Articles about Software

Virtual appliances are an inexpensive and relatively easy way for software vendors to distribute their wares for customers to deploy in public and private cloud environments, but new research shows appliances often have exploitable and fixable vulnerabilities, or are running on outdated or unsupported operating systems.

The Orca Security research study found 401,571 total vulnerabilities in scanning 2,218 virtual appliance images from 540 software vendors. This means less than eight percent of virtual appliances were free of known vulnerabilities.

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Keeping drives up to date is an important part of system maintenance and optimization, and a recent update to Windows 10 removed a useful driver updating option. The newly released Driver Booster 8 is here to help, making it easy to keep all of your drivers up to date, even when you do not have an internet connection available.

The driver database has been massively expanded, and IObit says that the software now provides access to more than 4.5 million drivers and game components. The updated version of the software also gives two possible routes for updating drivers depending on whether you like to live life on the cutting edge or not.

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The updated Audials One 2021 not only enables you to watch movies and shows from a range of streaming video providers and listen to streaming music services, but also to record content from these streams so you can keep audio and video forever for offline viewing and listening. With this latest update, speed is the order of the day, but there have also been a number of important new features added.

On the audio front, Audials One 2021 lets you listen to a wide range of online radio stations, as well as streaming music from the likes of Spotify, Deezer and Tidal. Importantly, it is also possible to record individual tracks, entire shows, or anything that is played through your soundcard.

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Everyone needs some form of protection against online threats, and while Windows has tightened its security over the years, it still only offers basic protection. For those looking for additional layers of protection, such as a more configurable firewall or proactive protection against ransomware, then a paid-for security product is a must.

In a crowded marketplace, it can be hard to separate the wheat from the chaff, but one product that continues to score highly in independent tests is the powerful Bitdefender Total Security 25.0.

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VMware has released major updates to its virtualization software products in the form of VM Workstation 16.0 for Windows and Linux, plus VM Fusion Player 12.0 for Mac.

Mac users gain a free 'player' version of VMware Fusion for personal use, while both products gain support for Kubernetes clusters, allowing users to run multiple app containers at once in specialized 'nodes'. Support for Windows DirectX 11 apps and games has also been added to virtual machines.

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O&O Software has released the latest version of its hard drive optimization tool, O&O Defrag 24 Professional Edition. One of the key new additions to this version of the software is a unique "Install & That's All" feature.

This new feature aims to bring drive optimization to everyone, without the need for complex or time-consuming configuration. The idea is that you need simply install the software and it will immediately ensure that your drives are optimized at all times -- you may never have to open up the program! Of course, if you like the idea of manually tinkering with things, you can still do so.

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It's a little over a month since Linus Torvalds announced the release of version 5.8 of the Linux kernel -- something he previously described as "one of our biggest releases of all time".

But despite the fact that Linux kernel 5.8 was released so recently, VirtualBox has already been updated to include support for it. This means that the virtualization software can be used to run distros like Ubuntu 20.10 (Groovy Gorilla), which is powered by version 5.8 of the kernel. The software can also run under distros based on the newest kernel.

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IObit has released IObit Uninstaller 10, major new update of its uninstall tool for Windows. IObit Uninstaller aims to clean programs (including Microsoft Store apps) more thoroughly from your PC than the apps' own uninstallers by detecting leftover files and Registry entries.

Version 10 promises vastly improved uninstall speeds and better leftover detection, plus improvements to its Install Monitor component. In addition, Pro users gain better bundleware detection, and newly added support for removing over 40 stubborn programs.

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Acronis has launched a major new version of its flagship backup product with the release of Acronis TrueImage 2021. The new release has one major highlight: integrated protection against anti-malware.

There are also several minor improvements to the tool's backup engine, but the focus is very much on the new anti-malware protection, which is based on the company’s existing VB100-cerified antimalware solution, Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud.

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Corel-subsidiary Parallels International GmbH has launched Parallels Desktop 16.0, the simplest and fastest way of running Windows in a virtual environment on a Mac.

The virtualization software, which can emulate a wide range of operating systems, including Linux and earlier versions of macOS, comes with the promise of over 30 new features, including ever-faster performance and new features, plus has been updated "to take full advantage of the new macOS Big Sur architecture and revamped kernel extensions”, a nod to the upcoming release of macOS 11.0, the biggest macOS update in over a decade.

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Lockdowns have presented a challenge for all businesses and it's clear that some have handled the situation better than others.

We sat down with Neil Everatt, CEO of Selenity to discuss how the business has been coping during lockdown and what changes to productivity and innovation he’s seen.

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The pandemic hasn't caused too much disruption for quality assurance teams according to a survey from software testing company Kobiton.

There have been issues though ranging from team collaboration and communication to alignment with other DevOps teams. 40 percent of respondents report minor disruptions to their QA processes, and 33 percent say they’ve experienced minor delays in their product release cycles.

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Parallels International GmbH has released two major updates to its roster on the same day. Parallels Access 6.0 is designed to allow users to remotely access PCs and Macs from Apple and Android mobile devices, while Parallels Toolbox 4.0 is an eclectic suite offering over 30 different tools for Windows and Mac users from a single application menu.

Parallels Access 6.0 adds a new Remote Help feature alongside Bluetooth input device support on the latest iPads, as well as adding OneDrive and Google Drive support to the Android app.

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A new study from cloud solutions provider AHEAD shows that most enterprises are committed to modernizing their application software portfolios, but there are still challenges to overcome and improvements to be made.

Based on a survey conducted by Hanover Research the report shows only 37 percent of respondents are very satisfied with how fast they are currently delivering new software or new features.

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Businesses experience problems in leveraging information to make data-driven decisions, communicating between teams and management layers, dealing with 'software sprawl', and accurately quantifying the cost of feature delivery delays a new report shows.

The survey by Accelerated Strategies Group (ASG), commissioned by CloudBees, also shows that many organizations have been able to tackle some of the facets of modern software delivery management, but that there’s still much room for improvement.

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