Articles about Windows

Identify, monitor and overclock your GPU with NVIDIA Inspector

NVIDIA Inspector is a versatile tool for checking, monitoring and overclocking NVIDIA graphics cards.

This can be a complex area, but smart design ensures the program has something to offer every level of user.

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Hackers love Microsoft's PowerShell

PowerShell, a scripting language inherent to Microsoft operating systems, is largely used to launch cyber-attacks, a new report suggests.

The Unified Threat Research report, released by next-generation endpoint security (NGES) firm Carbon Black, says that 38 percent of incidents reported by Carbon Black partners used PowerShell.

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10 'ARGH!' moments every computer user experiences

Computers make life easier, right? Computers are fun, valuable tools, yeah? True, but they can also be such utterly infuriately pieces of tech that they seem to serve no purpose other than to raise our blood pressure and drive us mad.

I'm not talking about when Windows crashes, when an app hangs, or the internet slows to a crawl. I'm talking about those 'ARGH!' moments we've all experienced where there's no one to blame but ourselves. When things go wrong because of 'user error' it doesn't make them any less infuriating; in fact, the opposite is often the case. Here are ten of the most frustrating scenarios that just about every computer user has encountered at some point.

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Find, install and update popular PC software with RuckZuck

Migrating to a new PC can be a lengthy and tedious business, especially if you have to manually find, download and install all the programs you had on your old system. RuckZuck is an open source package manager which helps you manage the process in a few clicks.

The program is portable, and surprisingly small -- a single 176KB executable -- although that’s partly because it uses PowerShell 4 to do most of the work.

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Evernote 6 Beta sees further user-interface revamp, existing features refined

Evernote has unveiled Evernote for Windows 6.0.2 Beta, an early release version of the next major update of its desktop client for Windows users. The new release sees another user interface revamp, plus focuses on refining existing tools rather than introducing major new features.

Version 6.0.2 opens with support for High DPI displays, and rolls out various improvements to the Assisted Search tool. This includes moving the Search bar to the top of the note list, providing more detailed descriptions of the search results and the extension of the tool to cover the user’s entire account, with options for expanding the search to include recently deleted notes as well as general refinements.

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A closer look at Bitdefender's new free ransomware security tool

Bitdefender Labs has released BDAntiRansomware, a free tool which keeps your PC safe from some of the most common ransomware threats.

The program "protects against known and possible future versions of the CTB-Locker, Locky and TeslaCrypt crypto ransomware families", the company explains.

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A closer look at the Never 10 automatic upgrades disabler for Windows 7, Windows 8.x

Never 10 is a new freeware tool which aims to prevent Windows 7 and Windows 8.x systems from automatically updating to Windows 10. Sounds like a host of other recent update-blockers, we thought -- but no. It’s more interesting than that.

First up, it’s written by veteran developer Steve Gibson, the man behind SpinRite, ShieldsUp! and assorted early Windows freeware, and someone who knows what he’s doing. If you need more reassurance, the 81KB download size tells you there’s no adware here, no extra payload.

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Game Fire 5 gets Windows 10 support, new optimization engine

Smart PC Utilities has shipped Game Fire 5, the latest edition of its PC gaming performance booster.

This release brings official support for Windows 10 -- both 32 and 64-bit editions -- but finally sees Windows XP support dropped.
A new optimization engine can examine and tweak even more components, including services, processes, scheduled tasks and Registry settings (only some of these are available in the free build).

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Docker comes to Mac and Windows

Today is the third birthday of the Docker containerization system and to celebrate the company is launching a beta program for Mac and Windows versions of its software.

It offers an integrated, easy-to-deploy environment for building, assembling, and shipping applications from Mac or Windows as well as having many improvements over Docker Toolbox.

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Reclaim lost disk space on a USB key with imageUSB

There are many tools to help you customize a USB flash drive. You could make it bootable, run one or more LiveCDs, lock it to prevent unauthorized access, create encrypted storage areas, and more.

This will often work just as you expect, but sometimes, when you try to use the flash drive to store files again, you might find that some of its capacity has disappeared.

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CCleaner 5.16 FINAL tweaks browser cleaning tools

Piriform Software has released CCleaner 5.16 and CCleaner 5.16 Portable for Windows PCs. Once again, the latest release focuses on fine-tuning the program’s browser-cleaning tools, with tweaks for Opera, Chrome and Edge the major highlights.

CCleaner 5.16’s main feature is added support for cleaning Opera’s GPU and Application caches, while it also updates the management of Chrome Browser Plug-ins.

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Freeware screen recorder oCam adds mouse click effects

Freeware desktop capture and recorder tool oCam has been updated to version 254 with new mouse effects. It’s now possible to highlight left and right mouse clicks with various animations, making your actions much clearer to the viewer.

This is all very configurable, with five animation styles, your choice of color, size and duration, and a preview window to simulate the results.

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Can malware detect that it's running in your sandbox?

If you think an application is suspicious, then you might run it in a sandbox, a virtual machine, maybe use a debugger, and watch what it does. And if nothing happens then that means it’s safe. Right?

Well, maybe not. Malware will often try to detect this kind of trickery, and if it thinks it’s being watched, won’t do anything to raise an alarm.

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Google kills Chrome app launcher for Microsoft Windows, Apple OS X, and Linux

During the Windows 8 era, I was very worried about that operating system -- the UI and design choices were troubling. Luckily, as a longtime Linux user, I was not tied to any Microsoft OS. Unfortunately for some consumers, Linux-based operating systems can be difficult to install and use, while Mac computers are very expensive. Chrome OS and the inexpensive Chromebooks swooped in to save the day.

For those that stuck it out with Windows, or used other desktop operating systems, Google introduced a Chrome OS-like launcher -- the unimaginatively named Chrome app launcher. It allows Windows, Mac, and Linux users to launch Chrome apps from within their OS' native UI -- it sort of felt like Chrome OS running inside of them. Today, Google kills this project.

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Microsoft extends support for Intel Skylake systems running Windows 7, Windows 8.1

Microsoft has decided to reverse its position regarding support of Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 on systems using Intel’s Skylake platform.

In January, the company said that it would only guarantee full extended support for Skylake systems running Windows 7 and 8.1 until 17 July 2017. Microsoft now plans to offer full extended support for these systems for one more year, until 17 July 2018.

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