Windows Live Gets More Social with Facebook, Digg, and Other Connections
Trying to describe Microsoft's Windows Live family?of web-enabled tools
for Windows has been a bit like the parable of the blind men
describing?the elephant. Is Windows Live a photo sharing service? A
file sharing service? An email service? An IM service? With the news
that Windows Live is adding connections next week? to many other
popular Web 2.0 social networks, it's easier now to say, as ArsTechnica
puts it, that Microsoft wants to: [T]urn Windows Live into the average
netcitizen's main hub for his or her social life, or at the very least
to turn Windows Live into a social network. Microsoft's teaming up with
lots of social-networking partners around the world. US-based companies
becoming BFFs with Windows Live include MSN, Digg, Facebook, SmugMug,
and MySpace (see the full list of 31 current and new partners here).
New Chrome Version Plugs Major Security Hole
Google yesterday made available an updated version of its Chrome
browser to prevent cross-scripting attacks, whereby visiting a
malicious site with Internet Explorer could cause Google Chrome to fire
up, open a bunch of tabs, and load harmful scripts. "An error in
handling URLs with a chromehtml: protocol could allow an attacker to
run scripts of his choosing on any page or enumerate files on the local
disk under certain conditions," Mark Larson, Google Chrome program
manager, wrote in a blog post. "If a user has Google Chrome installed,
visiting an attacker-controlled web page in Internet Explorer could
have caused Google Chrome to launch, open multiple tabs, and load
scrips that run after navigating to a URL of the attacker's choice."
The attack wouldn't work if Chrome was already running, Larson added. A
new version of Chrome -- 1.0.154.59 -- is now available and will
prevent the attack from working regardless. The update is supposed to
be rolled out automatically, but in our case, we had to manually force
the download. You can do so by clicking on the wrench icon in the upper
right corner, select 'About Google Chrome,' and click on Update Now.
Microsoft's Year-Over-Year Sales Set to Drop for First Time Ever
It's been a tough year for tech all around, a fact which will be
underscored when Microsoft reports a year-over-year drop in quarterly
revenue for the first time ever. Not even the end of the dot-com boom
over a decade ago managed to stop Microsoft from posting an increase.
Current forecasts suggests Microsoft will post quarterly revenue of
$14.15 billion for its fiscal third quarter, down from $14.45 billion
in the same quarter a year prior. Earnings per share are estimated to
be 39 cents, down from 47 cents. The lackluster numbers come just a
week after Intel suggested the PC market had bottomed out. Moving
forward, Microsoft cautioned it doesn't expect sales to quickly return
to where they were in recent years, and instead to expect slow growth.
That could depend on whether or not the software giant is able to
release Windows 7 this year or not. While new operating systems can
only do so much to push PC sales, the hope (from computer makers) is
that Windows 7 could help spur a holiday rush if released early.
Ubuntu 9.04"Jaunty Jackalope" Officially Released
Available in alpha form for the past several month, Canonical has
officially released its newest version of Ubuntu, 9.04 (Jaunty
Jackalope). Canonical says it will maintain its latest open-source OS
until 2010. Ubuntu 9.04 brings a new kernel to the table, version
2.6.28.8, as well as several other features. Some of these include:
Faster boot time Latest GNOME 2.26 desktop environment Better handling
of mutliple monitors Latest X.Org server 1.6 with support for several
new videocards Wacom tablet hotplugging Ext4 file system support
Brasero 2.26 (all-in-one CD burning application) Also new to the latest
version of Ubuntu is a Netbook Remix version. According to Canonical,
the Netbook Remix brings even faster boot speeds, a "built-for-purpose
interface" that keeps favorite applications and websites a click away,
enhanced power-management features, and easier switching between
networks. Canonical says it has tested its Netbook Remix version on a
range of netbook models, including Acer's Aspire One, Asus' EeePC 1000,
and Dell's Mini 9. DownloadRelease NotesEverything You Need to Know
about Ubuntu 9.04
WoW + Peggle = End of Human Civilization
And now, a letter from the future, courtesy of older Nathan Grayson?s
toaster/time machine combo: ? ?URGENT WARNING: SEND THIS TO AS MANY
PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE. IF YOU RUN OUT OF PEOPLE, GET MARRIED AND MAKE
MORE. Hello there? oh, hold one second?. Right then, where were we? Oh,
right ? the warning. Uh, just another quick break. No, really; this is
the last one. It?s just that, you know, I?m smack dab in the middle of
a quick Peggle match and, wouldn?t you know it, I?m so, so close to
finally smashing that little silver ball right through the high score I
achieved the day after I dropped out of college. ? Oh, yes, college
just ended up not being your cup of silver balls bouncing everywhere
every time I close my eyes. You know, what with Peggle taking up all
your study time and whatnot. After they put the ungodly addictive
casual game Peggle into World of Warcraft with a free, no-hassle add-on
on April 23, 2009, they decided to jam it into every appliance that
registered on the visible light spectrum. Cars, calculators, dogs ? you
name it. Complete and total submission was unavoidable. So, I?m just
gonna go check out a few Peggle hints now for some please send help.
Really, it?s probably best that I skedaddle now anyway; people are
probably starting to wonder why ? even though the entire world is in an
apparent state of technological and cultural stagnation ? we?ve managed
to invent cheap, compact time machines and fuse them with common
household appliances. Er, I fear I?ve said too much.? It sure is a good
thing we received this message in tim?oh lord it's April 24 we're all
doomed!
Prepare for an RC, Windows 7 Style
Recent postings on the Microsoft Partners website suggest that
Redmond's about to pour a refreshing glass of Win7 RC the first full
week of May. Although the Microsoft Partner Program page that
Neowin.com posted?last week?has since been updated to remove the
Download Windows 7 RC button, the newest version of the page now notes
that May 7 (two days after the reported public release of Windows 7 RC
noted in the earlier version) will be Windows 7 Virtual Partner
Readiness Day. Does this indicate that Microsoft is delaying the public
release of Windows 7 RC by a couple of days? We won't know until later,
but early May continues to look like RC time. Artwork based in part on
RC logo courtesy of Hot August Blues Festival.
How-To: Speed Up, Customize, and Secure Firefox, Chrome, IE8, and Opera
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The web browser is probably the most essential application on your PC;
there is no better practical way of staying connected to news, your
friends, and most importantly, the lulz. But whether you?re using
Internet Explorer or newly minted Chrome, each of today's popular web
browsers has different strengths and weaknesses. Mozilla Firefox is
feature-heavy and relatively fast, but can get terribly unwieldy when
crammed with juicy add-ons. The newest version of the once dominant
Internet Explorer is a quantum leap above previous buggy versions, but
remains slow. And while both Opera and Google Chrome are blazingly
fast, they currently lack customization. No matter which browser you
use, you want it to fit your personal needs and tastes. With this
guide, we will show you the essential initial tweaks everyone should
make to ?awesomize? their browser. Whether it?s accelerating browser
page-load performance, boosting security, or just improving the look of
the interface, we teach you the tweaks that we think should be
implemented the first time you start up a browser after installation.
We cover comprehensive step-by-step instructions for Internet Explorer
8, Mozilla Firefox 3, Opera 9, and Google Chrome, starting off with
general web optimization tips. So jump into the guide and start
tweaking your web browser! General Optimization Tips Use OpenDNS
OpenDNS is a replacement DNS server for your computer or router.
Generally, this DNS server is faster and more stable than the one
provided by your ISP. Since it allows for faster web browsing, this is
a good tweak to perform on your computer. Depending on the operating
system you are using, OpenDNS may have a different setup. For the
purpose of this guide, we are going to assume that you are using
Windows Vista. However, you can find the other setup guides located
here. Click on the Start button, select Control Panel and click on View
Network Status and Tasks. Click on the View Status button next to your
Local Area Network and click Properties. Select Internet Protocol
Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) and click on Properties. Click on Use the
following DNS server addresses and type in the following: Preferred DNS
Server: 208.67.222.222Alternate DNS Server: 208.67.220.220 ? Click Ok
and close the connection properties window. To see if you are using
OpenDNS correctly, click here. If you see a welcome message, then you
are using OpenDNS and no further configuration is necessary. For more
information on how to tweak your DNS settings, refer to our full DNS
guide here.? CCleaner CCleaner is a simple, lightweight program that
deletes temporary files, history, and other unused files from your
computer. In addition to the file cleaners, it also has a registry
cleaner. Download CCleaner from here. Download the latest version.
CCleaner will try to add a Yahoo! Toolbar and make several other
changes to your system. If you don?t want it to do this, uncheck the
options in the wizard. We recommend that you create a desktop shortcut
for ease of access, though. When you open CCleaner, the main window
will display several options. We are going to clean the temporary files
from all the browsers and Windows, so we don?t need any of the other
options. Click on the Analyze button to start scanning for temporary
files. You will need to close your browser to delete them, so do so
now. After the program is done analyzing, click on Run Cleaner to
delete the files. CCleaner will alert you it is going to delete the
files, click OK to proceed and delete the files from your computer. ?
Optimize Internet Explorer 8 Internet Explorer 8 is the newest version
of Microsoft's built-in browser and similar to previous iterations of
IE it still has speed issues. Microsoft has improved the browser, but
it still slightly lags behind Mozilla Firefox in terms of speed. Here's
how to improve it. 1. Increase Internet Explorer 8's Connection Limit
By default, Internet Explorer 8 establishes two simultaneous
connections to a web page. Each of these connections downloads a
certain part of the website, whether it be the main page itself or some
of the pictures. Two connections may be enough for smaller websites
that don?t use much Flash, but for more complex pages like the ones on
Facebook, Internet Explorer will be slow at rendering the page. You can
increase the connection limit by merging a registry file into your
computer?s registry. Download the registry file from here and save it
to your Desktop. Double-click on the file and click on Yes to merge it
to the registry. After the merge, you will receive a message stating
the merge was successful, if you don?t, try merging the file again. 2.
Turn Off SmartScreen Filter If you have used Internet Explorer 7, you
are no doubt familiar with the Phishing Filter. This filter was a very
useful part of Internet Explorer 7, but slowed web browsing to a crawl
since it constantly analyzed the websites. Microsoft has redesigned the
Phishing Filter to make it less intrusive and renamed it to SmartScreen
Filter. Unfortunately, the SmartScreen Filter is still intrusive and
still slows down web browsing. Shutting off this filter will help speed
up web browsing and since we are going to install another add-on later
that will perform this task, it makes the SmartScreen Filter useless. ?
To turn off the filter, click on the Safety button and highlight the
SmartScreen filter. Click on Turn off SmartScreen Filter and you get a
pop-up that wants you to verify if you want to turn off the filter.
Verify that the filter is actually going to be turned off and click Ok.
3. Turn off Feed Reading Features RSS readers have revolutionized the
news industry with their ease of use. Many browsers now have the
capability to keep track of RSS feeds. Unfortunately, checking the
feeds will slow down web browsing. If you really want a feed reader,
you should use a dedicated application, such as FeedDemon or any of the
other standalone programs. Click on Tools, select Internet Options and
click on the Content tab. Click on the Settings button under Feed and
Web Settings. On the Feed settings window, uncheck the box next to
Automatically check feeds and Web Slices for updates. Under the
advanced section, uncheck Turn on feed reading view and Turn on in page
Web Slice discovery. Click the Ok button on the Feed settings window
and on the Internet Options window. 4. Disable Java Plug-in 2 SSV
Helper The Java Plug-in 2 SSV Helper is an unnecessary add-on for
Internet Explorer. The name makes it sound like it is required for Java
to run properly when using web applets. However, the newer versions of
Java don?t require this add-on to be enabled. The more add-ons that are
present on a system, the more likely the system is to slow down so it
is a good idea to disable this add-on. To turn off this add-on, click
on Tools and select Manage Add-ons. Click on Java Plug-In 2 SSV Helper
and click on the Disable button in the right hand corner of the window.
Click on Close and restart Internet Explorer. The add-on is now
disabled. 5. Reregister actxprxy.dll actxprxy.dll is a very important
dynamic link library file crucial to the stable running of your
computer. This process belongs to the ActiveX program for Windows. It
controls the way the various ActiveX controls run and communicate on
your system. This tweak will re-register the dll file on your system
and potentially speed up web browsing. This tweak may not speed up
Internet Explorer 8, but may help fix IE8 if it is sluggish, and how
you perform this tweak depends on what version of Windows you are
running. If you are running Windows XP, press the Windows key and R.
Then paste the following in the run box: regsvr32 actxprxy.dll If you
are running Windows Vista or higher, click on Start and type ?cmd? in
the search box. Right click on the cmd result that displays and click
Run as administrator. Paste the following text in the run box: regsvr32
actxprxy.dll. If it was successful, you will see a message stating that
the DLLRegisterServer in actxprxy.dll succeeded. This means the
re-registration of the file succeeded and the tweak ran as planned,
click Ok to close the window and then close the command prompt window.
6. Install WOT Web of Trust (WOT) is a very useful Internet Explorer 8
add-on that warns you of risky and potentially dangerous websites. It
uses a red, yellow, green and grey color scheme. Red means the website
is bad, yellow means the website is potentially bad, green means the
website is good and grey means the website has not yet been rated or
does not have enough ratings to mark it as a good or bad website. WOT
is dependent on how the other users of the program rate particular
websites. Since it takes more than one user to rate a website as good
or bad, it makes this add-on safe. ? Click here and download the WOT
add-on. When the download window displays, click on the Run button so
the program automatically starts installing after it is downloaded.
When WOT is ready to install it will display the EULA and make you
accept the agreement. Please read the agreement, put a checkmark in the
appropriate checkbox, and click on Install. After the program is
installed, WOT will open to the configuration page and ask you what
protection setting you want to use. We recommend that you choose
Maximum Safety since it will protect you from the extremely dangerous
sites. However, this may slightly slow down your web browsing speed by
less than a second, but this is a small price to pay for the added
protection. If you don?t want this delay, select the Light protection
setting and click Finish. ? When you visit websites you will see a red,
yellow, green or grey circle at the top left hand corner of the browser
window. 7. Disable Saving of Auto-Complete Information Auto-Complete
information makes it easy to fill out forms quickly and easily. Third
parties can access the information saved though since the information
is stored in plain text. In other words, anyone can read this
information at any time if the person has direct or indirect access to
your computer. It is a good idea for security reasons to disable saving
of auto-complete information, no matter how inconvenient this may be.
Click on Tools, select Internet Options and click on the Content tab.
Under the AutoComplete section, click on Settings and uncheck all the
checkboxes. By doing this, you ensure that no personal information is
retained by the browser, making it safer. 8. Handle PDFs in the Browser
Why have a dedicated software program when your web browser can open
the file you want. With PDF Download, you can view and print a PDF
right from your browser. PDF Download also has the capability to save
entire web pages as a PDF. Download PDF Download from this link. Click
the Add to Internet Explorer button and install the add-on. When you
need to open a PDF file on the web, you will get a prompt asking what
you want to do. Since you want to open the PDF, click on Use Plug-in.
If you want to download the PDF to your hard drive, then click
Download. You can also save an entire webpage as a PDF, right click
anywhere on the page and select Save Page as PDF. Optimize Mozilla
Firefox Mozilla Firefox is the browser of choice for many people
(including us). With its high customizability with myriad add-ons,
Firefox can suit almost anyone?s needs. 1. FireTune You might have
heard of accessing Firefox's hidden preferences using the about:config
command. There are tons of tweaks you can do to make Firefox load
faster, browse faster, download faster, etc. How these tweaks work
depends on the speed of your computer, your technical knowledge, and
your connection speed. FireTune takes this approach one-step farther.
It gives you a simple graphical interface to get the most tweaking out
of Firefox without spending all day trying to comprehend what the tweak
is trying to do. You can download FireTune from the author?s homepage
here. Unzip the FireTune ZIP directory and double-click on the FireTune
application file. When FireTune opens, you will be presented with the
main menu. Click on Create backup of configuration. This ensures that
you will be able to restore your original configuration files if
something goes wrong in the optimization. When backed up properly, you
will get a Backup Successful message. ? You are now ready to tweak
Firefox. We are going to assume that you have a Fast Computer and a
Fast Connection since this is Maximum PC, so select Fast Computer /
Fast Connection. The program will alert you that you should have
created a backup of your configuration files, if you have already click
Yes. You will get a second prompt alerting you that you need to close
Firefox or the optimizations will fail. As the program suggests, close
all running instances of Firefox and then click the OK button. ? Close
the program if the tweaks were successful. If they failed for whatever
reason, click the Restore original configuration button on the main
window. After restoring, perform the appropriate tweaks again. 2.
NoScript If you don?t normally use Java or Flash, you can use NoScript
to disable these scripts from running. It is a good idea to disable
these since most malware comes in from exploits of one of these
services. By using this tool, you can avoid getting malware from a Java
or JavaScript exploit. Download NoScript from here. NoScript is a
typical Mozilla Firefox extension so add to it Firefox like you would
any other add-on and restart the browser. Click on the NoScript button
in the lower right hand corner of the browser window and select
Options. Since we want to disable Java, JavaScript and Flash, we need
to change some options. On the General tab, uncheck Scripts Globally
Allowed, which is dangerous. When this option is enabled, this means
the program will allow any website to execute a script. Now click on
the Plugins tab and put checkmarks in the Forbid Java and Forbid Adobe
Flash checkboxes. This will disable Java and Flash by default. You can
always create an exception later in case you want to access Java or
Flash on a particular website. Click on Ok to save the changes. If a
website doesn?t work after enabling some of these options, click on the
NoScript button again and allow the scripts that you want to run. This
gives you much more control over what is running on your computer,
rather than letting any website run any script at any time. 3. WOT Web
of Trust (WOT) is a very useful Mozilla Firefox add-on that warns you
of risky and potentially dangerous websites. It uses a red, yellow,
green and grey color scheme. Red means the website is bad, yellow means
the website is potentially bad, green means the website is good and
grey means the website has not been rated yet or does not have enough
ratings to mark it as a good or bad website. WOT is dependent on how
the other users of the program rate particular websites. Since it takes
more than one user to rate a website as good or bad, it makes this
add-on safe. Download WOT from here. WOT is a typical Firefox add-on,
so add it to Firefox and restart the browser. When the browser
restarts, you will receive the WOT EULA. Read and accept the EULA,
otherwise, you won?t be able to use the program WOT will open a new tab
and start the configuration process. We recommend that you choose the
Maximum Safety since it will block all the bad sites, but if you can?t
stand the slight browser delay or the brief glimpse of the WOT screen,
then choose the Light Protection. With Light Protection, you still
receive all the ratings, but none of the sites will be blocked. ? On
the next screen, WOT will ask you to register to gain access to all the
features of the add-on. You don?t need access to any of the advanced
controls since we configured the add-on for the highest security, so
close out of the window. If at some point you do want to register, you
can register by going to the WOT homepage and clicking the register
link. 4. Redirect Remover If you browse many websites throughout the
day, chances are you are redirected from site to site. Normally this
type of redirection is harmless, but occasionally you may be redirected
to a rogue website and end up infected with malware. With Redirect
Remover, you control are allowed to redirect and which ones cannot.
Download Redirect Remover from here. Redirect Remover is a normal
Firefox add-on so add it to Firefox and restart your browser. Right
click anywhere by the address bar and select Customize. You want to
customize the toolbar to make it easier to turn on or off Redirect
Remover. In the Customize toolbar window, scroll down until you find
the Switch RDR on/off button. Drag this button next to the WOT icon (or
Home button if you didn?t install WOT) and to the left of your address
bar. Click on Done to close the window and return to the browser
window. If you did the previous step correctly, you should now have a
new button next to your address bar that will allow you to control
Redirect Remover. When the button is grey, the add-on is turned off and
when it is red, it is fully functioning. 5. IE Tab Don?t you hate those
websites that refuse to work with any other browser besides Internet
Explorer? IE Tab?s mission is to remedy this annoying problem. It will
emulate Internet Explorer and allow you to use most of the websites
that require Internet Explorer. Download the add-on from here. IE Tab
is a normal Firefox add-on, so just add it to Firefox and restart the
browser. In the bottom, right hand corner of the browser window you
will see the Firefox logo or the Internet Explorer logo. When the
Firefox logo appears, you are using the Firefox rendering engine. When
the Internet Explorer logo appears, you are using the Internet Explorer
rendering engine. When you want to change to a different engine, just
click the logo and the page will refresh loading the appropriate
renderer. 6. AutoCopy Manually copying and pasting can get monotonous
since you have to click too many times to do what you want. As a power
user, copying and pasting gets old very fast. In comes, AutoCopy, with
this Firefox add-on you can automatically copy any text to your
clipboard. Download AutoCopy from here. Add the add-on to Firefox and
restart the browser. In the bottom, right hand corner of the screen you
will have a new button stating AutoCopy is enabled. When this add-on is
enabled, highlight the text you want to copy and paste it wherever you
want it. 7. Themes If you didn?t know, Mozilla Firefox offers hundreds
of themes to change the default look of Firefox. We recommend you go
through the list of themes and find one that suits your personal taste.
There are hundreds of themes that change the look and feel of Firefox,
so make sure you look through them. ? 8. Speed Dial If you hate typing
in the URL of your favorite websites, this add-on is for you. Download
the add-on from here. Add the add-on to Firefox and restart the
browser. When the browser re-opens, you will get the initial
configuration window. Put a checkmark in the Add Speed Dial button to
toolbar. By doing this, it makes it easier to access your Speed Dialed
websites. To add a new speed dial page, navigate to the page you want
to speed dial, click on Bookmarks and select Set As Speed Dial.
Highlight Group 1 to place it in the first group of speed dial pages
and put assign it a number. When you are done, click on the purple
Speed Dial button and it will open the speed dial directory of websites
that you bookmarked. Click on the website you want to visit and you
will be taken there. You may create as many groups as you like, but we
recommend you keep the number small since this should only be used for
your favorite websites. 9. Quick Paste If you frequently use instant
messaging, you have encountered the text limit problem. Sometimes you
just want to copy and paste the entire article or section instead of
giving a link to the whole article. Maybe you are just pointing out a
specific thing in the article that you want the other person to read.
Regardless of your intent, Quick Paste is here to help. Quick Paste is
similar to TinyURL since it gives a URL for the person to click on.
Download the Quick Paste from here. Add the add-on to Firefox and
restart the browser. When you need to paste a lot of text, highlight
the text you want to send, right click and select TinyPaste selected
text. You will receive a pop-up telling you the URL of the text. Copy
and paste the URL given and send it to the appropriate person. When the
person clicks the link, it will open the tinypaste.com website and show
them the text you highlighted. Optimize Opera 9 1. Disable Server Name
Completion Opera 9 does a great job of trying to figure out what
website you are trying to get to based on your browsing history. To
speed up the browser and have it take less of a toll on your system, it
is a good idea to disable this feature. Click on Tools, select
Preferences, and click on the Advanced tab. Click on Network in the
left hand pane of the window and select Server Name Completion. Uncheck
Look for Local Network Machine and Try name completion, using and click
Ok. 2. Increase Cache Image Time and Other Cache Related Tweaks By
increasing the amount of time cached images are using, the web browser
does not have to reload the images every time you go to the website. In
the end, this will speed up web browsing. Click on Tools, select
Preferences and click on History on the left side of the window. Where
it says Disk Cache, change the number to 100MB. This will increase the
speed of the browser by letting Opera store 100MB worth of information
on your hard drive so it doesn?t have to start the rendering process
again. We also want to make Opera check for new images less. By
default, Opera checks for new images every 5 hours. As you know images
can take up an enormous amount of bandwidth, so limiting the reload
frequency of images is ideal. We recommend you change the value to 24
hours so it will check daily for new images. If you don?t see the image
you are supposed to on a website, press F5 while on the website to
manually refresh the cache and load the correct image. 3. Increase
Total Number of Connections As with the previous browsers covered,
Opera also has the ability to increase the total number of connections
to a website. Having more connections to the website should make the
page load faster. In the Opera address bar type: about:config ? In the
quick find text box, type connection. Change Max Connections Total to
32. This will tell Opera to make 32 connections to the website. Do not
change any of the other preferences on this page, just click Save. If
you change the Max Connections of the Server, you may increase the
loading time instead of decreasing. ? 4. Redraw Web Pages Instantly
Opera by default redraws the website every second. While this may seem
fast, when browsing multiple websites it can get annoying. Thankfully,
there is an option in Opera to change the redraw time instantly.
Instantly means as soon as Opera is done rendering the page behind the
scenes it will display it. Click on Tools, select Preferences and click
on Browsing. Under Loading, change it to Redraw instantly and click Ok.
5. Change Browser Title If you haven?t noticed, every web browser
includes its name at the top of the screen. While this may not affect
the performance of the browser, it would be awesome to change the name
of the browser to something you like. To do this, open a new Opera
browser window and paste into the address bar:
opera:config#UserPrefs|Title This will take you to the browser?s
configuration screen and you should see a text box with the word Title
next to it. In that text box, type whatever you want to display at the
top of the browser and then scroll down to the bottom and click on
Save. Restart the browser and the name will now be whatever you typed
in. ? 6. Change Skins Like most other browsers, Opera has the ability
to support different skins. No one should be forced to use the default
skin of a web browser if there are better options available. Opera?s
official skins can be downloaded from here. It doesn?t matter which
skin you choose since they are all installed the same way. We are going
to choose the Crystal Oynx Bull skin found here. To install the skin,
click on the Download Skin button. Opera will apply the skin and ask if
you want to keep it. If you like the way the skin looks, click Yes,
otherwise click No and keep searching. Optimize Google Chrome Chrome is
Google?s new foray into the browser market. By design, Chrome is
supposed to be small, efficient, and fast. Because of this design,
there aren?t any speed tweaks you can do to make Chrome run faster.
However, there are things about Chrome that you can tweak, such as
themes, having multiple homepages. 1. Open Multiple Homepages When you
open Google Chrome, you will notice that it opens your most visited
sites. While this is awesome, we prefer to have our web browsers start
a pre-determined page. While we could tell Chrome to open one page, why
stop there when we can have it open several pages at once. Click on the
wrench button in the top, right hand corner of the browser and click
Options. In the Startup section, click Open the following pages and
then click the Add button. In the URL text box, enter the first website
you want to open and click on the Add button. Repeat this process as
many times as you wish. For speed and loading purposes, we recommend
that you limit the amount of websites opening at startup to three.
Close Google Chrome. When you re-open the browser, the websites you
chose should open automatically in tabs. 2. Install Themes As you may
have noticed, Google Chrome lacks the ability to change themes. For
some reason Google thought it would be a good idea not to give this
capability. However, with the help of a small tweak, you can make your
own theme or use a pre-made theme. We recommend you use a pre-made
theme from here. Any one of these themes should work. If you want to
create a theme yourself, click here. It is a complicated procedure, so
we recommend that you take some time to read the entire post before
attempting. After download the theme, extract the directory and replace
the default.dll file inside of the Themes folder, located at
C:Users$username$AppDataLocalGoogleChromeApplication$version_number$ in
Windows Vista and Windows 7 and C:Documents and Settings$username$Local
SettingsApplication DataGoogleChromeApplication$version_number$Themes
in Windows XP. Make sure you close Google Chrome before attempting to
replace the default.dll file. If the tweak was done correctly, Google
Chrome should have a different theme when you re-open the browser. 3.
Scramble Your Unique ID Every copy of Google Chrome has a unique id for
the installation. It?s highly unlikely that Google would want to do
anything with your browsing history, but with Chrome Privacy Guard, it
will scramble the unique id so no one will know what you are doing with
Chrome. Download Chrome Privacy Guard from here. Unzip the directory
and double-click on ChromePrivacyGuard.exe to run start Chrome. No
further tweaking is necessary, but if you want to keep scrambling the
ID, you must click on the ChromePrivacyGuard.exe file instead of
clicking on the regular Chrome file on your Desktop. We recommend you
paste the file on your Desktop for easy access. 4. Download YouTube
videos If you watch many YouTube videos, then you know there are some
software programs that will allow you to download these videos to your
computer. With Google Chrome, you don?t need to download any software.
In fact, with a simple bookmarklet you can download all the flash
videos you want:
javascript:window.location.href="http://youtube.com/get_video?video_id="
+ swfArgs['video_id']+ "&l=" + swfArgs['l'] + "&sk=" +
swfArgs['sk'] + '&fmt_map' + swfArgs['fmt_map'] + '&t=' +
swfArgs['t'];
javascript:window.location.href="http://youtube.com/get_video?video_id="
+ swfArgs['video_id']+ "&fmt=18" + "&l=" + swfArgs['l'] +
"&sk=" + swfArgs['sk'] + '&fmt_map' + swfArgs['fmt_map'] +
'&t=' + swfArgs['t']; The first bookmarklet is for standard .flv
and the second is the higher quality .mp4, if available. Right click in
your bookmarks bar and select Add Page. In the Name textbox, type
YouTube FLV. In the URL text field, paste the first bookmarklet pasted
above. Repeat the process again, but name it YouTube MP4 and paste the
second bookmarklet text to create it. If you did it correctly, you
should have two new bookmarks. 5. Automatically Start Maximized If you
hate resizing a browser window when someone resizes the window or a
website does it automatically, then this feature is for you. Google
Chrome includes many startup switches, but most are only useful for
developers. The -start-maximized startup switch does exactly what it
says, it opens the browser to the largest size possible, filling the
screen (not to be confused with Full Screen). To use this switch, right
click on the Google Chrome icon on your desktop and select Properties.
Click on the Shortcut tab and put your cursor in the Target text box.
After it says chrome.exe, add a space and the following line of text:
-start-maximized Click Apply and then Ok. Now open the browser and it
should start maximized. If you get an error, make sure you entered the
text exactly as stated above. Conclusion Now you have seen our list of
all the essential tips, tweaks and hacks you need to implement on your
web browser. With these essential tweaks down, you are ready to go
explore the various other tweaks that these browsers offer. If we
missed any of your favorite essential awesomizing tweaks for any of the
web browsers listed, please let us know in the comments section.
Former Diablo Devs Shed Light on New Action-RPG
Remember all that Flagship Games brouhaha that arose last year when the
developer ? composed of former Blizzard employees ? went into a
tailspin, taking the US edition of Hellgate: London with it? Well, a
gaggle of those gifted men and women reassembled at Runic Games, where
they?re currently making another run at Diablo?s throne with an
action-MMORPG called Torchlight. The game?s ?plot? ? if, at this early
stage, one could even call it that -- apparently breaks down like this:
?Adventurers set out from the town of Torchlight into the nearby
mountains in search of the magic ore that imbues their equipment with
power, yet imperils their very existence." Gotta watch out for those
mountains. They?re medieval man?s natural enemy, clearly. Chinese
online gaming company Perfect World will publish this tryst between
Mythos and Diablo, which boasts the support of Max and Erich Schaefer ?
two of Blizzard North?s co-founders ? as well as Diablo I and II
composer Matt Uelmen. It?s Diablo, but with tiny cartoon skeletons so
precious you?d sooner attach cute, misspelled captions to their visages
than give ?em a bit of the old hack ?n? slash. What?s not to like?
Unless you?re holding out for Diablo III: ?Realistic? Edition,
Torchlight looks like one to keep an eye on.
