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November 2015

How to enable the new Google+ design

Google relaunched its social networking service Google+ on Tuesday by putting an emphasize on features that users of the service are interested in.

Google removed several features from Google+ in the recent past, the Photos application for instance which led to speculation that the company was about to give up on the project to establish a Facebook competitor.

That's however not the case apparently as Google decided to change the focus of Google+ instead.

Software Giveway: DVDFab Passkey Lifetime License

Ripping your own DVDs or Blu-Ray discs is probably not something that you do every day or even regularly at all thanks to the availability of online streaming services and options to purchase media in digital format right away.

Still, if you want to rip a video DVD or Blu-Ray, you may encounter issues doing so as protections on the disc may prevent many tools from carrying out the operation.

Pushbullet Pro and free version limitations

Pushbullet is a popular service for various operating systems and browsers that bridges the gap that exists between multiple devices that you use.

The service lets you send files or links between devices for instance, see your phone's notifications on your desktop or in your browser, or to send text messages.

Pushbullet was free up until now but if you visit the service's website right now, you may notice a new Pro entry in the main navigation bar.

How to download and install a recovery image for your Microsoft Surface device

So, I got a Microsoft Surface 4 Pro the other day and one of the first things I did was to set up full disk encryption on the main drive.

I used the same software, Disk Cryptor, that I'm using on my desktop PC running Windows 10.

Unfortunately though, I failed to realize that the encryption software is not compatible with systems that don't use a MBR so that I ended in an endless "attempting automatic repairs" loop as the Surface tried to access the system but could not because of the encrypted hard drive.

Check problematic events with the Windows Reliability Monitor

While you will notice some problematic events while you are using a system running a recent version of the Windows operating system, you may miss others.

For instance, if the web browser that you are using stops working, you will notice it and if that happens regularly, may investigate the cause to fix it. You may however fail to notice the same for background programs, especially if they are restarted automatically or other failures such as updates that don't get installed successfully.

Chrome’s “clear browsing data” to display details about deleted data

Google Chrome's "clear browsing data" dialog will soon become more useful as Google has started to add information about items that get deleted by it to it.

Most web browsers ship with options to delete browsing data directly from within the browser. What they all fail to reveal however is what gets removed when you use the feature.

The main issue with that approach is that you may not clear a single item depending on what you are selecting which in turn means that the selected action has no impact on the browser or local storage.

Create Network profiles with IP Shifter

IP Shifter is a free program for Windows that enables you to manage multiple network profiles to switch between them easily.

The program is probably not necessary for most desktop computer systems, but can be quite useful if you use a laptop in different locations or need to connect to different networks accessible at a location.

While you can go ahead and modify network settings manually each time, software like IP Shifter makes all profiles available with the click of a button.

Create encrypted mirror copies of folders on Windows

CrococryptMirror is a free program for Windows that you can use to create encrypted mirror copies of folders in Windows. It furthermore allows you to keep the folders in sync automatically if that is required.

Encrypted folders can be useful in several use cases, for instance to park data in the cloud without making it accessible directly to third-parties or to create secure backups to store them remotely or locally.

The program creates folder by folder and file by file copies of the data, and encrypts not only contents but also file and folder names.