If you notice Internet Explorer issues like cannot IE cannot open any website, or browsing through IE is consistently slower than normal even when Internet connection is good, or a recent malware infection has messed up your Internet Explorer settings.

Does IE often stops responding, or stops working? Do you receive error messages that show that Internet Explorer has “encountered a problem and needs to close“? Or that a Visual C++ “runtime error” has occurred in Iexplore.exe? It’s time to reset your Internet Explorer to its default settings.

After the release of Internet Explorer 7, Microsoft has introduced a single-button reset function for IE which can still be found in IE 9. If that reset button is clicked, it resets IE to Windows or manufacturer’s defaults.

Warning: Resetting Internet Explorer is not reversible. After a reset, all previous settings are lost and cannot be recovered. Rather than resetting everything, you might first want to reset specific settings (steps described in the second part of this article).

What happens to Internet Explorer 9 when we reset it?

What stuff are deleted? Browser history, stored passwords, temporary internet files, cookies, saved form data, typed URL history, websites added to different security zones under Privacy tab and allowed websites in Pop-up blocker.

What stuff are reset to defaults? Home page, Security tab settings, Advanced tab settings, Privacy tab settings, Search providers, tabbed browsing settings, colors, fonts, languages and accessibility settings under the Advanced tab, toolbar and text size, phishing filter, auto-complete and pop-up blocker.

Note: Third-party ActiveX controls, Toolbars, Browser Helper Objects (BHOs) and other IE extensions are disabled.

What are kept unchanged? Internet connection, proxy, VPN settings, default browser setting, Favorites, Feeds, Pre-approved ActiveX controls, Content Advisor settings, temporary internet file path setting, stored certificates information and Group Policy settings.

How To Reset Internet Explorer 9?

The steps below is valid for resetting Internet Explorer 7 and 8.

Warning: This action deletes the trusted sites that you have added and resets the parental control settings, so keep a note of these sites before you use this feature.

1. First, exit all the programs that are running, including Internet Explorer (if it is running). Better, you can simply restart your PC.

2. Click on Start, type the following command in the Start Search box, and then press Enter:

inetcpl.cpl

Windows XP users for resetting IE 7/IE 8, click Start, then click Run. Type the following command in the Open box, and then press Enter: inetcpl.cpl

3. Wait for the Internet Options dialog box to appear.

4. Now in the Internet Options dialog box, click on the Advanced tab, click Reset in the Reset Internet Explorer settings section. Click Reset again in the information dialog box.

5. When Internet Explorer finishes resetting, click Close in the confirmation dialogue box and then click OK.

6. Close and open Internet Explorer again.

If you don’t want to do all these steps, you can use Microsoft Fix it 50195, which automates the process for you.

How To Reset Specific Internet Explorer 9 Settings Only?

1. Reset Security Tab Settings only: IE 7, IE 8 and IE 9 allows you to reset security settings for all the zones or for a specific zone.

Open Internet Options dialog box by following Steps 1 and 2 described in the previous section.

Now, click on the Security tab. Click the Internet zone icon. On the Security level for this zone section, click on the Default Level button. Click Apply and OK. Follow this procedure for all the other zones.

You may also choose to revert all zones to their default levels at one go by clicking on Reset all zones to default level.

2. Reset Advanced Settings: You can reset only the advanced settings by clicking on Restore advanced settings button in the Advanced tab of the Internet Options window.

Hopefully these steps should be enough for you to handle general IE woes.

Web browsers are the primary application used to browse the Internet by all users. Hence, it’s attacked the most from various forms of malicious threats. The most common example that we can see is when computer systems are getting infected without user’s knowledge during web browsing.

Even though most security systems are capable of blocking this attacks but, isn’t it a better idea to prevent the infection from the browser itself? BitDefender TrafficLight warns users about malicious websites and filters malicious web traffic.

Although, almost every major antivirus company offers similar solution today, but BitDefender TrafficLight has one key advantage over them: it’s available on all five major browsers: Internet Explorer, Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera, and Safari.

Another deferential feature of BitDefender TrafficLight is that, the program installs itself as a service in Windows. This service than carefully monitors and analyzes the web traffic before the web browser even executes the codes. TrafficLight displays only a small slide-out grab tab that you can click to display its analysis of the current page. When malicious activity is detected, TrafficLight will spring into action and prevent the offending code from executing.

On performance cause, it does need 20 to 30 MB of RAM to run, which anyone can spare when security is concerned and memory comes cheap.

List of protections covered by TrafficLight:

• Each search result from Google, Yahoo! or Bing is labeled to show the safe and risky links. TrafficLight leverages the intelligence from BitDefender Cloud services to flag the search results appropriately.
• Each click on the links from Facebook or Twitter is scanned and the link could be blocked in real-time if the link appears to be malicious.
• Link shortening tools that works with Saf.li is included to make sure only safe links are shortened.
• Detect and block links pointing to malware or phishing sites.
• Ad-blocker (To be available in future)

To install TrafficLight in your browser, visit the BitDefender site. After installing it, you’ll have an unobtrusive malware protection hiding just below your browser’s toolbar. Here’s the direct link to the installer: WebInstaller.exe

After Microsoft released Internet Explorer 9 and found it well accepted among Windows users, the software giant has released the platform preview of the next version. Undoubtedly, Microsoft on 12th April, 2011 has released Internet Explorer 10 Platform Preview 1 available for download.

Internet Explorer 10 PP1 is an early look at IE web browser where you can test out some of the new features that are being developed for Microsoft though as the company admits, some features aren’t quite ready yet. You can view the release notes here.

Welcome to the Platform Preview

The Platform Preview is an early look at the Internet Explorer platform so some features are incomplete, some may change, and some may be added. To learn more about this preview of the Web Platform, please see the Internet Explorer 10 Developer Guide. These release notes list new features available in the latest Platform Preview and known issues with those features. To report issues, and provide feedback please click on Report Issue and click Send Feedback.

What’s New in Internet Explorer 10 Platform Preview 1

Internet Explorer 10 Platform Preview 1 is the first public preview of the IE10 web platform. In this release, we are showcasing support for CSS3 Flexbox, CSS3 Grid Alignment, CSS3 Multi-column, CSS3 Gradients on background-images and ECMAScript5 Strict Mode.

The Internet Explorer PP requires Windows 7 (x86 or x64) Operating System. Later version of IE 10, that is Platform Preview 4 and later require updates to be installed on Windows 7 systems, after which your computer will require a restart. The updates support graphics, media, and printing functionality. It is designed to install these prerequisites automatically. However, if this version of IE encounters an error while installing the prerequisites, you can install them manually prior to installing the Platform Preview. You can view the complete installation guide at this instruction page.

If you’re excited about Internet Explorer 10 and is going to give it a try, please do report any bugs you come across. This way, you will help Microsoft build the perfect Internet Explorer.

Download Internet Explorer 10

Microsoft is planning to push Internet Explorer 9 as an Important Windows Update to existing beta and RC users on March 21. The update will also be offered as Important to normal Windows users. Microsoft revealed that Internet Explorer 9 RTW has been downloaded 2.35 million times in the first 24 hours of availability. Internet Explorer 9 was released to the web on Monday March 14 and has clocked up 27 downloads per second, over 250 downloads every 10 seconds. Microsoft revealed earlier this month that users have downloaded 36 million copies of Internet Explorer 9 since its beta release in September.

It was already confirmed earlier by Microsoft’s head of Internet Explorer, Dean Hachamovitch, that Microsoft will upgrade RC users to the final build. “We will automatically update IE9 beta users to the IE9 RC. After the final release, we will automatically update IE9 RC users to the final build,” said Hachamovitch.

Internet Explorer 9 includes an enhanced minimalistic user interface with HTML5 support, hardware accelerated browsing and some great security improvements. Tracking Protection is included in IE 9. The new privacy feature allows consumers to address their concerns about being tracked on the web. Internet Explorer 9 offers users a new opt-in mechanism to identify and block many forms of undesired tracking such as cookies, web beacons, advertisements and trackers. Tracking protection involves lists that can be published online. Another security enhancement is the ability to block ActiveX controls. IE 9 includes an “ActiveX filter” option that allows users to switch off ActiveX elements within their session. Other improvement includes improved tabbing and site pinning.

We have covered some handy IE 9 keyboard shortcuts published by Microsoft earlier. These keyboard shortcuts will help users use IE9 faster. We also covered the release of IE9 product guide (manual) by Microsoft in the same article. The guide gives detailed information about the new features in IE9, will help you in getting started and easily understand most of the useful features in IE9.

Microsoft has released Internet Explorer 9 few days back with a new interface, advanced features and a variety of improvements. But this new minimalistic interface comes at a price. To help users use IE9 faster, Microsoft has released some keyboard shortcuts. While some of these keyboard shortcuts may be new, but some were already available in earlier versions of IE.

Use the keyboard shortcuts below to streamline repetitive actions in IE9.

• Press the Alt key to show the menu bar
• Alt + M : Open your homepage
• Alt + C : Open Favorites/Feeds/History window
• Alt + X : Open the Tools menu
• Alt + Left/Right : Move Back/Forward through your History
• Alt + N : Focus the new bottom-hugging Notification bar (then press Enter for the first button, or Esc to dismiss it)
• Ctrl + T : Open a new Tab
• Ctrl + Tab : Switch between tabs
• Ctrl + N : Open a new Window
• Ctrl + W : Close current Tab
• Ctrl + L : Sets your keyboard focus to the One Bar (address bar), and selects the current URL
• Ctrl + Shift + L : Load a URL present in your clipboard; if you have a text string in your clipboard, it searches your default search engine for it
• Ctrl + D : Add current page to your Favorites (bookmarks)
• Ctrl + B : Organize your Favorites
• Ctrl + J : Opens the Download Manager
• Ctrl + K : Duplicates your current tab
• Ctrl + Alt + P : Open an InPrivate Browsing window
• F12 : Open the developer console (Now press Alt + 7/8/9/Q to change the rendering mode)
• Alt + L : Open the Help menu

Microsoft has also updated the IE9 product guide (manual) which gives detailed information about the new features in IE9, will help you in getting started and easily understand most of the useful features in IE9. Read on to learn more about how Internet Explorer 9 unlocks the Beauty of the Web.

Internet Explorer 9 Product Guide (PDF)  28 MB

Internet Explorer 9 Product Guide (XPS)  8.6 MB

Internet Explorer 9 is available for Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 only.

Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) has finally been officially released by Microsoft as scheduled beforehand. The RTW (Release to Web) version of IE9 is the final and stable RTM version, build 9.00.8112.16421.110308-0330. The build number indicates that IE9 is compiled, finalized and signed off on March 8, 2011.

You can download final stable version of IE9 from the official IE site, BeautyOfTheWeb.com.

Internet Explorer 9 adds many major features and includes many enhancements. These features are primarily divided into three major categories, viz., Fast, Clean and Trusted.

• Fast
  • Hardware acceleration to speed up graphics-heavy tasks like video streaming or online gaming.
• Clean
  • Streamlined design with compact user interface.
  • Pinned Sites for accessing frequently visited web pages directly from the taskbar on Windows 7 desktop.
  • Enhanced tabs browsing with ability to tear-off tabs out of Internet Explorer to open the tab’s webpage in a new window, and snap tabs for side-by-side viewing.
  • New Tab page with listing of most often and frequently visited webpages.
  • Search in the address bar with search suggestions support.
  • Notification Bar appears at the bottom of Internet Explorer.
• Trusted
  • Download Manager with ability to pause and restart a download.
  • Add-on Performance Advisor
  • Tracking Protection to limit the browser’s communication with certain websites to help keep information private.
  • ActiveX Filtering.

IE9 is not supported on Windows XP. Installing IE9 will automatically replace and remove the existing installation of Internet Explorer. Uninstalling IE9 should automatically rollback to the earlier version that was installed. IE9 is available for Windows Vista SP2, Windows 7 (SP1 optional), Windows Server 2008 SP2 and Windows Server 2008 R2 (SP1 optional).

You can also directly download Internet Explorer 9 from the links given below.

Direct Download Internet Explorer 9 (32-bit and 64-bit IE9) Offline Setup Installers

Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2: IE9-Windows7-x86-enu.exe (x86 English Full Installer)
Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2: IE9-Windows7-x64-enu.exe (x64 English Full Installer)

Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008: IE9-WindowsVista-x86-enu.exe (x86 English Full Installer)
Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008: IE9-WindowsVista-x64-enu.exe (x64 English Full Installer)

Microsoft announced that it would officially launch Internet Explorer (IE) 9 on March 14, 2011. The final version, IE 9, will thus release almost exactly one year after the first IE 9 platform preview was unveiled. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 9 team is planning to host a party during the South by southwest (SXSW) music and film festival in Austin, Texas.

Microsoft Program Manager Ryan Gavin wrote in the announcement post, “Exactly twelve months from the first Platform Preview of IE9, on Monday March 14th we will celebrate the developers and designers who are making a more beautiful web for all of us.  We will release the final version of Internet Explorer 9 for download beginning at 9 p.m. Pacific.“

The initial platform preview build was followed by several other platform preview releases, and the company issued a public beta in September 2010, followed by release candidate (RC) build in early February.

Microsoft launched its final development milestone version of Internet Explorer 9 on February 10. The software giant’s main change in Internet Explorer 9 RC is the addition of Tracking Protection. Internet Explorer 9  RC offers users a new opt-in mechanism to identify and block many forms of undesired tracking such as cookies, web beacons, advertisements and trackers. Tracking protection involves lists that can be published online. Microsoft’s second security enhancement is the ability to block ActiveX controls. Internet Explorer 9 RC includes an “ActiveX filter” option. The filter allows users to switch off ActiveX elements within their session, furthering Microsoft’s commitment to security within its browser.

Microsoft has also signed-off on the final golden RTW (RTM) build of Internet Explorer 9 as 9.00.8112.16421.110308-0330. The escrow builds marked the final stage of Internet Explorer 9′s development before the company finalized its RTW build. Microsoft revealed on Tuesday that users have downloaded 36 million copies of Internet Explorer since its beta release in September.

Microsoft has released Internet Explorer 9 RC (Release Candidate) which you can download using the offline direct download links given at the end of this article. The Release Candidate of Internet Explorer 9 is available now at www.BeautyOfTheWeb.com in 40 languages. There does not seem to be a need to uninstall a beta version before installing the release candidate.

Below, you can see what’s new in the RC since Beta:

Microsoft’s main change in Internet Explorer 9 RC is the addition of Tracking Protection. The new privacy feature that allows consumers to address their concerns about being tracked on the web. Internet Explorer 9 RC offers users a new opt-in mechanism to identify and block many forms of undesired tracking such as cookies, web beacons, advertisements and trackers. Tracking protection works by allowing users to create lists of sites that are protected from being tracked by other sites via cookies and other means. The first set of Tracking Protection Lists created by trusted organizations are now available on the Web. The ability for a site to determine that the user has expressed a wish to not be tracked (by turning the feature on) is inherent in the design of Tracking Protection.

Microsoft’s second security enhancement is the ability to block ActiveX controls. Internet Explorer 9 RC includes an opt-in “ActiveX filter” option. Microsoft has made it easy to “turn off ActiveX” for all sites and then re-enable it, site by site, as you see fit, furthering Microsoft’s commitment to security within its browser. The filter in RC is basic and doesn’t appear to allow for a per-site setting, just on or off.

Microsoft is expected to reveal the final version of Internet Explorer 9 at MIX 11 in April.

The official release notes are available, you can also read more about Internet Explorer 9 RC release here.

It’s available for Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 and supports both 32-bit and 64-bit versions.

Offline Direct Download Links of Internet Explorer 9 RC

• For Windows 7 (x86):

  http://download.microsoft.com/download/2/A/5/2A50895F-4BF1-4A68-837B-506AE8301E9D/IE9-Windows7-x86-enu.exe

• For Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 (x64):

  http://download.microsoft.com/download/C/1/5/C154F0CF-4BC8-454D-A4E8-314682963937/IE9-Windows7-x64-enu.exe

• For Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 (x86):

  http://download.microsoft.com/download/C/1/7/C1754A31-1B2B-44F6-A51F-E7B2BB2E750E/IE9-WindowsVista-x86-enu.exe

• For Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 (x64):

  http://download.microsoft.com/download/3/7/7/377E5AD2-756A-4FFF-982F-78D5B411EC74/IE9-WindowsVista-x64-enu.exe

Change the language code, for instance from enu to esn for Spanish, ptb for Portuguese or deu for German, to download the browser in a different language or you can also download IE9 RC in other languages using following link:

Download IE9 RC in other languages

I test a lot of applications everyday mainly for reviewing them here. I write about them if I find the app useful or interesting. While testing one such free internet download manager application, I found my system filled with crapware. I know that many developers includes toolbars or other types of adware or crapware bundled with their application. And, if we do not keep an eye on what we are selecting while installing the freeware, we may end up having those crapware installed on our system.

Even when we are extra careful crapware still manages to get into the system. I remember very well of deselecting every check box related to installation of Bigseekpro.com toolbar and changes to my Internet Explorer homepage and other settings. Still, the download application, SoMud, in question installed the crapware.

After installation was complete, I received from my trusted security app a warning about a change in my IE homepage, which I very well denied. I then opened IE and found that the homepage was not changed, thanks to my security app. But on opening a new tab, I found that my about:Tabs page hijacked.

Then I decided that its time for SoMud to go from my system. I removed it and carried IE reset but that didn’t solve the problem. I started digging the Registry Editor and found the entry modified. If you also faced the same problem and want to restore the default about:Tabs page, follow the steps below.

• Click Start, in the Start Search type regedit, press Enter (give your administrative credentials if prompted for or click on Yes at the UAC prompt.)

  

• Navigate to the following registry key:
  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\AboutURLs

  

• In the right panel, right-click on Tabs and click on Modify…

• Change the Value data: to res://ieframe.dll/tabswelcome.htm

  

• Click on OK and voilà about:Tabs page restored to its old glory.

  

Facebook is the most popular social networking site today. It’s interface is evolving everyday and is one of the most easy to use one. If you like doing everything using the keyboard and seldom use the mouse or if you want to experience Facebook faster, then you should try the keyboard shortcuts that Facebook provides for keyboard-only users. All these shortcuts are available in the Facebook Help Centre > Accessibility and Assistive Technology help page. (source)

Below is the excerpt of the keyboard shortcuts available, simply replace the # with the numeric digit shown in the Map section for the surfing the desired page in Facebook. So suppose if you want to return to the Facebook Home page and you are using Internet Explorer 7, simply press Alt + 0. Firefox for Windows users should press Shift + Alt + 0. Firefox and Safari for Mac users on the other hand should press Ctrl + 0.

The shortcuts are browser-specific, so please refer below for your specific browser:

Internet Explorer 7 for PC:
Alt + #, then Enter

Firefox 3 for PC:
Shift + Alt + #

Safari 3 for Mac:
Ctrl + #

Firefox 3 for Mac:
Ctrl + #

Map:
0 – Help
1 – Home
2 – Profile
3 – Friends
4 – Inbox
5 — Notifications
6 — Account Settings
7 – Privacy
8 – About
9 – Terms

If you experience any problems with the feature, you can email Facebook’s accessibility team here.

Microsoft published 16 Security Bulletins addressing 49 vulnerabilities on “Patch Tuesday,” October 12. Patch Tuesday got its name as Microsoft releases security patches and updates every second Tuesday of a month while only highly critical vulnerabilities receive out-of-band security patches. Compared to last month’s record Patch Tuesday, this month’s list is massive. In fact, this is the highest number of bulletins Microsoft has ever released in one month, as well as the most vulnerabilities that are being fixed.

Out of the 16 Security Bulletins that addresses 49 vulnerabilities, four of the vulnerabilities are rated “Critical,” 10 vulnerabilities are marked as “Important,” and the last two as “Moderate.” All of the Critical vulnerabilities earned their rating through a remote code execution impact, meaning a hacker could potentially gain control of an infected machine. At least eight of the 16 patches will need a Windows system restart.

The list of affected operating systems includes Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008 R2. Microsoft Office XP, Office 2003, Office 2007, and Office 2010 are also being patched, as well as the supported Mac versions of Microsoft Office: Office 2004 and Office 2008. Also for the first time, Microsoft Office Web Apps is also included on the list.

According to the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC):

Looking at the number and type of updates this month, we have a fairly standard number of bulletins affecting products like Windows and Office. This month we also have a few bulletins originating from product groups that we don’t see on a regular basis. For example, SharePoint, the Microsoft Foundation Class (MFC) Library (which is an application framework for programming in Windows), and the .NET Framework. It’s worth noting that only six of the 49 total vulnerabilities being addressed have a critical rating. Further, three of the bulletins account for 34 of the total vulnerabilities.

The video below provides additional viewpoints on the priority bulletins and explains why each should be at the top of your list to install:

The exact breakdown of the bulletins follows:

• MS10-071: Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer (2360131) — This security update resolves seven privately reported vulnerabilities and three publicly disclosed vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer. The most severe vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if a user views a specially crafted Web page using Internet Explorer. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights.
• MS10-075: Vulnerability in Media Player Network Sharing Service Could Allow Remote Code Execution (2281679) — This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in the Microsoft Windows Media Player network sharing service. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if an attacker sent a specially crafted RTSP packet to an affected system. However, Internet access to home media is disabled by default. In this default configuration, the vulnerability can be exploited only by an attacker within the same subnet.
• MS10-076: Vulnerability in the Embedded OpenType Font Engine Could Allow Remote Code Execution (982132) — This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in a Microsoft Windows component, the Embedded OpenType (EOT) Font Engine. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could take complete control of an affected system remotely. An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights.
• MS10-077: Vulnerability in .NET Framework Could Allow Remote Code Execution (2160841) — This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in Microsoft .NET Framework. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution on a client system if a user views a specially crafted Web page using a Web browser that can run XAML Browser Applications (XBAPs). Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights. The vulnerability could also allow remote code execution on a server system running IIS, if that server allows processing ASP.NET pages and an attacker succeeds in uploading a specially crafted ASP.NET page to that server and then executes the page, as could be the case in a Web hosting scenario.
• MS10-072: Vulnerabilities in SafeHTML Could Allow Information Disclosure (2412048) — This security update resolves one publicly disclosed vulnerability and one privately reported vulnerability in Microsoft SharePoint and Windows SharePoint Services. The vulnerabilities could allow information disclosure if an attacker submits specially crafted script to a target site using SafeHTML.
• MS10-073: Vulnerabilities in Windows Kernel-Mode Drivers Could Allow Elevation of Privilege (981957) — This security update resolves several publicly disclosed vulnerabilities in the Windows kernel-mode drivers. The most severe of these vulnerabilities could allow elevation of privilege if an attacker logs on to an affected system and runs a specially crafted application. An attacker must have valid logon credentials and be able to log on locally to exploit this vulnerability. The vulnerability could not be exploited remotely or by anonymous users.
• MS10-078: Vulnerabilities in the OpenType Font (OTF) Format Driver Could Allow Elevation of Privilege (2279986) — This security update resolves two privately reported vulnerabilities in the Windows OpenType Font (OTF) format driver. This security update is rated Important for all supported editions of Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. All supported editions of Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008 R2 are not affected by the vulnerability. The vulnerabilities could allow elevation of privilege if a user views content rendered in a specially crafted OpenType font. An attacker must have valid logon credentials and be able to log on locally to exploit this vulnerability. The vulnerability could not be exploited remotely or by anonymous users.
• MS10-079: Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Word Could Allow Remote Code Execution (2293194) — This security update resolves eleven privately reported vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office. The vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if a user opens a specially crafted Word file. An attacker who successfully exploited any of these vulnerabilities could gain the same user rights as the local user. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights.
• MS10-080: Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Excel Could Allow Remote Code Execution (2293211) — This security update resolves thirteen privately reported vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office. The vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if a user opens a specially crafted Excel file or a specially crafted Lotus 1-2-3 file. An attacker who successfully exploited any of these vulnerabilities could gain the same user rights as the local user. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights.
• MS10-081: Vulnerability in Windows Common Control Library Could Allow Remote Code Execution (2296011) — This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in the Windows common control library. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if a user visited a specially crafted Web page. If a user is logged on with administrative user rights, an attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could take complete control of an affected system. An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights.
• MS10-082: Vulnerability in Windows Media Player Could Allow Remote Code Execution (2378111) — This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in Windows Media Player. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if Windows Media Player opened specially crafted media content hosted on a malicious Web site. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could gain the same user rights as the local user. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights.
• MS10-083: Vulnerability in COM Validation in Windows Shell and WordPad Could Allow Remote Code Execution (2405882) — This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in Microsoft Windows. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if a user opens a specially crafted file using WordPad or selects or opens a shortcut file that is on a network or WebDAV share. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could gain the same user rights as the local user. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights.
• MS10-084: Vulnerability in Windows Local Procedure Call Could Cause Elevation of Privilege (2360937) — This security update resolves a publicly disclosed vulnerability in Microsoft Windows. This security update is rated Important for all supported editions of Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. All supported editions of Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008 R2 are not affected by the vulnerability.

  The vulnerability could allow elevation of privilege if an attacker logs on to an affected system and runs specially crafted code that sends an LPC message to the local LRPC Server. The message could then allow an authenticated user to access resources that are running in the context of the NetworkService account. An attacker must have valid logon credentials and be able to log on locally to exploit this vulnerability.

• MS10-085: Vulnerability in SChannel Could Allow Denial of Service (2207566) — This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in the Secure Channel (SChannel) security package in Windows. The vulnerability could allow denial of service if an affected Internet Information Services (IIS) server hosting a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) enabled Web site received a specially crafted packet message. By default, IIS is not configured to host SSL Web sites.
• MS10-074: Vulnerability in Microsoft Foundation Classes Could Allow Remote Code Execution (2387149) — This security update resolves a publicly disclosed vulnerability in the Microsoft Foundation Class (MFC) Library. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if a user is logged on with administrative user rights and opens an application built with the MFC Library. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could obtain the same permissions as the currently logged-on user. If a user is logged on with administrative user rights, an attacker could take complete control of the affected system. An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights.
• MS10-086: Vulnerability in Windows Shared Cluster Disks Could Allow Tampering (2294255) — This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in Windows Server 2008 R2 when used as a shared failover cluster. The vulnerability could allow data tampering on the administrative shares of failover cluster disks. By default, Windows Server 2008 R2 servers are not affected by this vulnerability. This vulnerability only applies to the cluster disks used in a failover cluster.

The patches should by now be available to Windows users via Windows Update and Microsoft Download. Microsoft has also released the October 2010 Security Release ISO Image containing all references security patches and Knowledgebase articles.

Are you testing the beta build of Internet Explorer 9? Are you looking for some pretty quick IE9 tweaks the easy way without the dirty work of editing the registry or modifying any files? Look no further than IE9 Tweaker! It is a very easy to use, straight-forward software, designed for only one purpose, to enable you to tweak some select settings of Internet Explorer 9 with ease. IE9 Tweaker created by Lee Whittington, an author and a forum member of The Windows Club, is a portable small application that provides easy fast access to a handful of useful Internet Explorer 9 hidden settings.

You will find a setting to always show the menu bar, always show menu bar at top, display small icons on toolbar, launch all new browsing sessions in full-screen mode, and start IE9 with InPrivate filtering enabled. You can also tweak the number of rows on the new tab page without messing up the registry yourself. Using IE9 Tweaker, you can even easily create a custom page to list your preferred sites instead of IE9′s automatically generated selection using the “custom page creator”.

IE9 Tweaker Features at a glance:

• Set menu bar to be always visible
• Set menu bar on top
• Set InPrivate Filtering to be always on
• Set 3D Border to add a border between the toolbar and the web window.
• Always start IE in full-screen
• Set small icons on toolbar
• Change number of maximum downloads
• Change the rows on the about:tabs page. You can set this figure between 2 -5. (By default, Internet Explorer 9 shows 2 rows of your most visited sites on the about:tabs page, with each row having 5 thumbnails.)
• Create a custom Favorites Home Page to make it display your favorites.

You can download a copy of IE9 Tweaker for free from The Windows Club.

Xmarks is a bookmark sync browser add-on that lets you synchronize all your bookmarks, passwords and other data over several computers, across almost all popular browsers. I am a Xmarks user myself and use it to sync my bookmarks across all the browsers that I use. Sadly, this awesome bookmark sync service will be shutting down service on January 10, 2011.

According to the blog post update on the official Xmarks blog, from today Xmarks will start sending notifications to its users (I still haven’t received one) that the service will be shut down in 90 days. The reasons for the shutdown are explained in detail in the blog post. It can be understood that the main reasons behind shutting down Xmarks are funds running out and Xmarks being unable to find a viable business model or a buyer.

Xmarks (founded in 2006 under the original name Foxmarks) started out as a Firefox plug-in that lets users sync their bookmarks on several computers. Later, Foxmarks rechristened as Xmarks, as it extended support for other browsers and added more functionality, such as browsing recommendations and password syncing.

Xmarks claims it serves around 2 million users across 5 million desktops, and still adding nearly 3,000 new accounts per day (their registration page is still online). You may be wondering, then why Xmarks is seeing the end of the road?

Well, when big players like Google, Opera and Mozilla starts providing sync service and with most of the features that Xmarks offers, free, it becomes really difficult for startups like Xmarks to survive.

A quote from Xmarks CTO and Co-founder Todd Agulnick:

“For four years we have offered the synchronization service for no charge, predicated on the hypothesis that a business model would emerge to support the free service. With that investment thesis thwarted, there is no way to pay expenses, primarily salary and hosting costs. Without the resources to keep the service going, we must shut it down.”

Its not like the Xmarks developers never tried. They tried various ways to make a profit out of its business, including a “smarter search” idea based on data gleaned from its anonymized collection of 100 million bookmarks. “If you were looking for the Web sites in a particular category, the results were shockingly complete and entirely spam-free,” Agulnick said. They also launched a 99-cent iPhone app to extend sync to Apple’s devices and had begun work on an equivalent for phones using Google’s Android OS. Though the iPhone app will continue to work with bookmarks cached on the phone, but the Android app will never be released.

It is really sad to say good-bye to such a good service. You can easily understand this even if you are not a Xmarks user, when you see comments by users willing to pay for the service, at the official announcement blog post.

Xmarks Alternatives

If you are presently a Xmarks user, you should check Xmarks’ guide to alternatives for advice on the best way to keep your data.

Browser Sync Alternatives

While you may have to give up cross-browser sync when Xmarks goes away, there are a lot of good browser-specific sync options available:

In that page we found two suggestions by Xmarks as its alternative for users who wants more than bookmark sync: Evernote and SugarSync. Xmarks seems to have tied up with the two to offer some exclusive plans for its users. SugarSync is offering free 2 GB storage space for all Xmarks users who signup through the link available here.

Google Scribe is a new Google Labs project that helps you speed up text typing. Google Scribe basically provides text completion service. Using information from what you have already typed in a text field, Google Scribe provides related word or phrase completion suggestions. In addition to saving keystrokes, Google Scribe’s suggestions indicate correct or popular phrases to use.

You can use Google Scribe on any active text field in a webpage. For example, you can now type faster in Twitter to send updates faster, fill comment form of a blog, compose email, be it GMail, Yahoo Mail, Hotmail, or any other email, etc. With the handy keyboard shortcuts and mouse gestures you can now fasten up text typing while also cut typing errors.

If you are using Google Chrome, then you can enable Google Scribe using the official Google Scribe (Labs) Chrome Extension. If you are using any other browser like Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera or Apple Safari, then you can use the Google Scribe Bookmarklet to enable Google Scribe.

Handy Google Scribe keyboard shortcuts:

If you use a Mac, you can use the shortcuts below by replacing Ctrl with Command/Meta key.

More detailed help on using Google Scribe can be found here.

Internet Explorer 9 is already available for download and you may have installed it already just to see whats new. Now, if you are looking for how to uninstall Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) off Windows 7/Vista or if you don’t want to keep IE9 and want back previous version of IE installed, IE8 or IE7. Then we have just found an easy way to do so.

Since IE9 is installed as a Windows Update and is not like other programs on your computer, you won’t find IE9 listed on the “Uninstall” or “Change a program” screen.

For uninstalling IE9 properly and cleanly from Windows 7 or Vista, just follow the simple steps below:

1. Click on the Start Button and in the search box type view updates
2. Once the results appear, click on view installed updates

   If you want to do it quickly without doing the search, Press Win+R to open the Run dialog box to paste the following Enter:
   C:\Windows\explorer.exe shell:::{d450a8a1-9568-45c7-9c0e-b4f9fb4537bd}

3. Wait for a few moments for the “Uninstall an update” screen to load completely
4. Now, scroll through the list until you find the entry: Windows Internet Explorer 9
5. Click on that entry once to highlight it, then click on the uninstall button to continue uninstalling (You can also right-click on the entry and select uninstall.)
6. Confirm that you want to uninstall by clicking on Yes.

Here are the instructions straight from Microsoft:

What are your views regarding the new version of Internet Explorer 9? Which alternate browser are you going to use now? Share it with us in the comments!

Google has recently released a Web browser add-on that will stop the browser from sending information to the Google Analytics service.

To provide website visitors with more choice about how their data is collected by Google Analytics, we have developed the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on. The add-on communicates with the Google Analytics JavaScript (ga.js) to indicate that information about the website visit should not be sent to Google Analytics.

Mainly websites use Google Analytics service to know their site’s traffic pattern and to optimize their website further for their visitors. When a person visits a site, Analytics creates a cookie on the person’s computer. Cookies are small data files used to record information about how a person interacts with a website. You can easily remove cookies from any browser.

Google’s new Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on when installed in the supported browsers, basically tells the Google Analytics service that information about the website visit should not be sent to Analytics.

Other add-ons that were available to Firefox users before Google’s official Analytics opt-out add-on is released to block Analytics are Adblock Plus add-on and NoScript add-on. They both can be set to prevent Google Analytics from receiving any information from the browser. Another add-on called OptimizeGoogle, entirely blocks the Google Analytics cookie in addition to modifying other aspects of Google’s behavior, including blocking Google advertisements and modifying the user ID cookie Google assigns to users of its search engine so that they can surf anonymously.

Google Analytics Opt-Out Browser Add-on does not stop Google from putting other cookies such as Google DoubleClick cookie, which tracks the Web pages a person visits and then serves advertisements related to that content.

The Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on is available for Internet Explorer (versions 7 and 8), Google Chrome (4.x and higher), and Mozilla Firefox (3.5 and higher).

Microsoft has released a free download manager, dubbed the Microsoft Download Manager, is designed to integrate seamlessly with Windows 7. It is now available as free download from Microsoft. Microsoft Download Manager utility is designed to help users control their downloads beyond the boundaries of the browser. It is specifically designed for downloads from Microsoft pages on the Internet but it can be used for any HTTP based downloads.

The Microsoft Download Manager enables you to download files from the Internet in a more reliable and faster way than using a browser alone. Using the Download Manager makes it easier to download large files such as an application or multimedia files.

More often than not, when users try downloading very large files, they face all kinds of problems, especially in the context of an unreliable connection. In such situations a download manager comes to rescue the user and helps the user to complete any download tasks, a feature which is missing in the browsers.

Upon installation users will find that Microsoft Download Manager features basic download manager functionality. The basic interface enables the user to add, pause, resume and delete downloads. Users can open the download folder after the download is complete. It also allows for some customization, featuring options such as the number of automatic retries, and the maximum number of simultaneous connections (up to 16 simultaneous connections). It also allows the user to configure a destination folder for the downloads or a proxy server for the application to use.

Microsoft Download Manager is a lightweight program and the download size is only 1.1 MB, which can be attributed to the lack of many advanced features. Microsoft Download Manager will be good enough for users who download files mostly from Microsoft website and occasionally from the Internet.

Microsoft Download Manager can be downloaded directly from Microsoft. Microsoft Download Manager supports not only Windows 7, but also for Windows Vista and Windows XP SP2 and SP3. Microsoft Download Manager is designed to work with Internet Explorer 8, Internet Explorer 7, Internet Explorer 6, Firefox 3, Firefox 2.

After the recent release of Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview 1, Microsoft has just released a new Internet Explorer Platform Preview that is available for download at the Internet Explorer 9 website. Microsoft has also added a testdrive site that has a new set of developer samples and information about the upcoming Internet Explorer 9 web browser.

The second Platform Preview of Internet Explorer 9 shows a noticeable JavaScript speed improvements, thereby closing the gap between IE9 and Safari, Chrome, Opera, while surpassing Mozilla Firefox web browser.

See the table and the graph below for full details (data shown as released at the IE9 website):

Browser	Sunspider Result Average (ms)
IE8	3746
IE9 PDC 2009 Demo	832
Firefox 3.6	736
Firefox 3.7 Pre-Release Alpha5	645
IE9 Platform Preview #1	590
IE9 Platform Preview #2	473
Safari 4.0.5	412
Chrome 4.1.249.1064	371
Opera 10.52	294
Chrome 5.0.375.29 Beta	271

The Acid3 score of Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview 2 also improved and went up to 68 out of 100. Not a perfect score but the IE9 developers have promised a better compatibility in the later releases.

The table below is a summary of the test results with the May 2010 IE Platform Preview and each of the major shipping browsers running on Windows.

Cross-browser Test Results Summary:

W3C Web Standards	Number of Submitted Tests	Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview	Mozilla Firefox 3.6.3	Opera 10.52	Apple Safari 4.05	Google Chrome 4.1
HTML5	40	100%	58%	45%	38%	38%
SVG 1.1 2nd edition	31	100%	84%	94%	90%	90%
CSS3 Media Queries	19	100%	74%	68%	42%	53%
CSS3 Borders & Backgrounds	33	100%	27%	88%	27%	91%
CSS3 Selectors	16	100%	81%	63%	50%	50%
DOM Level 3 Core	18	100%	78%	78%	94%	94%
DOM Level 3 Events	30	100%	37%	33%	20%	27%
DOM Level 2 Style	5	100%	100%	80%	20%	0%

A new user string is also introduced, with the feature to change the user agent string in the preview version of IE9.

IE9′s default UA string

There are four changes to IE8′s UA string that site developers need to be aware of:
1. Application version is incremented from ‘Mozilla/4.0′ to ‘Mozilla/5.0′ to match other browsers (explained well in the great History of the user-agent string post). This change signals that IE9 is an interoperable browser.
2. Version token is incremented from ‘MSIE 8.0′ to ‘MSIE 9.0′.
3. Trident token is incremented from ‘Trident/4.0′ to ‘Trident/5.0′.
4. IE9 will send the following short UA string without additions made by other software installed on the machine:

IE9′s Compatibility View UA string

Similar to IE8, IE9′s Compatibility View will map to IE7 Standards Mode, and IE9′s UA string when in Compatibility View will be:

Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 6.0; Trident/5.0)

In Compatibility View, IE9 reports itself as IE7 through the application version number (Mozilla/4.0) and version token (MSIE 7.0). This is done for compatibility. An incremented Trident token, from ‘Trident/4.0′ to ‘Trident/5.0′, allows websites to distinguish between IE9 running in Compat View and IE8 running in Compat View.

The complete list of changes and resolved issues is listed in the release notes.

Web Platform

• Features Available
  • IE9 User Agent String
  • getElementsByClassName
  • characterSet
  • CSS3 Media Queries
  • HTML5 Events
    • DOMContentLoaded
  • DOM Core
    • DocumentType, ProcessingInstruction, createDocument
  • DOM Traversal
  • DOM L3 Events
    • DOMAttrModified, Composition events
• Features Partially Implemented
  • DataURI
    • Support in script source

Developer Tools

• Features Available
  • User Agent String Picker
    • A new tool that can be used to change the user agent string that IE sends with every request. The tool comes with some built in presets and new custom user agent strings can be added.
  • Console Tab
    • The console window is now a full tab and has been expanded to include the logging of diagnostic information from IE.
  • Network inspection improvements
    • Shortened URL
    • Color coding for errors
    • Scaling units (eg. 500 ms becomes 0.5 s)

Download Internet Explorer 9

You can download the Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview 2 from the official Microsoft website.

Note: Internet Explorer 9 Platform preview can be installed side by side with Internet Explorer 8. IE9 PP2 is not yet suitable for full browsing experience as it is not yet a fully functional browser, and, lacks many important browser elements, and is just a preview. Read the FAQ before installing. Read the User Guide for some useful help and tips.

System Requirements

• Internet Explorer Platform Preview requires Windows 7 (x86 or x64) or Windows Vista SP2 (x86 or x64).
• For Vista users, Windows Internet Explorer 8 and DirectX 2D (D2D) must be installed on your system. If you’re not already running Internet Explorer 8, download and install it first. Then install DirectX 2D by installing the Platform Update for Windows Vista, available on Windows Update. Platform Preview is only available in a 32-bit x86 version but it will install and run on 64-bit Windows 7 and Vista.

Microsoft came up with FixIt solutions, which will generally fix Windows problems, especially that of Windows 7 and Vista. But, some of these FixIt solutions need some interaction from the user, which might confuse some users, especially who are new.

The Windows Club has come up with FixWin, a nice little portable application which provides much of the same functionality as FixIt Solutions but without the confusion.

FixWin is very small in download just 173KB, but packs loads of helpful registry fixes, in total, FixWin has around 50 fixes for both Windows 7 and Vista. FixWin will fix 50 common Windows annoyances, issues & problems which are categorized under 5 tabs, viz. Windows Explorer, Internet & Connectivity, Windows Media, System Tools & Misc Additional Fixes.

Does your Recycle Bin not refresh correctly? Or maybe you find that for some reason your right-click context menu has been disabled in Internet Explorer! Or perhaps things are not fine with your Windows Media Center and you need to flush & rebuild Windows Media Center database! Maybe you opted to be not-warned while deleting Sticky Notes and you now want the warning dialog box back! Or then perhaps, post a malware attack you find that your task manage or cmd or your Registry Editor has been disabled! Fixes for these and many more such common Windows problems are being offered here.

Note: As with any one-click fix program, it’s a good idea to create a system restore point before making any changes.

How to use FixWin?

1. FixWin developers suggests that you first run the System File Checker Utility. The button provided on the Welcome page, will run sfc /scannow and will check and replace any corrupted Windows system files. The process should take anywhere between 5-10 minutes to complete. If Windows wants to reboot to complete the task, then reboot.
2. Next, as I said earlier, create a System Restore Point. The developers of FixWin have provided a button,called Safe Point, in the main tab that will help you create one for you. We always recommend that you create one before making any changes to your system. If things don’t go as planned then you might need the System Restore Point to rescue Windows.
3. After creating a system restore point, apply at most one fix at a time and restart your computer and check if everything is working properly before applying the next fix. If they are not, you can restore back using the System Restore Point that you created before applying the fix.

FixWin is available for download from The Windows Club, scroll down the page about halfway and look for the glow arrow pointing at a hard drive.

Looking for a program like this for Windows XP? You should check out XP Quick Fix Plus! You may also like another similar tool 7 Quick Fix made for fixing Windows 7 problems.

We previously shared a quick tip about a registry tweak using which you can disable browser choice update screen on windows. Off late, I have found a lot of people still asking how they can disable the browser choice screen in Windows.

The registry tweak was based on a knowledge base article (KB2019411) released by Microsoft, explaining how IT administrators can disable a Browser Choice screen for their users using a simple registry key. Now, you can get the same result by using the Group Policy Preferences editor and its also easier to use than the registry editor.

Note:

• If your computer is running Windows 7, the Browser Choice application removes Internet Explorer from a pinned location on the Start menu and in the taskbar.
• If you do not set Internet Explorer as your default Web browser, the Browser Choice application does not make any changes to your computer.

Use Group Policy to Disable Browser Choice

1. Press [Windows Key] + [R] to open the Run dialog box and type gpedit.msc to open Group Policy Management Console.

2. Now, navigate to Computer Configuration > Preferences > Windows Settings > Registry.
   

3. Here, right-click and create a new registry item (Registry > New > Registry Item).

4. Type Software\BrowserChoice in the Key Path then type Enable in the Value name, then select REG_DWORD as the value type 0 in the value data and then click OK.
   

5. You can then restart the computer to see that the browser choice screen does not appear again.