Best Windows 10 apps this week
Four-hundred-thirty-one in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best apps, games and extensions released for Windows 10 on the Microsoft Store in the past seven days.
Microsoft released another Insider build this week; the new build included an updated look for the File Explorer application among other things.
Microsoft is making an important change to the implementation of the taskbar in Windows 10
Whatever you use your computer for, the taskbar is something you interact with to some extent every day. It's a component that lies at the heart of Windows 10, and Microsoft is finally making a key change that will be welcomed by many users.
With the release of Windows 10 build 21343 the other day, we have already seen some of the visual changes Microsoft is bringing to Explorer. But in Windows 10 21H2, the company is also freeing the taskbar from the explorer.exe process into its own library. It's a move that means the Sun Valley update for Windows 10 should help to improve stability and eliminate problems with Explorer resulting in taskbar crashes, as is so often the case currently.
The growing risk from critical infrastructure cyberthreats [Q&A]
The more reliant businesses become on technology the more risk they face from a range of cyberthreats. This is especially true when it comes to critical infrastructure as it's an attractive target for nation state and other attackers.
We spoke to James Carder, chief security officer and vice president of labs at SIEM platform LogRhythm to discover more about critical infrastructure threats and how to guard against them.
Transcend JetFlash 930C flash drive has both USB-A and USB-C connectors
USB flash drives may not be as popular as they were years ago, but they still have their place. For instance, even though I save most of my data to the cloud nowadays, I still depend on flash drives for installing operating systems, such as Windows 10, Ubuntu, Manjaro, and more.
The problem with traditional USB flash drives, however, is many new computers no longer have USB-A ports. And so, they require the use of dongles or adapters. Thankfully, companies are also making USB Type-C flash drives. Even better, today, Transcend unveils a flash drive that has both USB-A and USB-C connectors. Called "JetFlash 930C," it should work with pretty much any computer.
Microsoft's Electric Volt and Daystrike Camo Xbox controllers are environmentally friendly
Microsoft loves to release special editions of its Xbox controllers with fun colors and designs, and apparently, consumers really enjoy buying them. After all, if these controllers weren't selling well, it is doubtful Microsoft would bother to continue putting them out. Are these special controllers just money-grabs? Sure. But hey, if people enjoy them, so be it
Today, Microsoft announces two new special edition Xbox One controllers -- Electric Volt and Daystrike Camo. Both look very cool, but I happen to prefer the former -- that green reminds me of yummy Mountain Dew. Color and design aside, these controllers are extra special, as they are environmentally friendly too. You see, this is the first-ever Xbox hardware to be produced with post-consumer recycled resins. In other words, Microsoft is keeping some plastics, such as old compact discs and water jugs, out of landfills. Nice.
Canonical makes working from home as easy as Pi
A new content collaboration platform for 64-bit ARM processors will deliver the first viable self-hosted web office solution for the popular Raspberry Pi 4.
The result of a joint effort between Canonical, Collabora and Nextcloud this will allow Raspberry Pi users to turn their Pi 4 into a self-hosted content collaboration and document editing solution in just a few minutes.
40 percent of SaaS app users have lost data
In the last year especially, many businesses have turned to SaaS applications in order to aid remote working. But a survey of over 630 SaaS users across a mix of industries finds that 40 percent have previously lost data stored in their online tools.
The study from cloud backup company Rewind finds 53 percent of respondents cited using SaaS tools on the job, and 43 percent using four or more.
iFun Screen Recorder 1.0 gives Windows users a fully-featured screencast tool with no strings attached
There are plenty of screencast tools out there, but while many offer cut-down free versions, they’re often more crippleware than freeware. Eyeing a spot in this market is IObit, which claims -- with some justification -- to provide a genuinely usable free screen-recording tool with its latest new release: iFun Screen Recorder 1.0.
The software promises no time-limited recordings, unwanted watermarks or other restrictions forcing you to upgrade to make proper use of the program -- a Pro version does exist, but its features can be safely ignored by most. And while it may lack the more sophisticated features of well-known screen-casting tools, you get all the core functionality you need to produce decent screencasts.
Shifting attack patterns boost uptake of zero trust
As enterprises move more data to the cloud and grant higher levels of third party access, attackers are increasingly targeting non-traditional user populations that may not be adequately protected.
But a new survey of CISOs from identity specialist CyberArk shows that security teams are shifting to zero trust in response to these changing attack patterns.
Outsourcing is a powerful business strategy -- so why is it frowned upon?
Outsourcing is the practice of contracting out certain business functions -- most commonly, customer support and software development.
When implemented effectively, it is a powerful business strategy that can help companies to reduce costs and increase efficiency. And as the proliferation of business technology continues to break down the geographical barriers to working with international partners, outsourcing has only become more widespread.
Cryptocurrency scams almost double in 2020 with more on the way
Increases in the value of cryptocurrencies last year coupled with a rise in mainstream acceptance of Bitcoin has led to 400,000 crypto scams being created in 2020, a 40 percent increase compared to 2019,
A new report from Bolster, a deep learning-powered, next generation fraud prevention company, forecasts a further increase of 75 percent this year based on current levels of suspicious activity.
Protecting Windows Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) from attack
The pandemic forced many employees into remote work, and cybercriminals are looking to exploit the situation by directly attacking remote desktop services as they become publicly available. Microsoft’s Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) has become a prime target. According to a study released by the cybersecurity firm ESET, attacks against RDP have increased a stunning 768 percent over the course of 2020. Malware packages like Trickbot now include RDP scanners to search for open RDP ports, and distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks have begun using RDP as a way to magnify their impact.
This is not to say that RDP or Windows are inherently bad. RDP is an extremely useful, complex, and functionally rich protocol for remote access. The open source project I work on, Apache Guacamole, leverages RDP internally as one of its supported protocols.
Digital first census raises security concerns
This year for the first time the UK's ten yearly census -- used to collect information to determine future government policy and spending -- is 'digital first' with people encouraged to fill in their returns online rather than use a paper form.
But research conducted by YouGov for security analytics and automation company Exabeam finds that many people are worried about how the data will be stored and used.
Fix your Windows 10 printing problems with this PowerShell script
If the recent printing problems caused by a string of Windows 10 updates weren't so disruptive -- and if the poor quality of updates from Microsoft hadn't been an issue for so long -- the situation would almost be funny.
As it is, however, those who have been affected by the bug-riddled updates find themselves extraordinarily frustrated and losing trust in Microsoft's ability to deliver reliable software. With so many updates, patches, bug fixes and workarounds having been released in the last couple of weeks, keeping on top of problems has been difficult. This PowerShell script should get things sorted once and for all.
Slack rolls back controversial messaging feature within hours of its introduction
Messaging platform Slack yesterday rolled out a new feature called Connect DM that made it possible to send direct messages to anyone using the service -- regardless of whether they are part of the same company or workspace.
We say "made it possible" in the past tense because Slack was very quickly forced into something of an embarrassing partial u-turn. The company somehow failed to notice the potential for such a feature to be abused, and it was down to users and media outlets to point this out. Within hours, a key change was introduced to Connect DM to help eliminate spam and abuse.
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