February 2018

Mozilla plans to release Firefox 58.0.2 to the stable channel in the next 24-hour period. The new version of the browser fixes two crash issues, a signature issue on Mac OS X devices, and issues on Microsoft's Hotmail and Outlook web mail service.

The new version of Firefox updates the release channel of the web browser. It is the second minor update following the release of Firefox 58.0 which was released on January 22, 2018.

A new version of Opera browser, Opera 51.0 Stable, is out. The new version features performance and usability improvements such as the handy "back to top" action or an automated backup of all browser preferences.

Opera 51 is available through the browser's automatic update functionality and as a direct download option on the Opera website.

You can run a check for updates at any time in Opera by opening opera://about. The browser runs a manual check when the page opens to download and install updates found during the process.

VideoLAN, maker of the popular VLC Media Player for various desktop and mobile operating systems, plan to release VLC 3.0 final to the public soon.

Update: VLC 3.0 is out.

The new version of the multimedia player is already on the official FTP server. The company released a total of nine release candidate builds before that and used these builds to fix various issues before the final release.

Microsoft released non-security updates for the Office suites Microsoft Office 2010, Microsoft Office 2013, and Microsoft Office 2016 on the February 2018 Office Patch Day.

The first Tuesday of each month is Office Patch Day at Microsoft but the company limits the releases to non-security updates. Security updates follow on the second Tuesday of each month.

Please note that the updates apply not to click-to-run installations of Microsoft Office, for instance Office 365 Home, but only to msi-installer-based editions.

Rather than a very straightforward tutorial type article, I thought I would tell you a true story of what happened to me immediately before writing this, and how I solved it.

A lot happens in the background when you upgrade Windows 10 to a new version. All of it is automated and of little interest to the user or admin unless something goes wrong.

If the worst case scenario happens, you end up with an unusable version of Windows 10 or the previous version of Windows if the rollback was successful.

Error codes may point you in the right direction, but more often than not it is essential to analyze log files that Windows creates during the upgrade process.

While there are plenty of things online that can break your concentration or focus on a task, autoplaying video or audio surely is at the top of "don't like" list for many Internet users.

One has to distinguish between autoplaying media with and without sound, as that makes a difference. While you can ignore videos that play automatically if they are silent for the most part, it is impossible to do so if sound is enabled by default.

After launching YouTube Go in India about a year ago, Google is in the process of rolling out YouTube Go to more than 130 countries. While the app may not yet be available in your country, the chance is good that it will become available eventually.

Mozilla introduced Sync functionality in Firefox a long time ago. Sync came in the form of the add-on Mozilla Weave first but was integrated into the Firefox web browser later on to provide all users of the browser with sync functionality.

Mozilla changed how Sync works in Firefox with the release of Firefox 29 by switching over to a new account system that allowed authentication using an email address and password opposed to keys that the previous version of Sync required.

GPU DeClicker is a free program for Microsoft Windows systems to remove "clicks", "pops", "bit rots" and other types of noise from audio files.

Designed primarily for audio files recorded from vinyl disks, GPU DeClicker removes noise from any supported audio file you throw at it.

The current version of the program is listed as beta. While it works fine as it is, it comes without graphical user interface as this is still on the developer's to-do list.