Just as it was the case with Windows Vista, the mitigations introduced by Microsoft alone in Windows 7 are not sufficient to bulletproof the operating system on their own.

Windows 7 Graphic

While security for Windows 7 is not a new subject, as you have been able to already read materials on this subject, fact is that following the release of the first Beta for the next iteration of the Windows client, I have seen questions from users related to how they could protect themselves best. Microsoft is indeed providing, in collaboration with members of the security industry, solutions designed to integrate with Windows 7, even if the operating system is in Beta.

Brandon LeBlanc, Windows communications manager on the Windows Client Communications Team, revealed that Microsoft had been hard at work attempting to get security providers to offer anti-virus for Windows 7. No less than three companies have rushed to Microsoft’s call, and are offering their products even if Windows 7 is still in Beta.

“The following anti-virus solutions are available [for Windows 7]: Symantec offers the Norton 360 3.0 Beta, which works on the Windows 7 Beta; AVG offers AVG Internet Security and AVG Anti-Virus that works with the Windows 7 Beta; Kaspersky is offering a technical preview of Kaspersky Anti-Virus for Windows 7. It is great to see that these partners were able to have their solutions working so early in our development process,” LeBlanc added.

Norton 360 3.0 Beta is available for download here.

VG Antivirus Professional 8.0 is available for download here.

AVG Internet Security 8.0 is available for download here.

Technical Preview Kaspersky Anti-Virus for Microsoft Windows 7  is available for download here.

source: softpedia.com

The Windows 7 taskbar displays previews of running programs via some very cool thumbnails. To speed up these thumbnails so that they appear instantly, follow these simple steps:

How to Speed up Taskbar Thumbnail Preview

1. Click on start and type regedit at search bar

2. Navigate to following key in left pan of registry editor

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Mouse

3. Now locate MouseHoverTime key in right pan of registry editor

4. Doublick on MouseHoverTime or right click modify and change value from 400 to any value less then 100 (400 is milliseconds) lower the value faster the thumbnail preview.

5. Click ok and close regedit widow.

Now check taskbar thumbnail preview by hovering mouse on taskbar icon and it should open faster.

source: blogsdna.com

Here are some hints to help you more efficently use rapidshare. Skipping waiting time and bypassing download limits are rapidshare hacks that everybody should know.

RapidShare Logo

Step 1 : Copy the link of the file that you want to download in the browser’s address bar.

Step 2: Now click on the Free User button. Your waiting time will be start.

Step 3: Now copy the follwing code in the Browser’s address bar

javascript:alert(c=0)

Step 4: Hit Enter.

Step 5 : This code will set your download timer as zero and download link will be appear immediately.

Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer had some interesting things to say yesterday about which companies Microsoft sees as its competitors in the client operating system space. You’d think Apple was their number one competitor - and you’d be wrong. Microsoft sees two other competitors as their primary adversaries.

As you can see, Microsoft sees piracy as its biggest competitor. “Number two market share goes to Windows pirated, or unlicensed,” Balmer said, “That’s a competitor that’s tough to beat, they’ve got a good price and a heck of a product, but we’re working on it.”

Balmer said “I think depending on how you look at it, Apple has probably increased its market share over the last year or so by a point or more. And a point of market share on a number that’s about 300 million is interesting. It’s an interesting amount of market share, while not necessarily being as dramatic as people would think, but we’re very focused in on both Apple as a competitor, and Linux as a competitor.”

In any case, it appears that Linux (and piracy) is a larger blip on Microsoft’s radar than Apple, and it’s not hard to see why. With an economy that’s not doing very well, people will opt for cheaper products. Apple cannot offer those, but Linux and piracy can.

so your firefox is running Slow ? you can now make it fast some just doing some tweaks

Reduce the amount of RAM Firefox uses for it’s cache feature

Try this:1) Type “about:config” (no quotes) in the address bar in the browser.
2) Find “browser.sessionhistory.max_total_viewers”
3) Set it’s value to “0“;(Zero)

Increase the Speed in Which Firefox loads pages

1) Type “about:config” into the address bar and hit Enter. (Normally the browser will make one request to a web page at a time. When you enable pipelining it will make several at once, which really speeds up page loading.)2) Alter the entries as follows:
Set “network.http.pipelining” to “true”
Set “network.http.proxy.pipelining” to “true”
Set “network.http.pipelining.maxrequests” to some number like 10.

This means it will make 10 requests at once.

3) Lastly, right-click anywhere and select New->Integer. Name it “nglayout.initialpaint.delay” and set its value to “0“;.(Zero)

This value is the amount of time the browser waits before it acts on information it receives. If you’re using a broadband connection you’ll load pages faster now.

Optionally (for even faster web browsing) here are some more options for your about:config (you might have to create some of these entries by Right Click –> New– >Interger or String

“network.dns.disableIPv6”: set “false”
“content.notify.backoffcount”: set “5”; (Five)
“ui.submenuDelay”: set “0”; (Zero)

Reduce RAM usage to 10mb when Firefox is minimized

This little hack will drop Firefox’s RAM usage down to 10 Mb when minimized:1) Open Firefox and go to the Address Bar. Type in about:config and then press Enter.
2) Right Click in the page and select New -> Boolean.
3) In the box that pops up enter “config.trim_on_minimize”. Press Enter.
4) Now select True and then press Enter.
5) Restart Firefox.

These simple tweaks will make your web browsing with Mozilla Firefox at least twice as fast and it’s a pretty simple thing anybody can do.

There are plenty of ways which you use in google image search - I have just consolidated a list of 10 tips which  can help you in finding the right image from google image search tool

1. If you want to know if a person is a man or a woman and the name doesn’t help, do a search for the name.

2. If you don’t know the meaning of a word, the pictures may help you.

3. A better search for Flickr. Google uses information from other sites that link to Flickr photos, so you may find Google search better.

4. Find what’s interesting about a site, by looking at the pictures included. For example: wired.com.

5. Find a new wallpaper for your desktop by restricting your search to large images. You can automate this using an application.

6. Find random personal pictures, using standard file names from digital cameras.

7. Type the name of a painter and you can take an art class.

8. Install a Greasemonkey script so you can view the original version of the image directly by clicking on the thumbnail.

9. Find the color of a word. “Word Color is a windows program that uses Google Image Search to determine the color of a word or string of words. It goes out there, retrieves the top 9 images and loops through all pixels, calculating the average hue, which is later converted to a color.”

10. If you want to grab search results, GoogleGrab is a tool that downloads images from Google Image Search. It even supports batch search.

On 16 feb, 2009 Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer unveiled new Windows Phones at Mobile World Congress 2009 in BARCELONA, Spain. Microsoft claims that new windows phones will be based on Windows Mobile 6.5 enhanced with the better user interface and browsing experience. New windows phones will be enabled with the two new features

My Phone : sync text messages, photos, video, contacts and more to the Web;
Marketplace : a new marketplace that will provide direct-to-phone mobile applications and can be accessed from both the phone and the Web.

At the presentation Steve Ballmer said “Windows phones bring together the best of the Web, the PC and the phone so you can connect instantly to the experiences you care about, no matter where you are,” Also he said “We’re working with partners across the industry to deliver a new generation of Windows® phones that break down the barriers between people, information and applications and provide great end-to-end experiences that span your entire life, at work and at home.”

Some rich feature of new windows phones are

Rich and Integrated Marketplace Service : The new OS offers searching, browsing and purchasing mobile applications using Windows Live ID. 20,000 application are already made for this new OS, so the user can easily choose the application according to its personal needs.

New User Experience : The new Windows Mobile 6.5 keeps the user enable with the new e-mails, texts, missed calls and calendar appointments just on the home screen with touch screen interface.

My Phone Service Connects the Phone to the Web : This new service enable the user to lock their private data directly to the device using web-based service. Contacts and other important data are backed up with My Phone so users don’t have to worry about losing contacts.

Additional Services : Microsoft Recite, which provides users with a fast and simple way to capture, search and retrieve spoken notes and reminders using just their voice without the need to navigate menus or type text.

Microsoft key mobile partners are HTC, LG and Orange.

The list is based on traffic rank reports from Compete and Alexa

1. The Pirate Bay

It has been a good year for The Pirate Bay. The number of visitors spiked, despite efforts in Denmark and Italy to block access the site. Last month, The site celebrated its 5th anniversary, just after it broke the 25 million peers mark. At any given point in time, more than 25 million peers actively trade files thought the Pirate Bay tracker.

2. Mininova

Mininova has seen a steady rise in visitors in 2008, and more than 3 billion torrents were downloaded from the site in the past 12 months. In addition to user uploaded content, the Mininova team has started to focus more on premium publishers with their content distribution platform.

3. IsoHunt

Despite being ensnared in legal proceedings with the MPAA and CRIA, isoHunt is continuing to grow. This year they partnered with the Creative Commons music distribution site Jamendo, and just like The Pirate Bay, isoHunt added SSL encryption to the site, making it impossible for your ISP or the authorities to monitor users’ activities.

4. Torrentz

Torrentz.com, one of the oldest torrent sites around, celebrated its 5th anniversary in July. The site added a “verified torrents” feature this year, and inspired many other meta-search engines to do the same. Last month a “hacker” caused some problems after it took over the torrentz domain, but luckily this issue was resolved in a few hours.

5. TorrentReactor

TorrentReactor redesigned and optimized the site throughout 2008, which resulted in a significant increase in visitors. In addition, the TorrentReactor launched TorrentPrivacy, a service that allows BitTorrent users to download torrents anonymously.

6. Demonoid

After being forced to go offline following threats from the CRIA, Demonoid returned this April after 6 months of downtime. Since then it is business as usual, and most of the members returned quickly.

7. BTjunkie

In December 2007 BTjunkie was forced to leave their ISP following a takedown notice from the Dutch anti-piracy outfit BREIN. This year there were no troubles, and the site continues to go strong.

9. SumoTorrent

In 2007, SumoTorrent quickly settled itself among the top torrent sites, and traffic continued to increase this year. The pop-ups and redirects are new though, and don’t make it one of the most convenient sites to browse.

9. BTmon

BitTorrentMonster, BTmon for short, debuted in 10th place last year, and managed to climb a spot. Other than that, there is not much news surrounding the site.

10. TorrentPortal

Not much news about TorrentPortal this year either, but for BitTorrent sites that is usually a good thing. Traffic seems to be stable, although the site is not growing as fast as the other BitTorrent sites in this list.

Honorable mention: TorrentSpy

In 2006 TorrentSpy was more popular than any other BitTorrent site, but this changed quickly in August 2007, when a federal judge ordered TorrentSpy to log all user data. The judge ruled that TorrentSpy had to monitor its users in order to create detailed logs of their activities, and hand these over to the MPAA.

In a response to this decision - and to ensure the privacy of their users - TorrentSpy decided that it was best to block access to all users from the US. This led to a huge decrease in traffic, but still, it managed to make out top 10 list last year. March 2008 TorrentSpy owner Justin decided to shut down completely, and in May his company was ordered to pay a $110 million fine, which it will appeal.

There are set to be some truly fantastic mobile phones in 2009. With technology advancing at an ever increasing rate, we are seeing mobile phones do things that we never thought possible. One handset that looks set to be a top seller in the UK is the Nokia 5800. It has been a long time coming, but there are plenty of people buying this phone, the first touchscreen handset available from Nokia. Another phone that is giving Blackberry a good run for its money is the beautifully designed Nokia E71. This mobile phone essentially does all the same things that a blackberry does, but also comes with Nokia’s easy to use navigational system. Another handset that is feature packed is the Nokia N85, a gaming mobile phone that offers unparalleled gaming performance. All 3 handsets are available now on contract and sim free, so if there was ever a time to look at upgrading your handset, now would be the time.

We are already nearly 2 months into 2009 and we have been seeing some real winners and losers in the mobile phone market already. What with smartphones gaining in popularity amongst tech savvy consumers, will there be any place left for the average mobile phone? Three phones that are looking good for 2009 are as follows. First up we have the Nokia N97, it has been a long time coming, but finally Nokia has announced the smartphone touchcreen device that we have all been waiting for. It is truly remarkable what this handset will do and we cannot wait for it to be released later this year. Another handset that is already selling very well indeed is the Sony Ericsson C905, this is the crown jewel in Sony Ericsson’s armoury. It boasts the best camera of any mobile phone in the marketplace right now and is built as solidly as any phone that we have seen. It is a little bulky, but that only adds to the build quality. The final mobile phone worth mentioning is the Samsung i8510 16GB, released just before Christmas, this mobile phone has been selling well for a while now and we think it can keep on selling well, such is its superb design. Why not check out all of these mobile phones if you are considering an upgrade?