Internet Explorer Removed From Windows 7 In EU

We all have heard the news that the European Union made the “suggestion” that Microsoft should bundle additional web browsers with their upcoming operating system Windows 7 to make up for failings in the past and to embrace competition. Many users felt that this move was entirely unnecessary as users who wanted a new web browser were able to get one minutes after finishing the installation of the Windows operating system. The success of the Firefox web browser in European countries demonstrated as well that it was possible to compete with Internet Explorer without having to be supplied with an operating system.

While the intention might have been good the whole suggestion was clearly aiming for troubles. Some questions that came up where about the web browsers that should be supplied with the operating system. Who would pick the ones that would be supplied, who would make the decision to not supply a web browser and why.

It seems though that the suggestion has backfired as Microsoft announced that they will not ship Windows 7 with a version of Internet Explorer in the European Union which in turn means that the operating system will ship without web browser at all. Veteran Internet users might be reminded of times back then when web browsers were supplied on floppy disks or CDs and this is apparently going to happen in 2009 again. History repeats itself so to say, at least in the EU.

The browser-less versions, dubbed Windows 7 “E”, will be distributed in all members of the European Economic Area as well as Croatia and Switzerland. In addition, Microsoft will strip the browser from the Europe-only “N” versions of Windows 7, which also removes the Windows Media Player from the operating system and is the result of another move by Europe’s antitrust authorities. 

“Microsoft will not offer for distribution in the European territory the Windows 7 product versions that contain IE, which are intended for distribution in the rest of the world,” Microsoft said in the memo. “This will apply to both OEM and Retail versions of Windows 7 products.” 

“To ensure that Microsoft is in compliance with European law, Microsoft will be releasing a separate version of Windows 7 for distribution in Europe that will not include Windows Internet Explorer,” the software maker said in the memo. “Microsoft will offer IE8 separately and free of charge and will make it easy and convenient for PC manufacturers to preinstall IE 8 on Windows 7 machines in Europe if they so choose. PC manufacturers may choose to install an alternative browser instead of IE 8, and has always been the case, they may install multiple browsers if they wish.”

MS Vista Theme Customization

Microsoft put a lot of effort into making Windows Vista a visually compelling operating system. The system still has the same Windows Vista theme protections in place that make it impossible to add custom themes to Windows Vista. There is also no easy way to change elements like the boot logo or system icons in Windows Vista.

The Windows Vista theme customization application Vista Visual Master changes that. It is a all in one solution for everyone who wants to customize the Windows Vista theme and appearance. The application can be divided into two sections. The first deals directly with the Windows Vista theme while the second takes care of system settings that relate to the visual appearance of Windows Vista.

One of the most important aspects of Windows Vista theme customization is patching the uxtheme.dll file in Windows Vista to be able to apply custom themes to the operating system. This option is available in Vista Visual Master. The same menu contains an option to change the Windows Vista theme directly to another one.

Other options that relate to the visual appearance of Windows Vista are the abilities to change Windows vista icons, logon pictures and the vista boot screen. All options are easily accessible and there is always an option to restore to defaults with should ease the minds of users who feel uncomfortable about changing system files in Windows Vista.

The second section is just the usual Windows Vista tweaker with the only difference that the available settings relate to visual effects on the system. It is for instance possible to remove icons from the computer deskop, remove shortcut arrows and to disable the changing of wallpapers in Windows Vista.

The main use of the tool is to customize the Windows Vista theme. It works flawlessly and creates backups of the most important files which come in handy if something goes wrong along the way.

For More Theme CLICK HERE!

New Face Of Security: Windows Defender

Windows Defender is a Microsoft security software product that is included in the Windows Vista and Windows 7 operating system. It is also available as an option download for the Windows XP system. The program is a anti-spyware program that can scan a computer system for malicious software and delete or quarantine the findings.

Windows Defender comes with the usual options to automatically update the program and schedule regular system scans to protect the computer system. Default actions for low, medium and high alerts can be defined that will be executed by the anti-spyware program automatically.

Microsoft’s anti-spyware solution comes with the interesting advanced tool Software Explorer which can display extensive information about startup programs, currently running programs, network connected programs and Winsock service providers.

Each program and provider is sorted by company which makes it easier to find non-Microsoft programs that are running or connected to the computer system. 

Microsoft has improved Windows Defender over the years. The company did receive lots of criticism in the beginning which can be attributed to a low spyware detection rate. Several anti-spyware products have performed better in tests, outlined here or here. Please note that the tests linked in this article have been performed about 10 months ago and that the situation may have changed in the mean time.

Which leads to the question: Are you running anti-spyware software? If so which?

Free Antivirus Protection Offer From Microsoft

Microsoft is gearing up to offer Windows users a free real-time antivirus protection. Code name Morro, the antivirus product will be a hosted service. Morro works by routing all users Internet traffic to a Microsoft datacenter, where the application will process the traffic and identify and block malware in real-time, by examining all of the rerouted traffic.

Microsoft says Morro will be released as a public beta first. However there is no word on the final release. The question is will Windows users trust their PC to a beta hosted antivirus product? Or is this just another marketing strategy that will give Windows 7 the perception it has anti-malware technology built-in?

Microsoft claims that Morro will help them build better products in the future, by being on the leading edge of malware protection. This will help Microsoft understand how malware develops, spreads and infiltrates systems. 

There will be questions that Microsoft will have to address by the Windows community before they expect users to try their free product. Some of the questions that will need to be answered are: 

• Will there be any impact on Windows performance? 
• Will Morro be implemented in Microsoft's other Operating Systems? 
• What happens when a computer is not connected to the internet? 
• Will the product remain up-to-date? 
• What user information will be routed to Microsoft's servers?

These are only a few of the many questions that Microsoft will have to answer. 
Since Morro is only a real-time malware protection antivirus, I don't see the majority of Windows users switching over to this free service. Companies like Symantec and McAffe also offer spam, identity and network security protection that is not mentioned in Morro's hosting service.

Only time will tell if Morro's real-time malware protection will gain momentum and be of any use to the personal PC community and the corporate IT departments.

IE Password Management Add-on

Last Pass is a password management add-on for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer that can store login credentials to web services in a securely encrypted password vault. The password manager is compatible with most editions of Internet Explorer including the latest Internet Explorer 8 edition that has been released a while ago. The passwords are stored in encrypted form on the Last Pass servers which comes in handy for several reasons. 

It is for example possible to access the passwords on other computer systems without having to carry them around on storage devices like USB sticks. And since Last Pass is not only compatible with Internet Explorer it comes also handy for users who work with web browsers like Firefox. It is basically possible to share passwords and other data between Internet Explorer and Firefox this way.

The download of the password management software is cross-browser compatible. It can install the add-on in both Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox at the same time. New users can create an account during the installation while existing users need to supply their login credentials to end the installation.

Last Pass adds a button to the Internet Explorer toolbar that provides quick access to most of the features offered by the password management software. It is for example possible to open some of the recently opened websites, switch identities, edit the preferences or add secure notes.

Password Management is not the only feature offered by Last Pass. The program can store notes in the password vault and offers an option to create form profiles to fill out forms on websites more easily.

The add-on will automatically recognize username and password forms on websites and act accordingly. It can fill out the form automatically if the login credentials are already stored in its database. New passwords can be generated with the versatile password generator. Last Pass is definitely one of the best password management tools.

Download Last Pass Software

Google announces "developer" builds of Chrome for Mac OS X, Linux

"Danger!" warns the sign. If it were in front of a cliff, you might step away. Seeing though as it's in front of a piece of software, and moreover it's software from Google, it instead has roughly the effect of saying "Naked dancing and free beer inside!"

For thus it is with the announcement of "developer builds" of Google's Chrome browser to run on Mac OSX and Linux.

Come on, get it while it's hot: 

whatever you do, please DON'T DOWNLOAD THEM! Unless of course you are a developer or take great pleasure in incomplete, unpredictable, and potentially crashing software.

Why, what's missing? 

How incomplete? So incomplete that, among other things , you won't yet be able to view YouTube videos, change your privacy settings, set your default search provider, or even print.

The list of things that are among the other things is pretty extensive, running to 445 at the moment, though it's not obvious at a glance which ones are the showstoppers and which are just a bit annoying. (I'd point out that Cmd-L doesn't select the location bar, which can be a bit annoying).

As noted previously, Chrome creates each new tab (or window) as a separate processor instance, meaning that you can kill them from the command line without affecting others - which is great if you have a runaway (or stuck) process in one tab/window and don't want to have to bring the whole thing down. The problem is still figuring out which of the many processes, each called "Chrome", is the one you want to kill, though.

What's still missing overall from the Chrome experience though is a big enough group of developers who have gotten to grips with a plugin framework so that they can begin to make it more than just, well, a browser. That is arguably what made Firefox rise so dramatically from the ashes (or parting of the ways) of the Mozilla project; the Greasemonkey plugin lets people write scripts that will configure web pages they visit as they want them to be (and was used to great effect at the Guardian's Hack Day, and doubtless many others) is a game-changer, for example.

But when you look at the Google Chrome blog, there's only one entry about plugins. Hardly encouraging. Chrome, at present, is looking like a good idea that has gotten left behind in the eagerness to do other things that will catch up with potential rivals in search such as Wolfram Alpha and Microsoft's Bing. It's not in trouble - but there's a serious danger of losing momentum if something doesn't start happening that ties it in with other things.