October 2014

All versions of the Firefox web browser will be updated to the next major version in the coming 24 hour period. This means that the stable version of the browser, currently at version 32.0.3, will be updated to version 33.

In addition, Firefox Beta, Aurora and Nightly versions will be updated to version 34, 35 and 36 respectively.

It is interesting to note that this Firefox ESR 24.x reaches end of support and that Firefox ESR 31.x will take over from this point onwards.

I have always used the middle mouse button in browsers to open links in a new tab. It is a comfortable option and way better in my opinion than having to right-click and select the option to do so from the menu or hold down Shift and left-click to do the same.

Sometimes when I middle-click in Google Chrome or other Chromium-based browsers, I get a scroll icon instead which allows me to scroll the page while moving up and down.

Whenever a preview of a new operating system is shown chance is good that someone will create a transformation pack that turns older versions of an operating system into the new one.

We have seen transformation packs for a variety of systems in the past. You can turn current versions of Windows into Mac OS X Yosemite for instance.

Password managers serve many purposes: from securely storing important data such as account passwords to password generation and usability features such as automatically entering login information on websites.

But similarities end there. Some password managers run locally as programs, others are integrated into browsers and other programs, and a third-kind uses the cloud to sync the data across devices.

Most modern browsers ship with a private browsing mode that can be started independently from the main browsing session. It prevents the recording of history information in the browser so that information about the private browsing session cannot be retrieved once the window has been closed.

While it is certainly possible to achieve the same goal manually without that mode, for instance by clearing the history, cookies and cache files selectively to erase traces, it is comfortable to use and not as time-consuming.

Udemy is an online learning platform that brings together students and instructors from all over the world. Some courses are available for free while others are paid courses that may cost several hundred Dollars.

You do need to create a free account to use some of the site's functionality, for instance to sign up for free courses.

Video courses consist of a fixed number of recorded lectures that students can watch as often as they like. Courses may also include labs in which students need to complete tasks on their own.

If you are running Windows 10 you may have noticed that you can either display the start menu or the start screen, but not both.

The start menu is the default option on desktop systems that are controlled with a mouse and keyboard. While that is the preferred option for most users, some may want to access the start screen at times.

I write a weekly best of Windows apps over at Betanews for instance and one of the issues that I ran into using the start menu was that new apps were not highlighted anymore.

One of the changes of Windows 10 is a new start menu that Microsoft integrated into the operating system. Designed to please desktop users without dropping the idea of apps and features of the start screen completely, it is a balancing act that brings the old and the new together in a single interface.

When the public started to use the Internet for the first time, Gif files became instantly popular as a means to display media contents on private homepages and community websites.

Back then, you had not many options when it came to these kind of things. There was no HTML5 for instance and services such as Facebook or Twitter were not there either.

These private homepages vanished over time and the use of animated images on personal homepages dropped significantly and it looked for a moment as if the Gif format was done as well.

I have reviewed the Chrome extension µBlock a couple of months ago here on ComTek4u and liked it a lot as it offered the same level of advertisement and nuisance blocking that other extensions offered but with a smaller footprint.

Even though it is lighter than other extensions of its kind for Chrome, it is quite powerful.