Microsoft has released Windows Defender Offline, an offline antivirus tool, for PCs that are badly infected by malicious and other potentially unwanted software, including rootkits, to even get full access to the Internet.

The offline antivirus tool basically allows a user to boot their infected Windows computer system from a CD, DVD or USB flash drive. It uses the most recent definition update available to scan the PC for malicious and other potentially unwanted software. It then helps the user to disinfect the PC from the hard to detect threats.

This tool is particularly useful to remove certain kinds of malware that prevents the user from visiting any security or antivirus website. Many malicious programs uses methods to prevent users from accessing those websites to prevent detection and cleaning. Sometimes, they corrupt Windows files to prevent any kind of network access.

Wile announcing the release of Windows Defender Offline beta, Microsoft said, “Windows Defender Offline Beta can help remove such hard to find malicious and potentially unwanted programs using definitions that recognize threats.”

How to use Windows Defender Offline beta?

Follow the steps below to download and use Windows Defender Offline:

1. First, Download Windows Defender Offline Beta to create the CD, DVD, or USB flash drive on a PC that isn’t infected with malware.
2. You will need a blank CD, DVD, or USB flash drive with at least 250 MB of free space, run the downloaded tool, it will help you create the removable media.
3. Now, boot your infected PC using the Windows Defender Offline Beta media.
4. Scan your PC for malicious and other potentially unwanted software.
5. Remove any malware that is found by this tool from your infected PC.
6. Here’s a FAQ created by Microsoft for your help in using the tool. Complete system requirements is available here.

Earlier, we’ve covered Kaspersky Rescue Disk which helps you disinfect severely infected machines. These bootable tools are extremely useful for disinfecting the toughest to clean malicious or unwanted programs from the PC. But, keeping these tools updated is a very tedious task.

Windows operating system comes with a built-in firewall to protect the system. Windows Firewall like all other software firewalls available out there, protects your Windows system from unauthorized access while allowing legit network to pass through. Unfortunately, configuring the firewall settings is a daunting task for most users.

For all users who are looking for the ease of use in configuring Windows Firewall should check out Windows Firewall Notifier.

Windows Firewall Notifier is a freeware portable application for managing Windows Firewall rules in Windows 7 and Vista. Using this small portable application, configuring both inbound and outbound firewall rules is very easy.

After you have downloaded Windows Firewall Notifier and extracted it to your preferred location, launch it. It will enable the Windows Firewall, if not already enabled. It then blocks all inbound and outbound network connections for which no rules exist. Then it enables inbound connection notifications and outbound connections logging, if disabled. It will then show a notification balloon allowing or disabling incoming and outgoing connections, just like you see in many advanced commercial and freeware firewalls. From these prompts, you can choose to allow (temporarily or permanently) or block connections from being established by applications.

Upon clicking on the notification, you will see the following prompt on the screen with options to: temporarily allow the application, create a rule for the application, block the application once only, always block the application.

As you can see, the prompt also displays more information such as the application name, system path and target IP or hostname.

The application is intelligently built and creates a task in the Windows Task Scheduler. This task is basically linked to the firewall event log entries. Thus, whenever any network activity occurs for which no firewall rule exists, this task will automatically launch Windows Firewall Notifier. Thus this application will not even run in the background and hog any system resource.

If you ever felt that you do not need Windows Firewall Notifier anymore, you can be easily disable it by launching the executable file of the program again and selecting Yes. The program will also provided the option to disable the firewall and revert back the settings to default.

Windows Firewall Notifier is a must have application for Windows Vista and Windows 7 (compatible with both 32-bit and 64-bit edition) users who rely on the built-in firewall. It is available as a free download from the developer’s website.

Windows Firewall is a built-in, host-based, stateful firewall that is included in Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows XP with Service Pack 2 and later, and Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1 and later. Windows Firewall drops incoming traffic that does not correspond to either traffic sent in response to a request of the computer (solicited traffic) or unsolicited traffic that has been specified as allowed (excepted traffic). Windows Firewall helps provide protection from malicious users and programs that rely on unsolicited incoming traffic to attack computers. In Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, Windows Firewall can also drop outgoing traffic and is configured using the Windows Firewall with Advanced Security snap-in, which integrates rules for both firewall behavior and traffic protection with Internet Protocol security (IPsec).
Microsoft Technet

Microsoft’s upcoming operating system Windows 8 is coming with a unique feature called “System Reset“. System Reset will let users restore Windows 8 to factory defaults. This feature will save a lot of time for system administrators and users alike, and will save you from having to reinstall Windows.

RefreshPC is a free program developed for Windows that offers similar system reset option to current Microsoft Windows operating systems. Though this freeware application will not restore the operating system like Windows 8′s “System Reset” feature, but it will restore only a few sections of the operating system.

RefreshPC will be handy for users, who love to experimenting with Windows Registry settings and system services. Another example would be users who have used Windows system optimizer and have caused more harm to the system than good. Malicious virus, spyware, trojan attack that changed critical system settings can also be restored back to default after cleaning it using your favorite antivirus.

After you have downloaded RefreshPC, you need to install the program and create a System Restore point (recommended). The program than detects your operating system and version, and displays the information. You will find only a single button that will let you restore the settings to their factory defaults when clicked on.

RefreshPC will do the following:

The freeware application is compatible with all 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Windows operating system, from Windows XP to Windows 7.

Download RefreshPC for refreshing your Windows back to defaults.

Microsoft through Connect has released a beta version of Microsoft Standalone System Sweeper. It is basically a system recovery software disguised as a recovery CD or USB application that Windows users can use to remove malware from a system. It can start an infected PC and performing offline scan to help find and remove rootkits and other advanced malware.

The security application can effectively remove viruses, trojans, rootkits and other forms of malware. In addition, the security application can be used if you cannot install or start an antivirus solution on your PC, or if the installed solution can’t detect or remove malware on your PC.

System Sweeper is available as a free download for both Windows 32-bit or 64-bit version users. Users will need an active Internet connection and CD or DVD to burn all contents, or a USB stick with at least 250 MB of space.

Download and run the application, it will help you to create the bootable media required to run the software on your PC.

Select the media you want to use for creating the System Sweeper recovery bootable disk.

After the bootable media is ready, to use it, users need to boot from the CD/DVD disc or USB device. Ordinarily, the bootable media is created on a computer that is not infected.

After booting, the tool will load and will offer options to scan the PC and recover it. It will load the Windows Preinstall Environment to run the Microsoft Standalone System Sweeper application for scanning and removing virus and malware from the infected system.

The security program requires Windows XP SP3 to Windows 7 32-bit or 64-bit editions to work properly. If you have a 32-bit operating system, which is infected, then you need to download and install the 32-bit version. If your system is a 64-bit operating system, that’s infected, you need to download the 64-bit version of the recovery software.

Interested users can download Microsoft Standalone System Sweeper from the official project website.

Note: The standalone tool is not a replacement for an antivirus solution providing real-time protection; it’s meant to be used in situations where you cannot start your PC due to a virus or other malware infection. For free real-time antivirus protection against viruses, spyware, and other malicious software, download Microsoft Security Essentials or AVG or Avast.

Comodo Internet Security is a free, multi-layered computer security suite that keeps malware and hackers at bay while protecting your computer and private information. Comodo guarantees protection against viruses and malware by focusing on prevention not simply detection.

Comodo Internet Security Pro 2011 offers real-time protection against Viruses, Trojans, Adware, Spyware and other Malware threats. Other Antivirus products depend on signature updates alone but Auto Sandbox Technology means you’re protected from even unknown threats.

Features:

Firewall: Comodo’s Firewall consistently ranks among the highest in industry tests.

Defense+ Technology: Proactive protection to automatically isolate threats from suspicious files so they can’t cause harm actually preventing infections not just detecting them. Cloud based whitelisting of trusted publisher easily identifies a safe file and vendor.

Auto Sandbox Technology: To reduce interruption to the user, unknown files can only run in a secure virtual environment where they can’t damage Windows, its registry, or important user data.

Minimal Interruptions: Comodo Internet Security Pro 2011 relieves you of the responsibility of deciding whether to block or allow untrusted files – it makes the decisions for you. Game Mode suppresses operations that could interfere with a user’s gaming experience such as alerts, virus database updates or scheduled scans.

Spyware Scanning: Spyware Scanner detects and cleans malware infections in PC registry and disks.

Cloud based Antivirus: Cloud based antivirus scanning detects malicious file even if a user does not have up-to-date virus definitions.

Unlimited GeekBuddy Support: Expert support offering 24/7 live chat service to assist with everything from setup to virus removal and Windows issues at no additional charge.

Compatibility: Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows XP (32-bit and 64 bit versions available).

Normally, Comodo Internet Security Pro is priced at $49.99 for 1-year license. But now, Comodo is running a promotional giveaway program for all. Interested users can download a pre-activated full version of Comodo Internet Security Pro, valid for 1 year from the date of install, free of charge.

To grab 1-year FREE trial copy of the Comodo Internet Security Pro, simply click on the direct download link of the special setup installer:

cispro_1year_installer.exe (32/64 bit combined installer, 60 MB)

cispro_1year_installer_x86.exe (32-bit installer, 35 MB)

cispro_1year_installer_x64.exe (64-bit installer, 37 MB)

After downloading, install the security suite, you will find it to be valid for 365 days.

Rafael Rivera and Paul Thurrott has discovered a new feature in Windows 8, Aero Auto-Colorization. Microsoft Windows 7 users must have seen the new Personalization interface, which allows users to customize their desktops as they wished to. In Windows 8, the software giant has gone a few steps further by letting users customize the Aero elements to the fullest. Rafael and Paul found out that Windows 8 has a new ability to automatically configure the color of Aero elements, like the Start Menu, Windows Explorer windows, and the taskbar based on the desktop wallpaper which is set.

What this means is that whenever the desktop wallpaper changes, the Aero elements change their color to match it. This is a great feature as users will now see different colors as soon as the desktop wallpaper changes thus removing the monotonic look of only one color for the Aero elements all the time.

The ability to automatically color Aero based on the underlying wallpaper.

To make this change in Windows 8, users have to visit the Personalization interface, which basically is unchanged since Windows 7, and then click on Window Color. As you can see in the screenshot below, there’s a new option in the grid of window color swatches: Automatic. Click on this swatch and then click on the Save changes button.

Now, as soon as you rotate through different wallpapers, the window color will automatically change to match the color of the wallpaper (but do keep in mind that this effect only occurs in Aero mode only).

See some examples below (images credit: Rafael Rivera and Paul Thurrott)

Before this, they also revealed that Windows 8 will apparently be including its own PDF reader to be known as Modern Reader and the app utilizes the new AppX application package type.

modern reader - side by side

Now, before concluding this article, here’s something that Windows 7 users will love! A tiny app called Aura is available that lets Windows 7 users get Windows 8′s featured adaptive Aero colorization (Aero Auto-Colorization).

When the program is run, it sits in the system tray and automatically adjusts your Aero window borders to compliment your wallpaper.

BleachBit is an open source cross-platform system clean-up and privacy application for Windows and Linux operating system. Windows users do have the option of CCleaner, which recently got updated to support Internet Explorer 9 and Firefox 4. But what about Linux users who need to clean their Linux machine? Well, that’s where BleachBit comes in to fill the void. And the good thing about it is, it’s also available for Windows users alike.

BleachBit has added several new features to its latest version that make it an even better utility for removing unneeded/unnecessary files from your computer. On Linux systems, BleachBit can now remove swap files (in addition to swap devices). The Windows version has added the option to remove Windows Update uninstaller including hot fixes and Internet Explorer patches. It’s well worth checking out the full list of features.

Latest features introduced are as follows:

• Add command line option --preset which selects all the cleaners previously selected in the GUI.
• Specific to Linux
  • Support Thunderbird on openSUSE 11.3 thanks to Manfred Schwarb (LP#668231)
  • Fix wrong button label when adding folders for overwrite disk space and for whitelist (pointed out by jtarin)
  • When cleaning localizations, show warning to point user to configuration
  • Packagers: BleachBit will try to use the built-in json module on Python 2.6+ instead of simplejson, which is still required on Python 2.5.
• Specific to Windows
  • Import winapp2.ini files: the CCleaner community maintains winapp2.ini files with about 450 cleaner definitions. Just download a winapp2.ini file and place it in one of the BleachBit cleaner directories.
  • Internet Explorer: delete autocomplete passwords
  • Support registry keys in the HKCR (HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT) hive

Use BleachBit to:

• Free disk space
• Reduce the size of backups and the time to create them by removing unnecessary files
• Maintain privacy
• Improve system performance (by vacuuming the Firefox database, for example)
• Prepare whole disk images for compression (common for “ghost” backups and virtual machines) by wiping free disk space

How to use BleachBit to clean up the system?

Ubuntu users can simply click here to install it. Other Linux systems users can easily find BleachBit in their respective repostories, or download specific version made for your Linux distribution available at the official BleachBit’s website. Windows users can download standard installer version or portable version from here.

Ubuntu users will find it in their applications menu under “System“.

By default only the programs installed in the system will show up. You can now check the things you’re interested in deleting. BleachBit will inform you about the consequences of everything as you check items for cleanup. Once you’ve selected everything, click on “Preview” to see how much disk space you can save.

After being satisfied with the result, do check settings one last time before clicking on “Delete“.

So, in a sentence: read the descriptions, check the boxes you want, click preview, and click delete.

Advanced cleaning options provided are:

• Clear the memory and swap on Linux
• Delete broken shortcuts on Linux
• Delete the Firefox version 3 URL history without deleting the whole file–with optional shredding
• Delete Linux localizations: delete languages you don’t use.
• Clean APT for Debian, Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, and Linux Mint
• Find widely-scatted junk such as Thumbs.db and .DS_Store files.
• Execute yum clean for CentOS, Fedora, and Red Hat to remove cached package data
• Delete Windows registry keys–often where MRU (most recently used) lists are stored
• Delete the OpenOffice.org recent documents list without deleting the whole Common.xcu file
• Overwrite free disk space to hide previously files
• Vacuum Firefox, Google, Liferea, Thunderbird, and Yum databases: shrink files without removing data to save space and improve speed
• Surgically remove private information from .ini and JSON configuration files with deleting the whole file

BleachBit is a program that can save you a lot of hard disk space quickly, but be sure you know what you’re doing.

Do you have any tips for using this program more effectively or use any other app with similar or better functionality? Share them using comments below with us!

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’s February Patch Tuesday was very critical with 12 updates fixing 22 vulnerabilities, out of which three are 0-day vulnerabilities. The bulletins address issues in Windows, Internet Explorer, Office, Visual Studio and IIS. March in comparison with last month is fairly quiet month for Patch Tuesday patches. This month’s Patch Tuesday will have just three bulletins going out, two for Windows operating system and one for Groove 2007 users. These three bulletins are going to patch a total of four vulnerabilities.

Out of the two bulletins for Windows, one bulletin rated critical; the Groove bulletin and the other Windows bulletin rated as important. All three bulletins “may” need a restart after installation.

As ever, Microsoft has issued no information about which publicly disclosed vulnerabilities–if any–will be included in the patches. The critical rated bulletin will fix a flaw in Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 systems. The second bulletin, rated important, will fix a flaw in all supported versions of Windows, including Server products. The third bulletin affects Microsoft Groove 2007 SP2 product. All three bulletins marked as Remote Code Execution exploits. However, confirmation of this is not possible until the patches are released next week.

Microsoft seems to have missed to patch Internet Explorer ahead of next week’s Pwn2Own hacker contest. It’s not yet clear whether Microsoft has failed to patch the MHTML vulnerability before the Pwn2Own hacker contest, which kicks off next week in Vancouver, Canada. The Register reports that both IE browser rivals Mozilla and Google patched Firefox and Chrome earlier this week in preparation of the event. The MHTML vulnerability affects Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7 and all supported Windows Server releases. The vulnerability exists due to the way MHTML interprets MIME-formatted requests for content blocks within a document. It is possible for this vulnerability to allow an attacker to run script in the wrong security context. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could inject a client-side script in the user’s Internet Explorer instance.

The bulletins will be released on Tuesday at 10:00am PST. Microsoft will as usual host a webcast to address customer questions on the security bulletins on March 9, 2011, at 11:00 AM Pacific Time (US & Canada). You can get more information at Microsoft Security Bulletin.

Symantec has released version 5.0 of its Norton 360 suite. Symantec calls Norton 360 v5, “the industry’s fastest, most effective all-in-one security suite.” Norton 360 includes backup and tune-up features along with security, which makes it a complete-suite.

The user interface of Norton 360 is different from that of Norton Internet Security 2011 but it offers all the same protective technologies offered in NIS 2011. Norton 360 version 5 features: Insight, which uses anonymous software adoption patterns of Symantec users to automatically identify and block new malicious software; SONAR 3, which monitors running applications for suspicious behavior to identify new attacks, crimeware and other threats designed to evade traditional detection; and Norton Power Eraser and Norton Bootable Recovery Tool, which offer detection and repair technology that enables consumers to clean up previously infected computers.

One of the additions in Norton 360 v5 is the Norton Control Center. This part is already seen in Norton Internet Security 2011 and Norton AntiVirus 2011 which offers a direct view into Norton Safe Web, Norton Online Family, and the new Norton Cybercrime Index. The index uses statistical modeling based on information gathered from Symantec and other sources.

Another impressive feature is Norton Safe Web Social Media Scanner which lets you check your Facebook Wall and News Feed for bad links and other threats from within your Norton Control Center.

Norton 360 version 5.0 is available directly from Symantec and from major online and offline retailers. Its $79.99 price includes three licenses and 2GB of online storage. For $99.99 users can upgrade to the premium edition, which features 25GB of online storage (up from 10GB with version 4). All users with a current Norton 360 license are eligible for a free upgrade.

If are a new user and want to test Norton 360 v5 before buying, Symantec is providing free 3 months (90 days) trial license. To download Norton 360 v5 with 90 days free trial subscription, visit the promotion page here.

Click on the button, Try FREE 90 days and download the setup which is pre-activated with free 3 months subscription.
You can also download the setup by using the direct download link below:

Download Norton 360 v5: N360_5.0.0.125_MS_LOEM_MRF1441_5671.exe

If you want to try Norton Antivirus 2011 for 90 days instead of Norton 360 v5, you can get it from the same promo page above or use the direct download link below:
NAV_18.1.0.37_MS_LOEM_MRF1325A_5452.exe

Windows and Mac users know WinZip for their compression utility. WinZip Computing, a Corel company is expanding its product portfolio beyond compression and encryption with the debut of the WinZip System Utilities Suite. A complete collection of easy-to-use and affordable PC utilities that helps keep computers stable and running at peak performance.

WinZip System Utilities Suite offers powerful system tools to fix common problems, improve system stability and rev up your computer’s speed. Designed for easy, automated operation, and it provides everything you need to restore the zip to your PC. It automatically performs regular maintenance, reducing the likelihood of common problems like crashes, system errors and reduced speed.

WinZip System Utilities Suite is composed of about 20 different system utilities to improve computer performance. Just like the earlier system utility reviewed by us, TuneUp Utilities 2011, WinZip System Utilities Suite’s different tools are nicely organized into one single “launcher UI.” You can even access these tools separately from not just the menu options within the “launcher UI” but from its own separate Start Menu entry, which is again nicely organized. Each utility is having its own individual user interface thus you can directly open only the utility which you want to.

Even though with 20 different system utilities, WinZip System Utilities Suite may seem very complex for novice users but it isn’t at all. Thanks to the master launcher UI, which offers you one big button “Start Smart PC Care” to optimize your computer system. The idea behind this single click optimization is that this would be the first thing new users would run, and once that’s done, they could simply use the separate tools as needed to further optimize specific aspects of their Windows PC.

Smart PC Care is a general PC health tool that performs the following vital system jobs with one simple click:

• Clean junk data and free up disk space
• Defrag your hard disk for optimized performance
• Clean hidden privacy-exposing traces
• Scan for outdated or missing drivers
• Clean registry errors
• Optimize your registry for better performance

Click on the screenshots below for an overview of how Smart PC Care works in our test run on our computer and how it optimized our system:

Other utilities included are:

• Registry Cleaner – Scan for and clean registry errors
• Registry Optimizer – Organize your registry for better performance and a faster computer
• System Cleaner – Remove junk data and free up disk space
• Disk Optimizer – Defrag your hard disk for optimized performance
• Disk Tools – Check your hard drives for file system and disk errors
• Disk Explorer – Review disk usage by files and folders
• Memory Optimizer – Free unused allocated memory for better system performance
• Driver Updater – Automatically download and install the latest drivers required by your system
• Game Optimizer – Optimize for game play to reduce freezing, crashing or interruptions
• Privacy Protector – Clean hidden privacy-exposing traces
• Secure Delete – Permanently delete confidential data so that it cannot be retrieved
• Secure Encryptor – Password-protect your personal files from unauthorized access
• Undelete – Recover accidently deleted data
• Backup Manager - Back up your important files and documents
• System Files Backup and Restore System Files – Back up and restore important system files
• PC Fixer - Fix common problems instantly
• System and Security Advisor – Fine tune your system settings
• Duplicate Files Remover - Remove unneeded duplicate files
• Startup Manager – Remove unnecessary programs to improve the speed of system startup
• Uninstall Manager - Remove unnecessary programs and free up disk space

Designed for Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7, WinZip System Utilities Suite is available for $39.95(USD) for a single license. For a free scan, users can download the WinZip System Utilities Suite to identify issues that may be affecting the performance and reliability of their PC.

10-license giveaway of WinZip System Utilities Suite exclusively for My Technology Guide readers is coming up in our next update.

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

Opera Software has released Opera 11.01 final version, which is an update of Opera 11. The latest updates fixes many security issues and improves overall stability of Opera, one of the popular web browser. This final version of Opera has come up after many snapshot releases and two RC (release candidates) updates. Opera 11.01 is a highly recommended update for every Opera 11 user.

The full change logs for Windows, Mac and Linux and FreeBSD are linked from the blog post announcing about the new version release.

The security issues fixed in Opera 11.01:

• Removed support for “javascript:” URLs in CSS -o-link values, to make it easier for sites to filter untrusted CSS.
• Fixed an issue where large form inputs could allow execution of arbitrary code.
• Fixed an issue which made it possible to carry out clickjacking attacks against internal opera: URLs.
• Fixed issues which allowed web pages to gain limited access to files on the user’s computer.
• Fixed an issue where email passwords were not immediately deleted when deleting private data.
• Fixed an issue which could cause the wrong executable to be used to display a downloaded file in its folder.

Users can update to the latest version of Opera web browser directly by clicking on Help > Menu > Check for Updates.

Users can also download the latest version of Opera directly from Opera Software.

Google Chrome web browser stable has been updated to 8.0.552.237 for all platforms. The latest stable release fixes several security vulnerabilities, making it a mandatory update for all Chrome stable users.

The Google Chrome Releases blog lists 16 different vulnerabilities that have been fixed in the new version of which one received the highest rating critical and 13 of high. Sergey Glazunov, the researcher who discovered the critical vulnerability has received the first “elite” Chromium Security Reward, $1337 reward and several other rewards at the same time.

The releases contain the security fixes listed below.

• [58053] Medium Browser crash in extensions notification handling. Credit to Eric Roman of the Chromium development community.
• [$1337] [65764] High Bad pointer handling in node iteration. Credit to Sergey Glazunov.
• [66334] High Crashes when printing multi-page PDFs. Credit to Google Chrome Security Team (Chris Evans).
• [$1000] [66560] High Stale pointer with CSS + canvas. Credit to Sergey Glazunov.
• [$500] [66748] High Stale pointer with CSS + cursors. Credit to Jan ToÅ¡ovský.
• [67100] High Use after free in PDF page handling. Credit to Google Chrome Security Team (Chris Evans).
• [$1000] [67208] High Stack corruption after PDF out-of-memory condition. Credit to Jared Allar of CERT.
• [$1000] [67303] High Bad memory access with mismatched video frame sizes. Credit to Aki Helin of OUSPG; plus independent discovery by Google Chrome Security Team (SkyLined) and David Warren of CERT.
• [$500] [67363] High Stale pointer with SVG use element. Credited anonymously; plus indepdent discovery by miaubiz.
• [$1000] [67393] Medium Uninitialized pointer in the browser triggered by rogue extension. Credit to kuzzcc.
• [$1000] [68115] High Vorbis decoder buffer overflows. Credit to David Warren of CERT.
• [$1000] [68170] High Buffer overflow in PDF shading. Credit to Aki Helin of OUSPG.
• [$1000] [68178] High Bad cast in anchor handling. Credit to Sergey Glazunov.
• [$1000] [68181] High Bad cast in video handling. Credit to Sergey Glazunov.
• [$1000] [68439] High Stale rendering node after DOM node removal. Credit to Martin Barbella; plus independent discovery by Google Chrome Security Team (SkyLined).
• [$3133.7] [68666] Critical Stale pointer in speech handling. Credit to Sergey Glazunov.

Interested users can find full details about the Chrome changes in the SVN revision log.

As Google Chrome gets updated automatically, most of the users are already running the latest version of Chrome. You can check which version you are running by clicking on the wrench icon and clicking on About Google Chrome. If you want you can visit the official download page to download the latest Google Chrome version. You can also download an offline version of Google Chrome from the links that we have shared in one of our earlier posts.

DNS request are usually cached by our operating system. It’s a good way to speed up the DNS lookups, but sometimes we may want to clear the cache or “flush DNS cache” so that it doesn’t hold the old values that are no longer valid.

Follow our guide below to “flush,” i.e., clear the DNS cache in Mac OS and Windows operating system.

How to flush DNS cache in Microsoft Windows operating system?

1. Windows 7 and Vista users, click on the Start button and in the search box, type cmd and open the command prompt.
   Windows XP and earlier Windows edition users, click on the Start button, click on Run to open the Run dialog box. Type cmd and press Enter to open the command prompt.
2. Now, in the command prompt, type the command: ipconfig /flushdns
3. Press Enter and Windows will clear it’s DNS cache.

How to flush DNS cache in Mac OS?

Mac (OS Tiger and below) users need to use the following command in the Terminal to clear the DNS cache:

lookupd -flushcache

However, in Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, a new command has replaced lookupd -flushcache command. So, to clear DNS cache in Leopard, you just need to type the following command in your Terminal and hit enter:

dscacheutil -flushcache

In Windows, you can use the shell: command to quickly open any special folder directly from the Start Menu, Search menu or the Run dialog box.

Suppose, if you want to launch the Documents folder of your user profile, you’ve to type shell:Personal. In Windows 7, if you want to get access to Libraries, you’ve to type shell:Libraries.

There are many shell: commands available in Windows. These shell: commands are very useful if you want to quickly access or open special folders in Windows. If you want to have all the shell: commands list, for quick reference, we have compiled the list of ultimate complete shell: commands available for Windows 7, Vista and Windows XP.

You may be also interested in Beyond Windows 7 “GodMode” — 94 More Secret Windows Shortcuts Unveiled and 140+ Useful Windows Keyboard Shortcuts.

Complete Windows XP shell command list

shell:Common Programs
shell:Favorites
shell:My Video
shell:System
shell:CommonVideo
shell:LocalizedResourcesDir
shell:Cookies
shell:My Pictures
shell:Cache
shell:AppData
shell:My Music
shell:InternetFolder
shell:Profile
shell:Start Menu
shell:Common AppData
shell:ConnectionsFolder
shell:Administrative Tools
shell:PrintersFolder
shell:ProgramFiles
shell:Common Startup
shell:ControlPanelFolder
shell:SendTo
shell:ResourceDir
shell:ProgramFiles
shell:PrintHood
shell:CD Burning
shell:Common Start Menu
shell:Templates
shell:Programs
shell:Recent
shell:Desktop
shell:CommonPictures
shell:RecycleBinFolder
shell:Common Templates
shell:Startup
shell:Common Desktop
shell:NetHood
shell:Common Administrative Tools
shell:SystemX86
shell:History
shell:Common Documents
shell:Local AppData
shell:Windows
shell:Fonts
shell:Personal

Complete Windows Vista shell command list

shell:Common Programs
shell:GameTasks
shell:UserProfiles
shell:MyComputerFolder
shell:SyncSetupFolder
shell:DpapiKeys
shell:SamplePlaylists
shell:Favorites
shell:My Video
shell:SearchHomeFolder
shell:System
shell:CommonVideo
shell:SyncResultsFolder
shell:LocalizedResourcesDir
shell:Cookies
shell:Original Images
shell:CommonMusic
shell:My Pictures
shell:Cache
shell:Downloads
shell:CommonDownloads
shell:AppData
shell:SyncCenterFolder
shell:My Music
shell:ConflictFolder
shell:SavedGames
shell:InternetFolder
shell:Quick Launch
shell:SystemCertificates
shell:Contacts
shell:TreePropertiesFolder
shell:Profile
shell:Start Menu
shell:Common AppData
shell:PhotoAlbums
shell:ConnectionsFolder
shell:Administrative Tools
shell:PrintersFolder
shell:Default Gadgets
shell:ProgramFilesX86
shell:Searches
shell:Common Startup
shell:ControlPanelFolder
shell:SampleVideos
shell:SendTo
shell:ResourceDir
shell:ProgramFiles
shell:CredentialManager
shell:PrintHood
shell:MAPIFolder
shell:CD Burning
shell:AppUpdatesFolder
shell:Common Start Menu
shell:LocalAppDataLow
shell:Templates
shell:Gadgets
shell:Programs
shell:Recent
shell:SampleMusic
shell:Desktop
shell:CommonPictures
shell:RecycleBinFolder
shell:CryptoKeys
shell:Common Templates
shell:Startup
shell:Links
shell:OEM Links
shell:SamplePictures
shell:Common Desktop
shell:NetHood
shell:Games
shell:Common Administrative Tools
shell:NetworkPlacesFolder
shell:SystemX86
shell:History
shell:AddNewProgramsFolder
shell:Playlists
shell:ProgramFilesCommonX86
shell:PublicGameTasks
shell:ChangeRemoveProgramsFolder
shell:Public
shell:Common Documents
shell:CSCFolder
shell:Local AppData
shell:Windows
shell:UsersFilesFolder
shell:ProgramFilesCommon
shell:Fonts
shell:Personal

Complete Windows Vista shell command list

Note: All the shell commands available in Windows Vista works in Windows 7, so we are not repeating them here. We have listed below only the new shell commands that are available in addition to the shell commands available in Windows Vista here:

shell:Libraries
shell:MusicLibrary
shell:VideosLibrary
shell:OtherUsersFolder
shell:Device Metadata Store
shell:PublicSuggestedLocations
shell:SuggestedLocations
shell:RecordedTVLibrary
shell:UserProgramFiles
shell:DocumentsLibrary
shell:User Pinned
shell:UsersLibrariesFolder
shell:PicturesLibrary
shell:ImplicitAppShortcuts
shell:UserProgramFilesCommon
shell:Ringtones
shell:CommonRingtones

Note: We have not given any description beside each shell: command as you can easily make out what they are supposed to do by looking at its name. If you are still confused about any of the command, simply comment below, we will help you out. If we missed out any command that you know or if you’ve found any errors in the above, do comment below.

Starter is a freeware portable application that functions as a startup manager, Windows service manager and process monitor. It is very small but very powerful in functionality.

As you go on installing new applications in Windows, some of them are configured to launch themselves when Windows starts up. This slows up the start-up process and you end up hogging your system resources. You can use Starter to remove any unneeded program that is in your startup list so that it doesn’t run on startup any more and you gain back system performance.

Using Starter is pretty straight forward, you just have to deselect those apps which you don’t want. If are confused with any entry you can take the help of Google to get more info. Starter will help you with detailed information about the applications including where they are located in the hard-disk. Starter also lists all startup entries, including hidden registry entries as well as common startup folder items.

Starter doubles up as a very good process monitor. You can use it to list all the running process including details such as their current memory use, process priority, thread counts, and DLL. It also lets you stop selected process (even a Windows NT service, if you are having enough access rights).

Starter also comes with a very good, advanced service manager (better than Windows service manager).

[ Download Starter ]

Yesterday, we posted here about the availability and release of Microsoft Security Essentials 2 free antivirus for Windows. We did mentioned in our article that it is one of the most popular antivirus solution. It is without doubt also one of the most effective free antivirus application with detection rate matching those of the commercial paid products.

Almost five months ago, Microsoft released the beta version of MSE 2.0. A lot of improvements can be seen in the application. So, we thought that we should write a dedicated article highlighting all the improvements and the new features available in MSE 2.0.

Microsoft Security Essentials 2 includes the following new features and enhancements:

• Windows Firewall integration: Microsoft Security Essentials setup now enables you to turn on or off Windows Firewall. (Don’t get confused, it doesn’t includes a separate firewall)
• Network Inspection System: This feature uses Windows Filtering Platform to enhance real-time protection by inspecting network traffic, and to help pro-actively block exploits of known network-based vulnerabilities. (Only available to Windows 7 and Vista users)
• New and improved protection engine: The updated engine that includes a Heuristic Scanning Engine offers enhanced detection and cleanup capabilities with better performance.
• Enhanced protection for web-based threats: Microsoft Security Essentials now integrates itself with Internet Explorer to give protection against web-based threats.

Some notable changes in MSE 2′s settings are as follows:

• Under Scheduled Scan settings tab, you can now limit (control) the CPU usage of MSE 2.0 when scanning. The default value is set to 50%.
• Under Real-time protection settings, you can choose between the monitoring options as follows: Monitor all files, Monitor only incoming files and Monitor only outgoing files. You will also find settings to Enable behavior monitoring and Enable Network Inspection System options.
• Under Excluded Files and Locations settings, you can exclude multiple files and locations. You can do so by adding them and separating each entry using a semicolon. The same can be done for Excluded filetypes and Excluded processes settings.
• Under Advanced settings, you will find settings to remove quarantine files automatically after a certain time period.
• And last but not the least, Microsoft has added the option to completely opt out of joining SpyNet.

For More information read What’s New in MSE 2 Help Contents. (Link will open MSE 2 help file installed in your system, so it will only work if you have MSE 2 installed.)

[ Download Microsoft Security Essentials 2 ]

Microsoft Security Essentials is one of the best free antivirus available for Windows. It is without doubt the most popular antivirus solution among Windows users. With detection rate that matches the commercial security products, it is without doubt one of the best software made by Microsoft.

Microsoft Security Essentials 2 upgrade brings in many improvements and new features, including the most requested heuristic scanning engine. MSE 1′s protection relied too heavily upon definitions, which is not enough for today’s ever-changing advanced threats. But with heuristic scanning engine and other new improved features, MSE 2 is now giving tough competition to other free and paid products.

MSE 2 also offers improved defense by better integrating with Windows. With better integration with Windows Firewall and Internet Explorer, MSE 2 offers increased protection against network and Web-based threats. A new network inspection feature is added which uses the Windows Filtering Platform present in Vista and Windows 7. Windows XP users will not get any benefit from this security feature.

MSE users should check their MSE update tab for an upgrade notification. Users can also download Microsoft Security Essentials 2 manually and install it over the old version.

Process Lasso is a unique application for Windows that will improve your PC’s responsiveness and stability during periods of high CPU load. Windows operating system is designed to allow programs to monopolize CPU usage without restraint but this leading to system hang and lags when a single process takes up huge share of CPU.

Process Lasso has been designed to optimize Windows responsiveness and stability by automatically adjusting processes and applications that take more than their fair share of the computer resource. It does so by intelligently adjusting the process priority of running programs or processes automatically using its unique ProBalance (Process Balance) technology, so that badly behaved processes won’t negatively impact the responsiveness of your PC.

Process Lasso also offers an assortment of ways to take full control of how CPU is allocated to running programs. In essence, it is an all-in-one automated Windows process tuner. You can choose at what priority processes should run, and which CPU should be assigned to them. You can also disallow certain programs from running, log all programs run, automatically restart programs, limit the number of instances of a program, and much more. You can even indicate processes that should induce entrance into the High Performance power scheme or prevent the PC from sleeping. A gaming mode also allows for easy process priority optimization for avid gamers.

Once you install Process Lasso, it’ll just start working. More advanced users can tweak the configuration, but you needn’t touch anything to have it instantly improve your system responsiveness and prevent stalls in high load situations.

Process Lasso 4 is available both as a freeware version and commercial version. The free version of Process Lasso supports the following features:

• ProBalance (Process Balance) is the name of Process Lasso’s proprietary algorithm that temporarily adjusts the priority of running processes to keep your system responsive during high loads.
• Gaming mode algorithm Safely and Effectively manages process priorities in a way ideal for full screen games. Furthermore, it temporarily places your PC in the “High Performance” power scheme.
• Persistent priorities.
• Persistent CPU affinities.

If you are interested you can see the comparison table between the free and pro version of Process Lasso. Some Process Lasso Pro features are available in the free version during the trial period.

Process Lasso 4 is available for download for all supported 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Windows operating system.

[ Download Process Lasso Free ]