Brandon Dimmel

Not a big fan of Internet Explorer 8? Well, Microsoft's upcoming and highly-anticipated operating system (OS) Windows 7 actually allows you to shut the program off altogether -- along with several other features users might not want loaded on their ... systems. The 'off switch' is actually a security feature at heart. "If a feature is deselected, it is not available for use. This means the files (binaries and data) are not loaded by the operating system (for security-conscious customers) and not available to users on the computer," said Jack Mayo, of Microsoft. "These same files are staged so ... (view more)

10 Tips For Better LCD Image Quality The people at ExtremeTech think most users treat their gorgeous, colorful, and very expensive LCD displays as if they were CRTs. You've paid a lot for these ritzy monitors, and these ten important tips will help ... you get the best image for your money. http://www.extremetech.com Computer Repair Kit On A Thumb Drive Herein you'll find an impressive collection of some 57 handy tools that can help you diagnose and repair issues that might be negatively affecting your Windows experience. Most of the applications don't require installation and the kit can be run ... (view more)

Microsoft is currently readying another slew of fixes for Windows operating systems dating all the way back to 2000. Unfortunately, the software giant has still not yet addressed an Excel security hole that raised eyebrows over a week ago. Although ... Microsoft is remaining quiet about the fixes for its upcoming patch, the company has revealed that at least one issue is considered "critical" and two more have been classified as "important." In other words, most business and home users will want to pay attention this coming Tuesday, March 10, when more details regarding the three Security ... (view more)

Rifiuti Many computer crime investigations require the reconstruction of a subject's Recycle Bin. Rifiuti, the Italian word meaning "trash", was developed to examine the contents of the INFO2 file in the Recycle Bin. Rifiuti parses information in ... the INFO2 file and output the results in a field delimited manner so that it may be imported into your favorite spreadsheet program. http://www.rifiuti.com ShoWin ShoWin displays useful information about windows by dragging a cursor over them. Perhaps one of the most popular uses of this program is to display hidden password editbox fields ... (view more)

The EU-emblazoned noose wrapped around Microsoft's neck might soon be loosening. According to reports today, the EU (European Union) has announced that it will discontinue constant monitoring of the Redmond-based company for anti-trust violations. ... The EU has regularly attacked Microsoft over anti-trust matters and has for some time used a special, independent committee to constantly watch Microsoft's every move overseas. "Changes in Microsoft's behavior..." However, that's now changed and it appears that Microsoft might be owed some credit for the let-up. In a statement, EU ... (view more)

Forensic Toolkit The Forensic ToolKit contains several Win32 command line tools that can help you examine the files on a NTFS disk partition for unauthorized activity. This open source tool includes AFind, which lists files by their last access time ... without tampering the data the way that right-clicking on file properties in Explorer will. http://www.foundstone.com Vision Vision, a host-based Forensic Utility, is the GUI successor to the well-known freeware tool, Fport. This innovative new product from Foundstone shows all of the open TCP and UDP ports on a machine, displays the service that ... (view more)

Apparently, economic stagnation can't stop Google executives from getting their big bonuses. According to reports, Google's top brass have accepted impressive hand-outs, ranging from $675,000 to over $1.6 million. This news comes only weeks after ... the search giant laid off over 100 employees. The bonuses of four Google executives were made public yesterday when the search giant submitted its 8-K filing with the SEC. Although CEO Eric Schmidt and co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page were not awarded impressive bonuses, five other executives were handed a massive sum, totaling some $6,309,000 ... (view more)

Software giant Microsoft has expanded its tentacles over an even greater part of the earth's crust this week, after it announced that the Business Productivity Online suite has been made available on a trial basis for businesses around the world. ... The plan has, according to some insiders, been in the works for some time. Most believe Microsoft began preparing itself for this step when it extended hosted software services to companies across the United States late last year. Also in the works is a worldwide release for Microsoft's Office Communications Online tool, which allows users access to ... (view more)

WinSplit Revolution WinSplit Revolution allows you to easily organize your open windows by tiling, resizing and positioning them to make the best use of your desktop real estate. WinSplit is especially useful for high-end LCD screens with high ... resolutions because it helps you to efficiently manage many active windows. The advantage of using WinSplit is that it saves you from having to drag and drop windows by allowing you to snap windows into specific tiled configurations using simple keyboard hotkeys. http://www.winsplit-revolution.com WinBubble In just two clicks, WinBubble will help you to ... (view more)

Xen Hypervisor The Xen Hypervisor is a powerful open source industry standard for virtualization. It offers a powerful, efficient, and secure feature set for virtualization of x86, x86_64, IA64, PowerPC, and other CPU architectures. It supports a ... wide range of guest operating systems including Windows, Linux, Solaris, and various versions of the BSD operating systems. http://www.xen.org Video Cache View After watching a video on a web site, you may want to save the video file into your local disk for playing it offline in the future. If the video file is stored in your browser's cache, this ... (view more)