows News and Commentary</a></li>
<li> <a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1494044958456696387&pli=1#4">Windows Hints, Trivia, Tips and Tricks</a></li>
<li> <a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1494044958456696387&pli=1#5">How To: Step-by-Step Guidance</a></li>
<li> <a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1494044958456696387&pli=1#6">Free Download of the Week</a></li>
<li> <a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1494044958456696387&pli=1#7">Security and Privacy</a></li>
<li> <a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1494044958456696387&pli=1#8">Ask Deb: Question Corner</a></li>
<li> <a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1494044958456696387&pli=1#9">Windows Configuration and Troubleshooting</a></li>
<li> <a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1494044958456696387&pli=1#10">Fave Links</a></li>
</ol>
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<table> <tbody>
<tr> <td><a href="http://message.gfi.com/t?r=22&c=140449&l=443&ctl=B1C14:DD3342F578B9A0D35E06A28AD0B871D6A06B0A43150A7303&"><img src="http://vipresecuritynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/upgrade-banner.png" /></a></td> </tr>
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<h1 style="background-color: #c2e5f6; font-size: 18px; padding: 5px;">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1494044958456696387&pli=1" name="1"><b>Editor's Corner</b></a></h1>
<h2 style="font-size: 16px;">
Talking Tech: A new outlook on email</h2>
I've been using Hotmail, off and on, for a lot of years – since way back when it was HoTMaiL (for HTML mail - get it?) and wasn't yet owned by Microsoft. Microsoft acquired the service in 1997, the same year <a href="http://message.gfi.com/t?r=22&c=140449&l=443&ctl=B1C15:DD3342F578B9A0D35E06A28AD0B871D6A06B0A43150A7303&">Yahoo! Mail</a> appeared and long before <a href="http://message.gfi.com/t?r=22&c=140449&l=443&ctl=B1C16:DD3342F578B9A0D35E06A28AD0B871D6A06B0A43150A7303&">Gmail</a> (which launched in beta in 2004 and didn't become generally available until 2007).<br />
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As of last October, Hotmail was reported to have 350-355 million users, at the top of the web mail ladder above Yahoo! Mail with 310 million and Gmail with 260 million (<a href="http://message.gfi.com/t?r=22&c=140449&l=443&ctl=B1C17:DD3342F578B9A0D35E06A28AD0B871D6A06B0A43150A7303&">statistics from Comscore Report, October 2011</a>). However, over the past year Gmail's user base has grown to over 425 million accounts, thanks, at least in part, to the fact that you have to have or create a Gmail account to set up an Android phone.<br />
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Microsoft has revamped Hotmail several times over the years, and changed its name from MSN Hotmail to Windows Live Hotmail to plain old Microsoft Hotmail. They have progressively added features and updated the web-based user interface, making it look and work more like the Outlook email client. They also made it possible to set up your Hotmail account <i>in </i>Outlook, which is the way I've been using it for the past few years. My Hotmail inbox appears in Outlook along with my Exchange and Gmail inboxes; I rarely, if ever, log onto Hotmail (or Gmail) through the web. You can see my Hotmail inbox in my Favorites list in Outlook 2013 in this screenshot:<br />
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<img src="http://winnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/image001.jpg" /><br />
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If you look very closely, you'll see another email account underneath the Hotmail inbox - called Outlook.com. That's the new email service that Microsoft rolled out at the end of July, with plans for it to eventually replace Hotmail altogether. Think Google has cornered the market on free email? Think again; within six hours of release, the Los Angeles Times reported that <a href="http://message.gfi.com/t?r=22&c=140449&l=443&ctl=B1C18:DD3342F578B9A0D35E06A28AD0B871D6A06B0A43150A7303&">a million people had already signed up for Outlook.com accounts</a>.<br />
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Although I will probably continue to get most of my mail through the Outlook client on my desktop, I have tested the web client for Outlook.com and I like it a lot. In fact, it makes me feel as if I'm working in Outlook - which, with the name change, I guess I am. Speaking of the name change, I think that's a positive thing, too. Most folks today don't have a clue about the origin of the Hotmail name and the domain name conjures up images that are less than professional (just as the username hotchick or hotdude on the left-hand side of an email address would). I think "outlook.com" is much more appropriate for business-oriented messages.<br />
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You can sign in with your existing Windows Live ID or you can create a new Outlook.com account. You'll see the familiar (to Hotmail and Outlook users) layout with your mail folders on the left, message list in the middle and a right pane that can be used for different purposes. If you click the balloon with a smiley face in it that's just to the left of the gear (settings) icon next to your name, the right pane become the Messaging pane. Here you can start a chat session with your Facebook or Windows Messenger friends. It can also turn into the Social pane.<br />
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With Outlook 2010, Microsoft introduced the "social connector," a set of plug-ins that let you integrate information from social networks such as Facebook and LinkedIn into the data about your Outlook contacts. This has been more seamlessly integrated into Outlook 2013, as illustrated by the "People Pane" underneath the email message preview in this screenshot:<br />
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<img src="http://winnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/image002.jpg" /><br />
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Likewise, Outlook.com synchronizes with your social accounts and displays social networking information in the right pane of the web interface after you've connected your social account(s). Before you do that, you'll see a message in the pane asking you to sign up for Facebook. If you already have a Facebook account, don't click <b>Sign up</b>; instead you need to click the <b>Already on Facebook?</b> link, then click the <b>Connect </b>button. If you're presently logged into Facebook with that browser, Outlook.com will automatically connect your Live ID account to your Facebook account with you having to tell it your Facebook username and password.<br />
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You can select what information gets shared between these two accounts. In Outlook.com and on other Windows Live services that you log into with this Windows Live ID, you can do any or all of the following: see Facebook friends and their updates, chat with Facebook friends via Messenger (or on Windows Phone), share your Facebook status with your Messenger contacts, publish photos and videos to Facebook from Windows Live services/applications (Photo Gallery and Movie Maker) and/or share status updates, photos and documents from Messenger, Hotmail, SkyDrive and Windows Phone on Facebook.<br />
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To connect your Outlook.com account to LinkedIn, YouTube or Flickr, you need to go to the <b>Connect Services </b>page in your Windows Live profile. Be sure and read the terms of service when you grant Microsoft permission to access your social accounts.<br />
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Note that when you're in the Inbox list or otherwise don't have a personal email message selected, the right pane will contain advertising. That's what pays for this free service and it's not very intrusive; it's pretty easy to just visually tune out that column:<br />
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<img src="http://winnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/image003.jpg" /><br />
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If you've used Windows 8 and/or Office 2013, you'll notice that the Outlook.com web interface has a distinctly "Win8" look. You'll also see Windows Phone-like animations when, for instance, you send a message. You can customize the look to an extent but not much. You can choose from 12 colors (default is blue) and configure the location of the reading pane (right, bottom or off).<br />
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By default, messages are arranged in conversation view. That's something I'm not fond of, but the implementation in the reading pane is interesting, as you can see in the screenshot below. Something I do like is that flagged messages go to the top of your Inbox, so they don't get lost in the deluge. You can also choose to hide the flagged messages if, for example, they contain sensitive information in the from name or subject line. If you do this, you'll see the number of flagged messages at the top of the Inbox but nothing about the messages themselves (unless/until you click the <b>Show </b>link).<br />
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<img src="http://winnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/image004.jpg" /><br />
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You can also create up to five aliases - additional email addresses that will all be delivered to this account. You can have the mail to the aliases go into the same Inbox or you can create a folder for each aliases where those messages will automatically be filtered. This is handy if, for example, you want to use one name for business and another for personal mail. Microsoft has also made it very easy to rename your email address while keeping the same account.<br />
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Of course, you can do all the usual account configuration, such as forwarding, sending/receiving mail from other accounts and sending automated "out of office" (vacation) replies. You can change the "reply to" address so that responses come to an address other than your Outlook.com address. You can create a signature and select a font style and color for new messages. You can also set it up to check for forgotten attachments before sending, and you can choose to send large attachments as SkyDrive links, instead of sending the files themselves, if you have contacts who are restricted in the size of attachment they can receive.<br />
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You can configure how junk mail is handled and set up both white lists ("safe senders") and black lists ("blocked senders"). You can also set up the service to allow you to recover messages you have accidentally "deleted," and there are a myriad of "advanced privacy settings" that you'll want to look through to be sure you have things set according to your preferences.<br />
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So far I like Outlook.com, but there's more to come. Eventually you'll be able to access Skype through your Outlook.com account and for some, that's going to be a very important feature. If you haven't tried it yet, head over to <a href="http://message.gfi.com/t?r=22&c=140449&l=443&ctl=B1C19:DD3342F578B9A0D35E06A28AD0B871D6A06B0A43150A7303&">www.outlook.com</a> and give it a whirl. If you have, let us know what you think. Is it good enough to convince you to switch from Gmail or Yahoo! Mail? What's your favorite new feature? What do you hate about it? What additional features would you like to see? Let us know about your thoughts, opinions and experiences in <a href="http://message.gfi.com/t?r=22&c=140449&l=443&ctl=B1C1A:DD3342F578B9A0D35E06A28AD0B871D6A06B0A43150A7303&">our forum</a> or <a href="mailto:winnews@gfi.com?subject=WINNEWS:Outlook.com">email me</a>.<br />
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<h2 style="font-size: 16px;">
Point of View: Is our digital world making us more "binary?"</h2>
A few days ago, my husband and I were talking about what it takes to advance within a large company and, in particular, the growing need for the so-called "soft skills" - the ability to deal with and manage people, create a consensus, work with a team, motivate others and so forth. He said something that struck me as particularly perceptive and that explained why so many talented and brilliant people in the IT industry get "stuck" in positions at a certain level. What he said was that IT professionals "tend to think in binary."<br />
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That makes sense. The computer world as we've always known it is built on binary; it's a world of ones and zeros, where the light switch is either on or it's off - there is no such thing as a dimmer. Binary is simple and easy to understand. It's all about precision; in the old analog world, things were much more fluid. Compare tuning in a radio station; with an analog tuner, you fiddled with the dial and the signal faded and strengthened until you found the best sound somewhere between 101 and 102 on the dial. With a digital tuner, you move in precisely defined steps and you know your station is located at 101.4.<br />
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Precision is great for dealing with machines but it's not so great for dealing with people. When we get into the "binary" way of thinking, we tend to see everything in absolutes. Something or someone is either good or bad, smart or stupid, a friend or an enemy. The world is painted in black and white, with no nuances of gray in between.<br />
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You've probably heard the old joke: There are only 10 kinds of people, those who understand binary and those who don't. But it's not just people who understand the binary number system that are influenced by the move to a digital way of thinking. As computing has gone mainstream and as technical knowledge has seeped into the collective consciousness, it seems as if more and more people have adopted the binary way of thinking. Maybe that's one of the reasons our population seems to be so polarized these days. Many people seem to see their own choices and opinions as the only "right" way to do or think.<br />
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Folks are fiercely adamant about which computer platforms or cell phones they use and defend their choices with a fervor that once was reserved for religious zealots. People define themselves by their political parties and actually feel that they can't be friends with someone from the opposite side of the partisan aisle. We have "zero tolerance" policies in our schools and courtrooms, policies that don't concede there is a difference between being caught in the classroom with an aspirin vs. a bag of heroin, or having a butter knife in one's locker vs. an AK-47. It's a one or it's a zero; it's a drug/weapon or it's not.<br />
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Even in the computer world, I'm not sure this is really the best way to approach most things outside of machine code. The responses I've heard about Windows 8 and Office 2013 (both in public betas) have been very binary: some folks are gushing about how great the new OS and productivity apps are. Others hate them. It seems as if I'm hearing fewer folks in the middle (although I am one of those few folks, who likes some of the changes and isn't so crazy about others).<br />
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As a matter of fact, computers in the distant future might not use binary code at all. Theoretically, at least, the next giant step forward in computing will involve quantum mathematics, based on the behavior of particles at the subatomic level, in which data is represented by <i>qubits </i>instead of binary bits. Whereas a bit can only be in one of two states (one or zero), a qubit simultaneously has the possibility of being in any one of a number of states. The advantage of <a href="http://message.gfi.com/t?r=22&c=140449&l=443&ctl=B1C1B:DD3342F578B9A0D35E06A28AD0B871D6A06B0A43150A7303&">quantum computers</a> is that they will be much faster and able to process exponentially more data than traditional binary machines.<br />
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Quantum computers are still a long way down the road, but the concept shows that even a machine that processes logic doesn't have to be limited to "all or nothing" thinking. Maybe all of us would be happier and do a better job of getting along with each other if we learned to give up our binary way of processing information and making decisions.<br />
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Let me know what you think. Is it just a coincidence that the seeming increase in divisiveness has come along with an increased reliance on digital devices? Share your thoughts, opinions and experiences in <a href="http://message.gfi.com/t?r=22&c=140449&l=443&ctl=B1C1A:DD3342F578B9A0D35E06A28AD0B871D6A06B0A43150A7303&">our forum</a> or <a href="mailto:winnews@gfi.com?subject=WINNEWS:binary">email me</a>.<br />
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Until next time,<br />
<br />
Deb Shinder<br />
<br />
WinNews Editor<br />
<br />
<a href="mailto:feedback@wxpnews.com">feedback@wxpnews.com</a><br />
<br />
Security is everybody's business! Check out our sister publication, VIPRE Security News, at <a href="http://message.gfi.com/t?r=22&c=140449&l=443&ctl=B1C1C:DD3342F578B9A0D35E06A28AD0B871D6A06B0A43150A7303&">http://vipresecuritynews.com/</a><br />
<br />
If you're an IT pro, be sure to check out our "big sister", WServer News, at <a href="http://message.gfi.com/t?r=22&c=140449&l=443&ctl=B1C1D:DD3342F578B9A0D35E06A28AD0B871D6A06B0A43150A7303&">http://www.wservernews.com/</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1494044958456696387&pli=1" name="2"><b>Quotes of the Week </b></a></h1>
"<i>I see the player piano as the grandfather of the computer, the ancestor of the entire nightmare we live in, the birth of the binary world where there is no option other than yes or no and where there is no refuge.</i>" - William Gaddis<br />
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"<i>Unity can only be manifested by the Binary. Unity itself and the idea of Unity are already two.</i>" - Buddha<br />
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"<i>Everyone is in a hurry to be the one, but no one want to be a zero that adds value to the one.</i>" - Moses Pereira<br />
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"<i>If anybody says he can think about quantum physics without getting giddy, that only shows he has not understood the first thing about them.</i>" - Niels Bohr<br />
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"<i>Quantum technology turns ordinary reality upside down.</i>" - Michael Crichton<br />
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<h1 style="background-color: #c2e5f6; font-size: 18px; padding: 5px;">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1494044958456696387&pli=1" name="3"><b>Windows News and Commentary</b></a></h1>
<h2 style="font-size: 16px;">
No more Metro?</h2>
The user interface that was introduced in the Zune, carried over to Windows Phone 7 and became the most controversial aspect of Windows 8 has been called Metro for a long time, but according to recent reports, that's about to change. And now <a href="http://message.gfi.com/t?r=22&c=140449&l=443&ctl=B1C1E:DD3342F578B9A0D35E06A28AD0B871D6A06B0A43150A7303&">Microsoft has confirmed that they will be dropping the "Metro style" naming</a>. For the moment, it's just the "new user interface" (which isn't very inspiring). Maybe they could change it to an unpronounceable symbol and we could call it "The Interface Formerly Known as Metro?"<br />
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<h2 style="font-size: 16px;">
Windows 8 goes for the gold</h2>
As I'm writing this, the Olympic Games are going on in London with more than 10,000 athletes hoping to take home a gold medal. Meanwhile, back in Redmond, <a href="http://message.gfi.com/t?r=22&c=140449&l=443&ctl=B1C1F:DD3342F578B9A0D35E06A28AD0B871D6A06B0A43150A7303&">the next version of Microsoft's operating system - Windows 8 - has "gone gold.</a>" That's industry terminology for reaching the Release to Manufacturing (RTM) stage, at which the code is complete and ready to be sent to hardware vendors to install on the computers they'll be selling.<br />
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What does that mean to you and the prospect of getting your hands on the final version of the new OS? We're still looking at October for general availability to the public - <a href="http://message.gfi.com/t?r=22&c=140449&l=443&ctl=B1C20:DD3342F578B9A0D35E06A28AD0B871D6A06B0A43150A7303&">October 26, to be exact</a>. That's slightly more than three years after the release of Windows 7, which came out on October 22, 2009.<br />
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<h2 style="font-size: 16px;">
Samsung to make Windows 8 phones</h2>
Microsoft might have a "special" relationship with Nokia, but when it comes to "special" smartphones these days, Samsung's Galaxy series is right up there at the top of the heap. Now we're hearing that Samsung has at least two Windows 8 phones waiting in the wings: the Odyssey and the Marco; both are 4G LTE models.<br />
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I seriously doubt that Samsung will be dumping Android, as suggested in Forbes' article titled <a href="http://message.gfi.com/t?r=22&c=140449&l=443&ctl=B1C21:DD3342F578B9A0D35E06A28AD0B871D6A06B0A43150A7303&"><i>Is Samsung Leaving Android for Windows Phone 8</i></a>, but it makes sense for the company to cover all the bases. I currently use a Samsung Galaxy Nexus and although the upcoming Nokia Lumias look impressive (and there are <a href="http://message.gfi.com/t?r=22&c=140449&l=443&ctl=B1C22:DD3342F578B9A0D35E06A28AD0B871D6A06B0A43150A7303&">rumors that they'll be released earlier than WP8 devices from other vendors</a>), personally I'm very interested in seeing what Samsung has to offer.<br />
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<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1494044958456696387&pli=1" name="4"><b>Windows Hints, Tips, Tricks and Trivia</b></a></h1>
<h2 style="font-size: 16px;">
Make Disk Cleanup work better</h2>
The Disk Cleanup tool that's built into Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 (and now Windows 8) can help you remove unneeded files that accumulate on your system, thus freeing up space on your hard drive, uncluttering the file system to make it easier to navigate in Explorer and in some cases improving the performance of your computer.<br />
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By default, temporary files are kept for seven days but you can change that so that they'll be cleaned up more quickly if you want. To do this, you'll need to change a registry setting so - as always - be sure to back up the registry before you begin. If you want to make this change, swing over to techsupportalert.com and you'll find the step-by-step instructions in their article titled <a href="http://message.gfi.com/t?r=22&c=140449&l=443&ctl=B1C23:DD3342F578B9A0D35E06A28AD0B871D6A06B0A43150A7303&"><i>Make Windows Disk Cleanup Work Better</i></a>.<br />
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<h2 style="font-size: 16px;">
Making Windows Search more useful</h2>
Want to get more out of Windows' built-in search function? All it takes is a few tweaks to the way you're doing things to vastly improve the results of your searches. Lifehacker has compiled several tips to <a href="http://message.gfi.com/t?r=22&c=140449&l=443&ctl=B1C24:DD3342F578B9A0D35E06A28AD0B871D6A06B0A43150A7303&"><i>Make Windows Search a Million Times more Useful with these Simple Tweaks</i></a>.<br />
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<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1494044958456696387&pli=1" name="5"><b>How To: Step-by-Step Guidance</b></a></h1>
<h2 style="font-size: 16px;">
XP Tip of the Week: Get rid of unwanted items in the "Open with" list</h2>
The ability to pick which program you want to open a file with when you right-click it is handy but sometimes you may find options there that you never use and are never <i>going </i>to use. Did you know that you can get rid of them and just leave those programs you would consider using? It takes a registry edit, so be sure to back up the registry before you go poking around in it. To remove the unwanted options, open your registry editor and navigate to each of the following locations (unfortunately the items are stored in several):<br />
<ul>
<li> HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.xyz\OpenWithList</li>
<li> HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.xyz\OpenWithProgIDs</li>
<li> HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.xyz\OpenWithList</li>
<li> HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.xyz\OpenWithProgIDs</li>
<li> HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\<perceived type="type">\OpenWithList</perceived></li>
</ul>
In each of these locations, select the entries you want to remove in the right pane, right-click and choose <b>Delete</b>.<br />
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For more information and screenshots to illustrate the process, see <a href="http://message.gfi.com/t?r=22&c=140449&l=443&ctl=B1C25:DD3342F578B9A0D35E06A28AD0B871D6A06B0A43150A7303&"><i>Clear Unwanted Open With Entries </i>on the Windowsxp.mvps.org website</a>.<br />
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<h2 style="font-size: 16px;">
Windows 7 Tip of the Week: Use the Math Input Panel</h2>
Did you know that you don't have to struggle with searching through the Character Map to find mathematical symbols when you want to type complicated math problems in Windows 7? The Math Input Panel is one of the operating system's best kept secrets; most people don't even know it exists. Here's how you use it:<br />
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<ul>
<li> Click <b>Start </b>and in the Search box, type "<b>Math input panel,</b>" then select it from the results.</li>
<li> Write the math expression in the writing area with a digitizer pen or even with your mouse or trackball.</li>
<li> Windows 7 recognizes the math input and displays it in the preview area.</li>
<li> Click the <b>Insert</b> button at the bottom right to insert the math into your word processing or other application.<br /> <br /> <img src="http://winnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/image005.jpg" /></li>
<br /> <br /> </ul>
<h2 style="font-size: 16px;">
Windows 8 Tip of the Week: Remove apps from the All Apps screen</h2>
You can pin your favorite Windows 8 apps to the Start Screen but the tiles are large, so it's not long before it gets so full that you have to scroll a lot to find what you want. Smartphone users may prefer the familiarity of the All Apps screen; the problem is that - true to its name - it lists <i>all </i>files from an app's start menu folder, including Readmes and uninstallers. That adds clutter for things you might never or rarely use.<br />
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There's no obvious option to remove items from the All Apps screen but you can do it by deleting (or moving) the items from the following folders:<br />
c:/ProgramData/Microsoft/Windows/Start Menu/Programs<br />
c:/Users/<your name="name" user="user">/AppData/Roaming/Microsoft/Windows/Start Menu/Programs<br /> <br /> For the details on how to do this, see <a href="http://message.gfi.com/t?r=22&c=140449&l=443&ctl=B1C26:DD3342F578B9A0D35E06A28AD0B871D6A06B0A43150A7303&"><i>Tame the Windows 8 All Apps Screen</i></a> at betanews.com, which also shows you how to create a shortcut to the All Apps screen on the desktop, so you don't have to leave the desktop and go to the Start Screen to get to it.<br /> <br /> </your><br />
<h2 style="font-size: 16px;">
Windows Phone Tip of the Week: How to switch Hotmail account to Outlook.com on WP7</h2>
When Microsoft first released their new Outlook.com email service (see review in the Talking Tech feature article above), there were reports that Windows Phone 7.x users would have to restore their phones to factory settings in order to use the new address. That's actually not the case - you can create an email alias when you sign up for your Outlook.com address and continue to use your Hotmail account with the new address. Just choose to create an email alias, rather than opting to rename your email address. For more info on this, see <a href="http://message.gfi.com/t?r=22&c=140449&l=443&ctl=B1C27:DD3342F578B9A0D35E06A28AD0B871D6A06B0A43150A7303&"><i>Windows Phone 7 users can update their email addresses to Outlook.com without restore </i>on the pocket-lint.com website</a>.<br /> <br /> <h1 style="background-color: #c2e5f6; font-size: 18px; padding: 5px;">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1494044958456696387&pli=1" name="6"><b>Free Download of the Week</b></a></h1>
<h2 style="font-size: 16px;">
Powerful desktop calculator</h2>
The revamped calc.exe program in Windows 7 is pretty good - in fact, it's excellent for performing basic calculations - but if you need to go beyond its capabilities, one of the best free calculator programs I've run across is <a href="http://message.gfi.com/t?r=22&c=140449&l=443&ctl=B1C28:DD3342F578B9A0D35E06A28AD0B871D6A06B0A43150A7303&">SpeedCrunch</a>. It includes unlimited variables, syntax highlighting and 50 decimal places. It's been around for a while and it's now available for Windows, Mac OS X or Linux, so you can use it on all your computers, no matter what operating systems they're running. Check it out and let us know what you think.<br /> <br /> <h1 style="background-color: #c2e5f6; font-size: 18px; padding: 5px;">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1494044958456696387&pli=1" name="7"><b>Security and Privacy</b></a></h1>
<h2 style="font-size: 16px;">
Phishing emails are getting more sophisticated</h2>
Last week, I got up one morning to find four emails purporting to be from Booking.com, confirming my hotel reservations. The problem is that I hadn't made any hotel reservations recently and had never made any through Booking.com. I did a bit of investigative Googling and <a href="http://message.gfi.com/t?r=22&c=140449&l=443&ctl=B1C29:DD3342F578B9A0D35E06A28AD0B871D6A06B0A43150A7303&">confirmed what I already suspected: the attachment (which of course I did not open) is malware</a>.<br /> <br /> Booking.com is a legitimate site but these messages are spoofing its return address. I can see how someone who recently used the site to make reservations might click the attachment without a thought. There's also a good chance that some folks who didn't make reservations will open the file for more information so they can call and correct the "mistake."<br /> <br /> <a href="http://message.gfi.com/t?r=22&c=140449&l=443&ctl=B1C2A:DD3342F578B9A0D35E06A28AD0B871D6A06B0A43150A7303&">Another authentic-looking fake message that's supposedly from AT&T</a> is going around, too. I haven't gotten this one, but it tells you that your current statement is ready to view - just like the legit messages I get from Verizon, the city water utility and several other companies with which I do business. When you click on the link, it redirects you to a site using the Blackhole exploit kit to download malware to your computer.<br /> <br /> These days, you have to be diligent and take nothing for granted - even if it seems to come from a trusted source.<br /> <br /> <h1 style="background-color: #c2e5f6; font-size: 18px; padding: 5px;">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1494044958456696387&pli=1" name="8"><b>Ask Deb: Question Corner</b></a></h1>
<h2 style="font-size: 16px;">
Can I still Telnet in Windows 7?</h2>
Hey, I know I'm a dinosaur, but I still need to access a telnet server, which I've been doing with the built in telnet program in XP forever. I just got a new Windows 7 laptop and I'm not seeing the telnet client. Has it been removed? Do I have to download a third party program? If so, can you recommend one? Thanks! - D.J.<br /> <br /> <b>Answer:</b><br /> Wow - I haven't thought about using Telnet for years, but if you need to, the Microsoft Telnet client is still around. However, it isn't installed by default in Windows 7 as it was in XP. You'll need to add it through the Windows Features section in the Add or Remove Programs applet that you get to from Control Panel. Just type "<b>Add or remove programs</b>" in the Search box on the Start menu and select it from the results. In the left pane, you'll see <b>Turn Windows features on or off</b>. Click that and scroll down in the list of features to find the Telnet client. Check the checkbox and click <b>OK</b>. Windows will search for the required files and then apply the changes.<br /> <br /> The Telnet client can be added to Windows 8 in the same way.<br /> <br /> <h1 style="background-color: #c2e5f6; font-size: 18px; padding: 5px;">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1494044958456696387&pli=1" name="9"><b>Windows Configuration and Troubleshooting</b></a></h1>
<h2 style="font-size: 16px;">
Screensaver that displays pictures stops working</h2>
If you've set your screensaver in Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7 to display pictures from Windows Live Photo Gallery (or in the case of XP, the My Pictures folder), it might stop working for one of two reasons. You can fix it by changing your power setting or by deleting invalid photo shortcuts in the folder and subfolders. Or you can use a Microsoft Fix it tool to do it for you. You'll find a link to the tool and instructions for the DIY method in <a href="http://message.gfi.com/t?r=22&c=140449&l=443&ctl=B1C2B:DD3342F578B9A0D35E06A28AD0B871D6A06B0A43150A7303&">KB article 2425702</a>.<br /> <br /> <h2 style="font-size: 16px;">
Applications crash because of clipboard problem</h2>
If your Windows 7 or Vista computer is crashing when you use Windows Explorer, Microsoft Office applications, or Windows Movie Maker, it could be because of an issue with the Ole32.dll file that adds a malformed data structure to the system clipboard. When another process queries the clipboard, the system crashes. Ouch! What do you do about it? Luckily there is a hotfix available. You can find out more about this problem and download the hotfix from <a href="http://message.gfi.com/t?r=22&c=140449&l=443&ctl=B1C2C:DD3342F578B9A0D35E06A28AD0B871D6A06B0A43150A7303&">KB article 2541119</a>.<br /> <br /> <h1 style="background-color: #c2e5f6; font-size: 18px; padding: 5px;">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1494044958456696387&pli=1" name="10"><b>Fave Links</b></a></h1>
A selection amazing video clips featuring cars, golfers, a kangaroo and more:<br /> <a href="http://message.gfi.com/t?r=22&c=140449&l=443&ctl=B1C2D:DD3342F578B9A0D35E06A28AD0B871D6A06B0A43150A7303&">http://www.flixxy.com/awesome-and-amazing-2012.htm?utm_source=2</a><br /> <br /> Ramesh Raskar and his team at MIT have invented a camera that can photograph light in slow motion:<br /> <a href="http://message.gfi.com/t?r=22&c=140449&l=443&ctl=B1C2E:DD3342F578B9A0D35E06A28AD0B871D6A06B0A43150A7303&">http://www.flixxy.com/a-camera-that-captures-one-trillion-images-per-second.htm?utm_source=2</a><br /> <br /> Human-powered "car" equipped with headlights, backlights, turn signals an odometer and an iPhone dock:<br /> <a href="http://message.gfi.com/t?r=22&c=140449&l=443&ctl=B1C2F:DD3342F578B9A0D35E06A28AD0B871D6A06B0A43150A7303&">http://www.flixxy.com/velomobile-no-gas-burns-calories.htm?utm_source=2</a><br /> <br /> 10 awesome and easy tips and tricks that can save you a lot of time and frustration:<br /> <a href="http://message.gfi.com/t?r=22&c=140449&l=443&ctl=B1C30:DD3342F578B9A0D35E06A28AD0B871D6A06B0A43150A7303&">http://www.flixxy.com/quick-and-simple-life-hacks.htm?utm_source=2</a><br /> </td> </tr>
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<b>Copyright © 1996-2012 GFI Software. All rights reserved. Information in this document is subject to change without notice.<br /> Other products and companies referred to herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies or mark holders.<br /> <br /> This limited-time offer is valid for a $9.95 upgrade from a current VIPRE® Antivirus 2012 license to a VIPRE® Internet Security 2012 license and<br /> includes an additional three months free added to the current subscription. This offer is only open to the intended recipients of this communication<br /> and is not valid in conjunction with any other special offer or campaign announced or to be announced by GFI. GFI reserves the right to stop or cancel<br /> campaigns at its own discretion without notification, as and when deemed necessary. </b><br />
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computermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10089720734681665451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1494044958456696387.post-22565567062170902482010-04-06T20:13:00.001-04:002010-04-06T20:13:19.731-04:00Gizmo's Daily Tech Treats<style type="text/css"> h1 a:hover {background-color:#888;color:#fff ! important;} div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div ul { list-style-type:square; padding-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div blockquote { padding-left:6px; border-left: 6px solid #dadada; margin-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div li { margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:1em; } table#itemcontentlist tr td a:link, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:visited, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:active, ul#summarylist li a { color:#000099; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:none; } img {border:none;} </style> <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" id="emailbody" style="margin:0 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computermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10089720734681665451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1494044958456696387.post-6130319529468012452010-04-06T00:38:00.000-04:002010-04-06T00:35:57.194-04:00What Vendors Give, Vendors Can Take Away<table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr height='16'> <td background='http://www.wxpnews.com/img/header_top_background.gif'><img src='http://www.wxpnews.com/img/header01.gif' width='230' height='16' border='0' alt='WXPNews: Published by Sunbelt Software since 2001'><br></td> <td background='http://www.wxpnews.com/img/header_top_background.gif' align='right' style='color:white;font-weight:bold;font-size:0.7em'><a style='text-decoration:none;color:white' href='http://forums.wxpnews.com/'>FORUMS</a> | <a style='text-decoration:none;color:white' href='http://blog.wxpnews.com/'>BLOG</a> | <a style='text-decoration:none;color:white' href='http://www.wxpnews.com/rss/index.xml'>RSS</a> | <a style='text-decoration:none;color:white' href='http://www.wxpnews.com/profile.cfm?wxp=MY5HU3'>MY PROFILE</a> | <a style='text-decoration:none;color:white' href='privacy.cfm'>PRIVACY</a> <br></td> </tr> <tr height='110'> <td background='http://www.wxpnews.com/img/wxpnews_header_newsletter.jpg' colspan='2' style='background-repeat:no-repeat;background-color:#124b76'><br></td> </tr> </table> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0'> <tr> <td width='17' bgcolor='#cccccc'> </td> <td> <table width='100%' cellpadding='20' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td valign='top'> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td colspan='2'> <font size='2'> Vol. 10, #14 - Apr 6, 2010 - Issue #424<br><br> </font> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width='1%'><img src='http://www.wxpnews.com/img/arrow.gif' width='25' height='25'></td> <td> <font size='5' color='#003366'><b> What Vendors Give, Vendors Can Take Away</b></font> </td> </tr> </table> <br> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td width='20'></td> <td> <font size='2'> <ol> <b><li>Editor's Corner</b> <ul> <li type='square'>What Vendors Give, Vendors Can Take Away <li type='square'>Imagine you had an 'Internet Butler'. <li type='square'>Follow-up: Cutting your phone bills <li type='square'>Quotes of the Week </ul> <b><li>Cool Tools</b> <ul> <li type='square'>Tools We Think You Shouldn't Be Without </ul> <b><li>News, Hints, Tips and Tricks</b> <ul> <li type='square'>Windows Live Wave 4 expected not to support XP <li type='square'>Make your XP (or Vista or Windows 7) computer look like Windows Phone 7 <li type='square'>A better idea than saving XP? <li type='square'>No Office for iPad </ul> <b><li>How To: Using XP Features</b> <ul> <li type='square'>How to do a diagnostic for DirectX problems </ul> <b><li>XP Security News</b> <ul> <li type='square'>Watch out for malicious PDF files </ul> <b><li>XP Question Corner</b> <ul> <li type='square'>How can I do a search and replace on File names? </ul> <b><li>XP Configuration and Troubleshooting</b> <ul> <li type='square'>XP shuts down because UPS service is started <li type='square'>"Bad Command Structure" error message </ul> <b><li>Fav Links</b> <ul> <li type='square'>This Week's Links We Like. Tips, Hints And Fun Stuff </ul> <b><li>Product of the Week</b> <ul> <li type='square'>Driver Genius Professional 9.0: Are your Outdated Drivers Slowing Down your PC? </ul> </ol> </font> </td> </tr> </table> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td> <font size='2'> <br> <table width='100%' cellspacing='0'> <tr> <td><font size='2'> <div style='padding-top: 5pt; padding-right: 15pt; padding-bottom: 15pt; padding-left: 5pt;'> <table width='80%'> <tr> <td valign="top"> <a href='http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-VIPRE-Premium'> <img src='http://www.win7news.net/images/vpp-box.jpg' border='0' hspace='10'></a> </td> <td valign='top'><font size='2'> <font size='3'><b><font color='red'>NEW!</font> VIPRE<sup>®</sup> Antivirus Premium 4.0</b></font><br><br> VIPRE is the only antivirus software that does not slow down your PC, and now it comes with integrated firewall!<br> <br> <b>VIPRE Antivirus Premium 4.0</b> <ul> <li>Does not slow down your PC </li><li>New antivirus + antispyware engine with firewall </li><li>Advanced anti-rootkit technology </li><li>Cutting-edge Proactive Protection </li><li>Full email protection: Outlook and Windows Mail </li><li>Ideal for Netbooks that need malware protection </li><li>No automatic credit card charge each year! </li> </ul> Try VIPRE Antivirus Premium now for 30-days FREE! <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-VIPRE-Premium">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-VIPRE-Premium</a><br> <br> <a href='http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-VIPRE-on-Facebook' target='_blank'> <img src='http://www.win7news.net/images/facebookfan.gif' border='0'></a> </td> </tr> </table> </td></tr></table><br> <br> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr bgcolor='#cccccc'> <td width='1%'><img src='http://www.wxpnews.com/img/arrow.gif' width='25' height='25'></td> <td><font size='4' color='#000000'><b> Editor's Corner</b></font></td> </tr> </table> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td width='27'></td><td><font size='2'><br> <font size='3'><b>What Vendors Give, Vendors Can Take Away</b></font><br><br> Last week, our reader Matt V. wrote to me about a Sony firmware update for the PlayStation 3, released on April 1, that seemed like a cruel April Fool's prank to some customers. What does it do? It removes the option to "install other OS" that was on the console's menu and previously made it possible for users to load Linux and use the PS3 - which, after all, is a computer - for other computing tasks besides playing games. <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-PS3-Removes-OS-Capability">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-PS3-Removes-OS-Capability</a><br> <br> Now it's one thing when you buy a device, knowing that it can only be used as a game console. It's quite another when you make that purchase based on the belief that you can use it for more than that, with the vendor's blessing, and then have that functionality taken away. Some PS3 owners are very unhappy campers. They feel it's a lot like buying a new car that comes with leather seats, and then having the auto maker come to their homes in the dead of night to rip out those nice seats and replace them with cheap cloth.<br> <br> Sony says the update is completely optional. Oh, but there's a catch. If you opt not to install it, you won't have network functionality, which means you can't use PlayStation Network, chat or browse the PlayStation Store. And what's the point of removing the option, anyway? Some speculate it's because people were using the other OS to watch pirated movies, but many folks say they used it so they could use a better web browser, as they didn't like the Sony one. In any event, such a drastic removal of functionality to prevent piracy that might or might not happen seems a little like taking our cars away from all of us just in case we might break the speeding laws with them, or banning tire irons because after all, it's possible to use one to commit assault.<br> <br> Of course, Sony isn't the only company that has ever removed functionality from one of its devices. In 2007, an Apple software update famously "bricked" an unknown number of iPhones that had been "unlocked" by their owners so they could be used with a cellular carrier other than AT&T - taking away <i>all</i> functionality. <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-Unlocked-iPhones-Bricked">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-Unlocked-iPhones-Bricked</a><br> <br> Apple also reportedly forced the developers of Stanza, an ebook reader app for the iPhone, to issue an update that would remove the app's ability to transfer ebooks to their mobile devices with a USB cable. Interestingly, Lexcycle, the maker of Stanza, fielded questions by staying they were "forbidden from discussing the specifics of our conversations with Apple on this matter," although they did confirm that the feature was removed in accordance with Apple's demands. <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-USB-Sharing">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-USB-Sharing</a><br> <br> And last December, Microsoft issued an update for Office 2007 that removed the ability to read Custom XML elements contained within .docx, .docm or .xml files - but it wasn't exactly a voluntary action. The company was ordered by U.S. Federal Court of Appeals, which found in favor of Canadian developer i4i when it claimed the feature infringed on its patent, to remove the XML editing technology. <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-Custom-XML-Yanked">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-Custom-XML-Yanked</a><br> <br> Is it legal, then, for hardware and software vendors to change your devices and programs after you buy them? Unfortunately, if you read all the fine print in the End User License Agreement (EULA), you'll probably discover that you agreed to that very thing when you clicked the "Accept" button during the installation or setup process. The Sony PS3 EULA, in section 3 ("Services and Updates"), says: "Without limitation, services may include the provision of the latest update or download of new release that may include security patches, new technology or revised settings and features which may prevent access to unauthorized or pirated content, or use of unauthorized hardware or software in connection with the PS3(tm) system." and "Some services may change your current settings, cause a loss of data or content, or cause some loss of functionality." <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-Agreement">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-Agreement</a><br> <br> You can bet the vendors made sure their attorneys had covered their behinds before they issued these updates. Don't remember ever clicking to accept the agreement? It doesn't matter, because section 9 ("General Legal") says: "By using or accessing the System Software, you agree to be bound by all current terms of this Agreement." and what's more: "SCE, at its sole discretion, may modify the terms of this Agreement at any time, including any terms in the PS3(tm) system documentation or manual."<br> <br> It does make you wonder just how far that clause could be taken. Can the vendor come back and say, "Oh, we've decided that instead of granting you an infinite license to use this software, we're changing the terms of this agreement so you only get to use it for six months. If you want to use it longer, you have to pay for it again"? Apparently they could.<br> <br> Interestingly, I did not find such an overt clause permitting the terms of the agreement to be changed in the Windows 7 EULA. However, section 23 ("Entire Agreement") says: "This agreement (including the warranty below), additional terms (including any printed-paper license terms that accompany the software and may modify or replace some or all of these terms), and the terms for supplements, updates, Internet-based services and support services that you use, are the entire agreement for the software and support services." If you parse that language carefully, you'll see that they're saying they can modify or replace the terms of the agreement by issuing "additional terms," which can be but wouldn't have to be printed-paper terms accompanying the software.<br> <br> Want to know what's in the EULA of any other Microsoft products? At least they've made that information easy to find all in one place: <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-End-User-License">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-End-User-License</a><br> <br> Of course, we've talked about heinous EULA terms before, but the clauses that give them the right to change any and everything (including those terms themselves) has to be the worst. In essence, that one clause negates any and all rights that might seem to be granted to you by the agreement, since the vendor has the sole discretion to change any part of it at any time.<br> <br> Tell us what you think. Should vendors be allowed to remove important functionalities from their devices or software after you paid for that same functionality? Should they only be allowed to do it when under a court order, as Microsoft was with the XML editing issue? Should they have to refund part or all of your money if they make significant changes that cause you to no longer want the device or program? Or should they be able to make any changes they want, since after all, you agreed to it? Should, at the very least, changing the terms of the agreement be prohibited? Have you ever had features you wanted removed by an update? We invite you to discuss this topic in our forum at <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-Forum-Discussion">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-Forum-Discussion</a><br> <br><br><font size='3'><b>Imagine you had an 'Internet Butler'.</b></font><br><br> Imagine you had an 'Internet Butler' in your PC. Tell us what that things that 'butler' would do for you automatically, instead of you having to do it yourself? <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-Survey">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-Survey</a><br> <br><br><font size='3'><b>Follow-up: Cutting your phone bills</b></font><br><br> Last week, I wrote about the evolution of our phone service, from landline to Lingo VoIP for six years and now, given recent problems with Lingo, to my "pilot program" with Skype. Readers had lots of comments and suggestions, and what quickly emerged from the discussion (both on the forum and in email) was that the same solutions are not going to be right for everybody.<br> <br> One reader noted that cell service is unreliable where he lives and "Relying solely on a cell phone means no service 1/2 the time." It made me very grateful that in my area, I've never failed to get a cell signal in the last five years with Verizon, indoors or out. On the other hand, I have a friend who lives in the next suburb over, who is unable to get any service at all inside his home with his AT&T iPhone.<br> <br> Another reader suggested, "Why not just keep your DSL line, which you can use as a regular phone line, and use your cell for everything else. Usually your DISH or DIRECTV system requires a line for them to access your reception boxes, so the DSL line can be used for that also." For those who have DSL and DISH or DirecTV, that sounds like good advice. It's not at all applicable to our situation. We have FiOS Internet service, which is far faster than DSL, but even if we wanted it, we're too far from the CO to get DSL. And we don't have DISH or DirecTV, so there's no need for a landline for that.<br> <br> Other readers use other solutions. Some use their cable company's phone service. Others mentioned MagicJack and Ooma. These two are super low-cost alternatives: MagicJack costs $20/year (after a $40 initial hardware cost), and Ooma costs $250 for the hardware and then there are no monthly charges for basic service. There is a "premier" service that costs $99/year and gives you a second outgoing line, three-way calling, and forwarding of calls to your cell or other backup number, as well as call screening and voicemail-to-email, blacklisting and anonymous call rejection, custom ring patterns and other services beyond what you get with the basic service. Both have been around for a while, but I haven't personally tried either of them. I'll be checking into them further in the future, after the enthusiastic recommendations they both got. Other suggestions included ACN VoIP, Toktumi, voipo.com, and Google Voice.<br> <br> That last one confused me a little, as it seemed at least one reader was suggesting it as an alternative to other phone services. Unless it's changed, it is actually an addition to other services, as you have to have an established phone number to activate it. If you can get inbound calls with Google Voice only, I'm not aware of it.<br> <br> To answer kurtneus's question: "MagicJack is cheap but it requires that you leave your computer on all the time. That can cost $15/mo. for electricity (at 7¢/kwh & 300w power supply)! How is this cost effective?" If you don't already have a computer that's always on, that's a valid consideration. If you run servers, as we do, that remain on 24/7 anyway, you just plug the device into one of them and there's no extra power cost.<br> <br> Based on the number of responses, this is a topic that resonates with many people, and it was interesting to see how many of you have also dropped your landlines, either in favor of some iteration of VoIP or cellular only - although there are a few who vowed to hang onto their landlines forever. And Scott W. brought up the subject of adding up your total cost for various types of connectivity: phones, Internet, TV, cell phones, satellite radio, On-Star, home alarm system, movie rental, etc. I don't use all of those (I've never been interested in satellite radio and I dropped On-Star after two years and am seriously considering dropping the alarm monitoring service) but even so, the total number is pretty scary.<br> <br> I enjoyed reading about your experiences trying different phone solutions and it was also eye-opening to find out how much prices can vary for landline service in different parts of the country. As always, thanks to all of you who participated in the discussion.<br> <br> 'Til next week,<br> Deb Shinder, Editor<br> <a href='mailto:feedback@win7news.net'>feedback@win7news.net</a><br> <br> <a href='http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-Twitter'> <img src='http://www.win7news.net/images/twitter-logo.gif' border='0' alt='Follow Deb on Twitter'></a><br> <br> PS: Did you know this newsletter has a sister publication called Win7News? You can subscribe here, and tell your friends: <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-Win7News">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-Win7News</a><br> <br> And for IT pros, there's our "big sister," WServer News, at <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-WserverNews">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-WserverNews</a><br> <br> Look up the WXPnews Fan Page and join us on Facebook! <br><br><font size='3'><b>Quotes of the Week</b></font><br><br> "<i>The telephone is a 100-year-old technology. It's time for a change. Charging for phone calls is something you did last century.</i>" - Niklas Zennstrom<br> <br> "<i>I stay away from the telephone if at all possible.</i>" - Lee Trevino<br> <br> "<i>The Internet is a telephone system that's gotten uppity.</i>" - Clifford Stoll </td></tr></table><br> <br> <table width='100%' cellspacing='0'> <tr> <td><font size='2'> <div style='padding-top: 5pt; padding-right: 15pt; padding-bottom: 15pt; padding-left: 5pt;'> <table width='80%'> <tr> <td valign="top"> <a href='http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-VIPRE-Premium'> <img src='http://www.win7news.net/images/vpp-box.jpg' border='0' hspace='10'></a> </td> <td valign='top'><font size='2'> <font size='3'><b><font color='red'>NEW!</font> VIPRE<sup>®</sup> Antivirus Premium 4.0</b></font><br><br> VIPRE is the only antivirus software that does not slow down your PC, and now it comes with integrated firewall!<br> <br> <b>VIPRE Antivirus Premium 4.0</b> <ul> <li>Does not slow down your PC </li><li>New antivirus + antispyware engine with firewall </li><li>Advanced anti-rootkit technology </li><li>Cutting-edge Proactive Protection </li><li>Full email protection: Outlook and Windows Mail </li><li>Ideal for Netbooks that need malware protection </li><li>No automatic credit card charge each year! </li> </ul> Try VIPRE Antivirus Premium now for 30-days FREE! <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-VIPRE-Premium">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-VIPRE-Premium</a><br> <br> <a href='http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-VIPRE-on-Facebook' target='_blank'> <img src='http://www.win7news.net/images/facebookfan.gif' border='0'></a> </td> </tr> </table> </td></tr></table><br> <br> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr bgcolor='#cccccc'> <td width='1%'><img src='http://www.wxpnews.com/img/arrow.gif' width='25' height='25'></td> <td><font size='4' color='#000000'><b> Cool Tools</b></font></td> </tr> </table> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td width='27'></td><td><font size='2'><br> <font size='3'><b>Tools We Think You Shouldn't Be Without</b></font><br><br> <font size='1' color='808080'>ADVERTISEMENT</font><br> <br> MediaWidget is the quickest and easiest way to transfer all of your music, videos, photos, podcasts, and more from your iPod to PC. Check out the cool Youtube demo and download the trial here: <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-MediaWidget">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-MediaWidget</a><br> <br> Do you have programs you just can't seem to get rid of? Uninstaller! 2010 "ALL New" Version Just Released: <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-Your-Uninstaller">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-Your-Uninstaller</a><br> <br> Shop online much? Billing address autofill, Secure password storage, all automatic and safe. Not a little toobar utility. Huge time-saver! <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-RoboForm">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-RoboForm</a><br> <br> Moving to Windows 7 is Easy! PCMover moves programs, files, and settings from your old PC to your new PC <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-PCmover">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-PCmover</a><br> <br> Search for a driver and you get a ton of Driver Software offers instead. But how do you know which one is good? Try Driver Genius 9.0. Free scan. <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-Driver-Genius">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-Driver-Genius</a><br> <br> Why back up when you can sync? Simply replicate every piece of data to another drive in real-time. Set it and forget it. <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-GoodSync">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-GoodSync</a><br> <br> Spellchecker is NOT ENOUGH! Improve your English writing skills with WhiteSmoke a smarter solution for high quality writing. Try it: <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-WhiteSmoke">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-WhiteSmoke</a><br> </td></tr></table><br> <br> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr bgcolor='#cccccc'> <td width='1%'><img src='http://www.wxpnews.com/img/arrow.gif' width='25' height='25'></td> <td><font size='4' color='#000000'><b> News, Hints, Tips and Tricks</b></font></td> </tr> </table> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td width='27'></td><td><font size='2'><br> <font size='3'><b>Windows Live Wave 4 expected not to support XP</b></font><br><br> We already know that Internet Explorer 9, the next version of Microsoft's web browser, isn't going to support Windows XP. Now comes the news, from Mary Jo Foley, that there is a high probability that Live Wave 4 - the next generation of its Live Mail, Live Writer, Messenger, Photo Gallery and other free applications - won't support XP either. We won't find out for sure until the public beta comes out (reportedly in June) and of course, even then there will still be time for changes before the final release (reportedly scheduled for August). If true, this is apt to make some XP users very unhappy. <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-LiveWave4">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-LiveWave4</a><br> <br><br><font size='3'><b>Make your XP (or Vista or Windows 7) computer look like Windows Phone 7</b></font><br><br> You can't yet buy a phone running the new Windows Phone 7 operating system ("Series" has been dropped from the name, thank goodness), but the user interface has been demonstrated and has the tech world buzzing. And if you just can't wait, there is an application that you can install to make your XP (or other Windows) desktop look like the phone UI. It's called Omnimo and you can read more about it, and find a link to download it, here: <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-Omnimo-UI">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-Omnimo-UI</a><br> <br><br><font size='3'><b>A better idea than saving XP?</b></font><br><br> Warning - this article is a bit, shall we say, tongue in cheek. Check the date it was published before you take it too seriously. But it's still a fun read, and I would be willing to bet there are at least a few folks out there who really feel this way: <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-Save-Windows-XP">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-Save-Windows-XP</a><br> <br><br><font size='3'><b>No Office for iPad</b></font><br><br> If you're one of the many who celebrated April Fools Day by rushing to the Apple Store to buy an iPad, don't make plans to run Microsoft Office on it anytime soon. According to Stephen Elop, president of Microsoft's Business Division, the company has no current plans to make a version of their popular productivity suite for the new Apple device. Is this the right decision? Or is it, as many tech commentators seem to think, a big mistake? Only time will tell, but let us know what you think, and whether you're at all interested in the "giant iPhone sans phone" that went on sale last week. <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-Office-on-iPad">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-Office-on-iPad</a><br> </td></tr></table><br> <br> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr bgcolor='#cccccc'> <td width='1%'><img src='http://www.wxpnews.com/img/arrow.gif' width='25' height='25'></td> <td><font size='4' color='#000000'><b> How To: Using XP Features</b></font></td> </tr> </table> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td width='27'></td><td><font size='2'><br> <font size='3'><b>How to do a diagnostic for DirectX problems</b></font><br><br> If you have performance problems with video games or other 3D applications, you might want to run the DirectX diagnostic tool in XP to track down the source of the problems. Here's how: <ol> <li>Click Start | Run </li><li>In the Open box, type dxdiag </li><li>Check the System tab to find out what version of DirectX is installed and get other general system information. </li><li>Check the DirectX Files tab, which will show you in the Notes section at the bottom if any of your important DirectX files are missing. If you have missing files, you may need to reinstall DirectX. </li><li> Check the Display tab to run DirectDraw and Direct3D tests, which will tell you whether DirectX is running properly and allow you to disable acceleration if needed. </li></ol> These tests will go a long way toward helping you find the root of your DirectX problems (or confirm that DirectX isn't the problem). Just follow the instructions in the dialog boxes. </td></tr></table><br> <br> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr bgcolor='#cccccc'> <td width='1%'><img src='http://www.wxpnews.com/img/arrow.gif' width='25' height='25'></td> <td><font size='4' color='#000000'><b> XP Security News</b></font></td> </tr> </table> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td width='27'></td><td><font size='2'><br> <font size='3'><b>Watch out for malicious PDF files</b></font><br><br> Most computer users consider PDF files to be pretty safe, unlike executables or even Word documents that can contain macros. After all, it's just a way to present a two-dimensional document, right? Well, maybe not. Recently a security researcher discovered a way to embed code in a PDF and launch it using Adobe Reader or Foxit, just by opening the file. The good news is that, at the moment, it's still in the "proof of concept" stage (meaning nobody has actually released such an attack in the wild) and the makers of the PDF readers have been notified. The bad news is that it's not exploiting a vulnerability in the software, which makes it harder to come up with a "fix" for it. Read more here: <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-Malicious-PDF">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-Malicious-PDF</a><br> </td></tr></table><br> <br> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr bgcolor='#cccccc'> <td width='1%'><img src='http://www.wxpnews.com/img/arrow.gif' width='25' height='25'></td> <td><font size='4' color='#000000'><b> XP Question Corner</b></font></td> </tr> </table> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td width='27'></td><td><font size='2'><br> <font size='3'><b>How can I do a search and replace on File names?</b></font><br><br> <b>QUESTION:</b><br> I have a directory that has many files (hundreds) with file names that start with the same word (Smith) and then additional descriptions, like this: Smith birthday photo.jpg, Smith vacation1.jpg, and so on. What I want to do is replace "Smith" with something else, my first name instead of my last, so that they're named Lisa birthday photo.jpg and so forth. Is there a way to do this in one big operation (like how you can search and replace in Word) to replace "Smith" wherever it appears with "Lisa?" Hope this makes sense. Thanks. - Lisa S.<br> <br> <b>ANSWER:</b><br> XP has built-in functionality for renaming a group of files with sequentially numbered file names; for example, you could select the group, choose rename and type "Lisa," and your files would be named Lisa(1).jpg, Lisa(2).jpg, etc. but that's not very descriptive and I don't think that's what you want. However, you can do a search and replace within file names if you use a third party utility like FileMonkey. It will run on XP, and they have a tutorial on their web site that shows you how to search and replace in file names. The downside is that there is no "undo" so once you've renamed the files, you can't go back to the original names easily (unless you've backed them up first with the original names, which I highly recommend just in case it doesn't turn out like you expected).<br> <br> Check it out here: <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-Filemonkey">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-Filemonkey</a><br> </td></tr></table><br> <br> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr bgcolor='#cccccc'> <td width='1%'><img src='http://www.wxpnews.com/img/arrow.gif' width='25' height='25'></td> <td><font size='4' color='#000000'><b> XP Configuration and Troubleshooting</b></font></td> </tr> </table> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td width='27'></td><td><font size='2'><br> <font size='3'><b>XP shuts down because UPS service is started</b></font><br><br> If you start the Uninterruptible Power Supply service on your Windows XP computer, and you don't have a UPS attached to your computer via a COM port (or if you, but it's not working), Windows will shut down either before or after you log on. That's a problem, because you can't get into Windows to turn off the UPS service. The solution is to start in Safe Mode and then follow the instructions in KB article 818197 at <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-Uninterruptible-Power-Supply">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-Uninterruptible-Power-Supply</a><br> <br><br><font size='3'><b>"Bad Command Structure" error message</b></font><br><br> If you try to extract files from a compressed folder, you might get an error message that says "Compressed (zipped) folders was unable to create the specified directory. Ensure that the directory does not already exist, and that the path entered is valid." This happens because you didn't type the entire explicit path for the folder name. The solution is simple: type in the complete path name. See KB article 291779 for more information: <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-Bad-Command-Structure">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-Bad-Command-Structure</a><br> </td></tr></table><br> <br> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr bgcolor='#cccccc'> <td width='1%'><img src='http://www.wxpnews.com/img/arrow.gif' width='25' height='25'></td> <td><font size='4' color='#000000'><b> Fav Links</b></font></td> </tr> </table> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td width='27'></td><td><font size='2'><br> <font size='3'><b>This Week's Links We Like. Tips, Hints And Fun Stuff</b></font><br><br> <font size='1'>Disclaimer: WXPNews does not assume and cannot be responsible for any liability related to you clicking any of these linked Web sites.<br></font> <ul> <li>Startling word riddle <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-Word-Riddle">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-Word-Riddle</a><br> </li><li>15 Worst Fast Food Fails <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-Fast-Food">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-Fast-Food</a><br> </li><li>The need for speed (long, but fascinating) <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-Speed">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-Speed</a><br> </li><li>Kings of logistics <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-Logistics">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-Logistics</a><br> </li><li>Easter identity theft <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-Bunnies">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-Bunnies</a><br> </li><li>Great animal photos <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-Animals">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-Animals</a><br> </li><li>The world's mightiest remote-controlled plane has a wingspan of 30 feet, runs off four 160 cc engines, weighs 463 pounds and takes 2 pilots to fly it: <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-RC-Plane">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-RC-Plane</a><br> </li><li>Amazing close-up magic by Taiwanese magician Liu Qian, who has earned superstar status for his unbelievable performances. Get ready to be totally amazed. You ain't gonna believe your eyes: <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-Magic-Show">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-Magic-Show</a><br> </li><li>Cute fave of the week. A dog and a deer having fun playing soccer: <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-Soccer">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-Soccer</a><br> </li></ul> </td></tr></table><br> <br> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr bgcolor='#cccccc'> <td width='1%'><img src='http://www.wxpnews.com/img/arrow.gif' width='25' height='25'></td> <td><font size='4' color='#000000'><b> Product of the Week</b></font></td> </tr> </table> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td width='27'></td><td><font size='2'><br> <font size='3'><b>Driver Genius Professional 9.0: Are your Outdated Drivers Slowing Down your PC?</b></font><br><br> Keeping your Drivers up to date is an essential step to keep your PC running smoothly. When drivers get out of date, your PC can become unstable and you may experience frequent crashes, frozen applications and slow boot up times. Driver Genius Professional takes the hassle out of managing your drivers and will automatically backup, update and restore all your PC drivers. Over 80,000 devices supported. Start Your Free Driver Scan now and find out if you have outdated drivers that may be causing you problems with your computer! WXPNews news discount coupon is on the product information page. <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-POTW-Driver-Genius">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100406-POTW-Driver-Genius</a><br> </td></tr></table><br> </font> </td> </tr> </table> <br> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr bgcolor='#cccccc'> <td width='1%'><img src='http://www.wxpnews.com/img/arrow.gif' width='25' height='25'></td> <td><font size='4' color='#000000'><b> About WXPnews</b></font></td> </tr> </table> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td width='27'></td> <td> <font size='2'><br> <b>What Our Lawyers Make Us Say</b><br> These documents are provided for informational purposes only. The information contained in this document represents the current view of Sunbelt Software on the issues discussed as of the date of publication. Because Sunbelt must respond to changes in market conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Sunbelt and Sunbelt cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information presented after the date of publication.<br> <br> INFORMATION PROVIDED IN THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND FREEDOM FROM INFRINGEMENT.<br> <br> This newsletter and website and may contain links to other websites with whom we have a business relationship. Sunbelt Software does not review or screen these sites, and we are not responsible or liable for their privacy or data security practices, or the content of these sites. Additionally, if you register with any of these sites, any information that you provide in the process of registration, such as your email address, credit card number or other personally identifiable information, will be transferred to these sites. For these reasons, you should be careful to review any privacy and data security policies posted on any of these sites before providing information to them.<br> <br> The user assumes the entire risk as to the accuracy and the use of this document. This document may be copied and distributed subject to the following conditions: 1) All text must be copied without modification and all pages must be included; 2) All copies must contain Sunbelt's copyright notice and any other notices provided therein; and 3) This document may not be distributed for profit. All trademarks acknowledged. Copyright Sunbelt Software, Inc. 1996-2010.<br> <br> <b>WXPnews Archives</b><br> Looking for a past issue? Missing an issue? Accidently deleted an issue? Trying to find that article that pointed you to that cool site? All our newsletters are archived and are searchable:<br> <a href='http://www.wxpnews.com/archives.cfm'>http://www.wxpnews.com/archives.cfm</a><br> <br> <b>About Your Subscription to WXPnews</b><br> This is a posting from WXPnews. You are subscribed as cpedley.killcomputer@blogger.com.<br> To manage your profile, please visit our site by clicking on the following link:<br> <a href='http://www.wxpnews.com/profile.cfm?wxp=MY5HU3'>http://www.wxpnews.com/profile.cfm?wxp=MY5HU3</a><br> <br> If you have feedback or wish to write to the editor, write to us at <a href='mailto:feedback@wxpnews.com?subject=WXPnews'>feedback@wxpnews.com</a><br> <br> Sunbelt Software<br> 33 North Garden Avenue<br> Clearwater, Florida USA 33755 </font> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> computermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10089720734681665451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1494044958456696387.post-12982690635511742182010-04-05T21:01:00.001-04:002010-04-05T21:01:21.436-04:00Gizmo's Daily Tech Treats<style type="text/css"> h1 a:hover {background-color:#888;color:#fff ! important;} div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div ul { list-style-type:square; padding-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div blockquote { padding-left:6px; border-left: 6px solid #dadada; margin-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div li { margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:1em; } table#itemcontentlist tr td a:link, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:visited, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:active, ul#summarylist li a { color:#000099; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:none; } img {border:none;} </style> <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" id="emailbody" style="margin:0 2em;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"> <table style="border:0;padding:0;margin:0;width:100%"> <tr> <td style="vertical-align:top" width="99%"> <h1 style="margin:0;padding-bottom:6px;"> <a style="color:#888;font-size:22px;font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;" href="http://www.techsupportalert.com/view/treats" title="(http://www.techsupportalert.com/view/treats)">Gizmo's Daily Tech Treats</a> <br /> <a href="http://fusion.google.com/add?source=atgs&feedurl=http://feeds.feedburner.com/GizmosDailyTechTreats"> <img style="padding-top:6px" alt="" border="0" src="http://gmodules.com/ig/images/plus_google.gif" /> </a> </h1> </td> <td width="1%"> <a href="http://www.techsupportalert.com/view/treats"> <img src="http://techsupportalert.com/images/46best-50px.jpg" alt="Link to Gizmo's Daily Tech Treats" id="feedimage" style="padding:0 0 10px 3px;border:0;" /> </a> </td> </tr> </table> <hr style="border:1px solid #ccc;padding:0;margin:0" /> <ul style="clear:both;padding:0 0 0 1.2em;width:100%" id="summarylist"> <li> <a href="#1">Weekend Roundup February 5, 2010</a> </li> <li> <a href="#2">Color Theory for Anyone, plus 50 Free Tools to Create Perfect Color Combinations</a> </li> <li> <a href="#3">Best Of History Web Sites</a> </li> <li> <a href="#4">Universities with the Best Free Online Courses</a> </li> <li> <a href="#5">The Windows Registry Explained</a> </li> </ul> <table id="itemcontentlist"> <tr xmlns=""> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="1" style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GizmosDailyTechTreats/~3/sPPwQPoDh3k/weekend-roundup-february-5-2010.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email">Weekend Roundup February 5, 2010</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 05 Apr 2010 01:22 AM PDT</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GizmosDailyTechTreats/~4/sPPwQPoDh3k?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email" height="1" width="1"/></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="2" style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GizmosDailyTechTreats/~3/1AUIhDMjCkg/color-theory-anyone-plus-50-free-tools-create-perfect-color-combinations.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email">Color Theory for Anyone, plus 50 Free Tools to Create Perfect Color Combinations</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 05 Apr 2010 12:48 AM PDT</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GizmosDailyTechTreats/~4/1AUIhDMjCkg?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email" height="1" width="1"/></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="3" style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GizmosDailyTechTreats/~3/Ofc2dGULL3I/best-history-web-sites.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email">Best Of History Web Sites</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 05 Apr 2010 12:47 AM PDT</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GizmosDailyTechTreats/~4/Ofc2dGULL3I?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email" height="1" width="1"/></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="4" style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GizmosDailyTechTreats/~3/Ez_PI5oDVN8/universities-best-free-online-courses.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email">Universities with the Best Free Online Courses</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 05 Apr 2010 12:35 AM PDT</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GizmosDailyTechTreats/~4/Ez_PI5oDVN8?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email" height="1" width="1"/></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="5" style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GizmosDailyTechTreats/~3/6UGFFkgbiSw/windows-registry-explained.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email">The Windows Registry Explained</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 04 Apr 2010 06:03 PM PDT</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GizmosDailyTechTreats/~4/6UGFFkgbiSw?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email" height="1" width="1"/></div> </td> </tr> </table> <table style="border-top:1px solid #999;padding-top:4px;margin-top:1.5em;width:100%" id="footer"> <tr> <td style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">You are subscribed to email updates from <a href="http://www.techsupportalert.com/view/treats">Gizmo's Daily Tech Treats</a> <br />To stop receiving these emails, you may <a href="http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailunsubscribe?k=OscCsQAtaVokQsxhoeJHVsDaTs0">unsubscribe now</a>.</td> <td style="font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;text-align:right;vertical-align:top">Email delivery powered by Google</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610</td> </tr> </table> </div> computermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10089720734681665451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1494044958456696387.post-20760381210712015222010-04-04T20:19:00.001-04:002010-04-04T20:19:13.748-04:00Gizmo's Daily Tech Treats<style type="text/css"> h1 a:hover {background-color:#888;color:#fff ! important;} div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div ul { list-style-type:square; padding-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div blockquote { padding-left:6px; border-left: 6px solid #dadada; margin-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div li { margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:1em; } table#itemcontentlist tr td a:link, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:visited, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:active, ul#summarylist li a { color:#000099; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:none; } img {border:none;} </style> <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" id="emailbody" style="margin:0 2em;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"> <table style="border:0;padding:0;margin:0;width:100%"> <tr> <td style="vertical-align:top" width="99%"> <h1 style="margin:0;padding-bottom:6px;"> <a style="color:#888;font-size:22px;font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;" href="http://www.techsupportalert.com/view/treats" title="(http://www.techsupportalert.com/view/treats)">Gizmo's Daily Tech Treats</a> <br /> <a href="http://fusion.google.com/add?source=atgs&feedurl=http://feeds.feedburner.com/GizmosDailyTechTreats"> <img style="padding-top:6px" alt="" border="0" src="http://gmodules.com/ig/images/plus_google.gif" /> </a> </h1> </td> <td width="1%"> <a href="http://www.techsupportalert.com/view/treats"> <img src="http://techsupportalert.com/images/46best-50px.jpg" alt="Link to Gizmo's Daily Tech Treats" id="feedimage" style="padding:0 0 10px 3px;border:0;" /> </a> </td> </tr> </table> <hr style="border:1px solid #ccc;padding:0;margin:0" /> <table id="itemcontentlist"> <tr xmlns=""> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="1" style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GizmosDailyTechTreats/~3/EKgf8wrCLl8/mac-attack-browsers-osx.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email">Mac Attack: Browsers for OSX</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 04 Apr 2010 12:35 PM PDT</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GizmosDailyTechTreats/~4/EKgf8wrCLl8?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email" height="1" width="1"/></div> </td> </tr> </table> <table style="border-top:1px solid #999;padding-top:4px;margin-top:1.5em;width:100%" id="footer"> <tr> <td style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">You are subscribed to email updates from <a href="http://www.techsupportalert.com/view/treats">Gizmo's Daily Tech Treats</a> <br />To stop receiving these emails, you may <a href="http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailunsubscribe?k=OscCsQAtaVokQsxhoeJHVsDaTs0">unsubscribe now</a>.</td> <td style="font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;text-align:right;vertical-align:top">Email delivery powered by Google</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610</td> </tr> </table> </div> computermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10089720734681665451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1494044958456696387.post-36247029737578884312010-04-03T20:33:00.001-04:002010-04-03T20:33:59.908-04:00Gizmo's Daily Tech Treats<style type="text/css"> h1 a:hover {background-color:#888;color:#fff ! important;} div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div ul { list-style-type:square; padding-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div blockquote { padding-left:6px; border-left: 6px solid #dadada; margin-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div li { margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:1em; } table#itemcontentlist tr td a:link, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:visited, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:active, ul#summarylist li a { color:#000099; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:none; } img {border:none;} </style> <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" id="emailbody" style="margin:0 2em;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"> <table style="border:0;padding:0;margin:0;width:100%"> <tr> <td style="vertical-align:top" width="99%"> <h1 style="margin:0;padding-bottom:6px;"> <a style="color:#888;font-size:22px;font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;" href="http://www.techsupportalert.com/view/treats" title="(http://www.techsupportalert.com/view/treats)">Gizmo's Daily Tech Treats</a> <br /> <a href="http://fusion.google.com/add?source=atgs&feedurl=http://feeds.feedburner.com/GizmosDailyTechTreats"> <img style="padding-top:6px" alt="" border="0" src="http://gmodules.com/ig/images/plus_google.gif" /> </a> </h1> </td> <td width="1%"> <a href="http://www.techsupportalert.com/view/treats"> <img src="http://techsupportalert.com/images/46best-50px.jpg" alt="Link to Gizmo's Daily Tech Treats" id="feedimage" style="padding:0 0 10px 3px;border:0;" /> </a> </td> </tr> </table> <hr style="border:1px solid #ccc;padding:0;margin:0" /> <table id="itemcontentlist"> <tr xmlns=""> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="1" style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GizmosDailyTechTreats/~3/cN0cBuICKls/captivated-words-youll-love-wordnik.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email">Captivated By Words? You'll Love Wordnik</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 16 Mar 2010 07:09 PM PDT</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GizmosDailyTechTreats/~4/cN0cBuICKls?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email" height="1" width="1"/></div> </td> </tr> </table> <table style="border-top:1px solid #999;padding-top:4px;margin-top:1.5em;width:100%" id="footer"> <tr> <td style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">You are subscribed to email updates from <a href="http://www.techsupportalert.com/view/treats">Gizmo's Daily Tech Treats</a> <br />To stop receiving these emails, you may <a href="http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailunsubscribe?k=OscCsQAtaVokQsxhoeJHVsDaTs0">unsubscribe now</a>.</td> <td style="font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;text-align:right;vertical-align:top">Email delivery powered by Google</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610</td> </tr> </table> </div> computermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10089720734681665451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1494044958456696387.post-52112366903808296292010-04-02T20:49:00.001-04:002010-04-02T20:49:02.426-04:00Gizmo's Daily Tech Treats<style type="text/css"> h1 a:hover {background-color:#888;color:#fff ! important;} div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div ul { list-style-type:square; padding-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div blockquote { padding-left:6px; border-left: 6px solid #dadada; margin-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div li { margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:1em; } table#itemcontentlist tr td a:link, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:visited, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:active, ul#summarylist li a { color:#000099; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:none; } img {border:none;} </style> <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" id="emailbody" style="margin:0 2em;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"> <table style="border:0;padding:0;margin:0;width:100%"> <tr> <td style="vertical-align:top" width="99%"> <h1 style="margin:0;padding-bottom:6px;"> <a style="color:#888;font-size:22px;font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;" href="http://www.techsupportalert.com/view/treats" title="(http://www.techsupportalert.com/view/treats)">Gizmo's Daily Tech Treats</a> <br /> <a href="http://fusion.google.com/add?source=atgs&feedurl=http://feeds.feedburner.com/GizmosDailyTechTreats"> <img style="padding-top:6px" alt="" border="0" src="http://gmodules.com/ig/images/plus_google.gif" /> </a> </h1> </td> <td width="1%"> <a href="http://www.techsupportalert.com/view/treats"> <img src="http://techsupportalert.com/images/46best-50px.jpg" alt="Link to Gizmo's Daily Tech Treats" id="feedimage" style="padding:0 0 10px 3px;border:0;" /> </a> </td> </tr> </table> <hr style="border:1px solid #ccc;padding:0;margin:0" /> <table id="itemcontentlist"> <tr xmlns=""> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="1" style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GizmosDailyTechTreats/~3/LUhPG1dKqUQ/weekend-roundup-april-2-2010.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email">Weekend Roundup April 2, 2010</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 02 Apr 2010 01:10 PM PDT</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GizmosDailyTechTreats/~4/LUhPG1dKqUQ?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email" height="1" width="1"/></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="2" style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GizmosDailyTechTreats/~3/pX0Q_qTTlNs/firefox-updates-363-patches-security-flaw.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email">Firefox Updates to 3.6.3, Patches Security Flaw</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 02 Apr 2010 10:41 AM PDT</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GizmosDailyTechTreats/~4/pX0Q_qTTlNs?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email" height="1" width="1"/></div> </td> </tr> </table> <table style="border-top:1px solid #999;padding-top:4px;margin-top:1.5em;width:100%" id="footer"> <tr> <td style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">You are subscribed to email updates from <a href="http://www.techsupportalert.com/view/treats">Gizmo's Daily Tech Treats</a> <br />To stop receiving these emails, you may <a href="http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailunsubscribe?k=OscCsQAtaVokQsxhoeJHVsDaTs0">unsubscribe now</a>.</td> <td style="font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;text-align:right;vertical-align:top">Email delivery powered by Google</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610</td> </tr> </table> </div> computermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10089720734681665451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1494044958456696387.post-53094525303499198072010-04-01T21:10:00.001-04:002010-04-01T21:10:50.640-04:00Gizmo's Daily Tech Treats<style type="text/css"> h1 a:hover {background-color:#888;color:#fff ! important;} div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div ul { list-style-type:square; padding-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div blockquote { padding-left:6px; border-left: 6px solid #dadada; margin-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div li { margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:1em; } table#itemcontentlist tr td a:link, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:visited, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:active, ul#summarylist li a { color:#000099; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:none; } img {border:none;} </style> <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" id="emailbody" style="margin:0 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style="border:1px solid #ccc;padding:0;margin:0" /> <table id="itemcontentlist"> <tr xmlns=""> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="1" style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GizmosDailyTechTreats/~3/G6u49wsRFjk/front-pages-around-world-every-day.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email">Front Pages From Around the World, Every Day</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 01 Apr 2010 05:49 PM PDT</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GizmosDailyTechTreats/~4/G6u49wsRFjk?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email" height="1" width="1"/></div> </td> </tr> </table> <table style="border-top:1px solid 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computermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10089720734681665451noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1494044958456696387.post-2215342313430958272010-03-31T21:32:00.000-04:002010-03-31T21:29:48.815-04:00Windows 7 Security: What's the Real Story?<table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr height='16'> <td style='color:white;font-weight:bold;font-size:0.7em' background='http://www.win7news.net/img/header_top_background.gif'>Published by Sunbelt Software</td> <td background='http://www.win7news.net/img/header_top_background.gif' align='right' style='color:white;font-weight:bold;font-size:0.7em'> <a style='text-decoration:none;color:white' href='http://forums.win7news.net/'>FORUMS</a> | <a style='text-decoration:none;color:white' href='http://www.win7news.net/rss/index.xml'>RSS</a> | <a style='text-decoration:none;color:white' href='http://www.win7news.net/Profile'>MY PROFILE</a> | <a style='text-decoration:none;color:white' href='http://www.win7news.net/Privacy'>PRIVACY</a> <br> </td> </tr> <tr height='110'> <td background='http://www.win7news.net/img/win7news_header_newsletter.jpg' colspan='2' style='background-repeat:no-repeat;background-color:#214365'><br></td> </tr> </table> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td width='28' background='http://www.win7news.net/img/background-left.gif' style='background-repeat: no-repeat'><img src='http://www.win7news.net/img/trans.gif' width='28' height='1'></td> <td width='100%'> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr><td background='http://www.win7news.net/img/background-top.gif'><img src='http://www.win7news.net/img/trans.gif' height='8'></td></tr> <tr> <td background='http://www.win7news.net/img/background-main.gif' style='background-repeat: repeat-x'> <table cellspacing='0' cellpadding='0' border='0'> <tr> <td width='1' background='http://www.win7news.net/img/background-submenu-cap.gif'><img src='http://www.win7news.net/img/trans.gif' width='1' height='30'></td> <th width='100%' align='right' background='http://www.win7news.net/img/background-submenu-center.gif'><font size='2'>Vol. 2, # 13 - Apr 1, 2010 - Issue # 29</font> </th> <td width='1' background='http://www.win7news.net/img/background-submenu-cap.gif'><img src='http://www.win7news.net/img/trans.gif' width='1' height='30'></td> </tr> </table> <table width='100%' cellpadding='20' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td valign='top'> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td width='1%' valign='top'><img src='http://www.win7news.net/img/icon-win7news.gif' width='25' height='25'></td> <td> <font size='5' color='#003366'><b> Windows 7 Security: What's the Real Story?</b></font> </td> </tr> </table> <br> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td width='20'></td> <td valign='top'> <font size='2'> <ol> <b><li>Editor's Corner</b> <ul> <li type='square'>Windows 7 Security: What's the Real Story? <li type='square'>Follow-up: Storage technology <li type='square'>Quotes of the Week </ul> <b><li>Cool Tools</b> <ul> </ul> <b><li>News, Hints, Tips and Tricks</b> <ul> <li type='square'>Windows 7 taskbar tips <li type='square'>Forrester study says Windows 7 users are very satisfied with the OS <li type='square'>Top Ten Riskiest Cities for Cybercrime <li type='square'>HTC HD2 runs Windows Phone 7 </ul> <b><li>How to: Using the New Windows 7 Features</b> <ul> <li type='square'>How to change the duration of Windows 7 notifications </ul> <b><li>Windows 7 and Vista Security</b> <ul> <li type='square'>Microsoft issues emergency out-of-band update </ul> <b><li>Question Corner</b> <ul> <li type='square'>How can I see my XP computers in the network map? </ul> <b><li>Windows 7 Configuration and Troubleshooting</b> <ul> <li type='square'>Windows 7 won't sleep <li type='square'>Windows 7 mobile PC doesn't wake up </ul> <b><li>Fav Links</b> <ul> <li type='square'>This Week's Links We Like. Tips, Hints And Fun Stuff </ul> <b><li>Product of the Week</b> <ul> <li type='square'>CyberScrub Privacy Suite: Completely Erase Evidence of All Internet/Computer Activity & Encrypt Data </ul> </ol> </font> </td> </tr> </table> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td> <font size='2'> <br> <table width='80%' cellspacing='0'> <tr> <td><font size='2'> <div style='padding-top: 5pt; padding-right: 15pt; padding-bottom: 5pt; padding-left: 15pt;'> <table width='80%'> <tr> <td valign="top"> <a href='http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-VIPRE-Antivirus-Premium'> <img src='http://www.win7news.net/images/vpp-box.jpg' border='0' hspace='10'></a> </td> <td valign='top'><font size='2'> <font size='3'><b><font color='red'>NEW!</font> VIPRE® Antivirus Premium 4.0</b></font><br><br> VIPRE is the only antivirus software that does not slow down your PC, and now it comes with integrated firewall!<br> <br> <b>VIPRE Antivirus Premium 4.0</b> <ul> <li>Does not slow down your PC </li><li>New antivirus + antispyware engine with firewall </li><li>Advanced anti-rootkit technology </li><li>Cutting-edge Proactive Protection </li><li>Full email protection: Outlook and Windows Mail </li><li>Ideal for Netbooks that need malware protection </li><li>No automatic credit card charge each year! </li> </ul> Try VIPRE Antivirus Premium now for 30-days FREE! <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-VIPRE-Premium">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-VIPRE-Premium</a><br> <br> <a href='http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-VIPRE-on-Facebook' target='_blank'> <img src='http://www.win7news.net/images/facebookfan.gif' border='0'></a> </td> </tr> </table> </td></tr></table><br> <br> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0' background='http://www.win7news.net/img/background-title.gif' style='background-repeat: repeat-x'> <tr> <td width='1%' valign='top'><img src='http://www.win7news.net/img/icon-win7news.gif' width='25' height='25' hspace='5' vspace='2'></td> <td><font size='4' color='#000000'><b>Editor's Corner</b></font></td> </tr> </table> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td width='27'></td><td><font size='2'><br> <font size='3'><b>Windows 7 Security: What's the Real Story?</b></font><br><br> The tech press, like the mainstream news media, loves a story that makes somebody or something (in this case, Windows 7) look bad. Thus it's not surprising that after last week's Pwn2Own hacking contest, which was part of the CanSecWest security conference in Vancouver, Canada last week, headlines like this one popped up: "Hackers Exploit Windows 7 in 2 Minutes." <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-Windows-7-Exploit">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-Windows-7-Exploit</a><br> <br> They did this by disabling DEP and ASLR via the web browser. Data Execution Prevention is designed to prevent applications from executing code from a non-executable region of memory and thwart buffer overflow exploits. Address Space Layout Randomization makes it harder for attackers to predict target memory addresses. These security mechanisms are enabled by default in Windows 7 IE8.<br> <br> So does this mean Windows 7 and IE 8 are putting you in danger and you should switch to a different operating system and/or browser? Microsoft's competitors would love for you to believe that, but the Firefox and Safari browsers were exploited in the contest, too. Chrome proved to be the "last man standing."<br> <br> As for the Windows 7 OS, a new study by BeyondTrust security researchers found that most Windows 7 security problems are caused not by insecurity of the operating system but by inexperienced or sloppy systems administrators who don't configure administrative rights properly. In fact, according their report 90% of Windows 7 vulnerabilities could not have been exploited if users were not given administrative rights. They say this would have protected against 100% of IE 8 vulnerabilities. You can read the report in PDF format here: <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-Vulnerability-Analysis">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-Vulnerability-Analysis</a><br> <br> Microsoft representatives felt it necessary, in the wake of all the publicity, to clarify that the defensive measures built into Windows 7 aren't meant to "prevent every attack forever." Anyone who expects that they would is, in my opinion, being a big unrealistic about the nature of security, as I wrote in this blog post: <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-Not-Fool-Proof">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-Not-Fool-Proof</a><br> <br> While the Windows 7 attack made headlines on many sites, less attention was given by many writers to the hack of a fully patched OS X Macbook by security researcher Charlie Miller at the same conference. <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-Hacker-Disappointed-w-Apple">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-Hacker-Disappointed-w-Apple</a><br> <br> In the past, Microsoft has been criticized for the number of patches they issued, with detractors claiming that lots of patches equal lots of security flaws that shouldn't have been there in the first place. Interestingly, Apple recently released a security update for Leopard and Snow Leopard that contained 92 patches, with a third of the vulnerabilities addressed rated as critical. <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-Monster-Security-Update">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-Monster-Security-Update</a><br> <br> Perhaps the most significant fact to come out of the Pwn2Own story is that web browsers are the weak spot in the security of most systems. The Windows 7 hack used IE 8 and the OS X hack exploited a vulnerability in Safari. The details of that vulnerability are a closely guarded secret until Apple releases a fix. The iPhone 3G was also successfully hacked in the contest, and once again, Safari was the mechanism used to do it.<br> <br> The German government takes browser security so seriously that their CERT office issued a warning to their citizens in March, advising them to stop using Firefox because of a critical vulnerability. <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-Firefox-Warning">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-Firefox-Warning</a><br> <br> And early in the month, security researchers were "sounding the alarm" over an unpatched remote code execution vulnerability in Opera. <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-Opera-Flaw">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-Opera-Flaw</a><br> <br> Even Google Chrome, the browser that "won" the contest, had been patched for eleven vulnerabilities a few days before Pwn2Own, with an update rated by Secunia as "highly critical." <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-Chrome-Patches">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-Chrome-Patches</a><br> <br> If we could remove all web browsers, our operating systems would be significantly more secure. Unfortunately, they would also be significantly less functional, since we would be unable to get information from web sites, pay bills or shop online, or even send email if we have web-based accounts. The web browser is not only the application that's most often used to connect to the Internet; it's also one of the most frequently used applications of all on most systems.<br> <br> In the early days of the Internet, web browsers displayed text and picture files and that's about it. Web pages were written in simple HTML. Today's web sites use much more sophisticated technologies to provide us with video and interactive elements. ActiveX, VBScript, JavaScript, Java and various plug-ins such as Flash and Silverlight enable a much richer web experience, but they also come with security issues. You can disable some or all of these features to make your browser more secure (but you may be unable to access some web sites or view some content on some sites).<br> <br> One thing is certain: newer versions of web browsers are generally more secure than older versions, and it's important to keep your browser (and your operating system) updated with the latest security patches. <br> <br> If you want to increase the security of your Windows 7 machines, especially in a business environment, you may have looked for the Windows 7 Security Guide and concluded that there's not one. When you search the web or search Microsoft.com, you'll find the XP Security Guide and the Vista Security Guide, but it's a little more difficult to ferret out the Windows 7 Security Guide. That's because it's part of the Windows 7 Security Compliance Management Toolkit. That's a 16.6 MB download that you can find here: <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-Security-Toolkit">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-Security-Toolkit</a><br> <br> The download includes toolkits for each of the following operating systems: Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7, Server 2003, Server 2008. It also includes toolkits for IE 8 and Office 2007. When you finally drill down to the Security Guide itself, you'll find it's a .docx document that contains 83 pages and covers most aspects of Windows 7 security, including how to implement a security baseline and relevant policy settings, protecting against malware, protecting sensitive data with BitLocker, EFS and RMS, controlling device installation and usage, and application compatibility.<br> <br> Bottom line: Windows 7 is a secure OS when configured and used properly - but no operating system provides perfect security. It's up to you to use best security practices, have anti-virus and anti-malware software installed and running, have a firewall turned on and properly configured and otherwise practice defensive computing. In many cases, it's not the operating system but the applications installed on it that can be exploited. Web browsers are the number one culprits, so it's vital that you keep your browser updated and stay away from questionable web sites.<br> <br> If you do need to visit risky sites, such as for research purposes, it's a good idea to use "sandboxing" of some kind to isolate the web browser you use to visit those sites from your primary operating system. You can do that by running a browser in a virtual machine (for example, if you have Windows 7 Pro or above, you can download and install Windows Virtual PC and XP Mode, install IE 8 or another browser of your choice in the XP VM, and use that for risky browsing. You can also use VMware for the same purpose, or a program such as Sandboxie. Or you can use the Chrome browser, which has built in sandbox technology.<br> <br> Tell us what you think about Windows 7 security. Do you feel more secure using Windows 7 than you did with XP or Vista? Do you buy into the Apple ads that claim Mac is more secure than Windows 7? Do you think Linux is better for security? What web browser do you consider the safest? Do you use it exclusively, or do you have criteria other than security by which you choose your browser? Do you disable some or all of the scripting and other potentially dangerous features in your web browser, or do you take the risk in order to get a better web experience? We invite you to discuss these questions in our forum at <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-Forum-Discussion">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-Forum-Discussion</a><br> <br><br><font size='3'><b>Follow-up: Storage technology</b></font><br><br> In last week's editorial, I talked about trends in storage technology and how this particular computer component has evolved since the olden days when we stored data on for our personal computers on cassette tape. Several readers weighed in on the subject.<br> <br> Jaze asked about the WEI disk subscore for a Windows 7 computer with an SSD drive. As a matter of fact, my Sony VAIO X has an SSD drive and although its overall WEI score is low - thanks to the gaming graphics score, which I would never use on this laptop - the subscore for the disk is a pretty good 6.9, which is certainly better than the disk score on my otherwise powerful Nehalem desktop.<br> <br> My son built a Nehalem-based machine for analyzing chess games and planning chess strategy. Since it runs Windows Server 2008 R2, there is no WEI score, but he says performance is substantially better with the Intel SSD than with a traditional hard disk. I wrote about his system here: <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-Chess-Strategy">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-Chess-Strategy</a><br> <br> In the forums, Schiang pointed out that you can offset the expense of the SSDs somewhat by buying slower processors, because SSDs make more difference in perceived performance for most users than upgrading from dual to quad core, even at 50% faster CPU speed. David W. disagrees; he thinks the best option is a set of conventional SATA II or III in RAID 0 configuration. As Tim G. notes, though, that's more hardware and configuring than some people want to bother with. Different strokes for different folks.<br> <br> Tim D. noted that he upgraded from 32 bit to 64 bit Windows 7 on a Core i7 system with 6 GB of RAM, but saw no discernable difference. I would expect to see increased performance from the ability to utilize the full 6 GB of RAM. Tim also mentioned that he was unable to get a WEI rating due to an error message that says the system doesn't have the necessary multi-media support to run the requested assessment. This problem has been reported to have been caused by the video card drivers, or by various anti-virus programs. Finally, WEI - for some strange reason - is dependent on components in Windows Media Player (WMP) so if you have removed WMP (or if you have the "N" European version of Windows 7 that comes without WMP, you won't be able to run WEI.<br> <br> As always, thanks to everyone who participated in the discussion.<br> <br> 'Til next week,<br> Deb Shinder, Editor <br> <a href='mailto:feedback@win7news.net'>feedback@win7news.net</a><br> <br> <a href='http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-Twitter'> <img src='http://www.win7news.net/images/twitter-logo.gif' border='0' alt='Follow Deb on Twitter'></a><br> <br> PS: Did you know this newsletter has a sister publication for XP users called WXPnews? You can subscribe here, and tell your friends: <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-WXPNews">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-WXPNews</a><br> <br> And for IT pros, there's our "big sister," WServer News, at <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-WserverNews">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-WserverNews</a><br> <br> Look for the Win7News fan page on Facebook! <br><br><font size='3'><b>Quotes of the Week</b></font><br><br> "<i>Only those who attempt the absurd will achieve the impossible. I think it's in my basement ... let me go upstairs and check.</i>" - M.C. Escher<br> <br> "<i>Action is the fundamental key to all success.</i>" - Pablo Picasso<br> <br> "<i>Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it.</i>" - Salvador Dali<br> <br> "<i>Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.</i>" - Vincent Van Gogh </td></tr></table><br> <br> <table width='80%' cellspacing='0'> <tr> <td><font size='2'> <div style='padding-top: 5pt; padding-right: 15pt; padding-bottom: 5pt; padding-left: 15pt;'> <table width='80%'> <tr> <td valign="top"> <a href='http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-VIPRE-Premium'> <img src='http://www.win7news.net/images/vpp-box.jpg' border='0' hspace='10'></a> </td> <td valign='top'><font size='2'> <font size='3'><b><font color='red'>NEW!</font> VIPRE® Antivirus Premium 4.0</b></font><br><br> VIPRE is the only antivirus software that does not slow down your PC, and now it comes with integrated firewall!<br> <br> <b>VIPRE Antivirus Premium 4.0</b> <ul> <li>Does not slow down your PC </li><li>New antivirus + antispyware engine with firewall </li><li>Advanced anti-rootkit technology </li><li>Cutting-edge Proactive Protection </li><li>Full email protection: Outlook and Windows Mail </li><li>Ideal for Netbooks that need malware protection </li><li>No automatic credit card charge each year! </li> </ul> Try VIPRE Antivirus Premium now for 30-days FREE! <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-VIPRE-Premium">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-VIPRE-Premium</a><br> <br> <a href='http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-VIPRE-on-Facebook' target='_blank'> <img src='http://www.win7news.net/images/facebookfan.gif' border='0'></a> </td> </tr> </table> </td></tr></table><br> <br> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0' background='http://www.win7news.net/img/background-title.gif' style='background-repeat: repeat-x'> <tr> <td width='1%' valign='top'><img src='http://www.win7news.net/img/icon-win7news.gif' width='25' height='25' hspace='5' vspace='2'></td> <td><font size='4' color='#000000'><b>Cool Tools</b></font></td> </tr> </table> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td width='27'></td><td><font size='2'><br> <font size='1' color='808080'>ADVERTISEMENT</font><br> <br> Why back up when you can sync? Simply replicate every piece of data to another drive in real-time. Set it and forget it. <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-GoodSync">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-GoodSync</a><br> <br> Do you have programs you just can't seem to get rid of? Uninstaller! 2010 "ALL New" Version Just Released: <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-Your-Uninstaller">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-Your-Uninstaller</a><br> <br> Moving to Windows 7 is Easy! PCMover moves programs, files, and settings from your old PC to your new PC. <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-PCmover">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-PCmover</a><br> <br> Search for a driver and you get a ton of Driver Software offers instead. But how do you know which one is good? Try Driver Genius 9.0. Free scan. <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-Driver-Genius">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-Driver-Genius</a><br> <br> Billing address autofill, Secure password storage, all automatic and safe. Not a little toolbar utility. Huge time saver! <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-RoboForm">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-RoboForm</a><br> <br> Get your speed back! Advanced Vista Optimizer will tweak Vista for Max performance. Easy to use: <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-System-Optimizer">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-System-Optimizer</a><br> <br> Spellchecker is NOT ENOUGH! Improve your English writing skills with WhiteSmoke a smarter solution for high quality writing. Try it: <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-WhiteSmoke">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-WhiteSmoke</a><br> <br> Ultra Edit New Version 15.2 - Replacing Notepad or Looking for The Most Powerful Text Editor? <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-UltraEdit">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-UltraEdit</a><br> </td></tr></table><br> <br> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0' background='http://www.win7news.net/img/background-title.gif' style='background-repeat: repeat-x'> <tr> <td width='1%' valign='top'><img src='http://www.win7news.net/img/icon-win7news.gif' width='25' height='25' hspace='5' vspace='2'></td> <td><font size='4' color='#000000'><b>News, Hints, Tips and Tricks</b></font></td> </tr> </table> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td width='27'></td><td><font size='2'><br> <font size='3'><b>Windows 7 taskbar tips</b></font><br><br> The Windows 7 taskbar is good - but there are ways to make it better. We've told you before how to add back the Quick Launch bar, but that's not the only "hack" you might be interested in. For instance, you can add information about volume, battery life and memory use, put the recycle bin on the taskbar, or more easily control the behavior, with the tips in this article: <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-Taskbar-Hacks">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-Taskbar-Hacks</a><br> <br><br><font size='3'><b>Forrester study says Windows 7 users are very satisfied with the OS</b></font><br><br> A new report out from Forrester Research finds that the majority of early adopters of Windows 7 described themselves as "very satisfied." It also contained the somewhat surprisingly news that more than 40% of the consumers who have moved to Windows 7 did so by upgrading an existing computer, rather than getting it pre-installed on a new PC. Either way, it's good news for Microsoft, especially after the beating Vista's reputation took among users. Read more here: <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-Win7-Early-Adopters">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-Win7-Early-Adopters</a><br> <br><br><font size='3'><b>Top Ten Riskiest Cities for Cybercrime</b></font><br><br> Security experts at Norton have compiled a list of the cities that have the most reported cybercrime and Seattle is right at the top. Other cities on the list (San Francisco, Denver, Boston, Austin) tend to be places where the tech industry thrives, as well. That's really not surprising - the more people you have online in a given area, the more likely online criminals will target them. The rankings also take into account the tendency of people in a particular area to engage in risky online behavior, such as using wi-fi and conducting financial transactions over the Internet. Find out whether your city made the top ten list: <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-Riskiest-Online-Cities">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-Riskiest-Online-Cities</a><br> <br><br><font size='3'><b>HTC HD2 runs Windows Phone 7</b></font><br><br> It's been widely reported that existing Windows Mobile 6.5 phones won't be able to run the new Windows Phone 7 Series operating system that's expected to come out before the end of the year - but a hacker has ported the new OS to the HTC HD2, which is one of the most attractive WinMo smart phones on the market now. Here's a video showing this phone running the next generation Windows phone software: <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-HTC-HD2">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-HTC-HD2</a><br> </td></tr></table><br> <br> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0' background='http://www.win7news.net/img/background-title.gif' style='background-repeat: repeat-x'> <tr> <td width='1%' valign='top'><img src='http://www.win7news.net/img/icon-win7news.gif' width='25' height='25' hspace='5' vspace='2'></td> <td><font size='4' color='#000000'><b>How to: Using the New Windows 7 Features</b></font></td> </tr> </table> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td width='27'></td><td><font size='2'><br> <font size='3'><b>How to change the duration of Windows 7 notifications</b></font><br><br> By default, notification dialog boxes in Windows 7 stay open for 5 seconds. Maybe that's not long enough for you to deal with them. You can change the time duration easily, without having to edit the registry. Here's how: <ol> <li>Click Start | Control Panel. </li><li>Click Ease of Access Center. </li><li>Click "Make it easier to focus on tasks" </li><li>Scroll down to the "Adjust time limits and flashing visuals" section and under "How long should Windows notification dialog boxes stay open," click the down arrow at the right side of the drop-down box. </li><li>Select a duration from 5 seconds to 5 minutes. </li><li>Click OK. </td></tr></table><br> <br> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0' background='http://www.win7news.net/img/background-title.gif' style='background-repeat: repeat-x'> <tr> <td width='1%' valign='top'><img src='http://www.win7news.net/img/icon-win7news.gif' width='25' height='25' hspace='5' vspace='2'></td> <td><font size='4' color='#000000'><b>Windows 7 and Vista Security</b></font></td> </tr> </table> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td width='27'></td><td><font size='2'><br> <font size='3'><b>Microsoft issues emergency out-of-band update</b></font><br><br> It was Tuesday, but it wasn't Patch Tuesday. Nonetheless, Microsoft released a security update this week for ten vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer. This emergency "out of band" release was the result of a zero day vulnerability that was made public earlier in the month and the growing number of attacks that attempt to exploit it. This is the iepeers.dll vulnerability. The good news is that this vulnerability doesn't apply to IE 8 in Windows 7. However, three of the other vulnerabilities that are addressed in this patch do. Read more here: <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-Web-Browser-Vulnerabilities">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-Web-Browser-Vulnerabilities</a><br> </td></tr></table><br> <br> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0' background='http://www.win7news.net/img/background-title.gif' style='background-repeat: repeat-x'> <tr> <td width='1%' valign='top'><img src='http://www.win7news.net/img/icon-win7news.gif' width='25' height='25' hspace='5' vspace='2'></td> <td><font size='4' color='#000000'><b>Question Corner</b></font></td> </tr> </table> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td width='27'></td><td><font size='2'><br> <font size='3'><b>How can I see my XP computers in the network map?</b></font><br><br> <b>QUESTION:</b><br> I have one new Windows 7 computer, one Vista computer and an old XP laptop on my home network. I like the network map in Network and Sharing Center but the XP computer doesn't show up there, just the Windows 7 and Vista. Is there any way to make the XP system show up on the map? Thanks! - Mark L.<br> <br> <b>ANSWER:</b><br> Windows 7 and Vista use the Link Layer Topology Discovery (LLTD) protocol to detect the systems on the network and create the network map. The problem is that XP doesn't support LLTD by default, so your XP systems will show up at the bottom of the page and not on the map.<br> <br> You can add LLTD support to XP if you have Service Pack 3 installed. You'll need to install a hotfix, which you can download from the link on this page (where you will also find more information about this issue): <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-Network-Map">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-Network-Map</a><br> </td></tr></table><br> <br> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0' background='http://www.win7news.net/img/background-title.gif' style='background-repeat: repeat-x'> <tr> <td width='1%' valign='top'><img src='http://www.win7news.net/img/icon-win7news.gif' width='25' height='25' hspace='5' vspace='2'></td> <td><font size='4' color='#000000'><b>Windows 7 Configuration and Troubleshooting</b></font></td> </tr> </table> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td width='27'></td><td><font size='2'><br> <font size='3'><b>Windows 7 won't sleep</b></font><br><br> Every parent can relate to this: those nights when your child just won't go to sleep. But what if it's your Windows 7 computer that has insomnia? If you try to put the computer to sleep and it wakes back up immediately or doesn't go to sleep at all, there are several things you can try to fix the problem (depending on what's causing it). To get the details, check out KB article 976877 at <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-Win7-Wont-Sleep">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-Win7-Wont-Sleep</a><br> <br><br><font size='3'><b>Windows 7 mobile PC doesn't wake up</b></font><br><br> Okay, here's a problem that's just the opposite of the one above. In this case, your mobile Windows 7 computer won't wake up to run a scheduled task, even though you configured it with the "wake the computer to run this task" option. You probably won't have the same problem with your desktop system. That's because, by default, the ability to wake from sleep for a timed event is disabled on mobile computers (to save battery power). However, you can change the power settings to fix this. Find out how in KB article 973454 at <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-Win7-Mobile-PC">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-Win7-Mobile-PC</a><br> </td></tr></table><br> <br> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0' background='http://www.win7news.net/img/background-title.gif' style='background-repeat: repeat-x'> <tr> <td width='1%' valign='top'><img src='http://www.win7news.net/img/icon-win7news.gif' width='25' height='25' hspace='5' vspace='2'></td> <td><font size='4' color='#000000'><b>Fav Links</b></font></td> </tr> </table> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td width='27'></td><td><font size='2'><br> <font size='3'><b>This Week's Links We Like. Tips, Hints And Fun Stuff</b></font><br><br> <font size='1'>Disclaimer: VistaNews does not assume and cannot be responsible for any liability related to you clicking any of these linked Web sites.</font> <ul> <li>Happy Easter <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-Easter-Bunnies">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-Easter-Bunnies</a><br> </li><li>Top Ten animal power moves <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-Power-Moves">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-Power-Moves</a><br> </li><li>Smart or Stoopid? Take the test. <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-Test">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-Test</a><br> </li><li>I love these ancient public service films: <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-Public-Service-Announcement">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-Public-Service-Announcement</a><br> </li><li>500 worst passwords <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-Passwords">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-Passwords</a><br> </li><li>Trololo cat <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-Trololo-Cat">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-Trololo-Cat</a><br> </li><li>A palindrome reads the same backwards as forward. This video however, reads the exact opposite backwards as forward. Not only does it read the opposite, the meaning is the exact opposite. It got spontaneous applause wherever shown: <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-Lost-Generation">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-Lost-Generation</a><br> </li><li>Imagine traveling 40 miles without using a single drop of gasoline. The Chevy Volt offers innovative green engineering. Fuel Economy: 230 mpg, Price: 30-40k <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-Volt">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-Volt</a><br> </li><li>Unbelievable: A dog and a deer having fun playing soccer: <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-Soccer">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-Soccer</a><br> </li></ul></td></tr></table><br> <br> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0' background='http://www.win7news.net/img/background-title.gif' style='background-repeat: repeat-x'> <tr> <td width='1%' valign='top'><img src='http://www.win7news.net/img/icon-win7news.gif' width='25' height='25' hspace='5' vspace='2'></td> <td><font size='4' color='#000000'><b>Product of the Week</b></font></td> </tr> </table> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td width='27'></td><td><font size='2'><br> <font size='3'><b>CyberScrub Privacy Suite: Completely Erase Evidence of All Internet/Computer Activity & Encrypt Data</b></font><br><br> Now fully Windows 7 compatible with improved features for Win7. CyberScrub Privacy Suite removes all evidence of your online activity, erases data beyond recovery, secures your files with strong encryption and enhances overall system performance. This award winning software utility sports over 50 new features and enhancements. Did you realize every picture or video viewed is written to your hard drive? Simply opening an email can put you in a compromising situation. Privacy Suite eliminates all web tracks (pictures, video, history, websites visited, cache and temp files, IM, chat, email, etc.), automatically removes newsgroup pictures and binaries, eliminates traces from popular Peer2Peer applications, Real and Windows Media Player, Photoshop and more. You can even create your own customized areas to clean. Remember- "Delete" does not mean "Erase". Deleted files can be retrieved using simple recovery tools. 100% Windows 7 compatible Privacy Suite software supports Internet Explorer 8 and Firefox 3.5 and supports a huge list of the most popular more Click below for other exciting New Features and to Download the free trial. Use your exclusive 20% discount for Win7News subscribers to purchase. <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-CyberScrub">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100401-CyberScrub</a><br> </td></tr></table><br> </font> </td> </tr> </table> <br> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0' background='http://www.win7news.net/img/background-title.gif' style='background-repeat: repeat-x'> <tr> <td width='1%' valign='top'><img src='http://www.win7news.net/img/icon-win7news.gif' width='25' height='25'></td> <td><font size='4' color='#000000'><b> About Win7News</b></font></td> </tr> </table> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td width='27'></td> <td> <font size='2'><br> <b>What Our Lawyers Make Us Say</b><br> These documents are provided for informational purposes only. The information contained in this document represents the current view of Sunbelt Software on the issues discussed as of the date of publication. Because Sunbelt must respond to changes in market conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Sunbelt and Sunbelt cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information presented after the date of publication.<br> <br> INFORMATION PROVIDED IN THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND FREEDOM FROM INFRINGEMENT.<br> <br> This newsletter and website and may contain links to other websites with whom we have a business relationship. Sunbelt Software does not review or screen these sites, and we are not responsible or liable for their privacy or data security practices, or the content of these sites. Additionally, if you register with any of these sites, any information that you provide in the process of registration, such as your email address, credit card number or other personally identifiable information, will be transferred to these sites. For these reasons, you should be careful to review any privacy and data security policies posted on any of these sites before providing information to them.<br> <br> The user assumes the entire risk as to the accuracy and the use of this document. This document may be copied and distributed subject to the following conditions: 1) All text must be copied without modification and all pages must be included; 2) All copies must contain Sunbelt's copyright notice and any other notices provided therein; and 3) This document may not be distributed for profit. All trademarks acknowledged. Copyright Sunbelt Software, Inc. 1996-2010.<br> <br> <b>Win7News Archives</b><br> Looking for a past issue? Missing an issue? Accidently deleted an issue? Trying to find that article that pointed you to that cool site? All our newsletters are archived and are searchable:<br> <a href='http://www.win7news.net/archives'>http://www.win7news.net/archives</a><br> <br> <b>About Your Subscription to Win7News</b><br> This is a posting from Win7News. You are subscribed as cpedley.killcomputer@blogger.com<br> Your personal W7N Number is: <b>O52HI2</b><br><br> To manage your profile, please visit our site by clicking on the following link:<br> <a href='http://www.win7news.net/profile?w7n=O52HI2'>http://www.win7news.net/profile?w7n=O52HI2</a><br> <br> If you have feedback or wish to write to the editor, write to us at <a href='mailto:feedback@win7news.net?subject=Win7News'>feedback@win7news.net</a><br> <br> Sunbelt Software<br> 33 North Garden Avenue<br> Clearwater, Florida USA 33755 </font> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </td> <td width='28' background='http://www.win7news.net/img/background-right.gif' style='background-repeat: no-repeat'><img src='http://www.win7news.net/img/trans.gif' width='28' height='1'></td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> computermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10089720734681665451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1494044958456696387.post-8515235492737688432010-03-31T21:27:00.001-04:002010-03-31T21:27:38.164-04:00Gizmo's Daily Tech Treats<style type="text/css"> h1 a:hover {background-color:#888;color:#fff ! important;} div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div ul { list-style-type:square; padding-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div blockquote { padding-left:6px; border-left: 6px solid #dadada; margin-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div li { margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:1em; } table#itemcontentlist tr td a:link, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:visited, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:active, ul#summarylist li a { color:#000099; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:none; } img {border:none;} </style> <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" id="emailbody" style="margin:0 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style="border:1px solid #ccc;padding:0;margin:0" /> <table id="itemcontentlist"> <tr xmlns=""> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="1" style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GizmosDailyTechTreats/~3/xsJik-T6S1o/add-tabs-word-excel-and-powerpoint-windows-only.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email">Add Tabs To Word, Excel and Powerpoint (Windows only)</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 30 Mar 2010 07:06 PM PDT</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GizmosDailyTechTreats/~4/xsJik-T6S1o?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email" height="1" width="1"/></div> </td> </tr> </table> <table style="border-top:1px solid #999;padding-top:4px;margin-top:1.5em;width:100%" id="footer"> <tr> <td style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">You are subscribed to email updates from <a href="http://www.techsupportalert.com/view/treats">Gizmo's Daily Tech Treats</a> <br />To stop receiving these emails, you may <a href="http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailunsubscribe?k=OscCsQAtaVokQsxhoeJHVsDaTs0">unsubscribe now</a>.</td> <td style="font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;text-align:right;vertical-align:top">Email delivery powered by Google</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610</td> </tr> </table> </div> computermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10089720734681665451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1494044958456696387.post-70705510545908083392010-03-30T01:45:00.000-04:002010-03-30T01:42:48.225-04:00Can a Computer App Help Cut Your Phone Bills?<table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr height='16'> <td background='http://www.wxpnews.com/img/header_top_background.gif'><img src='http://www.wxpnews.com/img/header01.gif' width='230' height='16' border='0' alt='WXPNews: Published by Sunbelt Software since 2001'><br></td> <td background='http://www.wxpnews.com/img/header_top_background.gif' align='right' style='color:white;font-weight:bold;font-size:0.7em'><a style='text-decoration:none;color:white' href='http://forums.wxpnews.com/'>FORUMS</a> | <a style='text-decoration:none;color:white' href='http://blog.wxpnews.com/'>BLOG</a> | <a style='text-decoration:none;color:white' href='http://www.wxpnews.com/rss/index.xml'>RSS</a> | <a style='text-decoration:none;color:white' href='http://www.wxpnews.com/profile.cfm?wxp=MY5HU3'>MY PROFILE</a> | <a style='text-decoration:none;color:white' href='privacy.cfm'>PRIVACY</a> <br></td> </tr> <tr height='110'> <td background='http://www.wxpnews.com/img/wxpnews_header_newsletter.jpg' colspan='2' style='background-repeat:no-repeat;background-color:#124b76'><br></td> </tr> </table> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0'> <tr> <td width='17' bgcolor='#cccccc'> </td> <td> <table width='100%' cellpadding='20' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td valign='top'> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td colspan='2'> <font size='2'> Vol. 10, #13 - Mar 29, 2010 - Issue #423<br><br> </font> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width='1%'><img src='http://www.wxpnews.com/img/arrow.gif' width='25' height='25'></td> <td> <font size='5' color='#003366'><b> Can a Computer App Help Cut Your Phone Bills?</b></font> </td> </tr> </table> <br> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td width='20'></td> <td> <font size='2'> <ol> <b><li>Editor's Corner</b> <ul> <li type='square'>Can a Computer App Help Cut Your Phone Bills? <li type='square'>Follow-up: Controlling the Technology <li type='square'>Quotes of the Week </ul> <b><li>Cool Tools</b> <ul> <li type='square'>Tools We Think You Shouldn't Be Without </ul> <b><li>News, Hints, Tips and Tricks</b> <ul> <li type='square'>WMWifiRouter is a lifesaver <li type='square'>Windows XP gets DirectX 11 goodness <li type='square'>Big boys battle it out on the mapping front </ul> <b><li>How To: Using XP Features</b> <ul> <li type='square'>How to take timed snapshots with your webcam </ul> <b><li>XP Security News</b> <ul> <li type='square'>All platforms and browsers are vulnerable to attack </ul> <b><li>XP Question Corner</b> <ul> <li type='square'>Disk Cleanup hangs </ul> <b><li>XP Configuration and Troubleshooting</b> <ul> <li type='square'>Can't open Help and Support Center in XP </ul> <b><li>Fav Links</b> <ul> <li type='square'>This Week's Links We Like. Tips, Hints And Fun Stuff </ul> <b><li>Product of the Week</b> <ul> <li type='square'>CyberScrub Privacy Suite: Completely Erase Evidence of All Internet/Computer Activity & Encrypt Data </ul> </ol> </font> </td> </tr> </table> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td> <font size='2'> <br> <table width='100%' cellspacing='0'> <tr> <td><font size='2'> <div style='padding-top: 5pt; padding-right: 15pt; padding-bottom: 15pt; padding-left: 5pt;'> <table width='80%'> <tr> <td valign="top"> <a href='http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-VIPRE-Premium'> <img src='http://www.win7news.net/images/vpp-box.jpg' border='0' hspace='10'></a> </td> <td valign='top'><font size='2'> <font size='3'><b><font color='red'>NEW!</font> VIPRE<sup>®</sup> Antivirus Premium 4.0</b></font><br><br> VIPRE is the only antivirus software that does not slow down your PC, and now it comes with integrated firewall!<br> <br> <b>VIPRE Antivirus Premium 4.0</b> <ul> <li>Does not slow down your PC </li><li>New antivirus + antispyware engine with firewall </li><li>Advanced anti-rootkit technology </li><li>Cutting-edge Proactive Protection </li><li>Full email protection: Outlook and Windows Mail </li><li>Ideal for Netbooks that need malware protection </li><li>No automatic credit card charge each year! </li> </ul> Try VIPRE Antivirus Premium now for 30-days FREE! <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-VIPRE-Premium">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-VIPRE-Premium</a><br> <br> <a href='http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-VIPRE-on-Facebook' target='_blank'> <img src='http://www.win7news.net/images/facebookfan.gif' border='0'></a> </td> </tr> </table> </td></tr></table><br> <br> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr bgcolor='#cccccc'> <td width='1%'><img src='http://www.wxpnews.com/img/arrow.gif' width='25' height='25'></td> <td><font size='4' color='#000000'><b> Editor's Corner</b></font></td> </tr> </table> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td width='27'></td><td><font size='2'><br> <font size='3'><b>Can a Computer App Help Cut Your Phone Bills?</b></font><br><br> We live in a world where technology makes it possible to be in touch with almost anybody in the world at almost any time - but sometimes we pay a big price for that ability. If Alexander Graham Bell knew how much some of us are shelling out for telephone service, he would be rolling over in his grave.<br> <br> I have a friend who has two traditional land lines, at around $70 for basic lines, no bells and whistles like voicemail, long distance charges and fees/taxes not included. She and her husband also have iPhones, and their cell phone bill is over $100 <i>before </i> you tack on all the taxes and fees. And of course, when we're talking about phone service, we aren't talking about just a 5-10% sales tax as with most products and services you buy. The taxes and fees can add up to 30% to your cell phone bill. So they end up paying over $200 per month, or $2400 per year, for phone service. More if they make any significant long distance calls on the landlines.<br> <br> Many people don't even know how much they're paying. To quote one person on a web board in answer to the question of how much you pay for cell service, "Umm .. I don't know. They just help themselves to my checking account every month. Thankfully, I currently do not live paycheck-to-paycheck as I have in the past, so I don't pay attention." This is the big danger of autopay plans - too many folks "just don't pay attention." But that's a different rant for a different day.<br> <br> Back in 2004, we decided to reduce our phone bills by dumping the landlines and going with a VoIP plan. For the last six years, we've been paying $21.95 (plus taxes, federal universal service fee, emergency service fee, and administrative and compliance fee, for a total of around $30) for unlimited calling to over 35 countries with Lingo. We had it hooked up to our FiOS high speed Internet connection and reversed the house wiring so we could plug it into the wall and use any of the jacks throughout the house for the Lingo service. We also plugged in a cordless base station with high quality wireless phones so we could get calls wherever we wanted, including outside on the patio.<br> <br> We were always very happy with the service - up until a few months ago. We started getting screeching noises in the background on the line. I tried all the troubleshooting methods I could think of: rebooting the ATA box, plugging a different phone in, plugging the phone directly into the box instead of going through the wall wiring, etc. but the noise was the same. I called Lingo's customer service where I went through the same procedures again for the service tech (whom I could barely understand due to the combination of the background screech, his accent and my own hearing problems). After a tiring half hour or more of that, and his promise to "do something" on his end, there was no change.<br> <br> My theory is that the ATA hardware has gotten old and is failing. But the tech said he's "not authorized" to send me a new box. I wouldn't even mind paying a reasonable fee for a replacement, but I was never able to find out how to do that. So I've been investigating alternatives and right now I'm trying out Skype to see if it will work as our primary phone service. I had, of course, tested it in the past but saw it as more of a novelty than a viable option to replace the Lingo line. However, they have made quite a few improvements and I'm impressed with the call quality I'm getting with Skype now. Of course, it may be that I also have better sound equipment (sound card, microphone and speakers) than I did years ago when I first gave it a try, too.<br> <br> I signed up for a Skype unlimited subscription, which costs an amazing $2.95 per month, or less if you pay quarterly or annually. You can call any phone, including mobiles, in the U.S. and Canada for that price. There's another plan for those who need to make international calls; it's $12.95. Of course, this only allows you to make outgoing calls. Now, I rather like the idea of having total control and not being bothered by incoming calls, but of course it's not always practical. So you can buy an additional plan (SkypeIn) with a phone number where others can call you. That costs $60 per year, which comes out to $5 per month. That means that for $8 per month or a little less, you can have complete outgoing and incoming phone service. <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-Skype">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-Skype</a><br> <br> Okay, so what's the catch? The voice quality is good, but reliability may not be quite as rock solid as a POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) line or an ATA-based VoIP service like Lingo or Vonage. On the other hand, I have a cell phone that can serve as a backup.<br> <br> You might ask why I don't just use the cell phone exclusively, as more and more people are doing (and as both of my kids have done). The problem is that it's significantly more expensive to do that. We have the minimum number of family plan minutes and plans with more minutes cost quite a bit more. We use the cell phones basically as emergency devices and for accessing email and web wherever we go. I don't want to have to worry about how long I'm talking when I'm on my phone at home. And if I need to make an international call, I certainly don't want to pay the outrageous rates the cell phone companies charge.<br> <br> What about the Skype "experience?" One reason I shied away from it in the past was that I didn't want to have to be tethered to my computer to make a phone call. Now they make wireless Skype phones that you can carry around the house with you, so you don't have to be sitting in front of a computer screen when you have a conversation. I also tested it on my ultra-ultra compact Sony VAIO X laptop and it works great with the built-in microphone, although I did find the speakers a little weak. Sound quality was splendid when I plugged in my Shure earphones.<br> <br> Of course, one big advantage of Skype is that "you <i>can</i> take it with you." Your Skype account will work with any computer on which you install the Skype client software, no matter where you are. That means your Skype number is portable, just like your cell phone number. You can do the same with any VoIP service, of course, but with Skype, you don't have to lug an ATA box around with you when you travel.<br> <br> You can even install Skype on your mobile phone - if you have the right kind. Unfortunately Skype Mobile no longer supports Windows Mobile, although if you installed it in the past, you can still use it. You can get the full Skype Mobile for Blackberry and Android on Verizon. There is a Skype-to-Skype app for the iPhone but it only works over wi-fi, not 3G. There is also a Skype application for some Symbian phones that does work over 3G. I'm hoping Skype will make a version for Windows Phone 7 Series when it's released. <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-Skype-Mobile">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-Skype-Mobile</a><br> <br> If you do have an iPhone and want to circumvent AT&T's voice charges, David Pogue just wrote about an app called Line2 that gives you a second phone number for $15 per month and doesn't use your AT&T minutes. And it can apparently place calls over the 3G network as well as wi-fi. You can read about it here: <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-IPhone-App">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-IPhone-App</a><br> <br> There are a few things to be aware of if you're considering dropping your landline to move to VoIP or switching from a traditional VoIP line to a software-based service like Skype. Perhaps most important is to understand that unlike regular POTS lines, these services are dependent on your home's power lines. If you have a power outage, your phone service will be out, too - unless you have a UPS (which will provide power for a limited time) or generator to power the network hardware.<br> <br> Further, these services are dependent on your Internet service so if you have an unreliable ISP, you might want to think twice before trusting your phone service to them. Additionally, 9-1-1 locator service may or may not work. VoIP services like Lingo and Vonage require you to provide them with an address to be provided to authorities if you dial 9-1-1, but it's not automatically detected as with POTS lines, so it's up to you to keep that information up to date. Skype doesn't work with 9-1-1 emergency services.<br> <br> If you have a home security system that's monitored, it may be dependent on a landline. However, you can get systems that use their own dedicated cellular service. We switched over to this for our security system back when we dropped our landlines. Finally, call quality may vary (as it does with regular phones). Some of these drawbacks and caveats may be less important if you also maintain a cell phone that you can use as a backup.<br> <br> Tell us what you think about all this. Do you still have one or more landlines, or have you "cut the cord?" Do you use a more traditional ATA-based VoIP service or a software-based VoIP service like Skype? Or do you use a cell phone as your only phone service? If you still pay for landlines, what's your reason? Is it because you want to be ensured of the most reliable service, the 9-1-1 service, voice quality, or some other reason? Have you tried alternatives? Is the cost savings worth it? What would make you switch? We invite you to discuss all of these questions on our forum at <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-Forum-Discussion">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-Forum-Discussion</a><br> <br><br><font size='3'><b>Follow-up: Controlling the Technology</b></font><br><br> In last week's editorial, I discussed how dependent we've become on those who control the technology that controls our lives, whether that's something as minor as CATV service or as major as the vehicles we use to get around.<br> <br> Cballinger brought up an issue that I didn't go into explicitly in the article, but one that has troubled me: the push to "put all your eggs in one basket" by getting your phone, CATV and Internet service from the same provider in a "bundled" package. As he pointed out, when you do that, it only takes one traffic accident or misconfiguration by a technician to cut you off from every connection you have to the outside world. That's one of the reasons I still use the cable company for TV, FiOS for Internet, and have a cell phone that's not dependent on those networks.<br> <br> Tim G. made an interesting statement: "Many homes these days do not have dictionaries and encyclopedias in book form." That's something that never occurred to me, given my rooms full of books of all kinds - but when I think about it, I know it's almost certainly true. I love the convenience of being able to look things up online, but I would hate to know that I didn't have those books to back me up. Maybe it goes back to my days as a cop, but I am really big into always having a backup.<br> <br> The discussion certainly veered off into some interesting directions, and while I try to resist expressing any strong political views here (I know there are occasions when I don't succeed), I enjoyed reading all of our readers' rants and as always, I thank all of you who participated, both in the forum and via email.<br> <br> 'Til next week,<br> Deb Shinder, Editor<br> <a href='mailto:feedback@win7news.net'>feedback@win7news.net</a><br> <br> <a href='http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-Twitter'> <img src='http://www.win7news.net/images/twitter-logo.gif' border='0' alt='Follow Deb on Twitter'></a><br> <br> PS: Did you know this newsletter has a sister publication called Win7News? You can subscribe here, and tell your friends: <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-Win7News">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-Win7News</a><br> <br> And for IT pros, there's our "big sister," WServer News, at <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-WserverNews">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-WserverNews</a><br> <br> Look up the WXPnews Fan Page and join us on Facebook! <br><br><font size='3'><b>Quotes of the Week</b></font><br><br> "<i>For disappearing acts, it's hard to beat what happens to the eight hours supposedly left after eight hours of sleep and eight of work</i>". - Doug Larson<br> <br> "<i>Censorship reflects a society's lack of confidence in itself. It is the landmark of an authoritarian regime</i>". - Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart<br> <br> "<i>No generalization is wholly true, not even this one</i>". - Oliver Wendell Holmes </td></tr></table><br> <br> <table width='100%' cellspacing='0'> <tr> <td><font size='2'> <div style='padding-top: 5pt; padding-right: 15pt; padding-bottom: 15pt; padding-left: 5pt;'> <table width='80%'> <tr> <td valign="top"> <a href='http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-VIPRE-Premium'> <img src='http://www.win7news.net/images/vpp-box.jpg' border='0' hspace='10'></a> </td> <td valign='top'><font size='2'> <font size='3'><b><font color='red'>NEW!</font> VIPRE<sup>®</sup> Antivirus Premium 4.0</b></font><br><br> VIPRE is the only antivirus software that does not slow down your PC, and now it comes with integrated firewall!<br> <br> <b>VIPRE Antivirus Premium 4.0</b> <ul> <li>Does not slow down your PC </li><li>New antivirus + antispyware engine with firewall </li><li>Advanced anti-rootkit technology </li><li>Cutting-edge Proactive Protection </li><li>Full email protection: Outlook and Windows Mail </li><li>Ideal for Netbooks that need malware protection </li><li>No automatic credit card charge each year! </li> </ul> Try VIPRE Antivirus Premium now for 30-days FREE! <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-VIPRE-Premium">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-VIPRE-Premium</a><br> <br> <a href='http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-VIPRE-on-Facebook' target='_blank'> <img src='http://www.win7news.net/images/facebookfan.gif' border='0'></a> </td> </tr> </table> </td></tr></table><br> <br> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr bgcolor='#cccccc'> <td width='1%'><img src='http://www.wxpnews.com/img/arrow.gif' width='25' height='25'></td> <td><font size='4' color='#000000'><b> Cool Tools</b></font></td> </tr> </table> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td width='27'></td><td><font size='2'><br> <font size='3'><b>Tools We Think You Shouldn't Be Without</b></font><br><br> <font size='1' color='808080'>ADVERTISEMENT</font><br> <br> MediaWidget is the quickest and easiest way to transfer all of your music, videos, photos, podcasts, and more from your iPod to PC. Check out the cool Youtube demo and download the trial here: <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-MediaWidget">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-MediaWidget</a><br> <br> Do you have programs you just can't seem to get rid of? Uninstaller! 2010 "ALL New" Version Just Released: <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-Your-Uninstaller">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-Your-Uninstaller</a><br> <br> Shop online much? Billing address autofill, secure password storage, all automatic and safe. Not a little toolbar utility. Huge time-saver! <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-RoboForm">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-RoboForm</a><br> <br> Moving to Windows 7 is Easy! PCMover moves programs, files, and settings from your old PC to your new PC <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-PCmover">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-PCmover</a><br> <br> Search for a driver and you get a ton of Driver Software offers instead. But how do you know which one is good? Try Driver Genius 9.0. Free scan. <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-Driver-Genius">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-Driver-Genius</a><br> <br> Why back up when you can sync? Simply replicate every piece of data to another drive in real-time. Set it and forget it. <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-GoodSync">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-GoodSync</a><br> <br> Spellchecker is NOT ENOUGH! Improve your English writing skills with WhiteSmoke a smarter solution for high quality writing. Try it: <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-WhiteSmoke">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-WhiteSmoke</a><br> <br> Get your speed back! Advanced Vista Optimizer will tweak Vista for Max performance. Easy to use: <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-AccountLogon">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-AccountLogon</a><br> </td></tr></table><br> <br> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr bgcolor='#cccccc'> <td width='1%'><img src='http://www.wxpnews.com/img/arrow.gif' width='25' height='25'></td> <td><font size='4' color='#000000'><b> News, Hints, Tips and Tricks</b></font></td> </tr> </table> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td width='27'></td><td><font size='2'><br> <font size='3'><b>WMWifiRouter is a lifesaver</b></font><br><br> Here's why I don't trust the cloud: today was Tom's birthday and we went out to lunch to celebrate. We came home to discover a not-so-great birthday present: our FiOS Internet connection was dead. It's been rock solid reliable for four years, but the "Fail" light on the outside box was burning brightly and tech support confirmed that it was a network failure and estimated it would be back up "by tomorrow." But I had plenty of work to get done <i>today,</i> like finishing this newsletter. And that requires an Internet connection to find the links in these sections. Ouch.<br> <br> Here's what saved my behind: I have an unlimited data plan on my Verizon Windows Mobile 6.5 smart phone (Omnia II). I downloaded and installed WMWifiRouter on it, which allowed me to set up the phone as a wireless access point. Then I was able to connect my laptop to the phone's Internet connection. What a lifesaver. I downloaded the free trial but I'll be sending them my twenty bucks pronto. I'll also be writing about it in more detail in the future. Meanwhile, if you ever find yourself in a similar situation, check it out here: <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-WiFi-Router">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-WiFi-Router</a><br> <br><br><font size='3'><b>Windows XP gets DirectX 11 goodness</b></font><br><br> Want all the goodness of DirectX 11 but don't want to upgrade your operating system from Windows XP? Now you don't have to. ATI has released a new OpenGL driver that supports Vista and XP, so that you can get graphics close to the quality of DirectX 11 on your Windows XP computer. Read more here: <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-ATI-Complexity-to-XP">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-ATI-Complexity-to-XP</a><br> <br><br><font size='3'><b>Big boys battle it out on the mapping front</b></font><br><br> I remember when Mapquest was the place to go if you wanted to find a map on the Internet, but I also remember how it led me astray more than once. Today Microsoft and Google are battling it out for the top dog spot when it comes to maps and the latest news is that Microsoft is teaming up with Foursquare, a location-awareness service that will be integrated into Bing maps as part of their spring update. Find out more here: <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-Bing-Maps">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-Bing-Maps</a><br> </td></tr></table><br> <br> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr bgcolor='#cccccc'> <td width='1%'><img src='http://www.wxpnews.com/img/arrow.gif' width='25' height='25'></td> <td><font size='4' color='#000000'><b> How To: Using XP Features</b></font></td> </tr> </table> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td width='27'></td><td><font size='2'><br> <font size='3'><b>How to take timed snapshots with your webcam</b></font><br><br> If you have a webcam set up on your Windows XP computer and you'd like for it to automatically take photos at timed intervals (for example, so you can see what's going in your office while you're gone), you can do it with a free PowerToy from Microsoft. <ol> <li>Go to <a href='http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx' target='_blank'> http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx</a> </li><li>In the right column that lists the various PowerToys, scroll all the way to the bottom and click the link for Timershot.exe </li><li>Click the Save button to save the file to your hard drive and pick a location where you want to save it. </li><li>After the file has downloaded, double click it to run the setup program. </li><li>Configure the Timershot settings to use your webcam device. </li><li>Under "Picture Options," set the interval at which you want photos to be taken (for example, every 1 minutes). </li><li>You can have the pictures automatically resized if you want, and specify a file name and location where you want the pictures to be saved. </li><li>Click Apply Settings. </li></ol> </td></tr></table><br> <br> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr bgcolor='#cccccc'> <td width='1%'><img src='http://www.wxpnews.com/img/arrow.gif' width='25' height='25'></td> <td><font size='4' color='#000000'><b> XP Security News</b></font></td> </tr> </table> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td width='27'></td><td><font size='2'><br> <font size='3'><b>All platforms and browsers are vulnerable to attack</b></font><br><br> Have you been thinking you should upgrade to Windows 7 because that will protect you from attacks? Have you heard that Macs can't be hacked or don't get viruses? Has someone told you that IE is insecure and you'll be safe if you just use Firefox? The recent Pwn2Own hacking contest in Vancouver taught us all a big lesson: all operating systems and all web browsers are vulnerable to attack. Security researchers quickly exploited an updated iPhone, a Macbook, a 64 bit Windows 7 system, and all of the popular web browsers. Read more about it here: <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-PowerToys">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-PowerToys</a><br> </td></tr></table><br> <br> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr bgcolor='#cccccc'> <td width='1%'><img src='http://www.wxpnews.com/img/arrow.gif' width='25' height='25'></td> <td><font size='4' color='#000000'><b> XP Question Corner</b></font></td> </tr> </table> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td width='27'></td><td><font size='2'><br> <font size='3'><b>Disk Cleanup hangs</b></font><br><br> <b>QUESTION:</b><br> I was trying to use the Disk Cleanup utility in XP to remove some of the clutter from my hard drive and get more space, but when it was compressing old files, it hung up and just stopped responding forever. I've tried this a couple of times (after a reboot) and it does the same thing. Do you know how to fix it or do I have to just stop trying to use this? - Elliot C.<br> <br> <b>ANSWER:</b><br> This is actually a known problem and it happens when you have an incorrect entry in the registry that's used by Disk Cleanup to find compressed files. You can edit the registry yourself to fix this, or Microsoft has a "Fix it wizard" that you can run if you aren't comfortable manually editing the registry. You'll find it here, along with the step by step instructions for the manual edit: <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-Disk-Cleanup">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-Disk-Cleanup</a><br> </td></tr></table><br> <br> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr bgcolor='#cccccc'> <td width='1%'><img src='http://www.wxpnews.com/img/arrow.gif' width='25' height='25'></td> <td><font size='4' color='#000000'><b> XP Configuration and Troubleshooting</b></font></td> </tr> </table> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td width='27'></td><td><font size='2'><br> <font size='3'><b>Can't open Help and Support Center in XP</b></font><br><br> If you try to open the Help and Support Center in Windows XP and you get an error message that says Windows cannot find HELPCTR.EXE, you might have a corrupted or missing registry key. What to do? You'll need to edit the registry to fix the problem. You can find the step-by-step instructions for doing so in KB article 888018 at <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-Support-Center">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-Support-Center</a><br> </td></tr></table><br> <br> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr bgcolor='#cccccc'> <td width='1%'><img src='http://www.wxpnews.com/img/arrow.gif' width='25' height='25'></td> <td><font size='4' color='#000000'><b> Fav Links</b></font></td> </tr> </table> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td width='27'></td><td><font size='2'><br> <font size='3'><b>This Week's Links We Like. Tips, Hints And Fun Stuff</b></font><br><br> <font size='1'>Disclaimer: WXPNews does not assume and cannot be responsible for any liability related to you clicking any of these linked Web sites.<br></font> <ul> <li>April Fool's Day office prank <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-April-Fools">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-April-Fools</a><br> </li><li>Most unusual Google Earth photos <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-Google-Earth">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-Google-Earth</a><br> </li><li>1932 propeller driven car - I want one of these <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-Helicron">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-Helicron</a><br> </li><li>Speaking of cool cars: Street legal bumper cars <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-Bumper-Cars">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-Bumper-Cars</a><br> </li><li>Driving Mt. Shasta (fasten your seat belt) <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-Scenic-Driving">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-Scenic-Driving</a><br> </li><li>Play Captain Forever <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-Captain-Forever">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-Captain-Forever</a><br> </li><li>This will blow you away. A sneak preview of the "Content-Aware Fill" feature in the upcoming version of Photoshop. WOW: <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-Photoshop">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-Photoshop</a><br> </li><li>A baby and a kitty are wrestling in a battle of cuteness: <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-Cat-vs-Baby">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-Cat-vs-Baby</a><br> </li><li>The Top 10 Low-Pass Jet Flyby's. Number three must have been the result of a bet. This guy's got guts! Must see: <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-Flyby">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-Flyby</a><br> </li></ul> </td></tr></table><br> <br> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr bgcolor='#cccccc'> <td width='1%'><img src='http://www.wxpnews.com/img/arrow.gif' width='25' height='25'></td> <td><font size='4' color='#000000'><b> Product of the Week</b></font></td> </tr> </table> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td width='27'></td><td><font size='2'><br> <font size='3'><b>CyberScrub Privacy Suite: Completely Erase Evidence of All Internet/Computer Activity & Encrypt Data</b></font><br><br> CyberScrub Privacy Suite removes all evidence of your online activity, erases data beyond recovery, secures your files with strong encryption and enhances overall system performance. This award winning app sports over 50 new features and enhancements. Did you realize every picture or video viewed is written to your hard drive? Simply opening an email can put you in a compromising situation. Privacy Suite eliminates all web tracks (pictures, video, history, websites visited, cache and temp files, IM, chat, email, etc.), automatically removes newsgroup pictures and binaries, eliminates traces from popular Peer2Peer applications, Real and Windows Media Player, Photoshop and more. You can even create your own customized areas to clean. Remember- "Delete" does not mean "Erase". Deleted files can be retrieved using simple recovery tools. 100% Windows 7 compatible Privacy Suite software supports Internet Explorer 8 and Firefox 3.x. Click below for other exciting New Features. Download the free trial and buy with a 20% discount to WXPNews subscribers. <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-CyberScrub">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100330-CyberScrub</a><br> </td></tr></table><br> </font> </td> </tr> </table> <br> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr bgcolor='#cccccc'> <td width='1%'><img src='http://www.wxpnews.com/img/arrow.gif' width='25' height='25'></td> <td><font size='4' color='#000000'><b> About WXPnews</b></font></td> </tr> </table> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td width='27'></td> <td> <font size='2'><br> <b>What Our Lawyers Make Us Say</b><br> These documents are provided for informational purposes only. The information contained in this document represents the current view of Sunbelt Software on the issues discussed as of the date of publication. Because Sunbelt must respond to changes in market conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Sunbelt and Sunbelt cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information presented after the date of publication.<br> <br> INFORMATION PROVIDED IN THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND FREEDOM FROM INFRINGEMENT.<br> <br> This newsletter and website and may contain links to other websites with whom we have a business relationship. Sunbelt Software does not review or screen these sites, and we are not responsible or liable for their privacy or data security practices, or the content of these sites. Additionally, if you register with any of these sites, any information that you provide in the process of registration, such as your email address, credit card number or other personally identifiable information, will be transferred to these sites. For these reasons, you should be careful to review any privacy and data security policies posted on any of these sites before providing information to them.<br> <br> The user assumes the entire risk as to the accuracy and the use of this document. This document may be copied and distributed subject to the following conditions: 1) All text must be copied without modification and all pages must be included; 2) All copies must contain Sunbelt's copyright notice and any other notices provided therein; and 3) This document may not be distributed for profit. All trademarks acknowledged. Copyright Sunbelt Software, Inc. 1996-2010.<br> <br> <b>WXPnews Archives</b><br> Looking for a past issue? Missing an issue? Accidently deleted an issue? Trying to find that article that pointed you to that cool site? All our newsletters are archived and are searchable:<br> <a href='http://www.wxpnews.com/archives.cfm'>http://www.wxpnews.com/archives.cfm</a><br> <br> <b>About Your Subscription to WXPnews</b><br> This is a posting from WXPnews. You are subscribed as cpedley.killcomputer@blogger.com.<br> To manage your profile, please visit our site by clicking on the following link:<br> <a href='http://www.wxpnews.com/profile.cfm?wxp=MY5HU3'>http://www.wxpnews.com/profile.cfm?wxp=MY5HU3</a><br> <br> If you have feedback or wish to write to the editor, write to us at <a href='mailto:feedback@wxpnews.com?subject=WXPnews'>feedback@wxpnews.com</a><br> <br> Sunbelt Software<br> 33 North Garden Avenue<br> Clearwater, Florida USA 33755 </font> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> computermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10089720734681665451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1494044958456696387.post-38970059691912297442010-03-28T20:33:00.001-04:002010-03-28T20:33:41.598-04:00Gizmo's Daily Tech Treats<style type="text/css"> h1 a:hover {background-color:#888;color:#fff ! important;} div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div ul { list-style-type:square; padding-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div blockquote { padding-left:6px; border-left: 6px solid #dadada; margin-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div li { margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:1em; } table#itemcontentlist tr td a:link, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:visited, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:active, ul#summarylist li a { color:#000099; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:none; } img {border:none;} </style> <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" id="emailbody" style="margin:0 2em;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"> <table style="border:0;padding:0;margin:0;width:100%"> <tr> <td style="vertical-align:top" width="99%"> <h1 style="margin:0;padding-bottom:6px;"> <a style="color:#888;font-size:22px;font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;" href="http://www.techsupportalert.com/view/treats" title="(http://www.techsupportalert.com/view/treats)">Gizmo's Daily Tech Treats</a> <br /> <a href="http://fusion.google.com/add?source=atgs&feedurl=http://feeds.feedburner.com/GizmosDailyTechTreats"> <img style="padding-top:6px" alt="" border="0" src="http://gmodules.com/ig/images/plus_google.gif" /> </a> </h1> </td> <td width="1%"> <a href="http://www.techsupportalert.com/view/treats"> <img src="http://techsupportalert.com/images/46best-50px.jpg" alt="Link to Gizmo's Daily Tech Treats" id="feedimage" style="padding:0 0 10px 3px;border:0;" /> </a> </td> </tr> </table> <hr style="border:1px solid #ccc;padding:0;margin:0" /> <table id="itemcontentlist"> <tr xmlns=""> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="1" style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GizmosDailyTechTreats/~3/PJjD2yfbO08/everything-you-ever-wanted-know-about-gps.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email">Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About GPS</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 27 Mar 2010 07:50 PM PDT</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GizmosDailyTechTreats/~4/PJjD2yfbO08?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email" height="1" width="1"/></div> </td> </tr> </table> <table style="border-top:1px solid #999;padding-top:4px;margin-top:1.5em;width:100%" id="footer"> <tr> <td style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">You are subscribed to email updates from <a href="http://www.techsupportalert.com/view/treats">Gizmo's Daily Tech Treats</a> <br />To stop receiving these emails, you may <a href="http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailunsubscribe?k=OscCsQAtaVokQsxhoeJHVsDaTs0">unsubscribe now</a>.</td> <td style="font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;text-align:right;vertical-align:top">Email delivery powered by Google</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610</td> </tr> </table> </div> computermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10089720734681665451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1494044958456696387.post-43513938126644147932010-03-27T21:00:00.001-04:002010-03-27T21:00:52.241-04:00Gizmo's Daily Tech Treats<style type="text/css"> h1 a:hover {background-color:#888;color:#fff ! important;} div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div ul { list-style-type:square; padding-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div blockquote { padding-left:6px; border-left: 6px solid #dadada; margin-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div li { margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:1em; } table#itemcontentlist tr td a:link, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:visited, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:active, ul#summarylist li a { color:#000099; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:none; } img {border:none;} </style> <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" id="emailbody" style="margin:0 2em;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"> <table style="border:0;padding:0;margin:0;width:100%"> <tr> <td style="vertical-align:top" width="99%"> <h1 style="margin:0;padding-bottom:6px;"> <a style="color:#888;font-size:22px;font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;" href="http://www.techsupportalert.com/view/treats" title="(http://www.techsupportalert.com/view/treats)">Gizmo's Daily Tech Treats</a> <br /> <a href="http://fusion.google.com/add?source=atgs&feedurl=http://feeds.feedburner.com/GizmosDailyTechTreats"> <img style="padding-top:6px" alt="" border="0" src="http://gmodules.com/ig/images/plus_google.gif" /> </a> </h1> </td> <td width="1%"> <a href="http://www.techsupportalert.com/view/treats"> <img src="http://techsupportalert.com/images/46best-50px.jpg" alt="Link to Gizmo's Daily Tech Treats" id="feedimage" style="padding:0 0 10px 3px;border:0;" /> </a> </td> </tr> </table> <hr style="border:1px solid #ccc;padding:0;margin:0" /> <table id="itemcontentlist"> <tr xmlns=""> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="1" style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GizmosDailyTechTreats/~3/3Qx18-BDhKo/weekend-roundup-march-26-2010.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email">Weekend Roundup March 26, 2010</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 26 Mar 2010 08:07 PM PDT</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GizmosDailyTechTreats/~4/3Qx18-BDhKo?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email" height="1" width="1"/></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="2" style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GizmosDailyTechTreats/~3/87elXxBVFOg/explore-different-editions-microsoft-office-2010.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email">Explore the Different Editions of Microsoft Office 2010</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 26 Mar 2010 07:35 PM PDT</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GizmosDailyTechTreats/~4/87elXxBVFOg?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email" height="1" width="1"/></div> </td> </tr> </table> <table style="border-top:1px solid #999;padding-top:4px;margin-top:1.5em;width:100%" id="footer"> <tr> <td style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">You are subscribed to email updates from <a href="http://www.techsupportalert.com/view/treats">Gizmo's Daily Tech Treats</a> <br />To stop receiving these emails, you may <a href="http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailunsubscribe?k=OscCsQAtaVokQsxhoeJHVsDaTs0">unsubscribe now</a>.</td> <td style="font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;text-align:right;vertical-align:top">Email delivery powered by Google</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610</td> </tr> </table> </div> computermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10089720734681665451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1494044958456696387.post-74455011601197056902010-03-24T21:51:00.000-04:002010-03-24T21:48:26.344-04:00Storage Technology: Past, Present and Future<table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr height='16'> <td style='color:white;font-weight:bold;font-size:0.7em' background='http://www.win7news.net/img/header_top_background.gif'>Published by Sunbelt Software</td> <td background='http://www.win7news.net/img/header_top_background.gif' align='right' style='color:white;font-weight:bold;font-size:0.7em'> <a style='text-decoration:none;color:white' href='http://forums.win7news.net/'>FORUMS</a> | <a style='text-decoration:none;color:white' href='http://www.win7news.net/rss/index.xml'>RSS</a> | <a style='text-decoration:none;color:white' href='http://www.win7news.net/Profile'>MY PROFILE</a> | <a style='text-decoration:none;color:white' href='http://www.win7news.net/Privacy'>PRIVACY</a> <br> </td> </tr> <tr height='110'> <td background='http://www.win7news.net/img/win7news_header_newsletter.jpg' colspan='2' style='background-repeat:no-repeat;background-color:#214365'><br></td> </tr> </table> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td width='28' background='http://www.win7news.net/img/background-left.gif' style='background-repeat: no-repeat'><img src='http://www.win7news.net/img/trans.gif' width='28' height='1'></td> <td width='100%'> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr><td background='http://www.win7news.net/img/background-top.gif'><img src='http://www.win7news.net/img/trans.gif' height='8'></td></tr> <tr> <td background='http://www.win7news.net/img/background-main.gif' style='background-repeat: repeat-x'> <table cellspacing='0' cellpadding='0' border='0'> <tr> <td width='1' background='http://www.win7news.net/img/background-submenu-cap.gif'><img src='http://www.win7news.net/img/trans.gif' width='1' height='30'></td> <th width='100%' align='right' background='http://www.win7news.net/img/background-submenu-center.gif'><font size='2'>Vol. 2, # 12 - Mar 25, 2010 - Issue # 28</font> </th> <td width='1' background='http://www.win7news.net/img/background-submenu-cap.gif'><img src='http://www.win7news.net/img/trans.gif' width='1' height='30'></td> </tr> </table> <table width='100%' cellpadding='20' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td valign='top'> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td width='1%' valign='top'><img src='http://www.win7news.net/img/icon-win7news.gif' width='25' height='25'></td> <td> <font size='5' color='#003366'><b> Storage Technology: Past, Present and Future</b></font> </td> </tr> </table> <br> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td width='20'></td> <td valign='top'> <font size='2'> <ol> <b><li>Editor's Corner</b> <ul> <li type='square'>Storage Technology: Past, Present and Future <li type='square'>Follow-up: Win7 Starter for Netbooks <li type='square'>Quotes of the Week </ul> <b><li>Cool Tools</b> <ul> </ul> <b><li>News, Hints, Tips and Tricks</b> <ul> <li type='square'>The Death of the Desktop? Not So Much. <li type='square'>Service Pack 1: Not Much to See Here <li type='square'>No Firefox for Windows Mobile <li type='square'>Oversized dynamic VHD can cause Windows 7 to crash </ul> <b><li>How to: Using the New Windows 7 Features</b> <ul> <li type='square'>How to add color coding to Windows 7 Media Center Program Guide </ul> <b><li>Windows 7 and Vista Security</b> <ul> <li type='square'>Fake antivirus targets Windows 7 users </ul> <b><li>Question Corner</b> <ul> <li type='square'>Why does quad core take longer to boot than dual core? </ul> <b><li>Windows 7 Configuration and Troubleshooting</b> <ul> <li type='square'>20 Keyboard Shortcuts You Need to Know <li type='square'>Windows 7 upgrade fails and you can't boot into Vista </ul> <b><li>Fav Links</b> <ul> <li type='square'>This Week's Links We Like. Tips, Hints And Fun Stuff </ul> <b><li>Product of the Week</b> <ul> <li type='square'>Create a Great Web Site in 3 Easy Steps with Web Easy. </ul> </ol> </font> </td> </tr> </table> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td> <font size='2'> <br> <table width='80%' cellspacing='0'> <tr> <td><font size='2'> <div style='padding-top: 5pt; padding-right: 15pt; padding-bottom: 5pt; padding-left: 15pt;'> <table width='80%'> <tr> <td valign="top"> <a href='http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-VIPRE-Antivirus-Premium'> <img src='http://www.win7news.net/images/vpp-box.jpg' border='0' hspace='10'></a> </td> <td valign='top'><font size='2'> <font size='3'><b><font color='red'>NEW!</font> VIPRE® Antivirus Premium 4.0</b></font><br><br> VIPRE is the only antivirus software that does not slow down your PC, and now it comes with integrated firewall!<br> <br> <b>VIPRE Antivirus Premium 4.0</b> <ul> <li>Does not slow down your PC </li><li>New antivirus + antispyware engine with firewall </li><li>Advanced anti-rootkit technology </li><li>Cutting-edge Proactive Protection </li><li>Full email protection: Outlook and Windows Mail </li><li>Ideal for Netbooks that need malware protection </li><li>No automatic credit card charge each year! </li> </ul> Try VIPRE Antivirus Premium now for 30-days FREE! <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-VIPRE-Antivirus-Premium">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-VIPRE-Antivirus-Premium</a><br> <br> <a href='http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-VIPRE-on-Facebook' target='_blank'> <img src='http://www.win7news.net/images/facebookfan.gif' border='0'></a> </td> </tr> </table> </td></tr></table><br> <br> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0' background='http://www.win7news.net/img/background-title.gif' style='background-repeat: repeat-x'> <tr> <td width='1%' valign='top'><img src='http://www.win7news.net/img/icon-win7news.gif' width='25' height='25' hspace='5' vspace='2'></td> <td><font size='4' color='#000000'><b>Editor's Corner</b></font></td> </tr> </table> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td width='27'></td><td><font size='2'><br> <font size='3'><b>Storage Technology: Past, Present and Future</b></font><br><br> Modern computers have many components; the two most basic are processors to carry out the instruction set of computer programs and volatile random-access memory (RAM) for short term storage of data. You also need input/output devices (keyboard, pointing device, monitor) to be able to interact with the computer. And you need a way to store data long-term, after the computer is turned off.<br> <br> For most of us, that last requirement is satisfied by a hard disk drive, which was so named to distinguish it from "floppy" disks that were used for storing data in the early days of personal computing. I still remember my first IBM PC, which had no hard drive at all - just two floppy drives. You could load the operating system and programs from one and store your data on the other. These were 5 1/4 inch floppies that held only 160KB of information. I remember how impressed I was when I upgraded to an IBM PC XT, which had a "fixed disk" (hard drive) capable of storing a whopping 10 MB of data. At the time, it seemed like unlimited storage - and light years more advanced than the cassette tapes on which my VIC-20 had stored its data.<br> <br> Although hard drives didn't become common on consumer and small business computers until the mid to late 80s, the first ones were sold by IBM in 1956. It was about double the size of a refrigerator and consisted of a stack of fifty 24 inch discs. IBM leased it for $35,000 per year. You can see what it looked like here: <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-Media-Technology">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-Media-Technology</a><br> <br> Fast forward to today: Hard drive capacity has exploded and you can buy a terabyte drive for much less than you had to pay for the 10MB drive for the PC XT. Amazingly, many of those ancient IBM PC XTs are still in use over a quarter of a century later. They might not be running their original hard drives; in fact, hard disk failure is still one of the most common hardware problems that bring computers down.<br> <br> This makes sense when you consider how the traditional hard drive works. "Under the hood," the data is stored on platters that rotate rapidly (the platters comprise the "disk" and the motorized mechanism that rotates them make up the "drive"). The read and write heads are very precisely positioned just nanometers above the surface. The heads are mounted on a moving actuator arm. For more information about the construction and mechanics of hard disk drives, see: <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-Hard-Disks">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-Hard-Disks</a><br> <br> Given all that, it's pretty amazing that hard drives are as durable as they are. Those early hard drives were much more fragile. In fact, you had to manually "park" the drives before you moved the computer, to prevent damage. Today's drives automatically park the heads when power to the drive is cut off. Laptops have built-in protection technology that senses if the computer is dropped while it's running and triggers a software applet that parks the drive heads.<br> <br> But while there have been some significant improvements to hard drive durability and capacity over the years, performance has lagged behind. That's not to say today's hard drives aren't faster than those of a decade ago; they are. The typical hard drive today rotates at 5400 or 7200 rpm, and high-end drives can reach 15,000 rpm. But hey, the 10 MB Seagate ST-412 that was created in 1981 spun at 3600 rpm. Of course, rotations per minutes is not the only measure of a hard disk's speed. That old drive had a data rate of 5 Mbps and a seek time of 85 ms. <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-Golden-Oldies">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-Golden-Oldies</a><br> <br> Today, Seagate's Cheetah SAS drive boasts 15,000 rpm, a 6 Gbps interface and 2 ms average latency. However, it costs more than a dollar per gigabyte of storage ($329 for a 300 GB drive at NewEgg), in comparison with slower drives, like the Seagate Barracuda SATA drive, that give you almost seven times as much storage space for less than half the price ($149 for a 2TB drive).<br> <br> Even considering the high-end drives, the hard drive is often the bottleneck that slows down the rest of the system. If you check your Windows 7 Windows Experience Index (WEI) rating, it's likely that the lowest subscore will be for either your hard drive or your video card. I know that on my main desktop, my processor and memory both score a nice 7.5 - but my hard disk lags at 5.9.<br> <br> Another consideration that has gotten a lot of attention recently is energy consumption. Smaller 2.5 inch drives are becoming more popular because they generally get better performance per watt. Most hard drive manufacturers have come out with "green" models, such as Western Digital's Caviar GP (which stands for "Green Power"). The company says it draws a little over half the power of its previous generation drives. <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-WD-Caviar-Green">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-WD-Caviar-Green</a><br> <br> Once upon a time, we thought the hard drive's days were numbered. Holographic storage was believed to be just around the corner. The potential capacity is large: several tens of terabytes per cubic centimeter, and it also has the potential to be very fast because millions of bits can be recorded and read in parallel. In the early 2000s, there was a lot of work being done on developing the technology, but it seems to have fallen by the wayside, or at least gone underground. InPhase Technologies was one of the major players, but its assets were seized last month by the Colorado Department of Revenue: <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-Holographic-Storage">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-Holographic-Storage</a><br> <br> As the article above notes, there are quite a few "science project" storage methods out there, but we don't hear that much about them. Maybe we're just not ready for Star Trek technology yet. The biggest obstacle seems to be the cost; the 300 GB holographic drive that InPhase made had a high price tag: more than $10,000. Er, I think I'll pass.<br> <br> But there is an alternative to the traditional hard drive that's here, now, and although still a bit expensive, it won't set you back thousands of dollars for a few gigs of storage space. Of course I'm talking about the solid state drive (SSD). They started appearing in netbooks because their small physical size (as small as 1.8 inch) makes it easy to reduce the size of the computer itself. They're also lighter in weight than a traditional hard drive of the same capacity.<br> <br> Most SSDs use flash memory and don't need batteries. DRAM-based SSDs are faster, but need a battery or AC adapter and backup storage because their memory is volatile, so otherwise data will be lost if the electrical power is lost. Flash-based SSDs do use DRAM for a cache. Unlike traditional hard drives, SSDs have no moving parts. That makes them quieter and also more durable and less prone to failure. They are also less vulnerable to damage from vibration, shock or extreme temperatures, and they don't have to be defragmented. They are fast for read operations, but SATA-based SSDs are slow on write operations. PCIe SSDs provide faster write speeds.<br> <br> Not all SSDs are created equal, though. The fastest SSDs come at a higher price. And price is a sticking point for SSDs - they still cost considerably more than their platter-based counterparts, and capacities are generally correspondingly lower. Most on the market now are in the 128 GB and under capacity range. You <i>can</i> buy a 1 TB SSD, but it costs almost $4000. For 512 GB, you'll pay around $1500 or more. Contrast that with the price of a 500 GB traditional hard drive, which can be had for as little as $55 (all prices are from NewEgg.com).<br> <br> It's likely that SSD prices will fall in the next year, though. And the good news is that Windows 7 (along with Server 2008 R2) is optimized to work with SSD drives. Unlike previous versions of Windows, it supports the TRIM command, which maintains the speed of the SSD throughout its lifespan and eliminates a problem suffered by SSDs in the past, wherein they slowed down as they got older and all their cells had been written to. You can read more about TRIM and other Windows 7 SSD optimizations here: <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-SSD-Performance">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-SSD-Performance</a><br> <br> Tell us what you think about the whole subject of data storage. We've hardly scratched the surface here; there are still many other ways of storing digital information: on optical discs (CD, DVD, Blu-ray), on portable flash ("thumb") drives and cards, local network storage options such as SAN and NAS, and, of course, "in the cloud." Are you still using traditional hard disks on your computers or have you upgraded to SSD? If not, is it because of cost or capacity (or both)? What would the price point have to be for a 500 GB drive before you would buy an SSD? What do you think the next big thing in storage will be - holographic or something entirely new and different? Will we see traditional hard drives become obsolete in the next ten years, or will they keep hanging in there? We invite you to discuss these questions and more on our forum at <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-Forum-Discussion">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-Forum-Discussion</a><br> <br><br><font size='3'><b>Follow-up: Win7 Starter for Netbooks</b></font><br><br> In last week's editorial, I talked about the somewhat stripped down Starter edition of Windows 7 that comes on many of the low cost netbooks that are on the market today. Quite a few of our readers who bought netbooks loaded with Starter edition said they quickly upgraded to Windows 7 Home Premium, Pro or Ultimate. However, a few folks are using Starter and find that it fills their needs. It's all a matter of what you want the system to do and how much you want to pay. Overall, though, upgrading was the most popular choice.<br> <br> As always, a big "thank you" to all of you who participated in the discussion.<br> <br> 'Til next week,<br> Deb Shinder, Editor<br> <a href='mailto:feedback@win7news.net'>feedback@win7news.net</a><br> <br> <a href='http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-Twitter'> <img src='http://www.win7news.net/images/twitter-logo.gif' border='0' alt='Follow Deb on Twitter'></a><br> <br> PS: Did you know this newsletter has a sister publication for XP users called WXPnews? You can subscribe here, and tell your friends: <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-WXPNews">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-WXPNews</a><br> <br> And for IT pros, there's our "big sister," WServer News, at <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-WserverNews">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-WserverNews</a><br> <br> Look for the Win7News fan page on Facebook! <br><br><font size='3'><b>Quotes of the Week</b></font><br><br> "<i>Don't go around saying the world owes you a living</i>". The world owes you nothing. It was here first. - Mark Twain<br> <br> "<i>He who has a why to live can bear almost any how</i>". - Friedrich Nietzsche<br> <br> "<i>I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day</i>". - E. B. White </td></tr></table><br> <br> <table width='80%' cellspacing='0'> <tr> <td><font size='2'> <div style='padding-top: 5pt; padding-right: 15pt; padding-bottom: 5pt; padding-left: 15pt;'> <table width='80%'> <tr> <td valign="top"> <a href='http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-VIPRE-Antivirus-Premium'> <img src='http://www.win7news.net/images/vpp-box.jpg' border='0' hspace='10'></a> </td> <td valign='top'><font size='2'> <font size='3'><b><font color='red'>NEW!</font> VIPRE® Antivirus Premium 4.0</b></font><br><br> VIPRE is the only antivirus software that does not slow down your PC, and now it comes with integrated firewall!<br> <br> <b>VIPRE Antivirus Premium 4.0</b> <ul> <li>Does not slow down your PC </li><li>New antivirus + antispyware engine with firewall </li><li>Advanced anti-rootkit technology </li><li>Cutting-edge Proactive Protection </li><li>Full email protection: Outlook and Windows Mail </li><li>Ideal for Netbooks that need malware protection </li><li>No automatic credit card charge each year! </li> </ul> Try VIPRE Antivirus Premium now for 30-days FREE! <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-VIPRE-Antivirus-Premium">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-VIPRE-Antivirus-Premium</a><br> <br> <a href='http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-VIPRE-on-Facebook' target='_blank'> <img src='http://www.win7news.net/images/facebookfan.gif' border='0'></a> </td> </tr> </table> </td></tr></table><br> <br> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0' background='http://www.win7news.net/img/background-title.gif' style='background-repeat: repeat-x'> <tr> <td width='1%' valign='top'><img src='http://www.win7news.net/img/icon-win7news.gif' width='25' height='25' hspace='5' vspace='2'></td> <td><font size='4' color='#000000'><b>Cool Tools</b></font></td> </tr> </table> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td width='27'></td><td><font size='2'><br> <font size='1' color='808080'>ADVERTISEMENT</font><br> <br> Do you have programs you just can't seem to get rid of? Uninstaller! 2010 "ALL New" Version Just Released: <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-Your-Uninstaller">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-Your-Uninstaller</a><br> <br> Moving to Windows 7 is Easy! PCMover moves programs, files, and settings from your old PC to your new PC. <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-PCmover">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-PCmover</a><br> <br> Search for a driver and you get a ton of Driver Software offers instead. But how do you know which one is good? Try Driver Genius 9.0. Free scan. <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-Driver-Genius">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-Driver-Genius</a><br> <br> Billing address autofill, Secure password storage, all automatic and safe. Not a little toolbar utility. Huge time saver! <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-RoboForm">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-RoboForm</a><br> <br> Get your speed back! 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Try it: <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-WhiteSmoke">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-WhiteSmoke</a><br> <br> Ultra Edit New Version 15.2 - Replacing Notepad or Looking for The Most Powerful Text Editor? <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-UltraEdit">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-UltraEdit</a><br> </td></tr></table><br> <br> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0' background='http://www.win7news.net/img/background-title.gif' style='background-repeat: repeat-x'> <tr> <td width='1%' valign='top'><img src='http://www.win7news.net/img/icon-win7news.gif' width='25' height='25' hspace='5' vspace='2'></td> <td><font size='4' color='#000000'><b>News, Hints, Tips and Tricks</b></font></td> </tr> </table> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td width='27'></td><td><font size='2'><br> <font size='3'><b>The Death of the Desktop? Not So Much.</b></font><br><br> I posited in an editorial some time back that the rumors of the desktop computer's death had been greatly exaggerated. Now it seems that recent sales figures are proving me right. After a long period of portables leading the pack, there has been a resurgence of sales on the desktop side, with Windows 7 and its Media Center capabilities getting a lot of the credit. It's no surprise to me; I love my laptop but I would hate to have to use it for all of my computing tasks. I guess I'm not the only one. <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-Desktop-Sales">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-Desktop-Sales</a><br> <br><br><font size='3'><b>Service Pack 1: Not Much to See Here</b></font><br><br> There has been plenty of speculation about what will be included in Windows 7 SP1, but according to Microsoft's recent announcement, don't get your hopes up for anything very exciting. Instead, it looks as if it will be just a collection of minor fixes and updates, many of which have already been released via Windows Update. Will this news encourage the overly cautious who usually wait for the first service pack to go ahead and upgrade now - or will it cause them to dig in and wait for SP2? Only time will tell. <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-Windows7-SP1">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-Windows7-SP1</a><br> <br><br><font size='3'><b>No Firefox for Windows Mobile</b></font><br><br> Mozilla has been working on development of mobile version of the Firefox web browser for Windows Mobile 6.5, but apparently they've decided to abandon those efforts. That comes in the wake of the announcements that Windows Phone 7 Series won't run previous WinMo apps and that Windows Phone 7 Series applications will be "closed" like iPhone apps, available only through Microsoft's app store. Some speculate that this will discourage some developers from creating apps for Windows Phone 7 Series. You can read more here: <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-Windows-Mobile">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-Windows-Mobile</a><br> <br><br><font size='3'><b>Oversized dynamic VHD can cause Windows 7 to crash</b></font><br><br> One of the new features in Windows 7 Pro, Enterprise and Ultimate is the ability to boot from a virtual hard disk (VHD). But you may find that if the VHD is too large, it will crash the computer with an error message that says "A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer. An initialization failure occurred while attempting to boot from a VHD. The volume that hosts the VHD does not have enough free space to expand the VHD." This only happens when the VHD is configured to dynamically expand. You can read more about it here: <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-Stop-x00000136-Error">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-Stop-x00000136-Error</a><br> </td></tr></table><br> <br> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0' background='http://www.win7news.net/img/background-title.gif' style='background-repeat: repeat-x'> <tr> <td width='1%' valign='top'><img src='http://www.win7news.net/img/icon-win7news.gif' width='25' height='25' hspace='5' vspace='2'></td> <td><font size='4' color='#000000'><b>How to: Using the New Windows 7 Features</b></font></td> </tr> </table> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td width='27'></td><td><font size='2'><br> <font size='3'><b>How to add color coding to Windows 7 Media Center Program Guide</b></font><br><br> If you use the Windows Media Center in Windows 7 to record your favorite TV programs, you know that it can sometimes be difficult to find the shows you want in the Guide. What if you could easily identify programs by categories in the Guide? You probably know that you can sort by category, but did you know that you can also use color coding to make programs of a specific type (such as movies or sports or children's programming) stand out in the full Guide listing? Here's how: <ol> <li>In Windows Media Center, scroll to Tasks and click the Settings option. </li><li>In the Settings list, click TV. </li><li>Click Guide. </li><li>Click Guide Page Options. </li><li>Check the box that says "Apply colored backgrounds to shows, based on their category." </li><li>Click Save. </li></ol> Now your programs will be color coded as follows: Movies will be purple, sports will be dark blue, children's shows will be light blue, specials will be orange/brown and news shows will be green. </td></tr></table><br> <br> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0' background='http://www.win7news.net/img/background-title.gif' style='background-repeat: repeat-x'> <tr> <td width='1%' valign='top'><img src='http://www.win7news.net/img/icon-win7news.gif' width='25' height='25' hspace='5' vspace='2'></td> <td><font size='4' color='#000000'><b>Windows 7 and Vista Security</b></font></td> </tr> </table> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td width='27'></td><td><font size='2'><br> <font size='3'><b>Fake antivirus targets Windows 7 users</b></font><br><br> It's not a new ploy; in fact, it has a name: scareware. It's malicious software that pretends to be an antivirus program, telling you that your computer is infested with all manner of nasty viruses. Now there's a new one out there that's targeting Windows 7 computers. If you fall for its rouse and click to "remove all threats," it will download more malware that tries to get you to enter your credit card information to pay for the "disinfecting." Don't do it! You can read more about it here: <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-Fake-Antivirus-Software">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-Fake-Antivirus-Software</a><br> </td></tr></table><br> <br> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0' background='http://www.win7news.net/img/background-title.gif' style='background-repeat: repeat-x'> <tr> <td width='1%' valign='top'><img src='http://www.win7news.net/img/icon-win7news.gif' width='25' height='25' hspace='5' vspace='2'></td> <td><font size='4' color='#000000'><b>Question Corner</b></font></td> </tr> </table> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td width='27'></td><td><font size='2'><br> <font size='3'><b>Why does quad core take longer to boot than dual core?</b></font><br><br> <b>QUESTION:</b><br> Does anyone know why booting up a quad-core Win 7 system (about 3 minutes) takes 1.5 times as long as a dual-core system (about 2 minutes)? One thing I noticed on the quad-core systems is that shortly after the welcoming message appears, the screen goes black for about 70 seconds. On the dual-core system the screen may go black for a second or not at all. What is happening while the screen is black? Shutdown on the quad systems takes about 11 seconds while shutdown on the dual-core system takes about 22 seconds. I would expect shutdown on the quad-core systems to be twice as fast as the dual-core systems. But why is startup on the quad-core systems so slow and why isn't it twice as fast as on the dual-core system? - John S.<br> <br> <b>ANSWER:</b><br> The only way to get an accurate comparison is to have two systems that are identical except for the processors. There are many variables that can affect the boot time, including the programs that load at start-up, your hardware peripherals (because the drivers have to load), and various configuration settings. It may be that your quad-core system has additional or different hardware devices such as number of hard drives, different video cards and/or sound cards, extra cards such as TV tuners, USB devices, Bluetooth devices, and so forth. Driver issues are a common cause of slow bootup.<br> <br> There is a somewhat controversial fix. Windows is supposed to use all your processors during the boot process by default. However, quite a few people report that they've been able to speed things up by changing the settings in msconfig.exe. Go to the boot tab and click Advanced Options. It will probably "number of processors" as 1. You can change this by checking the box and selecting from the drop-down list. Again, this is not supposed to have any effect, but so many folks have said it made a difference for them that you might as well give it a try.<br> <br> You might also check the system log in Event Viewer, to see if it shows any problems being encountered during boot-up. </td></tr></table><br> <br> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0' background='http://www.win7news.net/img/background-title.gif' style='background-repeat: repeat-x'> <tr> <td width='1%' valign='top'><img src='http://www.win7news.net/img/icon-win7news.gif' width='25' height='25' hspace='5' vspace='2'></td> <td><font size='4' color='#000000'><b>Windows 7 Configuration and Troubleshooting</b></font></td> </tr> </table> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td width='27'></td><td><font size='2'><br> <font size='3'><b>20 Keyboard Shortcuts You Need to Know</b></font><br><br> Keyboard lovers, rejoice! Windows 7 has support for more keyboard shortcuts than ever before. I'm not saying you'll never need to touch your mouse again, but you can definitely keep your fingers on the keys more, and get your work done faster, with these handy key combos. <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-PC-Shortcuts">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-PC-Shortcuts</a><br> <br><br><font size='3'><b>Windows 7 upgrade fails and you can't boot into Vista</b></font><br><br> On those rare occasions when the Windows upgrade installation fails, you get the message "This version of Windows could not be installed, your previous version of Windows has been restored and you can continued to use it." The problem is that sometimes, when you reboot, the Windows 7 setup starts again, with the same message. Ouch - how do you fix that? You'll have to restore the BCD database. Luckily, it's not hard to do, as long as you have the Vista installation disc. Find the instructions in KB article 974078 at <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-Upgrade-Loop">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-Upgrade-Loop</a><br> </td></tr></table><br> <br> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0' background='http://www.win7news.net/img/background-title.gif' style='background-repeat: repeat-x'> <tr> <td width='1%' valign='top'><img src='http://www.win7news.net/img/icon-win7news.gif' width='25' height='25' hspace='5' vspace='2'></td> <td><font size='4' color='#000000'><b>Fav Links</b></font></td> </tr> </table> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td width='27'></td><td><font size='2'><br> <font size='3'><b>This Week's Links We Like. Tips, Hints And Fun Stuff</b></font><br><br> <font size='1'>Disclaimer: VistaNews does not assume and cannot be responsible for any liability related to you clicking any of these linked Web sites.</font> <ul> <li>Celebrities who look like dogs (literally) <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-Woof">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-Woof</a><br> </li><li>TV theme song medley <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-TV-Theme-Songs">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-TV-Theme-Songs</a><br> </li><li>Ten creative ways dogs get around <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-Dogs-Get-Around">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-Dogs-Get-Around</a><br> </li><li>It's only a problem when the snake hugs back <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-Snake-Hug">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-Snake-Hug</a><br> </li><li>Tree house? Or house tree? <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-Tree">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-Tree</a><br> </li><li>Young Me/Now Me <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-YoungMeNowMe">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-YoungMeNowMe</a><br> </li><li>Amazing 3-D color computer simulation of a low-level flight over surface of Mars. Best viewed in 720p (HD) and Full Screen: <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-Mars">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-Mars</a><br> </li><li>Glider plane pilot Bo Lorentzen races along the ridge of Mt. Palomar. His only energy source is the wind and the sun: Wow - it's looooow: <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-Glider">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-Glider</a><br> </li><li>Everyone needs an expensive toy in their life, why not a Ferrari 250 GTO. Wait till the end: <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-Ferrari">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-Ferrari</a><br> </li></ul> </td></tr></table><br> <br> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0' background='http://www.win7news.net/img/background-title.gif' style='background-repeat: repeat-x'> <tr> <td width='1%' valign='top'><img src='http://www.win7news.net/img/icon-win7news.gif' width='25' height='25' hspace='5' vspace='2'></td> <td><font size='4' color='#000000'><b>Product of the Week</b></font></td> </tr> </table> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td width='27'></td><td><font size='2'><br> <font size='3'><b>Create a Great Web Site in 3 Easy Steps with Web Easy.</b></font><br><br> Build a great website in one hour. WebEasy guides you step-by-step with built-in templates and e-commerce tools - no programming or HTML knowledge are needed. Everything you need to create an impactful website is included in every WebEasy package. In just one-click WebEasy publishes your website in minutes for the world to see. The easiest way to set up your online site or store. Win7News subscribers can use an instant 20% in cart to buy. Buy or try here. <br><a href="http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-Web-Easy">http://www.win7news.net/O52HI2/100325-Web-Easy</a><br> </td></tr></table><br> </font> </td> </tr> </table> <br> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0' background='http://www.win7news.net/img/background-title.gif' style='background-repeat: repeat-x'> <tr> <td width='1%' valign='top'><img src='http://www.win7news.net/img/icon-win7news.gif' width='25' height='25'></td> <td><font size='4' color='#000000'><b> About Win7News</b></font></td> </tr> </table> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td width='27'></td> <td> <font size='2'><br> <b>What Our Lawyers Make Us Say</b><br> These documents are provided for informational purposes only. The information contained in this document represents the current view of Sunbelt Software on the issues discussed as of the date of publication. Because Sunbelt must respond to changes in market conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Sunbelt and Sunbelt cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information presented after the date of publication.<br> <br> INFORMATION PROVIDED IN THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND FREEDOM FROM INFRINGEMENT.<br> <br> This newsletter and website and may contain links to other websites with whom we have a business relationship. Sunbelt Software does not review or screen these sites, and we are not responsible or liable for their privacy or data security practices, or the content of these sites. Additionally, if you register with any of these sites, any information that you provide in the process of registration, such as your email address, credit card number or other personally identifiable information, will be transferred to these sites. For these reasons, you should be careful to review any privacy and data security policies posted on any of these sites before providing information to them.<br> <br> The user assumes the entire risk as to the accuracy and the use of this document. This document may be copied and distributed subject to the following conditions: 1) All text must be copied without modification and all pages must be included; 2) All copies must contain Sunbelt's copyright notice and any other notices provided therein; and 3) This document may not be distributed for profit. All trademarks acknowledged. Copyright Sunbelt Software, Inc. 1996-2010.<br> <br> <b>Win7News Archives</b><br> Looking for a past issue? Missing an issue? Accidently deleted an issue? Trying to find that article that pointed you to that cool site? All our newsletters are archived and are searchable:<br> <a href='http://www.win7news.net/archives'>http://www.win7news.net/archives</a><br> <br> <b>About Your Subscription to Win7News</b><br> This is a posting from Win7News. You are subscribed as cpedley.killcomputer@blogger.com<br> Your personal W7N Number is: <b>O52HI2</b><br><br> To manage your profile, please visit our site by clicking on the following link:<br> <a href='http://www.win7news.net/profile?w7n=O52HI2'>http://www.win7news.net/profile?w7n=O52HI2</a><br> <br> If you have feedback or wish to write to the editor, write to us at <a href='mailto:feedback@win7news.net?subject=Win7News'>feedback@win7news.net</a><br> <br> Sunbelt Software<br> 33 North Garden Avenue<br> Clearwater, Florida USA 33755 </font> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </td> <td width='28' background='http://www.win7news.net/img/background-right.gif' style='background-repeat: no-repeat'><img src='http://www.win7news.net/img/trans.gif' width='28' height='1'></td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> computermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10089720734681665451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1494044958456696387.post-54510425518495217392010-03-24T21:17:00.001-04:002010-03-24T21:17:19.180-04:00Gizmo's Daily Tech Treats<style type="text/css"> h1 a:hover {background-color:#888;color:#fff ! important;} div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div ul { list-style-type:square; padding-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div blockquote { padding-left:6px; border-left: 6px solid #dadada; margin-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div li { margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:1em; } table#itemcontentlist tr td a:link, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:visited, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:active, ul#summarylist li a { color:#000099; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:none; } img {border:none;} </style> <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" id="emailbody" style="margin:0 2em;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"> <table style="border:0;padding:0;margin:0;width:100%"> <tr> <td style="vertical-align:top" width="99%"> <h1 style="margin:0;padding-bottom:6px;"> <a style="color:#888;font-size:22px;font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;" href="http://www.techsupportalert.com/view/treats" title="(http://www.techsupportalert.com/view/treats)">Gizmo's Daily Tech Treats</a> <br /> <a href="http://fusion.google.com/add?source=atgs&feedurl=http://feeds.feedburner.com/GizmosDailyTechTreats"> <img style="padding-top:6px" alt="" border="0" src="http://gmodules.com/ig/images/plus_google.gif" /> </a> </h1> </td> <td width="1%"> <a href="http://www.techsupportalert.com/view/treats"> <img src="http://techsupportalert.com/images/46best-50px.jpg" alt="Link to Gizmo's Daily Tech Treats" id="feedimage" style="padding:0 0 10px 3px;border:0;" /> </a> </td> </tr> </table> <hr style="border:1px solid #ccc;padding:0;margin:0" /> <table id="itemcontentlist"> <tr xmlns=""> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="1" style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GizmosDailyTechTreats/~3/hHxZLZTYtP0/firefox-update-released-ahead-schedule-grab-it-now.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email">Firefox Update 3.6.2 Released Ahead of Schedule - Grab It Now</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 23 Mar 2010 05:37 PM PDT</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GizmosDailyTechTreats/~4/hHxZLZTYtP0?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email" height="1" width="1"/></div> </td> </tr> </table> <table style="border-top:1px solid #999;padding-top:4px;margin-top:1.5em;width:100%" id="footer"> <tr> <td style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">You are subscribed to email updates from <a href="http://www.techsupportalert.com/view/treats">Gizmo's Daily Tech Treats</a> <br />To stop receiving these emails, you may <a href="http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailunsubscribe?k=OscCsQAtaVokQsxhoeJHVsDaTs0">unsubscribe now</a>.</td> <td style="font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;text-align:right;vertical-align:top">Email delivery powered by Google</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610</td> </tr> </table> </div> computermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10089720734681665451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1494044958456696387.post-79721639563307957052010-03-23T20:27:00.001-04:002010-03-23T20:27:56.798-04:00Gizmo's Daily Tech Treats<style type="text/css"> h1 a:hover {background-color:#888;color:#fff ! important;} div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div ul { list-style-type:square; padding-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div blockquote { padding-left:6px; border-left: 6px solid #dadada; margin-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div li { margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:1em; } table#itemcontentlist tr td a:link, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:visited, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:active, ul#summarylist li a { color:#000099; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:none; } img {border:none;} </style> <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" id="emailbody" style="margin:0 2em;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"> <table style="border:0;padding:0;margin:0;width:100%"> <tr> <td style="vertical-align:top" width="99%"> <h1 style="margin:0;padding-bottom:6px;"> <a style="color:#888;font-size:22px;font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;" href="http://www.techsupportalert.com/view/treats" title="(http://www.techsupportalert.com/view/treats)">Gizmo's Daily Tech Treats</a> <br /> <a href="http://fusion.google.com/add?source=atgs&feedurl=http://feeds.feedburner.com/GizmosDailyTechTreats"> <img style="padding-top:6px" alt="" border="0" src="http://gmodules.com/ig/images/plus_google.gif" /> </a> </h1> </td> <td width="1%"> <a href="http://www.techsupportalert.com/view/treats"> <img src="http://techsupportalert.com/images/46best-50px.jpg" alt="Link to Gizmo's Daily Tech Treats" id="feedimage" style="padding:0 0 10px 3px;border:0;" /> </a> </td> </tr> </table> <hr style="border:1px solid #ccc;padding:0;margin:0" /> <table id="itemcontentlist"> <tr xmlns=""> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="1" style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GizmosDailyTechTreats/~3/Bp3hKMz_Tz8/how-import-pictures-windows-7-camera-or-mobile-device.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email">How-To: Import Pictures Into Windows 7 From a Camera or Mobile Device</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 23 Mar 2010 05:10 PM PDT</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GizmosDailyTechTreats/~4/Bp3hKMz_Tz8?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email" height="1" width="1"/></div> </td> </tr> </table> <table style="border-top:1px solid #999;padding-top:4px;margin-top:1.5em;width:100%" id="footer"> <tr> <td style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">You are subscribed to email updates from <a href="http://www.techsupportalert.com/view/treats">Gizmo's Daily Tech Treats</a> <br />To stop receiving these emails, you may <a href="http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailunsubscribe?k=OscCsQAtaVokQsxhoeJHVsDaTs0">unsubscribe now</a>.</td> <td style="font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;text-align:right;vertical-align:top">Email delivery powered by Google</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610</td> </tr> </table> </div> computermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10089720734681665451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1494044958456696387.post-15763523711106805062010-03-23T18:34:00.000-04:002010-03-23T18:31:30.562-04:00Who Controls the Technology that Controls Your Life?<table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr height='16'> <td background='http://www.wxpnews.com/img/header_top_background.gif'><img src='http://www.wxpnews.com/img/header01.gif' width='230' height='16' border='0' alt='WXPNews: Published by Sunbelt Software since 2001'><br></td> <td background='http://www.wxpnews.com/img/header_top_background.gif' align='right' style='color:white;font-weight:bold;font-size:0.7em'><a style='text-decoration:none;color:white' href='http://forums.wxpnews.com/'>FORUMS</a> | <a style='text-decoration:none;color:white' href='http://blog.wxpnews.com/'>BLOG</a> | <a style='text-decoration:none;color:white' href='http://www.wxpnews.com/rss/index.xml'>RSS</a> | <a style='text-decoration:none;color:white' href='http://www.wxpnews.com/profile.cfm?wxp=MY5HU3'>MY PROFILE</a> | <a style='text-decoration:none;color:white' href='privacy.cfm'>PRIVACY</a> <br></td> </tr> <tr height='110'> <td background='http://www.wxpnews.com/img/wxpnews_header_newsletter.jpg' colspan='2' style='background-repeat:no-repeat;background-color:#124b76'><br></td> </tr> </table> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0'> <tr> <td width='17' bgcolor='#cccccc'> </td> <td> <table width='100%' cellpadding='20' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td valign='top'> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td colspan='2'> <font size='2'> Vol. 10, #12 - Mar 23, 2010 - Issue #422<br><br> </font> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width='1%'><img src='http://www.wxpnews.com/img/arrow.gif' width='25' height='25'></td> <td> <font size='5' color='#003366'><b> Who Controls the Technology that Controls Your Life?</b></font> </td> </tr> </table> <br> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td width='20'></td> <td> <font size='2'> <ol> <b><li>Editor's Corner</b> <ul> <li type='square'>Who Controls the Technology that Controls Your Life? <li type='square'>Follow-up: Buzzing about privacy <li type='square'>Quotes of the Week </ul> <b><li>Cool Tools</b> <ul> <li type='square'>Tools We Think You Shouldn't Be Without </ul> <b><li>News, Hints, Tips and Tricks</b> <ul> <li type='square'>No IE9 for XP <li type='square'>Windows 7 XP Mode will no longer require hardware virtualization support <li type='square'>Can't run Windows Virtual PC on XP <li type='square'>USB storage support coming to Xbox? </ul> <b><li>How To: Using XP Features</b> <ul> <li type='square'>How to disable Fast User Switching </ul> <b><li>XP Security News</b> <ul> <li type='square'>Web browser security news </ul> <b><li>XP Question Corner</b> <ul> <li type='square'>Is there a way to put multiple clocks in the system tray in XP? </ul> <b><li>XP Configuration and Troubleshooting</b> <ul> <li type='square'>Can't open HTML Help files from Internet Explorer <li type='square'>File in network folder opens as read-only or returns error message </ul> <b><li>Fav Links</b> <ul> <li type='square'>This Week's Links We Like. Tips, Hints And Fun Stuff </ul> <b><li>Product of the Week</b> <ul> <li type='square'>PC Speed Maximizer: Keep your PC Running like New </ul> </ol> </font> </td> </tr> </table> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td> <font size='2'> <br> <table width='100%' cellspacing='0'> <tr> <td><font size='2'> <div style='padding-top: 5pt; padding-right: 15pt; padding-bottom: 15pt; padding-left: 5pt;'> <table width='80%'> <tr> <td valign="top"> <a href='http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-VIPRE-Antivirus-Premium'> <img src='http://www.win7news.net/images/vpp-box.jpg' border='0' hspace='10'></a> </td> <td valign='top'><font size='2'> <font size='3'><b><font color='red'>NEW!</font> VIPRE<sup>®</sup> Antivirus Premium 4.0</b></font><br><br> VIPRE is the only antivirus software that does not slow down your PC, and now it comes with integrated firewall!<br> <br> <b>VIPRE Antivirus Premium 4.0</b> <ul> <li>Does not slow down your PC </li><li>New antivirus + antispyware engine with firewall </li><li>Advanced anti-rootkit technology </li><li>Cutting-edge Proactive Protection </li><li>Full email protection: Outlook and Windows Mail </li><li>Ideal for Netbooks that need malware protection </li><li>No automatic credit card charge each year! </li> </ul> Try VIPRE Antivirus Premium now for 30-days FREE! <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-VIPRE-Antivirus-Premium">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-VIPRE-Antivirus-Premium</a><br> <br> <a href='http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-VIPRE-on-Facebook' target='_blank'> <img src='http://www.win7news.net/images/facebookfan.gif' border='0'></a> </td> </tr> </table> </td></tr></table><br> <br> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr bgcolor='#cccccc'> <td width='1%'><img src='http://www.wxpnews.com/img/arrow.gif' width='25' height='25'></td> <td><font size='4' color='#000000'><b> Editor's Corner</b></font></td> </tr> </table> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td width='27'></td><td><font size='2'><br> <font size='3'><b>Who Controls the Technology that Controls Your Life?</b></font><br><br> As we've discussed here before, we're all becoming more and more dependent on technology, whether we want to or not, and there isn't much we can do about it. Most of the time, it all works and we reap wondrous benefits from the gadgets and technological infrastructure that have become such an important part of our lives. Other times, something goes wrong and we experience the frustration of dealing with people and entities that can't function efficiently - or sometimes at all - without the help of the machines.<br> <br> A very minor case in point: when the weather gets cold, our CATV goes bad. The digital cable channels become a mass of pixilation, ranging from the occasional annoyance of a briefly broken picture when the temperature drops a little to a completely unviewable picture with no sound when it drops a lot. We call the cable company, someone comes out and "fixes" it by adjusting the signal strength, and it works for a while - usually until the next cold snap. My contention is that we shouldn't have to pay for cable service on those days when we<i>have</i> no service. Somehow the cable company doesn't agree.<br> <br> In the "olden days," we weren't dependent on a cable company (or satellite company, or phone company) for our TV programming. We stuck an antenna on the roof or a pair of "rabbit ears" on top of the set and tuned in over the air. Now the analog OTA channels are all gone, at least in the U.S., and good luck getting a good HD signal with an indoor antenna. In many areas, you might not be able to get a good digital OTA signal even with a traditional 30 ft. outdoor antenna. And of course, you won't be able to get all those non-broadcast network channels that you may have become addicted to.<br> <br> But TV, while nice to have, isn't a necessity. I can live without TV (and in fact did, for almost ten years). I'd have a harder time living with Internet connectivity, because my livelihood depends on it. Almost all of the work by which I make a living is done over the Internet, from blogging to submitting articles and white papers to communicating with clients and potential clients via email, IM and VoIP. I had a very strange thing happen recently. A software company that wants me to write for them asked for an in-person meeting. That's strange because I've been doing tech writing for over twelve years and this is the first time I will ever have met, face-to-face, the people I would be working with prior to starting the job. But that doesn't negate my statement about the Internet, since they still made first contact and the arrangements for the meeting via email.<br> <br> But even those of us who depend on the Internet don't really consider it completely dependable. We're all aware that connectivity could be lost at any time; most of us have had that experience more than once. A power outage, a hardware failure, a server overload - we all understand that those things happen. But what about when our technology is deliberately disabled, when someone makes a conscious decision to cause the machines on which we depend to stop working?<br> <br> When you think about it, then, whomever controls the Internet has a lot of power over me and others who depend on it for their work. That includes the various ISPs that provide service to me and on the other end, to those with whom I need to communicate. It includes those who maintain the domain name system on which I depend to translate friendly addresses to IP addresses and get those communications through. It also includes the government that increasingly regulates cyberspace. A Senate bill introduced last spring made big headlines when it was revealed that it would give the White House the authority to disconnect private sector computers from the Internet under the auspices of a "cyber emergency."<br> <br> That type of power is unlikely to be wielded on a whim; the political ramifications would be too great. But there are people and organizations out there with the ability to affect your life by cutting off other services or disabling devices other than your computer. Folks got up in arms over the idea that Apple could "brick" their phones. Now it turns out that some car dealerships can brick your vehicle. That capability is supposed to be used as an alternative to repossession, but recently in Austin, TX, a disgruntled former employee of the company used another employee's password to hack into the system and disable the ignition systems and triggering the horns of all the company's customers. <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-Hacker-Disables-Cars">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-Hacker-Disables-Cars</a><br> <br> Imagine suddenly finding that your car won't start and its horn won't stop honking, and then discovering that a stranger who was angry about being laid off from his job did it to you deliberately.<br> <br> Of course, many of today's cars can be disabled remotely. In 2009, General Motors began building that ability into OnStar-equipped vehicles. This can be a life-saving feature; last October it was used to disable the gas pedal on a stolen SUV and thus cutting short a police chase that could have endangered officers, the suspect and innocent bystanders: <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-OnStar">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-OnStar</a><br> <br> The disablement technology was used for a good purpose in this case, but it does give one cause to wonder: if OnStar can do it, can a clever bad guy figure out how to activate those remote commands and leave you stranded and at his mercy on a lonely road? What protections are in place to ensure that doesn't happen?<br> <br> Then there are those "smart meters" that the electric companies are installing all over the country. It's bad enough that some of them would allow the power company to remotely turn off your air conditioning if you're using "too much" electricity. But could someone else hack in and shut you down, spoil all the food in your refrigerator, do much worse harm if you happen to have electrically powered medical equipment? Unfortunately, the answer is probably "yes." At least year's BlackHat conference in Las Vegas, Mike Davis did a presentation on hacking the smart grid, discussing the exploits and design flaws in the smart meter and Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) technology. <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-Smart-Grid-Security">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-Smart-Grid-Security</a><br> <br> Who is really in control of the technology that controls your life? Not you - that's for sure. Does it make you a little nervous to realize that so many of your essential systems could be turned off just because someone, somewhere, decides to do so? Or do you trust that the technologies allowing disablement of our vehicles, electrical power and Internet connections will be used only when appropriate? Do you worry about the security of those systems, or do you think they're well protected and the incidents that have occurred are isolated anomalies? What other examples can you think of, in which we're losing control of our technology? We invite you to discuss this topic in our forum at <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-Forum-Discussion">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-Forum-Discussion</a><br> <br><br><font size='3'><b>Follow-up: Buzzing about privacy</b></font><br><br> In last week's editorial, I meandered a bit, from Google Buzz to online privacy (two different but not unrelated issues) and on into the prospect of mind reading technology, giving readers plenty of fodder for commenting. Minnesota Slim made a great point when he said, "I just don't see how anyone can sign up for any kind of SN site that is FREE first of all, where the idea is to post stuff about yourself, and then automatically expect that your info is private 'out of the box' without adjusting settings." <br> <br> Social networking in general is, after all, about <i>sharing</i> information about yourself. It really shouldn't come as a surprise if the default is to share it all. It's a little like the celebrities who work so hard to become famous, and then complain when strangers recognize them in public. You can't have it both ways; privacy and sharing are part of a continuum and the more you have of one, the less you're going to have of the other.<br> <br> In fact, I happen to know that some celebrities use false identities on Facebook. I understand the reasons - I have only a smidgeon of "fame" in narrow circles, and I still get many friend requests from people I don't know. These folks, who are household names, get hundreds of requests per day if they use their real names. Still, apart from the fact that it violates the Terms of Service agreement to do so, it wouldn't feel right to me to use a fake name on an SN site. I've tried writing fiction under a pseudonym before and that felt dishonest. I can't imagine pretending to be someone else in a venue where the whole point is to write about yourself. But to each his/her own.<br> <br> Speaking of false identities, Tim G. shared a story in the Register about how undercover agents are infiltrating MySpace, Facebook, etc. in an attempt to collect evidence on users suspected of lawbreaking. <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-MySpace">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-MySpace</a><br> <br> When I was in law enforcement, I was an outspoken critic of undercover operations in all but the most serious of cases. I believe when the police stoop to the level of criminals and begin to emulate them, too often the lines get blurred and we become too much like criminals ourselves. Why is it okay for cops to lie, steal, do drugs and perform other criminal acts in the name of catching crooks for lying, stealing, doing drugs and performing criminal acts? Why is it okay for law enforcement officers to lie about their identities on SN sites when other people have been charged with a criminal offense for doing so? Does the end justify the means?<br> <br> Our world is getting more complex all the time, and that complexity leads to tough questions. We certainly aren't going to answer them all here, but it's thought-provoking and entertaining to consider them and to learn what others think about them. As always, thank you to all who participated in this discussion.<br> <br> 'Til next week,<br> Deb Shinder, Editor <br> <a href='mailto:feedback@win7news.net'>feedback@win7news.net</a><br> <br> <a href='http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-Twitter'> <img src='http://www.win7news.net/images/twitter-logo.gif' border='0' alt='Follow Deb on Twitter'></a><br> <br> PS: Did you know this newsletter has a sister publication called Win7News? You can subscribe here, and tell your friends: <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-Win7News">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-Win7News</a><br> <br> And for IT pros, there's our "big sister," WServer News, at <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-WserverNews">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-WserverNews</a><br> <br> Join the WXPnews Fan Page on Facebook! <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100316-WXPNews-on-Facebook">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100316-WXPNews-on-Facebook</a><br> <br><br><font size='3'><b>Quotes of the Week</b></font><br><br> <i>"Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.</i>" - George Washington<br> <br> <i>"Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.</i>" - Napoleon Bonaparte<br> <br> <i>"Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.</i>" - H.G. Wells </td></tr></table><br> <br> <table width='100%' cellspacing='0'> <tr> <td><font size='2'> <div style='padding-top: 5pt; padding-right: 15pt; padding-bottom: 15pt; padding-left: 5pt;'> <table width='80%'> <tr> <td valign="top"> <a href='http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-VIPRE-Antivirus-Premium'> <img src='http://www.win7news.net/images/vpp-box.jpg' border='0' hspace='10'></a> </td> <td valign='top'><font size='2'> <font size='3'><b><font color='red'>NEW!</font> VIPRE<sup>®</sup> Antivirus Premium 4.0</b></font><br><br> VIPRE is the only antivirus software that does not slow down your PC, and now it comes with integrated firewall!<br> <br> <b>VIPRE Antivirus Premium 4.0</b> <ul> <li>Does not slow down your PC </li><li>New antivirus + antispyware engine with firewall </li><li>Advanced anti-rootkit technology </li><li>Cutting-edge Proactive Protection </li><li>Full email protection: Outlook and Windows Mail </li><li>Ideal for Netbooks that need malware protection </li><li>No automatic credit card charge each year! </li> </ul> Try VIPRE Antivirus Premium now for 30-days FREE! <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-VIPRE-Antivirus-Premium">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-VIPRE-Antivirus-Premium</a><br> <br> <a href='http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-VIPRE-on-Facebook' target='_blank'> <img src='http://www.win7news.net/images/facebookfan.gif' border='0'></a> </td> </tr> </table> </td></tr></table><br> <br> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr bgcolor='#cccccc'> <td width='1%'><img src='http://www.wxpnews.com/img/arrow.gif' width='25' height='25'></td> <td><font size='4' color='#000000'><b> Cool Tools</b></font></td> </tr> </table> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td width='27'></td><td><font size='2'><br> <font size='3'><b>Tools We Think You Shouldn't Be Without</b></font><br><br> <font size='1' color='808080'>ADVERTISEMENT</font><br> <br> Just released! PerfectDisk 11 boosts XP, Vista, Windows 7 PC performance. New BlockViewer. Microsoft Certified. Free trial and Special Offer. <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-PerfectDisk-11">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-PerfectDisk-11</a><br> <br> MediaWidget is the quickest and easiest way to transfer all of your music, videos, photos, podcasts, and more from your iPod to PC. Check out the cool Youtube demo and download the trial here: <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-MediaWidget">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-MediaWidget</a><br> <br> Do you have programs you just can't seem to get rid of? Uninstaller! 2010 "ALL New" Version Just Released: <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-Your-Uninstaller">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-Your-Uninstaller</a><br> <br> Shop online much? Billing address autofill, Secure password storage, all automatic and safe. Not a little toobar utility. Huge time-saver! <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-RoboForm">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-RoboForm</a><br> <br> Moving to Windows 7 is Easy! PCMover moves programs, files, and settings from your old PC to your new PC <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-PCmover">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-PCmover</a><br> <br> Search for a driver and you get a ton of Driver Software offers instead. But how do you know which one is good? Try Driver Genious 9.0. Free scan. <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-Driver-Genius">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-Driver-Genius</a><br> <br> Why back up when you can sync? Simply replicate every piece of data to another drive in real-time. Set it and forget it. <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-GoodSync">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-GoodSync</a><br> <br> Spellchecker is NOT ENOUGH! Improve your English writing skills with WhiteSmoke a smarter solution for high quality writing. Try it: <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-WhiteSmoke">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-WhiteSmoke</a><br> </td></tr></table><br> <br> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr bgcolor='#cccccc'> <td width='1%'><img src='http://www.wxpnews.com/img/arrow.gif' width='25' height='25'></td> <td><font size='4' color='#000000'><b> News, Hints, Tips and Tricks</b></font></td> </tr> </table> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td width='27'></td><td><font size='2'><br> <font size='3'><b>No IE9 for XP</b></font><br><br> We always advise XP users who use Internet Explorer to upgrade to the latest version of the browser, for security and compatibility reasons. Unfortunately, you won't be able to do that when the next version of IE comes out. Microsoft has confirmed that IE 9 will not run on XP, or even on Vista unless it has Service Pack 2 applied. No, it's not just an arbitrary decision; the problem is that IE 9 uses Direct2D, which isn't part of XP and pre-SP2 Vista. Read more here: <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-IE9-and-Windows-XP">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-IE9-and-Windows-XP</a><br> <br><br><font size='3'><b>Windows 7 XP Mode will no longer require hardware virtualization support</b></font><br><br> If you have a new computer that came with Windows 7 but you still need to use your applications that are only supported by XP, it just got easier for you to take advantage of XP Mode in Windows 7 Professional and Ultimate editions. Previously the computer's BIOS had to support hardware virtualization technology such as Intel VT. Microsoft has just announced an update that will remove that requirement. This is good news for many people who bought low cost laptops with processors that don't support VT. Note that you still won't be able to use XP Mode on Windows Home Premium, but you can upgrade to Windows 7 Pro for $89.99 via the Anytime Upgrade program. <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-Windows7-XP-Mode">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-Windows7-XP-Mode</a><br> <br><br><font size='3'><b>Can't run Windows Virtual PC on XP</b></font><br><br> The latest version of Microsoft's Virtual PC software has been rebranded as Windows Virtual PC and contrary to popular belief, it will run on any version of Windows 7, including Home Basic and Home Premium. The XP Mode preconfigured VM, however, only runs on Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate editions. The bad news is you can't install it on your XP or Vista computer. <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-Windows-Virtual-PC">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-Windows-Virtual-PC</a><br> <br> The good news is that Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 is still available for XP and Vista, if you need to run VM software on those host operating systems. You can download it here: <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-Virtual-PC-2007">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-Virtual-PC-2007</a><br> <br><br><font size='3'><b>USB storage support coming to Xbox?</b></font><br><br> That's the latest rumor, and it appears to be based on a Microsoft engineering document. No confirmation yet, but there are plenty of Xbox users who are hoping it's true. If so, you would be able to plug in a USB hard drive. The catch is that you'll only be able to use 16GB partitions for storing the games and other Xbox content. Read more here: <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-Xbox-USB-Storage-Support">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-Xbox-USB-Storage-Support</a><br> </td></tr></table><br> <br> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr bgcolor='#cccccc'> <td width='1%'><img src='http://www.wxpnews.com/img/arrow.gif' width='25' height='25'></td> <td><font size='4' color='#000000'><b> How To: Using XP Features</b></font></td> </tr> </table> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td width='27'></td><td><font size='2'><br> <font size='3'><b>How to disable Fast User Switching</b></font><br><br> Windows XP supports Fast User Switching, which can be handy if you share the computer with someone else and need to swap back and forth often. But if you're the only one who uses your machine, it's just another service that runs unnecessarily and uses up your system resources. Luckily, disabling it is easy: <ol> <li>Click Start | Control Panel | Administrative Tools </li><li>Click Services to open the Services MMC </li><li>Navigate to Fast User Switching and double click it </li><li>Change the startup type to Disable </li><li>If the service is running, click Stop </li><li>Click OK </li> </ol> Now the service will not start up automatically when you start the computer, saving some resources for other programs and services that you do use. </td></tr></table><br> <br> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr bgcolor='#cccccc'> <td width='1%'><img src='http://www.wxpnews.com/img/arrow.gif' width='25' height='25'></td> <td><font size='4' color='#000000'><b> XP Security News</b></font></td> </tr> </table> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td width='27'></td><td><font size='2'><br> <font size='3'><b>Web browser security news</b></font><br><br> Last week, Mozilla confirmed that there is a zero day security vulnerability in Firefox and expects to patch it at the end of the month, and Google released an updated version of Chrome that addresses nine security flaws. This is just a reminder that, despite the hoopla that you may hear about how you should switch from IE to another browser for security reasons, <i>all</i> web browsers have security issues and no matter which one you use, it's vital that you keep it updated with the latest security patches. <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-Firefox-Zero-Day-Fix">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-Firefox-Zero-Day-Fix</a><br> </td></tr></table><br> <br> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr bgcolor='#cccccc'> <td width='1%'><img src='http://www.wxpnews.com/img/arrow.gif' width='25' height='25'></td> <td><font size='4' color='#000000'><b> XP Question Corner</b></font></td> </tr> </table> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td width='27'></td><td><font size='2'><br> <font size='3'><b>Is there a way to put multiple clocks in the system tray in XP?</b></font><br><br> <b>QUESTION:</b><br> I have a new Windows 7 laptop but my desktop still runs XP and I plan to keep it for a while. If it's not broke, why fix it? BUT there is something I really like about the Windows 7 computer and I want to find out if there's some way, maybe some program, that will let me do it on my XP computer. In Windows 7 you can put more than one clock in the system tray. I like this because my daughter lives in Europe and I like to be able to know what time it is where she is, without going to a web site. Can you help? - Josie K.<br> <br> <b>ANSWER:</b><br> In this global society, more and more of us need to keep on top of the time in different parts of the world. I work with people on both coasts in the U.S. and in several countries overseas, so it's a big help to have clocks displaying multiple time zones. There are quite a few third party applications that do that for XP. If you specifically want an app that goes into the system tray, though, probably the best is Microsoft Time Zone. It lets you see up to five different time zones by clicking on the tray icon. It's a free download from Microsoft and you can get it here: <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-Time-Zone">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-Time-Zone</a><br> </td></tr></table><br> <br> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr bgcolor='#cccccc'> <td width='1%'><img src='http://www.wxpnews.com/img/arrow.gif' width='25' height='25'></td> <td><font size='4' color='#000000'><b> XP Configuration and Troubleshooting</b></font></td> </tr> </table> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td width='27'></td><td><font size='2'><br> <font size='3'><b>Can't open HTML Help files from Internet Explorer</b></font><br><br> Your XP computer with security update 896358 installed may not be able to open help files in the .CHM format when you try to open them from Internet Explorer. That's by design, to reduce the security risks of using HTML help. However, if you do need to view these types of files, there are workarounds that you can use. To find out about them, see KB article 902225 at <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-HTML-Help-Files">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-HTML-Help-Files</a><br> <br><br><font size='3'><b>File in network folder opens as read-only or returns error message</b></font><br><br> If you try to open a file that's on a folder on the network, using Windows Explorer on your XP computer, you might find that it opens as a read-only document or that you get an error message saying the file type cannot be recognized. This happens because Windows Explorer locks and reads the file to extract the thumbnail information. Installing the latest service pack will fix it, but if there's some reason you don't want to do that, there is also a hotfix available. After installing it, you have to edit a registry key. You'll find the full instructions in KB article 830903 at <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-Read-Only-Error">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-Read-Only-Error</a><br> </td></tr></table><br> <br> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr bgcolor='#cccccc'> <td width='1%'><img src='http://www.wxpnews.com/img/arrow.gif' width='25' height='25'></td> <td><font size='4' color='#000000'><b> Fav Links</b></font></td> </tr> </table> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td width='27'></td><td><font size='2'><br> <font size='3'><b>This Week's Links We Like. Tips, Hints And Fun Stuff</b></font><br><br> <font size='1'>Disclaimer: WXPNews does not assume and cannot be responsible for any liability related to you clicking any of these linked Web sites.<br></font> <ul> <li>National Geographic's best photos of 2009 <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-Photography">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-Photography</a><br> </li><li>Crayon carving <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-Crayons">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-Crayons</a><br> </li><li>Dog years <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-Dog-Years">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-Dog-Years</a><br> </li><li>Funny picture of the week: "Impossible" <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-Funny">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-Funny</a><br> </li><li>Get information on airplane crashes and incidents throughout history <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-AirDisaster">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-AirDisaster</a><br> </li><li>For those who hate pharmaceutical ads <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-Tequila">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-Tequila</a><br> </li><li>Now that is quite a moth! <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-Moth">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-Moth</a><br> </li><li>The DF1 helicopter is propelled by jets attached to the tips of its blades. It is easy to fly and - powered by hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) - creates zero pollution. Is this test flight going to run into the truck?: <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-Test-Flight">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-Test-Flight</a><br> </li><li>No mission is impossible for a Ninja Cat: <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-Ninja-Cat">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-Ninja-Cat</a><br> </li><li>At 4 years old, this girl has better comedic talent than 95% of stand-up comedians today: <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-Mika">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-Mika</a><br> </li></ul> </td></tr></table><br> <br> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr bgcolor='#cccccc'> <td width='1%'><img src='http://www.wxpnews.com/img/arrow.gif' width='25' height='25'></td> <td><font size='4' color='#000000'><b> Product of the Week</b></font></td> </tr> </table> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td width='27'></td><td><font size='2'><br> <font size='3'><b>PC Speed Maximizer: Keep your PC Running like New</b></font><br><br> Download the PC Speed Maximizer trial and run a "Quick Scan" to get a quick overview of the status of your computer. From the Scan Results you will be able to see the changes necessary to optimize and protect your computer by fixing Registry Errors, cleaning Temporary and Junk Files, and optimizing your Windows settings. WXPNEWS readers get an automatic $5.00 discount if you decide to buy. Download the trial here. <br><a href="http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-PC-Speed-Maximizer">http://www.wxpnews.com/MY5HU3/100323-PC-Speed-Maximizer</a><br> </td></tr></table><br> </font> </td> </tr> </table> <br> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr bgcolor='#cccccc'> <td width='1%'><img src='http://www.wxpnews.com/img/arrow.gif' width='25' height='25'></td> <td><font size='4' color='#000000'><b> About WXPnews</b></font></td> </tr> </table> <table width='100%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'> <tr> <td width='27'></td> <td> <font size='2'><br> <b>What Our Lawyers Make Us Say</b><br> These documents are provided for informational purposes only. The information contained in this document represents the current view of Sunbelt Software on the issues discussed as of the date of publication. Because Sunbelt must respond to changes in market conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Sunbelt and Sunbelt cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information presented after the date of publication.<br> <br> INFORMATION PROVIDED IN THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND FREEDOM FROM INFRINGEMENT.<br> <br> This newsletter and website and may contain links to other websites with whom we have a business relationship. Sunbelt Software does not review or screen these sites, and we are not responsible or liable for their privacy or data security practices, or the content of these sites. Additionally, if you register with any of these sites, any information that you provide in the process of registration, such as your email address, credit card number or other personally identifiable information, will be transferred to these sites. For these reasons, you should be careful to review any privacy and data security policies posted on any of these sites before providing information to them.<br> <br> The user assumes the entire risk as to the accuracy and the use of this document. This document may be copied and distributed subject to the following conditions: 1) All text must be copied without modification and all pages must be included; 2) All copies must contain Sunbelt's copyright notice and any other notices provided therein; and 3) This document may not be distributed for profit. All trademarks acknowledged. Copyright Sunbelt Software, Inc. 1996-2010.<br> <br> <b>WXPnews Archives</b><br> Looking for a past issue? Missing an issue? Accidently deleted an issue? Trying to find that article that pointed you to that cool site? All our newsletters are archived and are searchable:<br> <a href='http://www.wxpnews.com/archives.cfm'>http://www.wxpnews.com/archives.cfm</a><br> <br> <b>About Your Subscription to WXPnews</b><br> This is a posting from WXPnews. You are subscribed as cpedley.killcomputer@blogger.com.<br> To manage your profile, please visit our site by clicking on the following link:<br> <a href='http://www.wxpnews.com/profile.cfm?wxp=MY5HU3'>http://www.wxpnews.com/profile.cfm?wxp=MY5HU3</a><br> <br> If you have feedback or wish to write to the editor, write to us at <a href='mailto:feedback@wxpnews.com?subject=WXPnews'>feedback@wxpnews.com</a><br> <br> Sunbelt Software<br> 33 North Garden Avenue<br> Clearwater, Florida USA 33755 </font> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> computermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10089720734681665451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1494044958456696387.post-58872115975332813282010-03-20T21:33:00.001-04:002010-03-20T21:33:38.646-04:00Gizmo's Daily Tech Treats<style type="text/css"> h1 a:hover {background-color:#888;color:#fff ! important;} div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div ul { list-style-type:square; padding-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div blockquote { padding-left:6px; border-left: 6px solid #dadada; margin-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div li { margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:1em; } table#itemcontentlist tr td a:link, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:visited, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:active, ul#summarylist li a { color:#000099; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:none; } img {border:none;} </style> <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" id="emailbody" style="margin:0 2em;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"> <table style="border:0;padding:0;margin:0;width:100%"> <tr> <td style="vertical-align:top" width="99%"> <h1 style="margin:0;padding-bottom:6px;"> <a style="color:#888;font-size:22px;font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;" href="http://www.techsupportalert.com/view/treats" title="(http://www.techsupportalert.com/view/treats)">Gizmo's Daily Tech Treats</a> <br /> <a href="http://fusion.google.com/add?source=atgs&feedurl=http://feeds.feedburner.com/GizmosDailyTechTreats"> <img style="padding-top:6px" alt="" border="0" src="http://gmodules.com/ig/images/plus_google.gif" /> </a> </h1> </td> <td width="1%"> <a href="http://www.techsupportalert.com/view/treats"> <img src="http://techsupportalert.com/images/46best-50px.jpg" alt="Link to Gizmo's Daily Tech Treats" id="feedimage" style="padding:0 0 10px 3px;border:0;" /> </a> </td> </tr> </table> <hr style="border:1px solid #ccc;padding:0;margin:0" /> <table id="itemcontentlist"> <tr xmlns=""> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="1" style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GizmosDailyTechTreats/~3/3aBGwLgjLfI/how-deal-flash-cookies.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email">How To Deal With Flash Cookies</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 20 Mar 2010 02:53 PM PDT</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GizmosDailyTechTreats/~4/3aBGwLgjLfI?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email" height="1" width="1"/></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="2" style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GizmosDailyTechTreats/~3/-oDUweHJOOw/weekend-roundup-march-19-2010.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email">Weekend Roundup March 19, 2010</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 19 Mar 2010 08:04 PM PDT</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GizmosDailyTechTreats/~4/-oDUweHJOOw?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email" height="1" width="1"/></div> </td> </tr> </table> <table style="border-top:1px solid #999;padding-top:4px;margin-top:1.5em;width:100%" id="footer"> <tr> <td style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">You are subscribed to email updates from <a href="http://www.techsupportalert.com/view/treats">Gizmo's Daily Tech Treats</a> <br />To stop receiving these emails, you may <a href="http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailunsubscribe?k=OscCsQAtaVokQsxhoeJHVsDaTs0">unsubscribe now</a>.</td> <td style="font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;text-align:right;vertical-align:top">Email delivery powered by Google</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610</td> </tr> </table> </div> computermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10089720734681665451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1494044958456696387.post-33777458253730226342010-03-19T21:01:00.001-04:002010-03-19T21:01:09.475-04:00Gizmo's Daily Tech Treats<style type="text/css"> h1 a:hover {background-color:#888;color:#fff ! important;} div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div ul { list-style-type:square; padding-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div blockquote { padding-left:6px; border-left: 6px solid #dadada; margin-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div li { margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:1em; } table#itemcontentlist tr td a:link, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:visited, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:active, ul#summarylist li a { color:#000099; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:none; } img {border:none;} </style> <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" id="emailbody" style="margin:0 2em;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"> <table style="border:0;padding:0;margin:0;width:100%"> <tr> <td style="vertical-align:top" width="99%"> <h1 style="margin:0;padding-bottom:6px;"> <a style="color:#888;font-size:22px;font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;" href="http://www.techsupportalert.com/view/treats" title="(http://www.techsupportalert.com/view/treats)">Gizmo's Daily Tech Treats</a> <br /> <a href="http://fusion.google.com/add?source=atgs&feedurl=http://feeds.feedburner.com/GizmosDailyTechTreats"> <img style="padding-top:6px" alt="" border="0" src="http://gmodules.com/ig/images/plus_google.gif" /> </a> </h1> </td> <td width="1%"> <a href="http://www.techsupportalert.com/view/treats"> <img src="http://techsupportalert.com/images/46best-50px.jpg" alt="Link to Gizmo's Daily Tech Treats" id="feedimage" style="padding:0 0 10px 3px;border:0;" /> </a> </td> </tr> </table> <hr style="border:1px solid #ccc;padding:0;margin:0" /> <table id="itemcontentlist"> <tr xmlns=""> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="1" style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GizmosDailyTechTreats/~3/-L9IwN5DaPU/image-hosting-cheap-look-three-free-services.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email">Image Hosting On The Cheap: A Look at Three Free Services</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 18 Mar 2010 08:06 PM PDT</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GizmosDailyTechTreats/~4/-L9IwN5DaPU?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email" height="1" width="1"/></div> </td> </tr> </table> <table style="border-top:1px solid #999;padding-top:4px;margin-top:1.5em;width:100%" id="footer"> <tr> <td style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">You are subscribed to email updates from <a href="http://www.techsupportalert.com/view/treats">Gizmo's Daily Tech Treats</a> <br />To stop receiving these emails, you may <a href="http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailunsubscribe?k=OscCsQAtaVokQsxhoeJHVsDaTs0">unsubscribe now</a>.</td> <td style="font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;text-align:right;vertical-align:top">Email delivery powered by Google</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610</td> </tr> </table> </div> computermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10089720734681665451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1494044958456696387.post-58729724826022268542010-03-18T20:11:00.001-04:002010-03-18T20:11:54.387-04:00Gizmo's Daily Tech Treats<style type="text/css"> h1 a:hover {background-color:#888;color:#fff ! important;} div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div ul { list-style-type:square; padding-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div blockquote { padding-left:6px; border-left: 6px solid #dadada; margin-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div li { margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:1em; } table#itemcontentlist tr td a:link, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:visited, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:active, ul#summarylist li a { color:#000099; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:none; } img {border:none;} </style> <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" id="emailbody" style="margin:0 2em;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"> <table style="border:0;padding:0;margin:0;width:100%"> <tr> <td style="vertical-align:top" width="99%"> <h1 style="margin:0;padding-bottom:6px;"> <a style="color:#888;font-size:22px;font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;" href="http://www.techsupportalert.com/view/treats" title="(http://www.techsupportalert.com/view/treats)">Gizmo's Daily Tech Treats</a> <br /> <a href="http://fusion.google.com/add?source=atgs&feedurl=http://feeds.feedburner.com/GizmosDailyTechTreats"> <img style="padding-top:6px" alt="" border="0" src="http://gmodules.com/ig/images/plus_google.gif" /> </a> </h1> </td> <td width="1%"> <a href="http://www.techsupportalert.com/view/treats"> <img src="http://techsupportalert.com/images/46best-50px.jpg" alt="Link to Gizmo's Daily Tech Treats" id="feedimage" style="padding:0 0 10px 3px;border:0;" /> </a> </td> </tr> </table> <hr style="border:1px solid #ccc;padding:0;margin:0" /> <table id="itemcontentlist"> <tr xmlns=""> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="1" style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GizmosDailyTechTreats/~3/sPPwQPoDh3k/weekend-roundup-february-5-2010.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email">Weekend Roundup February 5, 2010</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 05 Feb 2010 02:47 PM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GizmosDailyTechTreats/~4/sPPwQPoDh3k?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email" height="1" width="1"/></div> </td> </tr> </table> <table style="border-top:1px solid #999;padding-top:4px;margin-top:1.5em;width:100%" id="footer"> <tr> <td style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">You are subscribed to email updates from <a href="http://www.techsupportalert.com/view/treats">Gizmo's Daily Tech Treats</a> <br />To stop receiving these emails, you may <a href="http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailunsubscribe?k=OscCsQAtaVokQsxhoeJHVsDaTs0">unsubscribe now</a>.</td> <td style="font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;text-align:right;vertical-align:top">Email delivery powered by Google</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610</td> </tr> </table> </div> computermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10089720734681665451noreply@blogger.com0