Flash Player 10.2 delivers beautiful HD video, faster graphics rendering, and high performance on mobile screens and is designed to take advantage of native device capabilities — enabling richer, more immersive user experiences.
-Internet Explorer 9 hardware accelerated rendering support
-Native custom mouse cursors
-Support for full screen mode with multiple monitor
Software
Adobe Reader 10.0.1
Download it from Major Geeks or update from within the program (Help > Check for Updates).
Release Notes:
Feb 8 2011
10.0.1
Numerous security fixes as well as improvements to Protected Mode, QTP support, Flash, and support for SCCM via newly released SCUP catalogs.
New Article Up – Using VirtualBox 4
The purpose of this article is to introduce the average PC user to VirtualBox. Terminology may be simplified to make it easier to understand for the non-Geek.
This article contains 3 sections and covers installing VirtualBox Hosts and Guests under Windows and openSUSE.
VirtualBox is virtualization software that runs under most modern operating systems. What this means in layman’s terms is that you set up an environment that pretends to be an actual computer, this is a “virtual machine” ( VM for short). With that virtual machine you can run another operating system in a window just like you would run another program. For instance, if you are using Windows 7 you could run Ubuntu in a window at the same time (see screenshots below for examples). To be clear, only the machine (computer) is virtual, you are actually running this other operating system.
The advantages of using virtual machines are many. For the home user these would include trying out new operating systems and the ability to run programs from different operating systems.
You can run many Windows games under Linux, or use Microsoft Office. You could try the latest Windows 7 SP beta, test new programs, tweaks, and configurations. You can try the latest Linux distros in an environment that is more realistic than a Live CD.
My favorite way to use VirtualBox is to run Windows under Linux. More specifically, I run Windows XP and 7 under openSUSE 11.3 (more on this later).
Security is also an advantage. The main operating system is separate from the one running on the virtual machine. For the most part viruses, malware, crashes, bugs, etc. are all contained inside the OS running in that VM. This of course does not relieve you of the responsibility of using safe computing habits. Lets say you download a file that contains a virus while under an Ubuntu VM and then run that file in Windows you could get infected.
LibreOffice 3.3 Released
LibreOffice a free Office Suite and is a fork of OpenOffice. Head over to ARS Technica for a review.
Head to the LibreOffice home page to download it.
Ultimate Windows Tweaker 2.2
UWT is the only Windows 7 tweak program I use and recommend. Download & Info
Change Log
Ultimate Windows Tweaker v 2.2 now works on Internet Explorer 9
Internet Explorer
+ Supports Internet Explorer 9 Beta
+ Enable Menu bar permanently
+ Always on InPrivate Filtering
+ Hide Compatibility View button
+ Disable sending keystrokes to your default search engine
+ Enable Quick Tabs
+ Manage no. of rows in about:Tabs (IE9 only)
+ Disable caching of SSL pages
+ Enable software rendering instead of GPU redering (IE9 only)
User Accounts & UAC
+ Manage user accounts (improved)
System Performance
+ Disable PAE
# Extensive code optimization for speed improvement
# Improved refreshing capability after applying tweaks
# No more prompts after each Apply clicks
# Some UI and typo fixes
CCleaner v3.03
v3.03.1366 (25 Jan 2011)
* Added K-Meleon browser support.
* Added Rockmelt browser support.
* Added Chrome Plus browser support.
* Added Saved Password cleaning for all browsers.
* Added cleaning for multiple profiles in Google Chrome.
* Added Recent Search History cleaning for Safari.
* Added cleaning for Adobe Acrobat 9.0 and 10.0, Shockwave 10 and 11, Daemon Tools, Compare It! and Microsoft Search Helper Extension.
* Improved Autocomplete Form History cleaning for IE9.
* Improved Saved Form Information cleaning for Chromium based browsers.
* Improved Internet History cleaning for Opera.
* Improved Internet Cache cleaning for Firefox.
* Improved cleaning for Silverlight and Adobe Reader.
* Improved Office 2003 and XP to prevent removal of autocorrect settings.
* Added more Windows MRU cleaning rules.
* Added Belarusian translation.
* Minor UI tweaks and fixes.
BleachBit 0.8.3 Released
I consider this a program for advanced users. Be careful with it.
Download & Info
BleachBit quickly frees disk space and tirelessly guards your privacy. Free cache, delete cookies, clear Internet history, shred temporary files, delete logs, and discard junk you didn’t know was there. Designed for Linux and Windows systems, it wipes clean 90 applications including Firefox, Internet Explorer, Adobe Flash, Google Chrome, Opera, Safari,and more. Beyond simply deleting files, BleachBit includes advanced features such as shredding files to prevent recovery, wiping free disk space to hide traces of files deleted by other applications, and vacuuming Firefox to make it faster. Better than free, BleachBit is open source.
Multi-platform: Linux and Windows
BleachBit 0.8.3 cleans more Opera, WinRAR, Adobe Reader, Windows logs; improves wiping speed; adds menu options; add a Lithuanian translation; and updates other 18 translations.
Firefox 3.6.13, Thunderbird 3.1.7
Mozilla has released Firefox 3.6.13 & Thunderbird 3.1.7. Download them from the previous links or update from within the program (Help / Check for Updates).
Firefox 3.6.13 fixes the following issues found in previous versions of Firefox 3.6:
* Fixed several security issues.
* Fixed several stability issues.Thunderbird 3.1.7 fixes the following issues in Thunderbird 3.1.6:
* Several fixes to improve performance, stability and security, see the Security Advisory.
* Several fixes to improve handling of large folder files stored locally.
* Several fixes to improve corruption in local copy of IMAP mailboxes.
PerfectDisk 11 Updated
Raxco has released build 182 for PerfectDisk 11. Use “Check For Updates” from within the program.
*see notes below before updating
What’s new in PerfectDisk 11 (Build 182)
We corrected an issue which was preventing the PerfectDisk user interface from correctly saving user settings to the registry.
We corrected a scheduling bug on virtual computers. When the start time was missed the user interface displayed a date of 1899.
We corrected an issue with the welcome screen always displaying when PerfectDisk was launched even though is should not have.
We ensured compatability with Exchange 2007, SP3 and have allowed PerfectDisk to defragment data stores in this configuration.
We corrected a bug which caused PerfectDisk to crash if the MFT exceeded 80GB.
There is an issue after install according to the PD blog:
After updating to Build 182, you may be asked to register, even if you have previously registered. Select “Never Register” to avoid this issue.
Autoruns v10.06
Autoruns v10.06: This release fixes a bug that could affect delete and disable operations on entries stored as multisz registry values.
What is Autoruns?
This utility, which has the most comprehensive knowledge of auto-starting locations of any startup monitor, shows you what programs are configured to run during system bootup or login, and shows you the entries in the order Windows processes them. These programs include ones in your startup folder, Run, RunOnce, and other Registry keys. You can configure Autoruns to show other locations, including Explorer shell extensions, toolbars, browser helper objects, Winlogon notifications, auto-start services, and much more. Autoruns goes way beyond the MSConfig utility bundled with Windows Me and XP.