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TekBits Technology News

Kaspersky System Checker

Kaspersky System Checker is a free portable program by Russian security company Kaspersky that runs diagnostics on your PC.

The program has been designed to scan the PC for issues, but not to correct them. Kaspersky System Checker is however not an advertisement product that tries to sell you one of Kaspersky's commercial products.

Some companies produce scanners that have only one purpose: to sell you their commercial products. Norton Security Scan is such a product. It is a free scanner that cannot remove a thing when it detects something.

Microsoft Edge: show address bar all the time

The following guide provides you with information on configuring Microsoft Edge so that the browser's address bar is displayed all the time.

If you are using Microsoft Edge, or have used it in the past, you may have noticed that the browser's address bar is not displayed on certain pages.

This is the case for the browser's startpage, but also on the new tab page. Microsoft made the decision to merge it with the search field that it displays on these pages.

Microsoft: Windows 10 Bitlocker is slower, but also better

If you encrypt the hard drive of a computer running Windows 7, and then on the same computer running Windows 10, you will notice that the encryption process is faster on Windows 7.

Bitlocker is a built-in disk encryption program that you can use to encrypt data so that it cannot be accessed by third-parties. If you don't encrypt your hard drive, anyone can access the data on it even if the PC is not on.

With Bitlocker and other encryption software, this is prevented.

 

Reasons why Bitlocker is slower on Windows 10

Silverdog: a sound firewall for Chrome

Silverdog is a free browser extension for Google Chrome -- it should work in other Chromium-based browsers as well, and maybe even Firefox (not tested) -- that acts as an ultrasound firewall in the browser.

In Talking Behind Your Back, security researchers Vasilios Mavroudis and Federico Maggi describe attacks and countermeasures of ultrasonic cross-device tracking.

Chrome: let downloads overwrite existing files

Downloads Overwrite Already Existing Files is an extension for the Google Chrome web browser that changes Chrome's handling of duplicate file downloads.

Whenever you download a file in Chrome, it is saved automatically to the default download folder.  While you can change the behavior in the Chrome settings, most Chrome users have not done so probably.

Browser Autofill data may be phished

Most modern web browsers support comfortable features like auto-filling forms on sites using data that you have entered in the past.

Instead of having to enter your name, email address or street address whenever you sign up for a new account for instance, you'd fill out the data once only and have the browser fill out the fields for you any time they are requested afterwards.

Opera 44: non-MSE video hardware acceleration, malware shortcut blocking

Opera Software has released the first Developer version of the upcoming Opera 44 web browser to the public today.

The new development version, a version that is made available for testing purposes mainly, gives a glimpse of new features that will find their way into Opera 44 Stable.

MusicDNA: Android music player with interesting visualization

MusicDNA is a music player app for Android that combines the majority of features you'd expect from a music player for Android with interesting visualization.

The three extra permissions that the player requests during installation are all explained on the Google Play website by its developer.

The player itself opens up with a whole array of on-screen tips that explain its functionality.  While this may be useful to inexperienced users, it is certainly overkill for users who have used a music player app before on their Android device.

Nvidia reveals GeForce Now game streaming service

Nvidia revealed the game streaming service GeForce Now for Mac and PC yesterday at the company's CES 2017 keynote event.

GeForce Now is a game streaming service that works similar to the service that Nvidia Shield users can use already.

The core idea behind the service is to move the computing power to the cloud so that PCs and Macs without dedicated video card can play the latest and most demanding games.