Tag: download

The Ten Things to Do First for Windows 7

October 25, 2009 by Jason

When you run your thumb down the list of new features and improvements in Windows 7 (see the feature comparison chart at http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/products/compare), you’re bound to wonder how you’re going to get your arms around all that new technology so that you can deliver it to your users without too much disruption.
Following are 10 steps that can help you accomplish that goal.

1. Get to know Windows 7 on a first-name basis.

Obviously, the first step is to gain personal experience. And that means more than just puttering around in the lab. Install Windows 7 on every workstation in your organization and on the machine you use at home for remote-access trouble calls. Force yourself to find ways to make everything work.

Most tools for managing Windows servers from Windows 7 are included in the Windows 7 Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT), which must be downloaded separately. At this writing, the final RSAT package hasn’t been finalized. The release candidate is available at here. Read More»

Windows 7 Security Evolution

October 07, 2009 by Jason

Confronted with increasingly bulletproofed Windows operating systems, the threat environment shifted toward targeting vulnerabilities in the code designed to run on top of the platform. With security enhancements such as User Account Control, Address Space Layout Randomization, Kernel Patch Protection and driver signing, but also with the new development methodology set in place via the Microsoft Security Development Lifecycle, vulnerabilities in Windows Vista and its successor Windows 7 have become harder to exploit, in the eventuality that attackers do come across critical security holes.

The biggest advantage in terms of security Vista and Windows 7 have over precursor Windows clients is the Security Development Lifecycle. And with the threat environment changing focus onto third-party Windows applications, Microsoft is ready to share the SDL secrets with third-party developers. An illustrative example in this regard is the Microsoft Security Development Lifecycle (SDL): Developer Starter Kit.

“The Microsoft SDL – Developer Starter Kit offers content, labs, and training to help you establish a standardized approach to rolling out the Microsoft Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) in your organization—or enrich your existing development practices,” Microsoft revealed.
Read More»

Google Plugin Enables Chrome to Run Inside IE

September 27, 2009 by Jason

A lot of people hate Internet Explorer 6 and for good reason. Developers don’t like it because making their projects work on the aging browser with all its quirks eats up precious time and users don’t like it because of its severe lack of features and poor performance. But for many upgrading isn’t an option and many businesses still rely on the browser launched in 2001. But now there is an alternative; with a plugin users will get all of the benefits of a modern browser while still running IE and the best part is that it took Google to make this happen.

“Today, we’re releasing an early version of Google Chrome Frame, an open source plug-in that brings HTML5 and other open web technologies to Internet Explorer,” software engineers Amit Joshi and Alex Russell and product manager Mike Smith wrote. “We’re building Google Chrome Frame to help web developers deliver faster, richer applications like Google Wave. Recent JavaScript performance improvements and the emergence of HTML5 have enabled web applications to do things that could previously only be done by desktop software. One challenge developers face in using these new technologies is that they are not yet supported by Internet Explorer.” Read More»

More tricks to evade keyloggers on public PCs

September 24, 2009 by Jason

The revised Vesik method involves typing nonsense characters into a password input box when using a public PC and then rearranging some of the letters to form your actual password with the mouse. If the PC contains a hardware keylogger or is infected with a software keylogger, rearranging a password in this way will usually suffice to obscure your credentials. Most hackers will concentrate on the 99% of users who type in their passwords at Internet cafés in the usual way.

One proposal sent in by many, many, many readers was a variation on a single theme. Namely, keep your sign-in information on a USB flash drive or memory stick, then copy and paste the info into the appropriate fields when you’re required to use a public PC or other unsecured computer.

Unfortunately, many keyloggers capture any information you place into the Windows Clipboard. I tested the copy-and-paste technique using the All In One Keylogger from RelyTec. (For more info, see the vendor’s site.) The program easily captured the sign-in IDs and passwords entered, whether I used the standard menu options (Edit, Copy and Edit, Paste) or the keyboard shortcuts Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V.
Read More»

Firefox 3.6 Beta 1 Up Next

September 20, 2009 by Jason

Mozilla is working its way to deliver the first beta development milestone of Firefox 3.6., codename Namoroka. The next iteration of the open-source browser won’t have any additional Alpha releases and will advance straight to Beta, with the final release planned for just two months away. At the start of this week, Mozilla noted that the Beta 1 Build for Firefox 3.6 is the next development milestone of Namoroka, indicating that the v3.6 minor update for Firefox is evolving fast toward general availability.

String freeze in common code and browser only took place on September 15th, just to be extended to all aspects of Firefox 3.6 the subsequent day. As far as Mozilla is concerned, the upcoming deadline in the development process of Firefox 3.6 is Beta code freeze. “Right now we’re potentially drifting into November for a final release due to [a] number of outstanding blockers,” Mozilla noted on September 16th.

The Beta 1 for Firefox 3.6 was initially planned for availability by the end of September 2009, and with the progress made by Mozilla so far it looks like, by the end of this month, users will be able to test drive the first post-Alpha release of v3.6. Firefox 3.6 Alpha 1 was offered to testers in the first half of August 2009, more than a month ago. Read More»

DirectX with Windows 7 Support

September 19, 2009 by Jason

The latest updates to DirectX resources from Microsoft have been tailored to the most recent iteration of the Windows client. In this regard, the Redmond company revealed that both DirectX End-User Runtimes (August 2009) and the DirectX End-User Runtime Web Installer come with support for Windows 7. Earlier this month, the software giant made available an update for the DirectX Software Development Kit (SDK) bringing to the table Direct3D 11, DXGI 1.1, Direct2D, and DirectWrite. The August 2009 (even though it was released in mid-September) DirectX SDK enables developers to build and distribute Direct3D 11 programs designed to play nice with DirectX 11 not only in Windows 7 but also in Windows Vista.

DirectX End-User Runtime Web Installer – “provides updates to 9.0c and previous versions of DirectX — the core Windows technology that drives high-speed multimedia and games on the PC. Microsoft DirectX is a group of technologies designed to make Windows-based computers an ideal platform for running and displaying applications rich in multimedia elements such as full-color graphics, video, 3D animation, and rich audio. DirectX includes security and performance updates, along with many new features across all technologies, which can be accessed by applications using the DirectX APIs,” Microsoft noted. Read More»

Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor

September 19, 2009 by Jason

Are you running an older computer with Windows Vista or Windows XP and looking to upgrade to the latest iteration of the Windows client once it becomes available on October 22nd, 2009? Then you need to know that Microsoft has done its best to streamline the evaluation process of existing machines when it comes down to Windows 7 upgrade readiness. All you have to do is download Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor and run it locally on the computer you’re looking to upgrade to Windows 7. A Beta development milestone of the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor is currently available via the Microsoft Download Center.

When it comes down to Windows 7 upgrades,meeting the hardware requirements is just a part of the equation. Fact is that more complex details are involved. And while it might be easy for end users to tell whether their system’s hardware configuration matches the Windows 7 requirements, when it comes down to application compatibility and device driver support, things are a tad more complicated. Except if you turn to the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor.

“Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor scans your PC’s system, programs and devices to check if it’s able to run Windows 7. Read More»

Automatic Windows 7 Installs

September 10, 2009 by Jason

Microsoft has made available for download the gold version of its solution accelerator designed to automate the deployment of its latest Windows client and server operating system released. The Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2010 was released to manufacturing over a month following the RTM of Windows 7 itself. MDT 2010 comes to the table with support not just for the deployment of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, but also for previous releases of Windows, including Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003, and Windows XP.

“MDT provides you with the following benefits: unified tools and processes required for desktop and server deployment in a common deployment console and collection of guidance. Reduced deployment time and standardized desktop and server images, along with improved security and ongoing configuration management. Fully automated Zero Touch Installation deployments by leveraging System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Service Pack 2 Release Candidate and Windows deployment tools. For those without a System Center Configuration Manager 2007 infrastructure, MDT leverages Windows deployment tools for Lite Touch Installation deployments,” Keith Combs, Microsoft evangelist, revealed. Read More»

Make FireFox 3 Times Fast

September 07, 2009 by Jason

SpeedyFox is a free to use tool which lets you speed up firefox startup speed, faster navigation when browsing history, browse cookies more faster and in all the overall firefox interface much faster after running the tool.

We had written some other ways to speed up firefox before

- How to Double Firefox Speed,

- About:Config Tweaks For Firefox 3,

- New Tweaks for Firefox 3,

- Speed up your Firefox 3.0.1 – Part1,

- Speed up your Firefox 3.0.1 – Part2,

- Firefox Speed Tweaks,

- How to make Firefox load pages faster,

- Speed Up Your Internet With FireFox,

- Make Firefox Faster With Your Old Firefox Profile

This small application actually compacts the size of the SQLITE databases which store a lot of setting related to your firefox profile, there by customise the databases light to load and ensure faster speed of operations in firefox.

It has a very basic interface, you just need to select the firefox profile you are using [ normally that is the default profile for many people ] after selecting the profile click Speed Up My Firefox button Read More»

Windows 7 Upgrade Performance

September 04, 2009 by Jason

Windows 7 is “outrunning” Windows Vista in more ways than one. Microsoft has labored to ensure that the latest Windows client outpaces its precursor in a variety of scenarios, from startup time, to common usage tasks, and to shutdown, to name just a few. Another aspect in which Windows 7 has Vista beat is upgrade performance. According to Chris Hernandez, from the Windows Deployment team, Windows Vista Service Pack 1 to Windows 7 upgrades are at least 5% faster than Vista SP1 to Vista SP1 upgrades.

In fact, when it set out to do the operating system upgrade measuring contest, Microsoft was looking for at least a 5% threshold for upgrade scenarios involving Vista SP1 to Windows 7 was in comparison to jumps from Vista SP1 to Vista SP1. The Redmond-based company explained that the Windows Upgrade team monitored the Windows 7 upgrade performance during the development process, and that it compared it against its Vista baseline.

“The reason we choose to use a Vista SP1 -> Vista SP1 upgrade instead of Windows XP -> Vista as our baseline was for the following: Windows XP is a vastly different operating system compared to Vista and an upgrade from Windows XP -> Vista would not be a good comparison with Vista -> Windows 7. Read More»