Microsoft will pester Windows 7 users to upgrade to Windows 10 with pop-up notifications

Windows 10 box

Anyone who is still using Windows 7 doesn't have much longer until the operating system is no longer supported by Microsoft. Come January 14, 2020 only those enterprise customers who are willing to pay for Extended Security Updates will receive any kind of support.

Microsoft has already done a lot to encourage Windows 7 diehards to make the move to Windows 10, and now it is stepping things up a gear. Throughout 2019, the company will show pop-up notifications in Windows 7 about making the switch to the latest version of Windows.

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Two-thirds of Android antivirus apps block less than 30 percent of threats

Mobile phone malware

In one of the biggest tests of Android antivirus software ever conducted, out of 250 apps tested the majority proved to be dubious, unsafe or ineffective.

Independent testing organization AV-Comparatives put the apps to the test against an array of common threats and found that some are not properly protecting users.

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Continuous Delivery Foundation aims to boost success of open source projects

open source bubble

An industry group made up of 22 members is launching a Continuous Delivery Foundation (CDF) to develop, nurture and promote open source projects, best practices and industry specifications related to continuous delivery.

Founding members of the CDF include the Linux Foundation, Google, Microsoft, Netflix, Red Hat, CloudBees and the Jenkins Community

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Securely wipe your entire drive or individual files and folders using O&O SafeErase 14

We had a shock the other day when cleaning out the office. If you’re anything like us, you tend to hold on to old drives simply because it’s hard to dispose of the data securely.

You soon realize you have old hard drives you’ve never dealt with and even obscure NAS drives collected over many years. We found old drives going back to 2000. One solution is to pay for a professional company to pick up, wipe and dispose of these used drives, but this is a costly procedure. Why not do it yourself and save a ton of cash in the process?

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Employees waste two hours a day searching for data

data search

According to new research from data protection specialist Veritas Technologies, employees are losing two hours a day searching for data, and data management challenges are costing businesses as much as $2 million a year.

On the other hand the study of 1,500 IT decision makers across 15 countries, carried out by Vanson Bourne for Veritas, shows organizations that invest in effective day-to-day management of their data have reported cost savings and better employee productivity as a result.

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CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 2019 unveils Mac version as part of 30th anniversary celebrations

Corel has unveiled CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 2019 as part of its 30th-anniversary celebrations for Windows and -- for the first time -- Mac. The brand-new Mac release is fully native, and includes all components found in the Windows version, including CorelDRAW and Corel PHOTO-PAINT.

Also new in the 2019 release is a brand-new Objects Docker for controlling document structure, non-destructive effects, and a new web app (CorelDRAW.app) for accessing and editing cloud-hosted Corel documents through other devices.

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New Google extension for Chrome filters out toxic comments

BetaNews has what we like to call a rather rowdy comments section. Any post to do with Windows 7 and Windows 10 usually sparks a commenting war that can run for weeks and get very heated at times.

We’re far from alone here though. Plenty of sites have similarly unruly comments sections, and the situation has got so bad that a growing number of popular websites have turned off commenting altogether, which is a shame.

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Humble Bundle launches pay-what-you-want Linux book deal

Humble Bundle is a really cool program. If you aren't familiar, the website sells games, apps, and more with a "pay what you want" pricing scheme. Essentially, you can score a bundle of really good digital content without harming your bank account.

No, you can't just pay a penny -- usually there is some sort of minimum, such as a dollar. There are often tiers too, where you can unlock more by paying additional funds. So why does anyone pay more than the minimum? Well, some of the proceeds go to charity, so the more you pay, the more money goes to a good cause.

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Windows 10 will automatically uninstall problematic updates

Windows 10 - Do great things

Updates to Windows are supposed to fix problems and improve security, but sometimes they do the opposite. Many Windows 10 users will have experienced startup problems after installing an update to the operating system, and this is something that Microsoft is looking to address.

Rather than leaving it down to users to seek out the problematic update and uninstall it, Windows 10 could start to automatically uninstall updates that have caused issues. If this happens to you, you'll be greeted by the message: "We removed some recently installed updates to recover your device from a startup failure."

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Microsoft to start selling Windows 7 Extended Security Updates from April 1

Windows 7 Professional

While Windows 10 enjoys a significant and growing userbase, there are still many Windows 7 users out there. This includes a large number of enterprise users, and for these customers security is of paramount importance.

Last month we learned about the pricing for Windows 7 Extended Security Updates (ESU) which will be available when support for the aging operating system ends in 2020. Now we know that ESU will go on sale from the beginning of next month.

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Save $$$ on Coway Air Purifiers, with an extra $50 off for BetaNews readers

Your home can be bad for your health. Not only do more accidents happen in the house than anywhere else, but the quality of the air you breathe can cause health issues, with allergens, dust, pet hair, and other tiny debris to worry about.

An air purifier can clean up the air around you, monitoring pollution and filtering it out. Coway make a number of such purifiers and four of the top models are on sale at Wellbots right now, and BetaNews readers can make even greater savings.

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NVIDIA outbids Microsoft and Intel to buy datacenter chipmaker Mellanox for $6.9 billion

NVIDIA logo

NVIDIA has announced that it plans to buy Israeli chipmaker Mellanox. Fending off competition from Microsoft and Intel, NVIDIA's bid of $6.9 billion was enough to secure the deal which is expected to be finalized by the end of the year.

As part of the agreement, NVIDIA will purchase all Mellanox shares for $125 each in cash. It sees the company expanding further into high-performance computing and supercomputers, and boosts its datacenter business.

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Coinhive dominates malware charts before being shut down

Coinhive continued to hold the top spot in Check Point Research's February Global Threat Index, impacting 10 percent of organizations worldwide, even though its services were shut down on March 8th.

In February, the two most prevalent malware variants were cryptominers, followed by the Emotet banking Trojan. Coinhive has seen a downward trend in its global impact, from 18 percent of organizations in October 2018 to 12 percent in January 2019 and with a further two percent drop in February.

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Dark mode arrives in Slack's iOS and Android apps

Slack

For many workplaces -- including BetaNews -- Slack is the way workers stay in touch with each other. Jumping onto the black bandwagon, the chat and messaging tool is embracing the dark side and giving users the option to ramp up the darkness.

To enjoy a darker look to Slack, you need to be part of the beta program, and there is nothing from stopping you from signing up right now and reaping the ocular -- or just aesthetic -- benefits of the new dark mode. Dark mode is available on both iOS and Android.

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ExTiX 19.3 (190307) is based on Ubuntu 19.04 Disco Dingo, uses Linux kernel 5.0, and has Kodi Leia pre-installed

Here's the deal, folks -- there are far too many Linux distributions out there nowadays. It used to bother me, but over time, I made peace with it. Look, it's the nature of the beast -- we will never have a single Linux distro, as it is impossible to come to any consensus. For instance, I prefer Fedora and GNOME, but at the same time, other people like Ubuntu and KDE. If you were to poll the Linux community you would see a very segmented group of people. And so, there are an obscene number of operating systems based on the open source Linux kernel.

When I saw a distro claiming to be stable while using the brand new Linux 5.0 kernel and being based on the not-yet-finalized Ubuntu 19.04 Disco Dingo, I was intrigued. Surprisingly, despite it being around for years, it is an operating system I was not familiar with. Called "ExTiX," it seems to be developed by one man with a very no-frills website. In other words, I probably would not suggest using this thing as your main operating system for daily use. However, if you think it would be fun to play around with a Disco Dingo base and Linux kernel 5.0, it might be a fun weekend experiment. Not to mention, Kodi "Leia" comes pre-installed!

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