Apr 30, 2009

Google Chrome 2.0.177.1 Released

Google Chrome 2.0.177.1 has been released.

It includes a number of fixes and a couple UI tweaks. For example, if you have searched from wikipedia.org in the past, start typing wikipedia.org in the omnibox, press the Tab key then a search term and suggestions and past searches will appear for Wikipedia. Other fixes include:
  • [r14196] Scrollbars, Home/End work again in Gmail (Issue: 10009)
  • [r14377] Flash (and other plugins) can be installed without restarting the browser. (Issue: 10574)
  • [r14137] Fix hang seen in plugin process, including the new O3D plugin. (Issue: 10711)
  • [r13934] On some sites text disappears or is never drawn. For example, on Google Calendar, the titles for all day events do not display. (Issue: 9904)
Detailed release notes are available. You can find out about getting on the Dev channel here: http://dev.chromium.org/getting-involved/dev-channel.

If you find new issues, please let us know by filing a bug at http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/entry.

-- Jonathan Conradt
Google Chrome Program Manager

Download: Google Chrome 2.0.177.1

TeamViewer 4.1.6043 Released

TeamViewer is a simple and fast solution for remote control, desktop sharing and file transfer that works behind any firewall and NAT proxy. To connect to another computer just run TeamViewer on both machines without the need of an installation procedure. With the first start automatic partner IDs are generated on both computers. Enter your partner's ID into TeamViewer and the connection is established immediately. With many thousand users worldwide TeamViewer is a standard tool to give support and assistance to people in remote locations.

What's New in 4.1.6043

  • Fix: Connecting using TeamViewer VPN was not possible due to a error in the previous version
  • Fix: In certain circumstances filetransfer was not possible running Windows XP
  • Fix: "Close to tray" had no effect if "Disable TeamViewer shutdown" was active at the same time
  • Other minor fixes
New Features:
  • Web Connector - use TeamViewer via web browser: Through the newly developed web client you can now control remote computers via a web browser. The remote control works with Adobe Flash 9. Thanks to that TeamViewer 4 does not require Active X or any other security-critical components. Therefore, the web client is the perfect solution for environments in which no executables are allowed to be run or installed, for remote access on the road and for working from Linux machines. The TeamViewer Web Connector is included in TeamViewer Premium.
  • Browser based 1:n presentations: Now also browser based presentations are possible. Your presentation attendees only need a web browser with Adobe Flash 9. Multiple attendees can join an online presentation at the same time (up to 2 in the free version, 5 in the Business version and up to 10 if you have a Premium license).
  • Partner list with online status: With the new TeamViewer partner system you can establish single-click connections to partners and computers you connect to on a regular basis. Aside from that the partner list includes a status display so that you will always see which one of your partner/computers is online. The accounts will be saved on the TeamViewer servers and will thus be available anywhere on the globe - no matter from where you log on. The Web Connector also supports the partner system.
  • Improved performance: Changes in the transfer protocol along with improved caching and compression methods make the new TeamViewer 4 substantially faster.
  • Displaying remote system information: Retrieve detailed system information with a single mouse click.
  • Changing the screen resolution remotely: The resolution of the remote screen can now be easily adjusted during a running session - to better fit the remote screen to your own screen or to increase the performance.
News Source: TeamViewer Homepage
Download: TeamViewer 4.1.6043

Acer says that Windows 7 will be available October 23, 2009

According to Pocket Lint, Acer has confirmed that Windows 7 will be available on October 23 on their new all-in-one Z5600 PC. Acer has also confirmed that any Vista based PC purchased 30 days prior will receive a free upgrade to Windows 7.

While we still don't have an official release date from Microsoft yet, and even though there has been an internal release date of January 30, 2010 set, rumors have been flying around saying that Windows 7 may be released sometime later this year. With the public release of the release candidate right around the corner, and development towards the RTM already on track, it's possible that Acer's release date could be true.

This week, Microsoft Senior Vice President Bill Veghte told Paul Thurrott that "a holiday release is accomplishable."

What do you think, Emonx? Could Acer's date signal a possible release date for Windows 7, or is it still to early to tell yet?

Windows 7 RC coming to MSDN/Technet soon, public May 5

A page over at Microsoft Partners has been updated to show that Windows 7 RC will be publically released on May 5, and should be available for MSDN and Technet subscribers now. However, clicking through the download link will only get you the beta, right now.

This would seem to live with an earlier leak on a Microsoft page saying that the RC would be available in May, but that was taken down soon after it was reported.

Well see how long this page stays updated with the Windows 7 RC information, or how long it'll take before RC does actually hit MSDN and Technet.

Virtual XP for Windows 7 Beta released to MSDN and TechNet

According to Paul Thurrott, a beta version of Virtual XP for Windows 7 has been released to MSDN and TechNet subscribers.

The download comes in two parts. The first is KB958559, an update for Windows 7 that includes Windows Virtual PC for Windows 7. The second, is another exe that installs the Windows XP with SP3 virtual machine itself.

To run Virtual XP Mode, users must be running Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise or Ultimate with preferably 2GB of RAM with at least 256MB available to virtualization, and a processor that supports hardware virtualization. Many times hardware virtualization needs to be enabled in the BIOS to be functional.

The bits for the RC was released to MSDN, TechNet and Connect memebrs today. A public beta of Virtual XP for Windows 7 is expected to be released to the public May 5, the same time Windows 7 RC will be released to the public.

'Windows XP Mode' revealed for Windows 7

Remember that major announcement that was planned for Windows 7 a while back? Well, it's finally here, revealed on Paul Thurrott's Windows SuperSite. So, what is it? It's a feature of Windows 7 called 'Windows XP Mode'.

So, what exactly is this new mode? As you can probably tell from the name, it's a method to provide better compatibility in Windows 7, and to pull it off with as little trouble as possible. It's also dubbed XPM, or formerly Virtual XP. According to Thurrott, "XPM is built on the next generation Microsoft Virtual PC 7 product line, which requires processor-based virtualization support (Intel and AMD) to be present and enabled on the underlying PC, much like Hyper-V, Microsoft's server-side virtualization platform. However, XPM is not Hyper-V for the client. It is instead a host-based virtualization solution like Virtual PC; the hardware assistance requirement suggests this will be the logical conclusion of this product line from a technological standpoint. That is, we fully expect future client versions of Windows to include a Hyper-V-based hypervisor."

XP Mode will bring a Virtual PC-based environment, as well as a fully licensed version of Windows XP SP3, free for all owners of Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate editions. This is good from a commercial point of view. Earlier, Microsoft could happily say that Windows 7 was just as compatible with software as Windows Vista, but now they can add 100% compatibility with Windows XP, too. So, for you IE6 users, you're in luck. Do not expect this to run like a proper Virtual PC; that being, a separate operating system running within a window. XP Mode will integrate itself with the Windows 7 desktop, and so the older software will run just like a normal Windows 7 application. Essentially, this is two operating systems running under an updated desktop.

Thurrott expects to have screenshots up of it running shortly, and also look forward to seeing an in-depth guide of it on Within Windows very soon. Emonx will publish more information as it arrives. Thoughts?

Windows 7 RC now available on MSDN, TechNet & Connect


Microsoft has just announced the availability of the Windows 7 Release Candidate for MSDN and TechNet customers. In addition, we have confirmed that it is also available on Microsoft Connect for those enrolled in the Windows 7 test program.

"Listening to our partners and customers has been fundamental to the development of Windows 7," said Bill Veghte, senior vice president for the Windows business at Microsoft. "We heard them and worked hard to deliver the highest quality Release Candidate in the history of Windows. We have more partner support than we've ever had for an RC and are pleased to say that the Windows 7 RC has hit the quality and compatibility bar for enterprises to start putting it through its paces and testing in earnest."

Microsoft will be releasing the RC to the public on May 5th and it's expected the RC will be available to millions more customers than the beta.

For more information on what has changed from the beta, please see our Beta to Release Candidate guide.

Windows 7, what's the difference between the editions?

As Microsoft unveils the release candidate to TechNet and MSDN customers today we at Neowin wanted to answer that burning question, what is the difference between all these Windows 7 versions?

Microsoft supplied us with the following diagrams and we thought about re-doing them and making them pretty but they are what they are so without further ado....


Click to enlarge


Click to enlarge

What does Neowin think? A fair product lineup?

Windows 7, what has changed from Beta to Release Candidate?

As Microsoft unveils the Release Candidate to the world today we take a look at what has changed from the original Beta in January to the Release Candidate (RC).

AutoRun changes

AutoRun for non-optical removable storage devices has been disabled to better protect users against worms and malicious software. Shaz3e detailed these changes yesterday after Microsoft officially unveiled them.



Windows Touch Support

Microsoft have improved their touch support in the RC. You can now drag your finger across taskbar thumbnail previews and trigger a peek at the related window (thubmail peek). Also, the show desktop button supports a press-and-hold gesture that will expose your desktop. The ability to zoom in on and imagine by using two fingers close together or out be parting them has been added to Windows Explorer. The RC also supports multi-touch for the soft touch keyboard. Right click with touch is much easier in the RC due to simply touching an item with one finger and using another finger to tap to access right click.Multi-Touch Zoom, in the RC, Windows Explorer supports the multi-touch zoom gesture.



Windows Search improvements

Microsoft have improved search in the RC including:
  • Changing content view mode to now include labels for all properties for each item in search results.
  • The text layout and colours have been updated to make each item easier to see and group.
  • Search results highlight words from the search query named "snippets", the RC uses longer snippets and uses them in more places.
For more information on Windows Explorer Search please read our overview.



Device Stage for all devices

Device Stage has been updated to allow for device manufacturers to support older devices in a baseline device stage. This allows for a device image to appear on the taskbar whenever the device is connected and improve the experience for devices which aren't fully device stage enabled.



For more information on Device stage please see our overview.

Windows Media Player improvements

Windows Media Player "now playing mode" has been greatly improved in the RC, it includes a more compact view so it fits into a smaller section on your desktop.



The RC also introduces resume playback from sleep allowing content stored locally to resume playing after an interruption.

Remote Media Streaming (new feature) has been introduced in the RC. You simply associate two or more computers running Windows 7 with an online Windows Live ID and it will allow internet access to your media. Windows Media Player displays and plays the media libraries from remote computers in the same way as any other shared libraries on a home network.





For more information on Remote Media Streaming please see our overview.

Windows Themes

Theme's to customise your desktop have been greatly improved for the RC. Microsoft officials have hinted that they might sneak some more fun bits and themes into the final product but for now a number of new wallpaper and Aero colour combination's are available for those testing the RC.

Windows XP mode

XP Mode is the big RC "secret". The RC allows you to run older Windows XP applications in a virtual Windows XP environment on Windows 7. The feature is an additional download. The feature will allow you to run legacy XP applications in tandem with Windows 7 applications. In the screenshot below you can see IE6 and IE8 running alongside each other. Please read the Q&A session on XP mode for more information.



So what has Microsoft removed since beta?

Company officials have confirmed Microsoft has removed the Bluetooth audio class driver from Windows 7. When installing a Bluetooth audio device for the first time, you will now need to install a 3rd party driver. The company has also changed the library behaviour, the RC has removed the ability to drag/drop a folder into the libraries node in Windows Explorer. Microsoft were concerned users would delete the old folder thinking they had moved it or copied it to the library.

CPU-Z 1.51

Download CPU-Z 1.51

CPU-Z 1.51 1.97MB (Freeware)


CPU-Z is a freeware utility that gathers information on some of the main devices of your system. CPU-Z does not need to be installed, just unzip the files in a directory and run the .exe. In order to remove the program, just delete the files and that's it. The program does not copy any file in any Windows directory, nor write in the registry.

CPU

  • Name and number.
  • Core stepping and process.
  • Package.
  • Core voltage.
  • Internal and external clocks, clock multiplier.
  • Supported instructions sets.
  • All cache levels (location, size, speed, technology).

Mainboard

  • Vendor, model and revision.
  • BIOS model and date.
  • Chipset (northbridge and southbridge) and sensor.
  • Graphic interface.

Memory

  • Frequency and timings.
  • Module(s) specification using SPD (Serial Presence Detect) : vendor, serial number, timings table.

System

  • Windows and DirectX version.
Download Latest version

CPU-Z 1.51 setup

GPU-Z 0.3.4

Download GPU-Z 0.3.4

GPU-Z 0.3.4 434KB (Freeware)

GPU-Z is a lightweight utility designed to give you all information about your video card and GPU.
  • Support NVIDIA and ATI cards
  • Displays adapter, GPU and display information
  • Displays overclock, default clocks and 3D clocks (if available)
  • Validation of results
  • No installation required
  • Support for Windows 2000 / XP / Vista (both 32 and 64 bit versions are supported)
  • .. and yes, the author of CPU-Z has granted us permission to use a name similar to his product. Thanks Franck.
Download

How to create a simple Flash/PHP mail contact form with AS3 and MySQL

In this tutorial I’m gonna show you how to improve our simple php, sending the info by mail and saving it on a MySQL DataBase using a custom MySQL class that we could reuse anytime and phpMailer, an open source class to send mails. And, of course, we gonna use a flash form to send the form instead of the html form. Hope you enjoy the tutorial.

Requirements

  • A text editor to edit php, it’s not necessary a professional editor, with NotePad or NotePad++ it’s ok
  • A PC with XAMPP or other web server with PHP support installed, or access to a PHP web server
  • Access to the phpMyAdmin
  • Access to a MySQL data base
  • Flash Contact Form Source Files
Pre-Requesites

  • Basic PHP knowledge
Folders structure

It’s a good idea have an order with the different folders, this will help us when our application grows. For this tutorial we gonna have a structure like this:





Fig.01-Structure

My main folder contains the index.php that holds the SWF file, the contact.php, that connect to the data base through the mysql class, save the data and send the email, and a folder called classes where I save all the classes used to save the data and send the email.
The MySQL class

We gonna work with our previous MySQL data base structure.
PHP5 brings some substantial improvements comparing to the PHP4 OOP implementation, so it’s easier to work OOP in PHP now.
So, basically our MySQL class have 3 parts:
  • The constructor where we set the hostname, the username, the password and the database we gonna use
  • The query function to make the quries to the data base
  • Additional functions to work with the query, like return the number of rows, display the result as object, array or an associate matrix
If you have a lil bit knowledge about OOP in Flash, it’s the same way in PHP. The Class is a collection of methods that helps us to achieve objectives, and we could reuse it anytime we want and apply it in different places, not only in our project but in different projects, and we have the same kind of fields as in ActionScript, public and private, and objects are created in the same way with the new keyword.
Create the class

So, our first step is create the class. First we create a new empty document in Notepad++, and we call it class.mysql.php, and we save it on the classes folder. In our class.mysql.php file we could create the class:

class Mysql{
}
And that’s it, we created our first php class, pretty easy right.
Define the variables

So, we have to declare the variables to connect to the data base, and we have:
  • The Host, 99% of the time is localhost
  • The mysql user name to connect to the mysql server and data base
  • The user password to connect to the mysql server and data base
  • The name of the data base
We declare all this variables as private, so they could be accessed just inside the class.

private $host; //the server host 90% of being localhost
private $user; //the username
private $password; //the password
private $db; //the database to select

The constructor

In our construct function, the one who initialize our class, we put the data about the server, the username, the password and the data base and set it to our previous variables

function __construct(){
$this->host = "localhost";
$this->user = "username";
$this->password = "password";
$this->db = "database";
}

The query function

So, by now we have set the necessary data to connect with the data base, now we create the query function that gonna lets us make queries to the data base.
With this function we gonna:
  • Pass a query as a variable
  • Connect to the MySQL server
  • Connect to the data base
  • Make a query
  • return a result to insert datra or handle it later to display data

function query($sql_query){
//we try to connect to the mysql server
$link = @mysql_connect($this->host, $this->user, $this->password);
//if the connection failed, we stop the application and return an error
if(!$link) die("Could not connect to the MySQL server: " . @mysql_error());
//we try to connect with the database
$sel_db = @mysql_select_db($this->db, $link);
//if fail, we stop the application and return an error
if(!$sel_db) die("Could not connect to the data base: " . @mysql_error());
//if everything goes fine till here, we make the query
$query = @mysql_query($sql_query, $link);
//if the query fail, we return an error
if(!$query) die("Error: " . @mysql_error());
//we colse the mysql connection
@mysql_close($link);
//now we return the result
return $query;
}



The number of rows

A useful data when we work with databases it’s the number of rows. This number gives us the total number of results returned from a query, pretty useful for pagination and other stuff.

function numRows($result)
{
$num_rows = @mysql_num_rows($result);
return $num_rows;
}


Notice that we pass the result from a query, not a query.
The result as an object

We have different ways to retrieve the information, I’m gonna explain 3 basics, the first is have the result as an object:

function fetchObject($result)
{
$row = @mysql_fetch_object($result);
return $row;
}

and we retrieve the data as $row->field_name;
The result as an enumerated array

We could retrieve the data as an enumerated array too:
function fetchRow($result)
{
$row = @mysql_fetch_row($result);
return $row;
}

and we retrieve the data as $row[0], $row[1] and so on.
The result as an enumerated array and/or an associative array


function fetchArray($result)
{
$row = @mysql_fetch_array($result);
return $row;
}
and we retrieve the data as $row['field_name'].
I really prefer the object approach, but the 3 are valid, and you have the 3 options, some prefer the Associative array approach other the Array approach, all depends on what make you feel more comfortable.
Test our class

So, if everything goes fine till now, we could make a little php file to test our class before program the html form. For this example we must have some data on our database, we could insert some test data from the phpmyadmin
We create a test.php file and save it on our folder. We gonna make a query to retrieve all the data from our table contacts and show the name, and the comment of each row.
First we include our mysql class


//we include the mysql class
require_once('classes/class.mysql.php');
//we start the mysql class
$connection = new Mysql();
//make the query
$query = "SELECT * FROM contacts ORDER BY id ASC";
//pass the query to the new mysql class object
$result = $connection->query($query);
//retrieve the total items
$total_items = $connection->numRows($result);
//print the total number on screen
echo "Total contacts: ".$total_items;
Now we could use a while loop to print the data on screen

while($row_contact = $connection->fetchAssoc($result)){
echo "

Name:".$row_contact['name']."
";
echo "Comment:".$row_contact['comment']."

"; echo "

If we point our browser to the test.php file we gonna have something like this




Implementing our class in the HTML contact form

With the contact form from our last tutorial, we make little changes to make it work with our new mysql class:

//include the mysql class and the phpmailer class
require_once('classes/class.mysql.php');
require_once('classes/class.phpmailer.php');

if(isset($_POST['action']) && $_POST['action'] == 'submitform')
{
//new mysql object

$connection = new Mysql;

//recieve the variables

$name = $_POST['name'];
$email = $_POST['email'];
$url = $_POST['url'];
$comment = $_POST['comment'];
$ip = gethostbyname($_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']);

//save the data on the DB

$insert_query = sprintf("INSERT INTO contacts (name, email, url, comment, date, ip) VALUES (%s, %s, %s, %s, NOW(), %s)",
sanitize($name, "text"),
sanitize($email, "text"),
sanitize($url, "text"),
sanitize($comment, "text"),
sanitize($ip, "text"));

$result = $connection->query($insert_query);

if($result)
{
//send the email

$mail = new PHPMailer();
$mail->IsSMTP(); // telling the class to use SMTP
$mail->Host = "smtp.domain.com"; // SMTP server
$mail->From = "noreply@domain.com";
$mail->FromName = "Website";
$mail->Subject = "New contact from the website";

//message body

$body = "New contact
";
$body .= "Name: ".$name."
";
$body .= "Email: ".$email."
";
$body .= "Comment: ".$comment."
";
$body .= "IP: ".$ip."
";

$mail->MsgHTML($body);
$mail->AddAddress("your@email.com", "your name");

if(!$mail->Send()) {
echo "An error has occurred";
} else {
echo "Your message has been sent";
}
}
}
It looks the same, but with the difference that we implement our mysql class and the php mailer class to send the email.
The Flash contact form

Now, we could make our flash form. For this we gonna use URLRequest, URLVariables and URLLoader to send the data via post.
So we start making 4 input fields called:
  • name_txt
  • email_txt
  • website_txt
  • comment_txt
and the send button, called send_btn
So, now we could set everything on flash to send our comments and stored on our data base.

import flash.events.Event;
import flash.net.*;

stop();

var contact_url:String = "contact.php"; //the name of our php file to contact the data base
var contactRequest:URLRequest = new URLRequest(contact_url);
var contactLoader:URLLoader = new URLLoader();
var contactVariables:URLVariables = new URLVariables();

send_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, sendForm);

function sendForm(evt:MouseEvent):void
{
// add the variables to our URLVariables
contactVariables.action = "submitform";
contactVariables.name = name_txt.text;
contactVariables.email = email_txt.text;
contactVariables.url = website_txt.text;
contactVariables.comment = comment_txt.text;
// send data via post
contactRequest.method = URLRequestMethod.POST;
contactRequest.data = contactVariables;
// add listener
contactLoader.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, onLoaded);
contactLoader.addEventListener(IOErrorEvent.IO_ERR OR, ioErrorHandler);
//send data
contactLoader.load(contactRequest);
//show sending message
trace("sending");
}

function onLoaded(evt:Event):void
{
var result_data:String = String(contactLoader.data);
if (result_data == "ok")
{
trace("sended");
}
else if (result_data == "error")
{
trace("error");
}
}

function ioErrorHandler(event:IOErrorEvent):void
{
trace("ioErrorHandler: " + event);
}
And in our php file contact.php it’s the same as contact_form.php but without the html header and the form:

require_once('classes/class.mysql.php');
require_once('classes/class.phpmailer.php');

if(isset($_POST['action']) && $_POST['action'] == 'submitform')
{
//new mysql

$connection = new Mysql;

//recieve the variables

$name = $_POST['name'];
$email = $_POST['email'];
$url = $_POST['url'];
$comment = $_POST['comment'];
$ip = gethostbyname($_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']);

//save the data on the DB

$insert_query = sprintf("INSERT INTO contacts (name, email, url, comment, date, ip) VALUES (%s, %s, %s, %s, NOW(), %s)",
sanitize($name, "text"),
sanitize($email, "text"),
sanitize($url, "text"),
sanitize($comment, "text"),
sanitize($ip, "text"));

$result = $connection->query($insert_query);

if($result)
{
//send the email

$mail = new PHPMailer();
$mail->IsSMTP(); // telling the class to use SMTP
$mail->Host = "smtp.domain.com"; // SMTP server
$mail->From = "noreply@domain.com";
$mail->FromName = "Website";
$mail->Subject = "New contact from the website";

//message body

$body = "New contact
";
$body .= "Name: ".$name."
";
$body .= "Email: ".$email."
";
$body .= "Comment: ".$comment."
";
$body .= "IP: ".$ip."
";

$mail->MsgHTML($body);
$mail->AddAddress("your@email.com", "your name");

if(!$mail->Send()) {
echo "error";
} else {
echo "ok";
}
}
}

function sanitize($value, $type)
{
$value = (!get_magic_quotes_gpc()) ? addslashes($value) : $value;

switch ($type) {
case "text":
$value = ($value != "") ? "'" . $value . "'" : "NULL";
break;
case "long":
case "int":
$value = ($value != "") ? intval($value) : "NULL";
break;
case "double":
$value = ($value != "") ? "'" . doubleval($value) . "'" : "NULL";
break;
case "date":
$value = ($value != "") ? "'" . $value . "'" : "NULL";
break;
}

return $value;
}
Before test it, don’t forget to change the data used in the phpmailer so you could ber able to send email. For more information on the phpmailer, don’t forget to read the examples and tutorials
You could test your php code without flash using the same form in an html file and making the action=”contact.php”, so you could debug it.

CCleaner v2.19.889 Released

CCleaner v2.19 Released
29 April 2009

What's New
  • Improved support for Google Chrome v2.
  • Fixed bug with IE8 cookies.
  • Added support for Flash Cookies.
  • Added Tool to manage System Restore Files (XP and Vista only).
  • Added support to remove Opera Recently Typed URLs.
  • Fixed bug which was displaying wrong Total Bytes removed.
  • Improved exception handling.
  • Fixed virtual function bug.
  • Minor performance improvements.
Download: CCleaner
View: What's New

OpenOffice 3.1.0 RC2

OpenOffice.org 3 is the leading open-source office software suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more. It is available in many languages and works on all common computers. It stores all your data in an international open standard format and can also read and write files from other common office software packages. It can be downloaded and used completely free of charge for any purpose.

News source: OpenOffice website
Download: OpenOffice 3.1.0 RC2
View: New in 3.1.0

AutoRun changes in Windows 7

The Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) have announced some AutoRun changes for Windows 7.

Currently Conficker and other malware is taking advantage of the AutoRun functionality as a spreading mechanism. AutoRun is used to start some programs automatically when a CD or another media is inserted into a computer. The main purpose of AutoRun is to provide a software response to hardware actions that a user starts on a computer.

In order to help prevent malware from spreading (such as Conficker) using the AutoRun mechanism, the Windows 7 engineering team made two important changes to the product:
  1. AutoPlay will no longer support the AutoRun functionality for non-optical removable media. In other words, AutoPlay will still work for CD/DVDs but it will no longer work for USB drives. For example, if an infected USB drive is inserted on a machine then the AutoRun task will not be displayed. This will block the increasing social engineer threat highlighted in the SIR. The dialogs below highlight the difference that users will see after this change. Before the change, the malware is leveraging AutoRun (box in red) to confuse the user. After the change, AutoRun will no longer work, so the AutoPlay options are safe


    Before the change (left) After the change (right)
  2. A dialog change was done to clarify that the program being executed is running from external media.


    Before the change (left) After the change (right)
For more information please visit the Windows 7 Blog.

Enjoy!

Apr 29, 2009

WindowSpace v2.0 Beta - Snapping like in Windows 7

WindowSpace provides more freedom and comfort in manipulating windows and organizing the desktop for convenient work. The new major version of WindowSpace introduces more than 25 new features and core improvements. As the previous versions (v1.x), WindowSpace v2.0 Beta works under Windows 2000/XP/Vista, 32-bit and 64-bit.

Here is the list of the most noticeable improvements:

Snap-To-Side (similar to the new Aero Snap feature in Windows 7)


Resizing to the edge:


Unsnapping window from the edge, restores its original size. As in the previous version of WindowSpace, you can also right-click the Maximize button to do this.

Roll Up / Unroll windows


20+ hotkeys to manage windows


Snap windows to grid lines



New in WindowSpace v2.0 Beta 2

Aero Snap in Windows 7 is very convenient for the owners of widescreen monitors. I'm trying to improve the original idea and make it more usable for the owners of really big monitors.

Snap-To-Corners (currently it is called "Move window to one fourth of the screen when touching the edge corners", Settings -> Moving & Resizing page)


As for "Snap-To-Side" and "Maximize Vertically", unsnapping window from the edge restores its original size.



WindowSpace is a shareware project (lifetime license costs $24.90). However, I'm currently giving a free evaluation version without any functional limitations. I invite everyone to test WindowSpace v2.0 Beta on as wide variety of system configurations as possible.

WindowSpace v2.0 Beta has a tested compatibility with the following OS:
  • Windows 2000 SP4 Professional
  • Windows XP (32-bit and 64-bit)
  • Windows Vista (32-bit and 64-bit)
Download: WindowSpace v2.0.2 beta (32-bit) - 298 KB
Download: WindowSpace v2.0.2 beta (64-bit) - 334 KB

View: Beta Forum Thread (ntwind.com)
Link: WindowSpace Home Page
News source: NTWind Blog

Enjoy!

Dictionary .NET Free 1.3

Dictionary .NET is a tiny and easy multilingual dictionary translating from/to 42 languages using Google services.

(Dictionary + Translation) Arabic, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Chinese Traditional, Chinese Simplified, Korean, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Serbian, Thai
(Translation only) Albanian, Catalan, Danish, Estonian, Filipino, Galician, Hungarian, Indonesian, Japanese, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Swedish, Turkish, Ukrainian
  • Features: Translate Selected Text with a hotkey
  • Single click without selected text
  • Full-Text Translation
  • Text suggestions
  • Multilanguage List
  • Simple, Easy and Standalone
Screenshot: Click here
Download: Dictionary .NET 1.3 (62KB)
Link: Dictionary .NET Website

Enjoy!

XdN Tweaker 0.9.1.4 (Windows 7)

XdN Tweaker 0.9.1.4 has been released with improved support for Windows 7 (including the public RC build 7100).

New features include the ability to disable "Drag from Maximize" and other window arrangement features like "Aero Shake" and dragging a window to the side of the screen to maximize or tile it vertically.

It still works with Windows 2008/Vista/2003/XP as well. If used with Windows 7, a newer build like 7077 or 7100 is recommended.

Download: XdN Tweaker | 334 KB
Screenshot: New Win7 Page

Enjoy!

SE-Explorer 0.0.28.555

SE-Explorer is a free simple and powerful portable file manager for Windows which can be used as alternative to Windows Explorer. It is GUI based application with tabbed interface which made it possible to manipulate more than one directory or file view at the time and it has both types of file managers: two-panelled manager with two file windows side by side and native explorer emulator. The application has lots of build-in viewers for different file types.

In last version following changes were made:
  • File Manager, Media Player, Font View, Properties View and Web Browser are dramatically improved
  • Added support of PSD, PCX, TGA, RAS, PPM, PGM and PBM file formats to Picture View
  • File Compare window is added for quick text files comparison
  • ID3 tags are now supported in Media Player and Properties View
  • Hotkeys for most useful commands are added
  • Many interface improvements are done: skins, better tabs management, customization, etc.
  • User requested features are implemented
SE-Explorer is absolutely free for personal use. No registration or activation is required

Download: Installation (~1.8 MB)
Download: Portable Version (~1.8 MB)
Link: Product Home Page

Enjoy!

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