Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Windows Defender

Windows Defender detects and removes spyware

Windows Defender is software that helps protect your computer against pop-ups, slow performance, and security threats caused by spyware and other unwanted software by detecting and removing known spyware from your computer. Windows Defender features Real-Time Protection, a monitoring system that recommends actions against spyware when it's detected, minimizes interruptions, and helps you stay productive.

The benefits of installing Windows Defender include:

Spyware detection and removal

Windows Defender quickly and easily finds spyware and other unwanted programs that can slow down your computer, display annoying pop-up ads, change Internet settings, or use your private information without your consent.
Windows Defender eliminates detected spyware easily at your direction, and if you inadvertently remove programs that you actually want, it's easy to get them back.
Windows Defender allows you to schedule your scanning and removal times when it's convenient for you, whether it's on-demand or on a schedule that you set.

Improved Internet browsing safety

Windows Defender helps stop spyware before it infiltrates your computer. Windows Defender also offers a continuous safeguard designed to target all the ways that spyware can infiltrate your computer.
Windows Defender works without distracting you. It runs in the background and automatically handles spyware based on preferences that you set. You can use your computer with minimal interruption.

Protection against the latest threats

A dedicated team of Microsoft researchers continuously searches the Internet to discover new spyware and develop methods to counteract it.
A voluntary, worldwide network of Windows Defender users helps Microsoft determine which suspicious programs to classify as spyware. Participants help discover new threats quickly and notify Microsoft analysts, so that everyone is better protected. Anyone who uses Windows Defender can join this network and help report potential spyware to Microsoft.
To help protect your computer from the latest threats, you can choose to have updates that counteract new spyware automatically downloaded to your computer.

Windows Defender is included with all versions of Windows Vista and is available to download for genuine copies of Windows XP Service Pack 2 or later, or Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 or later.

Learn more about Windows Defender and other Microsoft anti-malware solutions, and to learn more using Windows Defender, watch this demo.

Tired of chasing your mouse? Use keyboard shortcuts

The mouse, one of the greatest advances in computing history, provides you with an intuitive point-and-click method for using your computer. Depending on the type of work you're doing, however, sometimes using a mouse actually slows you down. If you are a good typist, taking your hands away from the keyboard to move the mouse can use up a few seconds. Over the course of a full day, you could save several minutes by using keyboard shortcuts instead of the mouse.

You can use your keyboard instead of your mouse to do these three tasks:

Start a program using a keyboard shortcut

The Start menu is great for finding programs, but its multiple levels of folders can be time consuming to navigate. If there is a program you start frequently, you should set a keyboard shortcut for it so that you can start the program without taking your hands off the keyboard.

To set a keyboard shortcut to start a program

1.	Click the Start menu, and then click All Programs. Right-click the program that you want to start with a keyboard shortcut, and then click Properties.
2.	Click in the Shortcut key box. Now press the letter on your keyboard that you want to use to start the program. Make it easy to remember—for example, press I for Microsoft Internet Explorer. Note: You can use either uppercase or lowercase letters when creating your keyboard shortcuts—and when accessing them later. In the Shortcut key box, Microsoft Windows XP automatically adds Ctrl + Alt + before the key you pressed. When you want to start the program, hold down both the CTRL and ALT keys simultaneously, while also pressing the letter you chose. This way, your program won't start every time you type that letter.
3.	Click OK.
4.	Now test your shortcut. Hold down the CTRL and ALT keys, and then press the letter you chose. If you find it difficult to hold down two keys at once, read Turn on the Sticky Keys feature. Your program should start.

When your friends see you start up programs without touching your mouse, they just might think you have a psychic connection with your computer!

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Navigate menus using the keyboard

You can speed up tasks in almost any program by choosing menu items using your keyboard instead of your mouse. This operation is particularly handy when you're performing repetitive tasks.

To control menus using your keyboard

With your program open, press the ALT key. Notice that one letter on each menu name is now underlined. To open the menu, press the underlined key. For example, in Internet Explorer, the View menu name shows the V underlined after you press the ALT key. To open the View menu, press the ALT key, and then press V.

Menu bar with the V highlighted and underlined on View menu name

Now, each menu item will show one letter underlined. To access or activate the menu item you want, simply press the underlined key. For example, in Internet Explorer, after you open the View menu, the Privacy Report menu item shows the V underlined. Instead of clicking Privacy Report with your mouse, you can just press the V key.

View menu with the v in Privacy Report menu item highlighted and underlined

You can also choose menu commands by pressing key sequences quickly, without waiting for the menus to open. For example, to quickly view a Web page's privacy report in Internet Explorer, press ALT, V, V. Similarly, to save a Web page in Internet Explorer, you would normally click the File menu, and then click Save As. To choose the same commands using your keyboard, press ALT, F, A.

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Control windows using your keyboard

If you like to keep four or five windows open while you work (or play) on your computer, you'll appreciate knowing these keyboard shortcuts. You can quickly switch between your Web browser, e-mail, instant message windows, and other programs without taking your hands off the keyboard.

Action	Shortcut
Minimize a window to your taskbar	ALT, SPACEBAR, N
Maximize a window so it takes up your whole desktop	ALT, SPACEBAR, X
Restore a window so it's visible but doesn't take up your whole desktop	ALT, SPACEBAR, R
Close a window	ALT+F4
Switch to the last window you had open	ALT+TAB
Switch to any window	Hold down the ALT key, and press TAB until the window you want is active

Programs often start up in a "restored" state, where the window takes up only part of the screen. To maximize the window so that it takes up the entire screen, press the ALT key, press the SPACEBAR, and then press X. This will feel natural after you do it a few times, and you will feel much more efficient while using your computer.

Microsoft plans Windows 7 release candidate for May

Microsoft Corp. will deliver a release candidate of Windows 7 to the public in late May, according to a report from a noted Windows Web site.

Windows 7 Release Candidate (RC), the next slated major milestone for the under-development operating system, will be made available to the public the last week of May, said Neowin.net today.

Prior to that, Microsoft will wrap up an "escrow build" of the release candidate and offer it to a small invitation-only group of testers near the end of April, said Neowin, citing information from a Russian-language Web site and sources within Microsoft's Technical Adoption Program, which gives large corporations sneak peeks at pre-release software.

In Microsoft's parlance, an escrow build is a post-development edition given to testers for one final examination for any show-stopping problems or bugs. Microsoft, for instance, generated an escrow build of Windows Vista Service Pack 2 (SP2) prior to posting it for public download earlier this month.

5 useful Windows XP tricks

You know that feeling you get when your friends or family see you do something on your computer that they've never seen before?

If you haven't had this opportunity, here's where you start.

If you have, then you know that you're feeling like the world's coolest power-user when this happens. Knowledge is power! Here are five Windows XP tips that will get you/keep you schoolin' your friends and family.

Don't just maximize your windows—go full screen

When you need a really big window, don't just maximize it: go full screen! To view a window full screen, hold down the Ctrl key and double-click the window's title bar—or when the window is active, press the F11 key at the top of your keyboard—to get the biggest window possible.

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Add the Links toolbar to My Computer

You know what would make a great toolbar? One where you could put your favorite applications and documents so that you could open them from any window at any time. Guess what? You can and here's how: click Start, then My Computer. Now right-click the toolbar and then click Links. You now have the Links toolbar on your windows, just like in Internet Explorer. Note: Make sure that Lock the Toolbars is not checked. Click on it to deselect it if it is.

The really cool thing about the Links toolbar is that it's completely customizable. Try this: Navigate to your favorite application and drag and drop its icon to the Links toolbar. You just created a shortcut. Do this again and again for as many applications as you want to appear on the toolbar.

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Arrange windows on your desktop

You can display any two windows side by side on the desktop by first clicking a window's button on the Taskbar. Next, press and hold the Ctrl key and right-click the second window that you want to open, then click Tile Vertically. This works great when you want to view two Microsoft Word or Microsoft Internet Explorer windows at the same time.

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Organize your files into groups

Organize your files by grouping them. Try this: Open a folder containing several different subfolders and file types. Right-click any empty space on the window's contents pane, click Arrange Icons By, and then click Show in Groups. To arrange the window's contents, right-click again in any empty space on the window's contents pane, point to Arrange Icons By, and click Name, Size, Type, or Modified.

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Make your own icons

It's shockingly easy to create your own icons in Windows XP. Let's do it: Click Start, click All Programs, click Accessories, and then click Paint. On the Image menu, click Attributes. Type 32 for both the Width and Height of the document, and make sure that Pixels is selected under Units. Click OK to create a new 32x32-pixel document: the size of an icon.

Now add type, color, or do whatever you'd like to your image. I like to shrink photos (headshots work best) to 32x32 and simply paste them into my Paint document. When you're finished, open the File menu and click Save As. Use the dialog box to choose where you want to save your file, then give it a name followed by ".ico" (without the quotes), and click Save. (The extension ".ico" tells Windows that it's an icon file.) You just created an icon! Now you can change any shortcut or folder to your own icon—just browse to it on your hard drive.

These tips are from the book, Windows XP Killer Tips by Kleber Stephenson, ISBN 073571357X. Published here with the permission of Pearson Education, Inc.

Microsoft Surface v2 due within a year?

An updated version of Microsoft's surface touch-screen table, featuring high-definition cameras and a higher resolution display could be expected within a year, the audience at a South By South West Interactive panel entitled 'Violating the Warranty on Your Touch Computing Device' heard today.

Speaking about the next version of Surface, Erik Klimczak, Creative Director at Clarity Consulting, which creates interactive applications for the Surface, said: "In the short order, within a year I'd expect to see a second version of this [Surface] but with higher definition cameras.

"Right now the cameras are limited in how much detail they can pick up. And it's actually displaying at 1024 x 768, which is not very big so the HD cameras will enable a lot higher resolution."

Microsoft's User Experience Evangelist for Surface, Chris Bernard, quickly stepped in to add that Microsoft has nothing to announce.

Beyond the current generation of Surface, Microsoft is working on a project called SecondLight, which allows images to be projected above the table top and interacted with by using gestures.

In answer to an audience question about when SecondLight would be commercially available, Joe Olsen, CEO of design firm Phenomblue said he had heard that it would be two to three years:

"That's in R&D right now, and they haven't even got to the point where they've figured out how to commercialise it yet. I asked the same question and I got 'two to three years before anything would happen'. Now, things have come out a lot sooner than that before but it's definitely still in the R&D stage."

source: techradar.com

Apple teaches iPhone 3.0 new tricks

The first round of news out of today’s Apple event has to do with a “major update” to the iPhone and iPod Touch operating system.

Until now, there’s a been a lot of catching up with details related to the app store and the popularity of it. There are more than 25,000 apps in the store today and more than 800,000 downloads - in eight months time. The apps were my favorite thing about the iPhone I didn’t keep and the are still my favorite in the iPod Touch.

So Apple is expanding what developers can do with their apps in the new OS. The company notes that developers are asking for other business models, like subscriptions and the ability to charge for additional levels on a game or fresh content on an app. In OS 3.0, developers will be able to do those sorts of things.

Apple, recognizing the popularity of apps within the iPhone/iPod Touch ecosystem, is creating an environment that’s friendly to developers, a lure to keep them happy as they build a massive network of piggy banks for Apple. As App stores grow in other smartphone platforms - Blackberry, Palm Pre and so on - Apple is smart to use every turbo boost mechanism at its means to get way ahead in the race.

Peer-to-peer
This is cool. Through Bluetooth, Apple is opening peer-to-peer connectivity on the iPhone/iPod Touch. The obvious example, of course, becomes the kids in the back seat playing a game against each other.

That leads me another observation: the power of the iPod Touch. I’ve said before that I think the real killer device here is the iPod Touch. It has all the cool features of an iPhone without the cost of the service plan. It’s interesting that Apple is referencing both products now, instead of just the iPhone. The company said at the beginning of the event that it had sold 17 million iPhones. Counting the iPod Touch, the company has sold 30 million devices with the OS, bringing that iPod Touch number to 13 million.

Late to Push
OK, the company admits they were late to push technology. Anyone who has used a Blackberry understands the significance of push - you don’t have to go and retrieve your e-mail. Your screen simply refreshes when there’s a new item. But, because Apple’s apps don’t run in the background, you wouldn’t know if you had any new mail unless you opened the mail app first.

source: blogs.zdnet.com

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

password for rar file = Ferrum
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Vista WindowBlinds Theme - Stromboli

Download Vista WindowBlinds Theme - Stromboli

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Calideya - wallpaper-windows 7

Calideya - wallpaper

Author: viperv6
Author’s Notes: …this is a mix with a bryce and cinema render…….not sure about the middle here…but i dont find any “eyecatching” for this

Download Calideya wallpaper

Sunday, March 1, 2009

How to Upgrade Vista SP1 to Windows 7

Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Release Candidate 1 has been released to Microsoft Connect, MSDN, Technet subscribers, and it’s also available for free download in Windows Update. Because, make no mistake about it, Windows 7 will grow its installed base for the most part to the detriment of its precursors.

Still, the good news is that Microsoft will make available Windows 7 upgrade licenses for both Vista and XP. The price is, of course, a critical factor when considering a jump to the next iteration of Windows, for both those that have coughed up a pretty dollar to upgrade to Vista, and also for the customers that have ridden XP for all its got, skipping the intermediary Windows 6.0 step. The bad news, as far as Windows XP users are concerned, is that Microsoft will not support in-place upgrades from XP to Windows 7. They will need to perform a clean installation of Win 7 on top of XP. Only Vista machines will be able to be upgraded in-place to Windows 7.

In-place upgrades are one of the installation options for Windows operating systems. Microsoft reveals that the process allows users to “install Windows and retain applications, files, and settings as they were in previous edition of Windows.” And fact is that, in the context in which users have gathered a consistent volume of programs along with extensive customization, in-place upgrades make all the sense in the world, especially in scenarios in which re-installing all applications after a clean deployment of Windows would take in excess of a couple of hours. This because the upgrading process is completely automatic, following the initial steps that the end-user has to perform manually.

Essentially, upgrading to Windows 7 is a way to ensure that the operating system does all the heavy lifting, and, even if it is indeed a time-consuming process, stretching at least three or even four times as much as a clean install, the actual effort on behalf of the end-user is minimal.