January 2015

Microsoft has just released security updates for January 2015 for all supported operating systems (Windows Vista to Windows 8.1) and other company products.

The updates are already available on Windows Update and you may want to run a manual check for updates to install them right away.

Below you find information about the January 2015 security bulletins that Microsoft released. It starts with the executive summary which highlights the most important update information.

Mainstream support for the Windows 7 operating system ends today.

BitTorrent Sync is a file synchronization service that uses BitTorrent technology as its foundation. Unlike other file synchronization services, it is not relying on Internet servers to store data.

Note: BitTorrent Sync 2 is currently in active development which means that it is not final. This is just a snapshot describing the current state of development and no representation of the final product.

Firefox 35 is the latest version of the web browser that is made available to all Stable channel users as of January 13, 2015.

All other Firefox channels, that is Beta, Aurora, Nightly and Extended Support Release, are also updated to the next major version which in this case means Beta 36, Aurora 37, Nightly 38 and ESR 31.4.

You can find out which version and channel you are running by typing about:support in the browser's address bar and hitting enter.

The page that opens up displays the information under Application Basics.

The Windows Hosts file allows you to redirect hostnames. That sounds awfully technical but think of it as a beats-everything-else solution to set hostname targets.

Examples? You can redirect any domain name on the Internet to another IP address. This is helpful when you move your website to a new server and want to check everything out before DNS propagates around the world.

Do you know which programs ran in the past on your Windows PC? It is likely that you know at least some of them, the programs that you have started manually for example.

Depending on how the computer is used, it may be just a tiny fraction of executable files that are run on the system.

Files may be executed automatically by the operating system for example, or by other users who have access to the system (and same user account).

If you want to display a list of recently run programs on the PC, you can do so in two different ways:

Pale Moon and Firefox are two popular web browsers that share many features. Most Firefox add-ons run perfectly fine in Pale Moon for example and the same is true for the majority of about:config tweaks.

Differences exist on the other hand and it is likely that the gap widens in the future due to decisions made by both development teams.

The majority of social media and messaging sites display the number of unread messages, friend requests and notifications on their site so that users see on first glance what is new.

On Facebook for example, you see new friend requests, messages and notifications, and on Gmail the unread mail count.

It may sometimes be useful to boot one or multiple computer systems from a network computer instead of locally.

Maybe you want to boot another operating system or an update but the computer has no disc drive and only a slow USB 2.0 option or none at all.

Or you may need to maintain computer systems on a network using specialized software that you need to boot those systems from.

I have configured my desktop PC to go turn off the monitor after 5 minutes and to go sleep after 10 minutes of inactivity.

While I don't have to worry about battery usage (because it is a desktop PC), putting it to sleep saves energy which in turn is beneficial to the utility bill.

I noticed recently that the PC would wake up automatically from sleep without me being anywhere near it.

This guide provides you with the tools and knowledge to analyze the issue in detail on your own device.

Finding the cause