Jan 26

Microsoft Denies Rewriting Vista’s Code And Pushes Back Office 2007 Release

Posted in: Software, Today's Chili, Windows

This article was written on March 24, 2006 by CyberNet.

Microsoft Denies Rewriting Vista's Code And Pushes Back Office 2007 Release

Microsoft denies the claims that Smarthouse made last Friday stating that Microsoft was planning to rewrite 60% of the Windows Vista code and that they had to pull Xbox programmers to help finish the product on time. This was a big claim and Microsoft says that the code writing process is basically done. The current build of Windows Vista (build 5308.60) is said to be feature complete which means they will only be working on bugs and security features. Hopefully Microsoft is telling the truth otherwise there is little hope that we would see Vista in January 2007.

As expected, Microsoft also pushed the Office 2007 release date back to January 2007 so that they have the necessary time to complete it. Many people were speculating that this would happen so that the Vista and Office releases were kept synchronized. Microsoft has, however, recently released a Technical Refresh to the Microsoft Office 2007 Beta users which has an updated interface and many bug fixes. The Beta build is not meant for everyday use but there are many people reporting very good stability in this Technical Refresh. For anyone that has not used Office 2007 then it will be quite an experience the first time you get your hands on it. After a little getting used to then you will start to love the way this new version handles.

Overall, the delays are inevitable by Microsoft because of the complexity of the software that they write. At least they warn us months in advance of the delay instead of ignoring the fact and keeping the public left in the dark.

News Source: BetaNews – Smarthouse Article Inaccurate
News Source: CNet – Microsoft Delays Office 2007

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Jan 25

Securely Erase Files from Your Computer

Posted in: Freeware, security, Software, Today's Chili, Windows

This article was written on April 16, 2010 by CyberNet.

wipefile.png

arrow Windows Windows only arrow
Have you ever erased something from your computer, but were then concerned with whether the information would still be accessible? One situation I can think of is when giving away or selling a computer/hard drive, and the fear that the new owner may try to recover the information that you left behind on the drive.

Utilities like WipeFile are great in these scenarios. Not only is it free, but it’s also portable which means you don’t have to install it if there are just a few files you want to erase. The best part about WipeFile is that you can list out all the directories on your drive that you want to remove, and you can even go as far as to restrict it to certain files based upon name/extension.

After you’ve selected all of the paths you can move on to picking one of the 14 different methods that can be used to securely eliminate the files. One of those methods was designed by Peter Gutmann, which consists of 35 passes that tries to make it economically infeasible for anyone to recover the data that was on the drive. Obviously the more passes the application has to make the longer it will take, but that’s the price we pay for security.

WipeFile Homepage (Windows only; Freeware)

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Jan 24

Boxed Copies of Vista Drop in Price

Posted in: Software, Today's Chili, Windows

This article was written on February 29, 2008 by CyberNet.

vista bargain There were two big complaints when Windows Vista was launched just a little over a year ago. One was the fact that there were so many versions to choose from which made things confusing, and the other was the price. One of those two complaints has been resolved, partially, with Microsoft announcing that they are dropping the price of boxed copies of Windows Vista. The reason we say partially is because boxed copies are actually a very small percentage of Vista sales (about 10%). Most of them come from the sale of new PCs.

Here are the price changes consumers can expect:

vista price changes

Price cut percentages range from 20 to 48 percent which isn’t all that bad, we’re just wondering why they decided not to lower the price of Home Premium. Is it because it’s the best selling version of Vista? The next question is, will this help push along the sales of Vista? We are doubtful, but Microsoft is hopeful.  Brad Books, a Microsoft Corporate Vice President said, “We anticipate these changes will provide greater opportunities… to sell more stand-alone copies of Windows.”

The changes we outline above are only for copies of Vista in the United States. Elsewhere, prices too will change but it will vary from country to country. In developing countries, Microsoft has decided not to sell upgrade version of vista because many people don’t own XP, or at least a genuine version of XP, to make the upgrade possible.

I guess in a nutshell, we can sum this up by saying Microsoft made price-cuts to Vista, but they likely won’t do you much good.

Thanks for the tip Omar!
Source: Reuters

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Jan 23

More FREE O&O Products: Defrag Professional 11, Unerase 2, DriveLED, and More

Posted in: free, Software, Today's Chili, Windows

This article was written on March 02, 2010 by CyberNet.

o&o defrag.pngAbout two months ago we wrote about how you could grab O&O Defrag Professional 10 for free, but now you can get one step closer to the latest version without dropping a dime. Not only that, but on top of their defragmenting application they have also included versions of Unerase, CleverCache, SafeErase, and DriveLED for the picking.

There’s no telling how long these would be available, and I’d therefore recommend signing up for your free license now. Not only that, but if you ever decide to upgrade to the latest version of the apps you can actually use these to get discounts. Or, we learned with the last O&O “giveaway” that those who are patient will be rewarded. Some users reported getting email offers from O&O to upgrade to the latest Defrag Professional 12 at upwards of 70% off. Not to shabby.

Note: Interestingly the version of DriveLED being given away is the latest.

  • O&O Defrag Professional 11 [Free License] [Download]
    Unleash the hidden performance of your computer with the minimum effort. O&O Defrag 11 Professional Edition packs file fragments quickly and securely back together to optimize your hard disk under Windows. Its functionality ranges from a fully automated defragmentation to an individual professional set up. It can do everything a truly good defragmentation software should be able to do. The new background monitoring function helps to prevent fragmentation at source. Newly added and modified files are analyzed and defragmented whenever they are not being accessed. O&O Defrag makes sure that your hard disk is constantly performing at its peak.
  • O&O Unerase 2 [Free License] [Download]
    O&O UnErase V2 makes the restoration of deleted data as easy as “a walk in the park”. With the help of a new and one-of-a-kind algorithm, more files can be restored than ever before. Within a matter of seconds, O&O UnErase finds your deleted files and restores them with just the click of a button. The original filename and directory structure are also restored as if nothing had been deleted in the first place.
  • O&O CleverCache 6 Pro [Free License] [Download]
    O&O CleverCache 6 Professional is a unique tool that optimizes the File Cache Management for Windows Vista, NT, 2000 and Windows XP. This results in an enormous increase in performance boosting a system’s performance at times to up to twice its original speed. All this is achieved without the need for additional hardware or any reduction in your system’s stability. You simply install O&O CleverCache 6 and you’re ready to go – no need to reboot. It automatically recognizes your configuration, and within 5 minutes you can unlock the hidden resources on your Windows system! The more the file cache grows, the less memory is available for running applications. The result is a significant decrease in performance as requests for memory lead to the so-called “swapping” of memory. This occurs when unused memory segments are paged out to the hard disk’s paging file. Because hard disk access is slow relative to Memory, loss of performance is inevitable. O&O CleverCache 6.0 Professional Edition is optimized to meet the day-to-day needs of individual users. The software is optimized to run on Windows NT4 Workstation, Windows 2000 Professional, Windows XP Home Edition, Windows Vista and Windows XP Professional.
  • O&O SafeErase 2 [Free License] [Download]
    O&O SafeErase V2.0 is THE solution for the secure deletion of sensitive data from your hard disk and offers you the ultimate protection of your private sphere. With just one click of the mouse you can securely and permanently delete files, folders and partitions. The motives for the deletion of files are many. Old e-mail files, internet history, file cache, financial records, company information, and private files ought to be protected from other’s access. The reality, however, is much to the contrary. O&O SafeErase puts a stop to this by not only deleting files, but by annihilating them with the help of recognized and recommended methods. In Windows XP, Windows 2003, Windows 2000, and Windows NT, O&O SafeErase will protect your computer from the unpermissive access of others to your alleged deleted files.
  • O&O DriveLED 3 [Free License] [Download]
    The number of mobile computers in use in companies has grown dramatically over the last couple years. Just as dramatic is increase in difficulty of servicing these mobile system that are usually being operated in remote locations. The Achilles heel for any notebook is the hard disk, usually overstressed by the sheer frequency of use in a variety of different environments. With this stress on the hard disk comes the risk of hardware failure, which, until O&O DriveLED 3, was an unpredictable gamble. Monitoring all of the internal hard disks of your system, O&O DriveLED 3 examines its “health”, providing you with information from your hard disk’s read/write access to its current temperature. Should signs of problems appear, O&O DriveLED 3 alerts the user, reducing the chances of a hard disk crash or the loss of precious data.

[via SlickDeals]

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Jan 22

Heads Up: Termination Date in 2 Days for Vista Beta 2, RC Users

Posted in: Software, Today's Chili, Windows, Windows Vista

This article was written on May 29, 2007 by CyberNet.

Ever since May 18th, users who were still running Vista Beta 2, RC1, or RC 2 started receiving warning notifications about the upcoming expiration. In just two days, those copies of Vista will no longer be valid and the only access users will have will be for 2–hour sessions to retrieve data.

If you’re one of these people, this is your heads-up that you better get movin’ on purchasing a copy of Windows Vista, or prepare to revert to your prior operating system. You’ll also want to make sure that you have all of your files backed-up that you’d like to hang on to.

Vista RC1 users, if you want an in-place upgrade your only option is Vista Ultimate for $259. If you choose this option, all of your files will remain intact. For those who are using RC2 or Vista Beta 2, you can upgrade to any version, however they’re all clean installs which means all of your files, settings, programs, etc., will be replaced.

If you ignore these warning notifications, have fun dealing with a computer that automatically reboots every 2 hours. :)

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Jan 21

Windows Mobile 6.1 Features

Posted in: Features, Newly Released, Phones, Software, Today's Chili, videos, Windows

This article was written on April 02, 2008 by CyberNet.

windows mobile 6.1 home screen Microsoft just released Windows Mobile 6.1 yesterday, and they’ve added some features that are actually pretty slick. The new home screen is really the focal point of the release. With it you have several “panels” that get expanded as you scroll up and down over them. A video demonstration of this (and other features) is at the end of the article.

The thing that really caught my attention, however, were the new text messaging layout and Internet browsing. It looks as though both of them have taken some cues from the iPhone. First off the text messaging looks like it would if you were instant messaging the person on your computer. It keeps all of the messages from an individual into one fluid layout so that you can easily keep up with the conversation.

Next, the browser. Microsoft has made it possible to zoom in and out of web pages so that you can get the “full view” of them. This way users get a more desktop-like browsing experience, but are still able to read the content by zooming in when necessary.

Here are some of the other features that you’ll find in Windows Mobile 6.1:

  • Simpler e-mail and Bluetooth setup
  • New Getting Started Center
  • Security enhancements
  • Easier Wi-Fi connection
  • More personal choice

And finally lets wrap things up with a nice video demonstration put together by Microsoft:

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Jan 21

CyberNotes: Easily Create Panoramic Shots

Posted in: CyberNotes, Features, Freeware, Photos, Software, Today's Chili, Windows

This article was written on October 07, 2008 by CyberNet.

CyberNotes
Time Saving Tuesday

arrow Windows Windows only arrow
I’ve always felt like there hasn’t been a perfect tool out there for the average person who wants to shoot panoramic shots, and doesn’t want to spend ages assembling them on their machine. One of the last tools that we covered on the site was Hugin, but you could spend hours tweaking settings trying to get things just right. It just wasn’t something the most people would want to fiddle with.

Over in our forum Tony pointed out an amazing tool that Microsoft provides for free called the Image Composite Editor (ICE). Sure Microsoft has already incorporated panoramic creation capabilities in Windows Live Photo Gallery, but having this standalone app gives you a few more features.

I guess the real question is how well does it work, and how much effort will you have to put into stitching your photos together. I tried the program on several different panoramic shots that I’ve taken over the years, and it turned out some of the best results. Ironically enough it’s also one of the easiest programs I’ve ever used for this type of task.

When you first get Microsoft ICE up and running you should see something like this:

microsoft ice select files.jpg
(Click to Enlarge)

All you have to do is drag and drop the photos you want stitched together into the gray area. The program will then go to work trying to figure out the best way to assemble them, and once it’s done you’ll see a preview of the result:

microsoft ice.jpg
(Click to Enlarge)

That’s really all there is to it. There are different types of stitches that can be done including rotating motion or planar motion, and the image can be cropped to your liking by adjusting the box that appears around the panoramic shot. The best part, however, might be the variety of formats you can save the panoramic in:

  • JPEG
  • TIFF
  • Photoshop
  • HD View Tileset
  • Deep Zoom Tileset
  • BMP
  • PNG
  • HD Photo Image

Now you don’t have much of an excuse as to why you still have some photos laying around that you haven’t stitched together!

Get Image Composite Editor for Windows

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Jan 21

PhraseExpress 6: HTML Formatting & Performance Enhancements

Posted in: Features, Freeware, Newly Released, performance, Software, Today's Chili, Windows

This article was written on December 02, 2008 by CyberNet.

phraseexpress.png
(Click to Enlarge)

We’ve written about PhraseExpress before because of the fact that it’s a free application for personal use ($50 for commercial users). They are pretty smart giving away their software for home users, because they know once you start using it you’ll want to have it in front of you while you’re at work as well. So if you do happen to be a PhraseExpress user you’ll be pleased to know that version 6 was just released today, and includes some nice improvements:

  • Support for HTML formatting
    PhraseExpress now supports Rich Text and HTML-formatted phrases which can include pictures and hyperlinks as well.
  • Up to 10x faster loading time
    A new file format reduces the phrase file size by more than 10 times compared to previous versions.
  • Restrict Autotext and Hotkeys to certain applications
    The scope of Autotexts and Hotkeys of any phrase can now be restricted to certain programs or excluded from a customizable list of applications.
  • Autocomplete for individual words
    The unique text prediction feature which has been introduced in v5 has been significantly improved. Additionally, it also offers to auto-complete single words rather than full sentences only.
  • Multi-language support
    PhraseExpress supports Unicode for multi-language phrases but now also offers to switch the keyboard language layout automatically.
  • Automated Email creation
    PhraseExpress can now compose an email including html text/bitmaps (Outlook only), file attachement and definition of cc: and bcc:. The body text length is now only limited by Outlook and PhraseExpress can be configured to send the email immediately without need of confirmation.
  • Runs from a USB memory device
    PhraseExpress can now be used on a USB memory stick. If running from an USB stick it stores all user and configuration data on the removable device only and leaves no traces on the host PC.

Another free text replacement utility is Texter, and while it isn’t as powerful as PhraseExpress it is definitely a fast and simple tool. Give them both a whirl and see which one works best for you. But remember, PhraseExpress is only free for personal use.

Get PhraseExpress for Windows [via Lifehacker]

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Jan 20

Slife for Windows Coming Soon

Posted in: Mac, Software, Today's Chili, Windows

This article was written on October 02, 2008 by CyberNet.

200810012052.jpg

I know that some of you have been patiently awaiting for a Windows version of the Slife computer usage analyzer. Back in June we wrote up a quick review of the Mac version, and at the time a Windows version was in the works. About two weeks ago the Slife team announced on their blog that the Windows version of the application will be available “within a few weeks,” which means it could hit the streets any day now.

This is a pretty big deal because the application will let both Windows and Mac users track their computer usage for free. You can see things like what applications you use the most, when you use them, and much more. That data can then be used to try and optimize your time, or you can have the program alert you when you’ve used a specific app more than an allotted amount of time.

So the Windows version isn’t available yet, but keep your eyes peeled because it could be here any day now.

Thanks for the tip Matt!

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Jan 19

CyberNotes: How to Customize the Windows XP/Vista Send To Menu

Posted in: CyberNotes, Freeware, Software, Today's Chili, Windows, Windows Vista

This article was written on March 29, 2007 by CyberNet.

CyberNotes
Tutorial Thursday

One of the features that many people overlook in Windows is the “Send To” menu that is presented when you right-click on a file or folder. This menu offers you an array of things you can do with that particular file or folder including compressing it to a ZIP file, emailing it to a friend, and much more.

I have never used the “Send To” menu because it doesn’t offer any features that make it useful, despite it being manually customizable (XP instructions and Vista instructions). I started looking around for something that would really knock my socks off, and I found just the tool…Send To Toys (Download Mirror for version 2.5).

Send To Toys is essentially an application that makes customizing the Send To menu even easier than it already is. It also offers some functionalities that you won’t be able to do without the help of this handy little program:

  • Send To Toys Control Panel Applet allows you to manage the Send To system menu content, and configure the various Send To Toys settings:
    Send To Toys Send To Toys
  • “Add to Send To menu” and “Remove from Send To menu” allows you to personalize the Send To system menu for drives, folders, and programs.
  • Send To “Clipboard (as name)” copies the name of the file or files to the clipboard. Hold down the CTRL key to change the settings for this extension.
  • Send To “Clipboard” command line utility copies the output of a command to the clipboard.

  • Send To “Command Prompt” opens a DOS console window, setting the current directory to the selected file/folder.
  • Send To “Default Mail Recipient” creates a new e-mail with attachments and predefined defaults for the recipients, subject, and message.
  • Send To “Favorites” adds a shortcut to your Favorites list.
  • Send To “Folder…” sends a file or files to another folder, you will be shown a dialog box that lets you choose where the files should be copied, moved, or have a shortcut created.
    Send To Toys
  • Send To “Quick Launch” adds a shortcut to the Quick Launch toolbar.
  • Send To “Recycle Bin” sends a file or files to the Recycle Bin. Hold down the CTRL key to perform a file shredding.
  • Send To “Run…” sends a file or files to the Run command dialog.

The main reason that I wanted to get this utility was for the “Send to Folder…” option. I’m constantly moving files around on my PC and with this tool I can easily copy or move files from one location to another. Since my desktop is the most common place that I move files to, I decided to designate that as my default location, which means I can just select the Folder option from the Send To menu and press enter to move a file or folder to my desktop.

This is a freeware application and after you get it installed there will be both a shortcut in your Start Menu as well as in the Control Panel. It is compatible with Windows 2000, 2003, XP, and Vista so it will work for almost everyone! Give it a try because you might as well try to make the Send To menu actually useful. :)

Send To Toys Homepage (Download Mirror for version 2.5)

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