Articles about Software

High-performing organizations are widening the gap against low-performing ones, a new report on DevOps suggests. Entitled 2016 State of DevOps Report, it was released by Puppet and DORA (DevOps Research and Assessment), and is considered one of the largest, most comprehensive and longest-running studies on the topic of DevOps.

High-performers deploy 200 times more frequently and have 2,555 times faster lead times. They recover 24 times faster from failed changes and have three times lower change fail rates. The report also said high-performers spend 22 percent less time on unplanned work and rework, and are able to spend 29 percent more time on new work.

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As we’ve reported numerous times before, and with increasing levels of frustration, Microsoft won’t ever seem to take no for an answer when it comes to Windows 10. When the Get Windows 10 app appears to users of Windows 7 or 8.1 they might reasonably expect to have the choice of saying "yes" or "no" to the free upgrade offer. Except while "yes" means "yes", "no" apparently means "yes, but you’ll need to trick me into installing it".

It’s not just Microsoft which pulls this kind of stunt either. This is a recent experience I had when installing Auslogics Disk Defrag.

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Sandboxing makes it possible to isolate programs from the rest of your system for testing or security purposes. Sandboxie 5.12 is the latest build of such a shareware tool for Windows.

Version 5.12 now adds support sandboxing Microsoft Office 2013, 2016 or 365’s ClickToRun installer for paid users, while improving performance on earlier versions of Windows.

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You’re probably familiar with the free version of the CCleaner system clean up tool. What you might not know is that there’s also a Business Edition aimed at ensuring small and medium business endpoints run efficiently.

Like the standard version it can remove unneeded files, recovers hard drive space, speed up Windows, reduces crashes and helps protect privacy and security. Business Edition adds the ability to clean multiple user profiles, it updates itself automatically, supports scripting, and comes with priority technical support.

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Auslogics has released Auslogics BoostSpeed 9 ($59.95), the latest edition of its comprehensive PC maintenance suite, with a whole new module of Windows 10 tweaks. The "Privacy Tools" section has options to enable/ disable WiFi-Sense, Cortana, location sensing, data syncing, peer-to-peer Windows updates, and more.

New visual tweaks enable customizing the preview size for Aero Peek, and activating a "secret" dark theme for Windows 10 apps.

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"If you’re using open source, chances are you are likely including vulnerabilities known to the world at large". This is a quote taken from the latest open source security report released by software company Black Duck.

The company analyzed more than 200 applications that are based on, or partially use, open source material, over a six-month period. The results are that 67 percent of them have vulnerabilities, and every application has at least five vulnerable components.

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Paragon Software Group has shipped Paragon Hard Disk Manager for Mac ($39.95), the first OS X version of its popular Windows backup and partition management suite. A powerful backup module protects all or selected partitions, Windows or OS X, while sector-level imaging and an incremental backup option ensures maximum performance.

Backup images may be mounted as virtual drives for easy browsing and recovery of selected files, or you can restore everything from the program, or via a bootable USB key or external disk.

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With data breaches still making headlines and security teams facing increased pressures it's not surprising that companies are looking for innovative ways to find flaws in their systems.

Crowdsourced security specialist Bugcrowd has released the results of its second annual State of Bug Bounty Report which shows that the number of bug bounty programs hosted on its platform is up by an average of 210 percent year on year since January 2013.

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TechSmith has released Snagit 13.0 for Windows, a major new release of its screen-capture, edit and share tool for Windows PCs. The release is accompanied by Snagit for Mac 4.0.

Headline new features include a Panoramic capture tool, redesigned Capture Windows on the PC platform and a number of new tools, including the ability to create GIFs from video recordings with a single click.

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Networks, Internet, USB, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, CD, DVD, Blu-ray -- modern PCs make it easy to exchange files with the outside world. Sounds great. Unless you’re running a business, perhaps managing several PCs, each packed with confidential files which you don’t want copied or shared without permission.

GiliSoft USB Lock ($39.95 right now for a lifetime license, $49.95 normally) provides a range of ways to lock down your PC, and limit unauthorized data leakage.

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If we look at the world of cyber security through the eyes of the media, it’s a pretty frightening view. We hear story after story of security breaches hitting major companies and the next data leaks that follows affecting thousands of people. It’s enough to fill any business with trepidation.

With cyber security such a big talking point, we tend to see a lot of information floating around -- some of which is not in the least bit true. If a company wants to enhance its IT security it is imperative to be able to separate facts from fiction.

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Shadow IT, or stealth IT, is a practice still commonly used by European workers, according to a new Fuze report. It means employees are using either hardware or software that has not been directly approved of by the IT department, risking security breaches.

The report, entitled "App Generation report", argues that 40 percent of employees are using their personal devices for work. The same goes for software and apps.

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Xara has released Xara Photo and Graphic Designer 365 ($69.99 release offer, $89.99 afterwards), a major update of its photo editing and desktop publishing tool.

A redesigned photo frame enables easier resizing, rotating, straightening, panning and clipping an image, just by using control handles within the frame itself. No separate dialog boxes, no browsing the menus or toolbars, your attention stays 100% focused on the page.

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Ashampoo has shipped Ashampoo WinOptimizer 14 ($49.99), the latest release of its comprehensive PC maintenance suite. The new release can now automatically delete session-related traces of browsers and other applications, once they’ve closed.

A full-strength "Win10 Privacy Control" module gives easy access to more than 40 Windows 10 telemetry-related settings, and allows you to choose the most secure or the default options with a click.

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Stardock has released Fences 3.0, a major new version of its Windows desktop organization tool. The new release brings Fences bang up to date, with support for Windows 10 and high DPI monitors.

Fences 3.0 also introduces several new features, including the ability to roll up fences to their title bar as well as support for navigating through folder structures from within the fence itself.

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