February 2017

Hard Configurator is a free program for Microsoft Windows operating systems that you may use to harden the operating system and manage software restriction policies.

it is a good idea from a security point of view to harden an operating system after installation or on first run.

One idea behind hardening the system is to restrict services or features that you don't require, another to lock down certain features to improve security.

SSLPersonas is a free browser add-on for the Firefox web browser that highlights a site's security status in Firefox by changing colors of the theme.

The Firefox web browser displays up to two indicators in its UI that reveal the security status of the connection.

It displays a lock icon if the connection is secure, and reveals whether the certificate used by the site is using standard or extended validation.

Manjaro has always been one of my personal favourite distributions of GNU/Linux, it combines the speed and power of Arch Linux and its Pacman and AUR repositories, with the user friendliness and overall ‘out of the box’ feel of Ubuntu and other well known new user friendly distros.

Having been probably a year or so since I last sat down and installed Manjaro and gave it a whirl, I decided a review of the latest version 16.10.3 might be in order. So, I quickly fired up my web browser, downloaded the ISO and got to work.

Mozilla Corporation announced the acquisition of Read it Later, Inc, the creators of the "save for later" service Pocket.

Pocket will become a new product in Mozilla's product line alongside the Firefox web browser, and Pocket's core development team will join Mozilla as well.

Metadefender for Chrome is a free browser extension for Google Chrome that you can use to run security scans on files before downloading them.

Metadefender is a popular malware analysis service that scans files that you upload to it against more than 40 different antivirus and threat detection engines.

If you run the latest Windows 10 Insider Build, you may have spotted a new option already that lets you block the installation of Win32 programs on the system.

While there is no guarantee that the feature will land in the Creators Update, as Microsoft may pull it again before the final version is released, it appears as if users get the option to block any win32 program installation on the device.

The feature is not turned on by default of course, and it is unclear why Microsoft added it to the operating system.

Audiosear.ch is a free online service that enables you to run full text searches on podcasts and radio shows the service has indexed.

There are thousands of podcasts out there, and some have produced hundreds of episodes. The majority of podcasts and radio shows don't offer transcripts, so that you are left with titles and descriptions to find out whether a topic is covered in an episode.

Hain is a portable open source launcher program for Microsoft Windows devices that is fast and extensible through plugins.

The Windows start menu is probably the central location that Windows users use when it comes to launching programs not pinned to the taskbar.

It features a search, and the listing of installed programs that added a shortcut to the start menu.

While it is doing an okay job usually, it is not spectacularly fast nor is there a guarantee that the right results will be provided.

Registry Finder 2.17, the latest version of the handy Registry helper application, ships with an option to export keys for deletion.

While you can work with the basic Registry Editor that ships with the Windows Operating system, it is not the most comfortable of programs for the job. While it offers all the basics that you require, it lacks features such as quick jumping, a search that does not just jump to the next or previous hit, and more.

Microsoft will add a quick jump option when it releases the Windows 10 Creators Update, but that is about it.

Janus Workspace is a new browser extension for the Google Chrome web browser that allows you to load multiple sites on the New Tab Page.

There are numerous New Tab Page extensions available for Google Chrome. All have in common that they change what Chrome displays by default when you open a new tab.

What the content is changed to differs highly though. From blank and motivational quite pages to elaborate constructs.

It is up to the Chrome user to pick one of those options; there is something there for everyone.