applications

There’s been a lot of talk about Windows 7 since it’s launch, most everything has been positive (which certainly wasn’t the case after Windows Vista launched).  In this tough economic client people are asking themselves, “Why should I upgrade and what benefits will I see if you do?”  I’ve been running Windows 7 since August with their Release Candidate and installed the full version as soon as Technet offered it and I’ve found many improvements over previous versions.

(Be warned, this is a long post.  I wanted to get as much information in as possible.  The short story is if you’re getting a new computer definitely get it with Windows 7, if your computer is less than 2 or 3 years old I would recommend the upgrade).

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iPhone Explorer is a free application that enables you to copy files to and from your iPhone or iPod Touch.  You can transfer photos, music and other media to right your computer.  You can also use it as a flash drive transporting files or using it as a storage device.

Here is what the makers say:

Printing anything from a browser – articles, receipts, directions, etc – can be frustrating because what you want gets printed along with  banner ads, page titles, and single lines of footer text, i.e. lots of paper and ink waste.  Now, without a lot of trouble, you can select exactly what you want to print using a Bookmarklet called PrintWhatYouLike.   You have the option to select different parts of a page to print, creating tidy and specific print results.

Bookmarklets are great because there is nothing to install, download or configure.  Simply drag the application into your Bookmark Toolbar.   When you are on the page you want to print, click on the Bookmarklet.  A user menu appears in the left column of your browser providing selection options.

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Microsoft put out a series of patches today for all versions of Internet Explorer from 5 to 8 for every operating system from Windows 2000 to Windows 7 to address a huge security vulnerability .

The vulnerability was used in the cyber attacks against Google, yahoo and others over the last couple weeks. If you’re running any versions of Internet Explorer please install any updates from Windows Update that are pending on your system or grab the update manually from Microsoft’s site.

Microsoft Security Bulletin MS10-002 – Critical

Adobe Reader is notorious for eating up computer resources.  If you are looking for a free, light and quick PDF reader try Foxit.  We have been using it for a while now and prefer it to Adobe Reader or CutePDF.  Here is what their website has to say about why it works so well:

• Incredibly small: The download size of Foxit Reader is just a fraction of Acrobat Reader 20 M size.
• Breezing-fast: When you run Foxit Reader, it launches instantly without any delay. You are not forced to view an annoying splash window displaying company logo, author names, etc.
• Annotation tool: Have you ever wished to annotate (or comment on) a PDF document when you are reading it? Foxit Reader allows you to draw graphics, highlight text, type text and make notes on a PDF document and then print out or save the annotated document.
• Text converter: You may convert the whole PDF document into a simple text file.
• High security and privacy: Foxit Reader highly respects the security and privacy of users and will never connect to the Internet without users’ permission. While other PDF readers often silently connect to the Internet in the background. Foxit PDF Reader does not contain any spyware.

You can try it for free here.  Let us know what you think.

I love having multiple monitors. It makes working in multiple application so much easier. Most of the time I’ll have several browser windows, email, a couple servers, some windows explorer windows and other various things open and dual monitors makes switching between the programs much more fluid. What do you do if you don’t have the room (or budget) for a second monitor? Adding virtual desktops gives you almost the same functionality, for free!

What is the benefit of multiple virtual desktops?  For me, when I’m working on several projects at once virtual desktops allow me to segment the windows into groups and makes it so that I only see the windows that I don’t get lost in the shuffle of open apps.

I’m a big fan of a program called Dexpot.  It’s compatible with all modern verisons of Windows (XP, Vista, and 7) and allows you to have up to 20 virtual monitors (the default is 4) with alpha transparency, fast screen switching options and the ability to move windows back and forth between different virtual desktops.

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There are so many antivirus programs out there. It’s hard to know what is good and what is bad. For example, I will never place another norton antivirus product on a machine ever again. Why? Not only does it let viruses get through, but it can be so intrusive that it is a pain just to have sitting in the background.  Luckily there are researchers out there that test these products. In the past I have had some misgivings with the research as they have labeled certain antivirus programs as good , when I know from the field that they are horrible ( yes norton I’m looking at you).

Microsoft’s antivirus has been making waves, yes it’s free and its excellent. If you need a better antivirus , or any antivirus, I would recommend it. As so do independent tests. you can grab it here : Microsoft Security Essentials

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If you are using Office 2007, you know by now that files are automatically saved in a format (.docx, .xlsx) incompatible with older versions of Word, Excel, etc.  Do you have problems sharing documents because of this feature?  You can, of course, change the format manually when you are initially saving your file – just by using the pull down menu as shown below.

But if you want to alter the default settings in Office 2007 to always save in a format compatible with Word 97-2003, it is easy to do.  Here is how:

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If you’re like me you have a ton of icons on your desktop, but they’re all over the place and sometimes difficult to keep track of. There’s a great free application that you can use on any version of Windows XP and up (XP, Vista and 7) called Fences by Stardock.

Fences allows you to group your icons within individual…well…fences. Each fence is re-sizable, movable as a group of icons and has it’s own label. All you need to do to create a fence is right click and hold and drag a box around the icons you wish to group together, like in the video below.

The free version allows for an unlimited number of fences, quick hide abilities, auto scaling of fences for when you change resolutions and the ability to save configurations before you makes changes and revert if you don’t like your new setup.  They offer a paid version that gives you the ability to automatically grab files by extension, date, name, etc, set different opacity levels for different fences.

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Apparently there’s a newly released exploit in Encapsulated Postscript Files (.eps) files that can allow malicious code to run (i.e. viruses and the like).  Why don’t I find this to be particularly horrible news?  Because this shouldn’t affect anyone who’s paying attention anyway.

Zero-day Adobe bug overshadows impending Flash fix – The Register

There are viruses that can infect your computer through dozens of file types, among which are .avi, .pdf, .doc, .xls, .zip files (holding .exe’s) .scr, .pif, .bat and many more and through web technology such as Active X controls, Flash videos, Javascript, sql injection, xss, etc.

Just take a look at a top 20 list of Internet security problems, threats and risks

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