My Technology Guide

You have just brought a brand new PC or laptop or netbook that came pre-installed with Windows 7 from one of the major manufacturers, viz. Dell, HP, Lenovo, Acer, Toshiba, etc. But the problem that you face when buying from them is you won't receive any Windows 7 installation media with your purchase. Instead, you will receive either a "recovery disc" (if you’re that much lucky) with your purchase or you'll have a "recovery partition" built-in your machine.

You may ask what is the problem here, as you can easily recover your Windows 7 or Vista, using the "recovery disk" or "recovery partition." Well, the problem is, when you use the recovery disks/recovery partition to recover Windows 7 or Vista, it will delete all your files and restore your computer to the state it was in when you first purchased it.

Microsoft Security Response Center has released a notification that Microsoft will issue 10 Security Bulletins addressing 34 vulnerabilities on Tuesday, June 8, 2010. Microsoft Technet will host a webcast to address customer questions about the security bulletins the following day.

The list of affected operating systems includes Windows 2000, Windows XP (32-bit and 64-bit), Windows Server 2003 (32-bit and 64-bit), Windows Vista (32-bit and 64-bit), Windows Server 2008 (32-bit and 64-bit), Windows 7 (32-bit and 64-bit), and Windows Server 2008 R2. In terms of the Microsoft Office suites, all supported versions are affected on both Windows and Mac OS X. Three of the vulnerabilities are rated "Critical" and seven are rated "Important." At least two of the 10 patches will need a restart. February's Internet Explorer flaw and April's SharePoint vulnerability will both be patched this month.

X-Setup Pro is the best Windows system configuration and tweaking utility. X-Setup Pro is extremely easy to use and it allows you to nearly change 1800 hidden Windows settings and configurations that no other tweaking tool provides. X-Setup Pro wizards help you when you changing critical Windows configurations.

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.

If you want to control the maximum time that any user is allowed to spend on your computer, then Romaco Timeout is the application that will help you. Romaco Timeout is specially useful for parents who wants to restrict the amount of time their child spends using the computer. It is a very small and easy to use utility which helps lock a child or any user out of their accounts when the maximum set time for that particular user is reached.

This free utility takes parental controls on your Windows operating system to the next level. Romaco Timeout also controls how much time a user can spend online before the application locks down the browser, and also gives the option of turning everything back on again after a certain amount of time has elapsed. If you want to set the application to start-up automatically every time a certain user logs on, you can do that, too.

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.

SE-TrayMenu is a very simple, easy to use, light weight (portable application size is only 114 KB and the standalone installer is 404KB) and free portable application launcher for Windows. SE-TrayMenu is the best alternative to the Windows Quick Launch feature. It resides in the system tray and gives access to a customizable pop-up menu (on mouse over) through which you can select an application to run. You can easily add any programs, documents, folders, Internet links, etc. shortcut to the pop-up menu by simply dragging and dropping. You can also easily add shortcut keys to any of the shortcuts for quick access.