Fix: Windows 7 Beta gadgets not working issue January 13, 2009
Posted by AskMike in Computers & Internet.Tags: beta, gadgets, UAC, unspecified error, Windows 7, Windows 7 beta, windows 7 beta gadgets issue, windows 7 beta gadgets problem
10 comments
After a fresh installed Windows 7 beta on my PC. I am quite happy with the overall performance and features presented by this beta.
However, it seemed Windows gadgets didn’t work. Right click on the desktop and select gadgets but nothing happened. I tried to download some gadgets but it said “unspecified error” when I tried to install gadgets.
First of all, I thought it was a bug so I reported it. However, I found the cause and fixed it.
It was the UAC – User Account Control, causing gadgets stop working. After installed Windows 7 beta, I naturally set the level of UAC to “Never notify”. Apparently it broke the gadgets. After restored the UAC back to default level or level 1. I am able to install and show gadgets on my desktop now.
Wired but worked, You will have to use default level at least level 1 for UAC to get the gadgets worked.
Windows 7 beta UAC setting
Mac OS X is NOT safer than Vista. April 1, 2008
Posted by AskMike in Computers & Internet.Tags: CanSecWest, Hacks, Mac OS X, MacBook Air, security, vista
2 comments
As you surely know by now, the CanSecWest conference was the stage for a contest, PWN to OWN. Three laptops were set up; laptops running Windows Vista, Ubuntu Linux, and Mac OS X. The goal was to hack the computer and read the contents of a file located on each of the machines, using a 0day code execution vulnerability.
During the first day, you can only attack the machine over the network, without physical access. On the second day, user interaction comes into play (visiting a website, opening an email). On the third and final day, third-party applications are added to the mix. Each machine had the same cash prize on its head.
As you all know, the Mac was hacked first, on day two. The user only had to visit a website, and the Mac was hacked. Vista got hacked on the third day using a security hole in Adobe’s Flash, and the Ubuntu machine did not get hacked at all.
when the hacking contest was on its second day. The second day consisted of stock configurations along with browsers and some mail applications. That’s when the MacBook Air laptop was hacked in in about 2 minutes utilizing a Safari vulnerability that Apple has now been notified of.
Technically it wasn’t really Microsoft’s fault that the machine was hacked since Adobe is the one who creates Flash. The MacBook Air vulnerability, on the other hand, was in the Safari browser which ships on all Apple computers.
How to run file manager with root privileges May 25, 2007
Posted by AskMike in Computers & Internet.2 comments
If you have set up your sudoers file and have a working sudo command (recommended), then simple issuing a `sudo programname from a terminal will allow you to run the program with root privileges. Since you’re looking for a file manager, you would use `sudo nautilus`, enter the root password and nautilus will opon up in /root with full access to all files/folders.
Ubuntu desktop users: If you’re constantly creating “sudo” sessions in Nautilus (or other applications), it’s very easy to confuse your sudo windows with your regular windows. This often results in accidentally opening read-only versions of your system files — very frustrating! A quick way to visually separate your simultaneous sessions, is to assign a different theme to your sudo applications. To do this, open a terminal and type the following:
sudo gnome-theme-manger
Pick a new theme, and any time you launch an application using sudo, you will be able to clearly see the difference between your sudo windows and your regular windows. Check out the difference in the Nautilus sessions shown above (the sudo window is shown in brown on the right, and the regular user window is shown in blue on the left).
Oracle is making an IE Toolbar November 21, 2006
Posted by AskMike in Computers & Internet, Programming.1 comment so far
It seems that the limited space on browsers wasn’t crowded enough. Or Oracle believes that we don’t have enough IE toolbars with pop-up blocker function yet.
Apparently, Oracle just announced its own version of Toolbar for IE – Oracle DBA Toolbar
The Oracle DBA Toolbar (available for Internet Explorer only at the
moment – yeah, yeah, we know; a Mozilla/Firefox version is forthcoming)
gives you one-click access to key DBA resources on OTN.
Features
- Pop-up Blocker
- Integrated RSS Manager
- OTN Search
- One-click access to SQL*Plus install, Downloads, MetaLink, and more
- Online Support
Another Pop-up blocker?! What if I already had Live/Google/Yahoo/eBay/…
Well, I think I will pass this one.
RapidShare.de R.I.P? November 20, 2006
Posted by AskMike in Computers & Internet.1 comment so far
What happened to the Rapidshare.de, one of most popular online storage service?
The
website is still up. But it says “Unfortunately all drives of
RapidShare.de are full right now.” on its main page and the upload
function is gone.
Technorati Tags: rapidshare, online storage
Top 5 Best Addons for IE7 November 8, 2006
Posted by AskMike in Computers & Internet, Web 2.0.5 comments
Browser add-ons can help personalize the way you use the Internet. The add-ons
available here have been carefully screened from the Microsoft new IE Addons website and rated by users to
help you select the ones that suit your needs and preferences. Start exploring
them today.
With so many powerful extensions to choose from for Internet
Explorer 7, it can be difficult to decide which ones to install.
To help you find what you need to
enhance your Internet experience, I have compiled a list of some of my
favorites.
Inline Search by Core Systems: Search for text within page while you type
Inline Search is an extremely useful free add-on for Internet Explorer that adds while-you-type searching within the current page, with the option to highlight all occurrences of your search term. It integrates flawlessly into IE7, giving it that little extra that makes you a lot more efficient when you are looking for a specific piece of information on a web page.
IESpell by RedEgg Software
IESpell is a free Internet Explorer browser extension that spell-checks text-input boxes on a Web page. It will come in particularly handy for users who do a lot of Web-based text entry (Web mail, forums, blogs, diaries). Even if your Web application already includes spell-checking functionality, this utility is faster than a server-side solution. Plus, you get to store and use your personal word list across all your applications instead of having to maintain separate ones on each application.
Trailfire
Trailfire provides a unique new method of web navigation. By leaving “Trailmarks”, which are essentially electronic notes, on individual web pages, users can lead their Trailfire contacts on an interpretive trail for the web. You can use the trailmarks to express your opinions on sites you visit, to plan a vacation, or for any number of clever uses not yet invented. This add-on for IE7 makes it possible to experience the web in a far more personal way than ever before.
StumbleUpon Toolbar for Internet Explorer:One of popular Extensions for Firefox now supports IE7.
The StumbleUpon Toolbar for Internet Explorer allows you to ‘channel surf’ the
Internet and discover great websites and web content according to your
interests. Whether it’s a website, video, picture, game, blog, or wiki,
StumbleUpon helps you find interesting stuff recommended by like-minded people
with just a single click of the Stumble! button. The more you use it, the better
it gets. Join over 1.3 million users who have rated over 7 million websites.
Del.icio.us Toolbar by Del.icio.us
del.icio.us is a collection of favorites – yours and everyone else’s. You can use del.icio.us to: Keep links to your favorite articles, blogs, music, reviews, recipes, and more, and access them from any computer on the web, share favorites with friends, family, coworkers, and the del.icio.us community, and to discover new things. Everything on del.icio.us is someone’s favorite — they’ve already done the work of finding it.
Apple Ships iPods with Windows Virus then blames Microsoft October 18, 2006
Posted by AskMike in Computers & Internet.1 comment so far
Apple apologized Tuesday for shipping video iPods containing the Windows virus RavMonE.exe, which apparently made its way onto a small number of the ubiquitous devices at a manufacturing plant. Around 1 percent of units shipped after September 12, 2006 are affected.
RavMonE.exe is a mass storage virus that only affects Windows computers. According to antivirus vendors, which dub the malware Win32.RJump.a and Troj/Bdoor-DIJ, the virus is a Trojan that opens links to Web sites and allows others access to a computer.
This known virus affects only Windows computers, and up to date anti-virus software which is included with most Windows computers should detect and remove it. So far we have seen less than 25 reports concerning this problem. The iPod nano, iPod shuffle and Mac OS X are not affected, and all Video iPods now shipping are virus free.
According to the post on Apple support site: “We recently discovered that a small number – less than 1% – of the Video iPods available for purchase after September 12, 2006, left our contract manufacturer carrying the Windows RavMonE.exe virus.”
Then the statement went on attacking and accussing Microsoft’s Windows platform: “As you might imagine, we are upset at Windows for not being more hardy against such viruses, and even more upset with ourselves for not catching it.“
Looks like Apple won again !
Technorati Tags: ipod , Virus, Windows
powered by performancing firefox
Firefox is not safer! September 26, 2006
Posted by AskMike in Computers & Internet.add a comment
Whether you are using Firefox or Internet Explorer, Maxthon or Opera, there is no “safe” browser. This statement comes from Symantec as part of its twice-yearly Internet Security Threat Report, which showed attackers were no longer primarly focusing on Internet Explorer.
While Internet Explorer remains the most frequently targeted browser, accounting for 47 percent of all attacks, in the first six months of this year more vulnerabilities have appeared in Mozilla Firefox than within IE. 47 flaws were discovered in Firefox, compared with 38 for IE.
Even Apple was not immune to security issues, with 12 vulnerabilities found during the report’s period. In addition, some issues affected multiple browsers, which Symantec said comprised 31 percent of all attacks during the period.
While much could be made of Mozilla’s rise to the top of reported flaws, it is normally the quickest in providing patches. Whereas Firefox flaws are patched in an average of one day after public disclosure, it takes Microsoft nine days. Opera was second fastest at two days, and Apple third at five days.
Besides the browser findings, Symantec also reported on other malware trends. The overall number of computer flaws rose to 2,249, up 18 percent from the second half of last year. This was a record for vulnerabilities discovered, said Symantec. Most of them — 69 percent — were Web-based issues.
In malicious code, Symantec found that five of the top ten new malicious code families were of the Trojan horse type. Malicious code was also going for personal information more frequently, with 30 of the top 50 code samples exposing data such as social security and credit card numbers.
Finally, among phishing and spam risks, the company said it had detected 157,477 unique phishing messages, a staggering 81 percent increase over last period. In addition, for the second time in Symantec’s survey, spam comprised a majority of e-mail traffic at 54 percent.
Technorati Tags: FireFox, Internet Explorer, Browser, Internet Safety, Internet Security, vulnerability, exploit
Windows Live Writer Plugins on Codeplex August 30, 2006
Posted by AskMike in Computers & Internet, Web 2.0.add a comment
Windows Live Writer just came out few weeks. It has quite a few plug-ins made for it already.
On Microsoft’s Codeplex Project site, there is a workspace for all developers who want to write their own
plugins for Microsoft
Windows Live Writer blogging client and share them with others.
Here is the list of plug-ins
- Technorati Tags
- Winamp Currently Playing
- Windows Media Player Currently Playing
- Code Syntax Highlighter
- Paste Clipboard as Html
- Rhapsody Currently Playing
- Multiple Tags Plugin
- Flickr Plugin
- Webcam Snapshot
More…
Technorati Tags: Live Writer, Plugin, Codeplex
Windows Live Writer Beta August 15, 2006
Posted by AskMike in Computers & Internet, Web 2.0.add a comment
Live
Writer is a new application designed to create blog posts for Live Spaces
and a number of other services. Appearing like a slimmed down version of
Microsoft Word, the tool is available free of charge.
Users can author blog posts in a WYSIWYG environment that makes editing easy
and shows exactly how the post will look when published. An HTML source code
editing mode is included for more advanced users, as well as a Web preview
option.
Photo publishing has been integrated into Windows Live Writer, enabling users
to quickly add an image to their blog post and modify it with the application’s
built-in tools. Size, text wrapping, borders can be edited, and a variety of
graphical effects are also available.
Microsoft has additionally including mapping support with Live Writer. Users
can insert a Windows Live Local map directly into their post, and customize it
to show road, aerial or bird’s eye detail. Pushpins can also be added to
highlight a specific point.
The application currently supports Microsoft’s own Windows Live Spaces
blogging service, in addition to Blogger, LiveJournal, TypePad, WordPress and
others. Support for RSD (Really Simple Discoverability), the Metaweblog API, and
the Movable Type API are also included.
Technorati Tags: Windows
Live, Liver Writer,
Blog
