October 2015

Have you ever shared links to Google Search results before? If you have, you may have noticed that the url pointing to the search results page contains several other parameters besides the search string.

While the search string is a given, since it indicates the page you want to share, all remaining parameters are not. In fact, none of the parameters is required to open the page.

I have a thing for small, lightweight applications, and Hot Key Plus is right up that alley. The 36 Kilobyte file is portable which means you can drop it anywhere and run it from that location without having to worry about dependencies and other things.

The main idea behind the program is to put the Windows-key to use by allowing you to map programs to Windows-key shortcut combos.

While some are reserved by Windows, Windows-e to open Windows Explorer or Windows-Pause to open the System Control Panel applet, others are free and ready for the taking.

Most modern browsers are not simple tools anymore to display HTML websites properly in the browser. They are complex programs that support a wide variety of technologies including several designed to improve the security and privacy of users.

While that is a good thing usually, it may lead to issues as well if these new technologies can be abused.

Devd is a lightweight cross-platform HTTP server for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X that provides impressive functionality in a single executable file.

The application has no dependencies and you may run it from any location you drop it in. The program needs to be run from the command line as there is no interface to play around with.

Devd makes up for it by making it simple and straightforward to start a HTTP server on supported systems.

Yesterday's CCleaner update to version 5.11 introduces several new features to the popular application. One of them allows users on Windows 8 or newer versions of Windows to uninstall Windows apps from the computer using the program.

While CCleaner is still predominantly a program to remove temporary files and data from computers running Windows, other features have been added to it gradually by parent company Piriform.

What's happening over at Opera Software? Apart from suggestions that the company is up for grabs should a serious bidder emerge, business as usual.

Opera Software, which abandoned classic Opera some time ago in favor of Chromium/Blink, has released Opera 33 Stable to the public.

The Opera 33 changelog is long and you will find mostly bug fixes and gradual improvements in it. If you take the time to go through it however, you will notice a couple of feature additions that improve the browser significantly.

Google began to implement SSL on its search engine back in 2010. First on its own domain name, then as a mandatory feature for logged in Google users, and after a while for all users on the main Google Search website.

Workarounds to use HTTP instead of HTTPS on Google Search existed ever since the company began implementing HTTPS on its properties but lately most of them were either retired by Google or switched to use HTTPS instead.

There is however still one option left for users who prefer to conduct Google searches using HTTP connections.

There is certainly no shortage when it comes to solutions to watching Internet TV that you are blocked from accessing because of your geographical location in the world.

The three main solutions that dominate the landscape are virtual private networks (VPNs), proxy-based solutions, and DNS-based solutions.

Nifty is a brand new extension for the Google Chrome browser -- and compatible browsers -- that provides you with options to look up words or phrases found on any websites using select Internet services.

Even if you are proficient in a language, you may stumble upon words from time to time that you don't know at all or want to know more about.

You may look up the word using your search engine of choice or a website that provides you with definitions, or use a paper dictionary for that instead.

If you are not using one of the many excellent screenshot programs available for Windows, you may have noticed that copying and pasting images to the Clipboard is everything but comfortable if you need to take more than one screenshot.

While you could go ahead and do several copy and paste runs, it is less comfortable than copying everything in one go and pasting afterwards.

That's actually the same issue that you will encounter if you use the Windows Clipboard to copy multiple bits of characters.