Brandon Dimmel

Microsoft says it has now sold more than 60 million licenses for its new Windows 8 operating system (OS). However, some observers still contend consumers are receiving the new OS more slowly than they did Windows 7. Windows Chief Marketing Officer ... and Chief Financial Officer Tami Reller recently made her announcement about sales of the new OS at a J.P. Morgan Tech Forum that was part of the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Reller claimed the 60 million Windows 8 licenses include those sold directly to home and business users, as well as upgrades and bulk sales to computer ... (view more)

People looking for proof that Microsoft is having a hard time convincing consumers to choose its Surface tablet over the Apple iPad can point to the recent actions of a California cat burglar, who broke into a Microsoft Silicon Valley office and ... stole only Apple products. According to reports, the burglar entered Microsoft's Mountain View, California, research and development center sometime during the company's Christmas break (December 19 to December 26, 2012) and stole five Apple iPads worth a total of $3,000. Reports indicate the thief took two iPad 2s, two iPad 3s, and one iPad 4. The ... (view more)

Drive Speedometer 1.1 Interested in finding out more about how your Windows computer's hard drives are performing? This free software utility monitors the read and write speeds of your hard drives, and reports the information to you. This kind of ... data can help you keep track of your hard drives' performance and also prepare for a crash, if hard drive problems are detected. http://www.pcwintech.com Network Password Recovery 1.32 Each time you connect to a remote server, Windows asks for your network password, which can be saved and stored for future use. This free software utility is capable ... (view more)

Password Security Scanner 1.1 This program for Windows computers scans the passwords stored for applications like Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Microsoft Outlook. It then provides you with useful information about those passwords, ... including their length and style. It's a great way to help you track your passwords and construct better ones. http://www.nirsoft.net Pretty Run 6.7.0.133 Pretty Run is a special tool designed to help you navigate the Start Menu on your Windows computer. For example, if you think you've got a program installed on your PC, but don't want to sift through all ... (view more)

Mozilla says the next edition of its popular Firefox browser, Firefox 18, will be the fastest version of the browser yet released. The company also says the new Firefox's security capabilities have been significantly improved over previous versions. ... In a recent blog post, Mozilla vice president of engineering Johnathan Nightingale took some time to outline improvements to the Firefox formula for version 18, which is currently available for free download and use. "The Firefox of today is significantly better than the Firefox of a year ago in every way," Nightingale said. (Source: pcmag.com ) ... (view more)

An Oregon teenager involved in a hit-and-run crash was recently arrested for the deed. His arrest appears to have resulted directly from him bragging about driving drunk on the popular social networking site Facebook. According to reports, on New ... Year's Eve 18-year-old Jacob Cox-Brown of Astoria, Oregon, posted this as his Facebook status: "Drivin drunk ... classic ;) but to whoever's vehicle i hit i am sorry. :P" Facebook Message Prompts Investigation A long and complex sequence of events then followed: First, someone on Cox-Brown's 'friends' list sent the "confession" to Astoria ... (view more)

Asterisk Logger 1.04 Do you hate when a computer service or program won't let you see a password as you type it? Many services and programs replace the characters you type on your Windows computer with asterisks, so no one looking over your shoulder ... can steal your password. This free program helps you cut through the asterisks, which reduces the annoyance, especially with long or complex passwords. http://www.nirsoft.net CoolNovo 2.0.5.2 CoolNovo is an Internet browser for Windows very similar to Google's Chrome browser. However, it has many unique features, including Mouse Gesture, Super ... (view more)

Here's a question we recently received from an Infopackets subscriber in beautiful Montana, "Dear Infopackets team, I'm thinking about buying a Windows 8 computer. But I'm not sure if I should buy one with Windows 8 or Windows 8 Pro? And what's ... Windows RT? Can you please explain the differences to me? Thanks for the assistance, Molly C." My response: Technically speaking, Molly, those are the three different versions of Microsoft's newest operating system (OS), Windows 8. Windows RT is a trimmed-down version of the OS specially designed for portable devices with ARM chips. We're talking ... (view more)

Microsoft's January 8, 2013 Patch Tuesday includes a total of seven patches, two of which Microsoft is labeling 'critical,' the firm's highest security rating. Notably absent from the lineup of fixes will be a patch for a recently-outed Internet ... Explorer security flaw. This Patch Tuesday's critical fixes address security vulnerabilities that, like so many other previously patched vulnerabilities, could potentially allow a hacker to remotely execute malicious files and take control of an unpatched computer. As usual, hackers could do this by convincing a computer user to visit a malicious ... (view more)

Easy Image Modifier 4.7.1 Easy Image Modifier for Windows does just what its name implies: it allows you to easily rotate, resize, crop, and flip your digital images without having to learn the complicated system commands often required by other ... image modifying programs. This program also allows you to add watermarks. Click the big grey box at the bottom of the next page to download this free program. http://www.inspire-soft.net Speckie for Windows 8 5.7 Speckie is a real-time spell-checker designed for use with Microsoft's Internet Explorer web browser. It's completely free for personal use ... (view more)