October 2014

Microsoft rolled out the first update for the Windows 10 Preview Build yesterday. The 2.x Gigabyte update did not introduce many new features to the operating system but introduced more than 7000 background changes to the system according to Microsoft.

A first basic version of the Action Center is without doubt the major new feature in the release. It is a port of the Windows Phone feature and displays actionable items according to Microsoft.

The company notes that the feature is not final, especially when it comes to the design and user interface.

One of the best ways to improve the security of a Google account is to enable 2-step verification for it. The idea behind the feature is to combine the usual account username and password with local information tied to a mobile phone.

So, instead of having to enter your Google email and password to sign in to your account, you also need to enter a code that is generated on the fly when you sign in on untrusted devices.

I have a hard time understanding the concept of sharing photos or videos with other people. While I do understand that it can be useful at times, say wedding photos or special moments, the increase in shared media is what I don't really get.

There must be something to it though if you consider how popular applications such as Snapchat, Instagram or the recently released Skype Qik (pronounced Quick) are.

Facebook rolled out Saved a couple of months ago both on the web interface and Facebook apps on Android and iOS mobile devices.

The problem is that it is not really advertised on the web and if you don't know where to look you may not have noticed that the feature exists at all which makes it likely that the feature went by unnoticed largely.

The Saved link in the sidebar on the web is for instance only displayed after you have saved at least one item.

If you have had time to use the preview build of Windows 10 on a machine you may have noticed the new start menu right away.

While not identical to the Windows 7 start menu, it is a compromise that brings the old (desktop programs) and the new (apps and live tiles) together.

What you may have noticed as well is that you cannot move or remove apps when you open the all apps listing. Here you find listed all installed apps and desktop programs.

There are two core options when it comes to reading pdf documents on your computer that are hosted on the Internet. The first is to read the document right in the browser, either by using the browser's native option to to so or by using a third-party plugin or extension that adds the capability to the program. Google Chrome and Firefox support this for example out of the box.

When you visit the popular video hosting site YouTube in the recent version of Firefox, Adobe Flash is no longer being used by default to stream videos to the device.

HTML5 video is being used instead and there is no option on the site itself to change that. You were able to toggle between HTML5 and Flash video until recently on http://www.youtube.com/html5 but that option is no longer available when you connect using the Firefox web browser (it is also not available in other browsers such as Google Chrome).

The author of the popular ad-blocking program for Windows AdMuncher announced some time ago that he would turn the commercial program into a free one in the near future.

That day has come and as of today, AdMucher is available as a free download to everyone.

Firefox users have plenty of options when it comes to controlling what websites may load when the browser connects to them. Some of the options can be configured right within the browser natively while others come in form of add-ons.

Windows users have plenty of options at their disposal when it comes to protecting their system. Some solutions are recommended to all users, the installation of a good anti-virus solution comes to mind.

Others may be considered optional but they may improve the security in a way that anti-virus software can't. A sandboxing application like Sandboxie enables you to run apps in protected environments so that they cannot manipulate the system.

Anti-exploit software such as EMET or Malwarebytes Anti-Exploit mitigate specific attacks against the computer.