Dedicated to Giz who is being dragged bodily into Windows 7 and likes not one minute of it. Microsoft's support for Windows XP may be fading, but a loyal horde of XP users plans to stick with this venerable OS for as long as possible. If that's your long-term goal, there are a number of steps you can take now to ensure a finely tuned XP system for months — possibly years — to come. Windows XP is almost a decade old, which in both computing and dog years m...

  Even the best free software is useless without hardware, yet how many of us actually know how their computer works? You’ve already read part 1 , so why not pick up on where author Lachlan Roy left off? Part two highlights everything you need to know about CPUs, storage devices, memory, graphics cards and other computer components. DOWNLOAD Your PC: Inside and Out Part 2 or Read online on Scribd This amazing guide, part 2 of a two-part...

  At times you may have only a single website open and yet you may find your Modem’s light flickering actively, indicating steady a data transfer. Apart from your browser, silently, there are several programs which may be accessing the internet from your Windows PC without your knowledge. Might be a good thing to find out which are! To find out which programs are accessing the internet, download and use TCPEye , a freeware ! TCPEye is network monitoring software t...

Two hackers who made a mockery of AT&T and Apple's iPad security are getting the book thrown at them in a US court. Daniel Spitler and Andrew Auernheimer took just five days to nick the data of 120,000 iPad users and pass it on to the Gawker website. They shared the code they used to do it with their mates. The code mimicked an iPad so that AT&T 's servers were fooled into believing that they were communicating with an Apple customer who would never dream of turning over its ...

  These guys just don’t get it.   Privacy concerns voiced by users prompt the company to revise its plan to let Facebook apps access users' home addresses and mobile phone numbers. Demonstrating yet again that it doesn't really understand privacy concerns, Facebook on Friday told developers that their Facebook apps could now ask permission for access to users' home addresses and mobile phone numbers. Folks, please REFUSE any such access! The comp...

  The PDF converter software, PDZFilla, is now completely free for a limited period.  This isn’t like any other PDF conversion software though as PDFZilla doesn’t convert your documents into Adobe’s portable document format, instead it can convert PDFs back into editable files. It’s main features include… Convert PDF to Word Convert PDF to Word with all text and Graphical data. Convert PDF to RTF Convert PDF to Rich Text F...

    I bring this news item to you because of all we’ve been discussing lately in my posts regarding passwords, safety on facebook (and other social networking sites) and online security. Even if I could I would not remove the less pleasant aspects of this incident as censorship is as distasteful as the details. I am reporting them to you because they clearly emphasize what we all have posted and the replies to the posts. A recently-arrested hacker reportedly used pers...

      The Kama Sutra virus which raised its head in 2006 is back again. This time with a PowerPoint presentation promising to share with you the various Kama Sutra positions. The slides, which would probably raise an eyebrow if viewed in your office shows thirteen different positions, some with fanciful names such as “The Frog”, “Wheelbarrow” and “Lyons Stagecoach”. The malware comes as a file called Real kamasutra.pp...

  This news item is taken directly from the BBC London Tech section.   Mr. Jobs is credited with turning around the fortunes of the company Apple boss Steve Jobs has announced that he is to take "medical leave" from the company. In an e-mail to employees he said he was taking the break to focus on his health. He said he would continue as chief executive of Apple and be involved in any major decisions. Day-to-day running of the company will pass to Tim Cook. In late 2...

      MinBin is a small app that lets you open, empty, access the Recycle Bin from your Windows taskbar notification area or system tray. Simply download an run this freeware portable app and it will sit in the notification area. Right-click on its icon to show the options. To empty the recycle bin, you can either double-click on its icon or select the Empty Recycle Bin option. You can add it to the startup folder so that it runs every tim...

  Microsoft has jumped totally into the war of Cloud computing. To compete with Google and Amazon, Microsoft introduced cloud computing with Windows Azure technology. Cloud computing is Internet-based computing, whereby shared servers provide resources, software, and data to computers and other devices on demand, as with the electricity grid.  It means, using the infrastructure of the company providing the cloud service. Along with big Enterprises, Microso...

  The "cloud" is where we've been sharing our lives and storing our files for awhile now, but with so many cloud services there's much more you can do that may not have crossed your mind. Here are ten ideas.   9. Write in Public Without a Blog Everyone and their mother has a blog nowadays, but how often is it really updated? And even then, how often are people saying anything worthwhile? That said, there are plenty of times we all have a goo...

    During a press conference held ahead of CES, Microsoft gave everyone a sneak peek of their next Operating System, Windows 8. The most exciting news is that Windows 8 will support System On a Chip(SOC) architectures including ARM-based systems from partners NVIDIA, Qualcomm and Texas Instruments. Intel and AMD will continue their work on the lower SOC designs on the x86 architecture that supports Windows fully. This includes support for millions of x86 applications. ...

      “Fences” has been chosen by MakeUseOf.com as one of the Best Of: Windows Software in the Productivity Category! Congrats, Jeff! Is a program that helps you organize your desktop and can hide your icons when they are not in use. your desktop by creating shaded areas which become movable and sizable containers for your icons. Double click blank spaces on your desktop and all your fences will fade out, and back. "It w...

      With the increase in use of internet, the threat of unexpected virus attack on your PC is increasing, Internet Security solutions are must required to stay safe and secure. Most of us are searching for a better security solution these days! Here is a comparison list of the Top 5 paid Internet Security Suites available for 2011. You can see a top 10 list, also. For me, the top five was enough. Norton pretty much aced the others out. This isn’t Gran...