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May 2016

KB3150513 is another Windows 10 update patch

KB3150513 is yet another patch for Windows 7 and Windows 8.x operating systems that prepares those systems for the upgrade to Windows 10.

Admins who manage Windows 8.x or 7 systems, or users who run computers with those operating systems, face a big issue if they don't want their devices to upgrade to Windows 10.

Microsoft's strategy is quite aggressive and if you don't take precautions, Windows 10 will find its way on the device even without your doings.

YouTube Unplugged Online TV service may be coming

YouTube is without doubt the most popular video hosting and streaming website on the Internet, and even though that is the case, Google did not make any money from the service last year.

That's probably the main reason why Google is looking to bring other revenue models to the video hosting site.

The company launched YouTube Red recently, a paid subscription service that is provided for $9.99 per month. Subscribers get an ad-free experience on YouTube and access to original content and formats only available to them.

Valve makes Steam reviews more useful

Valve introduced reviews on Steam in 2014 in an effort to add user opinion and ratings to games listed in the Steam store.

The main idea behind the introduction of reviews was probably to provide potential customers with reviews of games they are interested in.

Unlike on Metacritic and many other sites, where anyone can vote and leave a comment, reviews are only open to Steam users who purchased the game on the gaming portal.

Opera 37: Find out what is new

Opera Software released Opera 37 to the stable channel on May 4th, 2016. The new version is available for all supported desktop operating systems - Windows, Mac and Linux -- and already available for download and as an in-browser update.

The new version of Opera brings along with it an integrated ad blocker that Opera tested for a while in the Developer edition of the web browser exclusively.

Opera Mini update brings ad blocker

Opera Software published an update for the Opera Mini application today that introduces an ad blocker to the mobile web browser.

After making an ad blocker available in the desktop version of Opera, or more precisely, the Developer edition of the browser, recently, Opera Software just added the very same feature to Opera Mini as well.

Opera Mini is a lightweight browser that has existed since the good old Nokia days where phones were not all that powerful and Internet transfers not speedy at all.

Cache Killer clears Chrome’s cache automatically

Cache Killer is a browser extension for Google Chrome that clears the cache of the browser before every page load when it is enabled.

Caching is quite useful from a user perspective as it may speed up the loading of web pages when enabled as data may  be loaded from a local cache instead of a remote server.

Another side effect of caching is that you may save bandwidth for the very same reason.

CatBlock: first ad-blocker for Microsoft Edge

CatBlock is the name of the first ad-blocking extension for the Microsoft Edge web browser that has just been released as an alpha version.

Experimental extensions support for Microsoft Edge is currently being tested on the Windows 10 Insider Channel. Microsoft plans to make extensions available to Microsoft Edge running on stable versions of Windows 10 later this year.

Preview YouTube’s Modern Design refresh

Google tests a Modern Design refresh of its video streaming service YouTube currently that is going to be launched later this year if the test shows promising results.

These tests, regardless of Google property they are run on, are limited to select testers or visitors only, and it is usually not possible to get in unless you are invited by Google.

Google uses cookies to distinguish between regular visitors and testers, and since cookies are the only requirement, it is easy enough to join provided that you have the right information.

Microsoft limits direct update downloads

Microsoft announced on April 29, 2016 on the official Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) blog that it won't make available some updates via the company's Download Center starting May 10, 2016.

When it comes to updates for the Windows operating system, Windows users had several options to download and install the updates that Microsoft created.

VLC 2.2.3 fixes Resume feature

VideoLAN, makers of the popular media player VLC, have just released VLC 2.2.3 which can be best described as a bug fix release as it does not introduce new features to the client.

When it comes to features that I like in video players, resume may not be at the top of my list but it is a nice to have feature that I expect media clients to support.

While VLC Media Player did support resume for some time, the feature never worked properly whenever I tried it.