Computer Soul

The Difference Between http and https

2011-02-25T11:46:00.000-08:00

MANY PEOPLE ARE UNAWARE that the main difference between http:// and https:// is It's all about keeping you secure** HTTP stands for Hyper Text Transport Protocol,

The S (big surprise) stands for "Secure". If you visit a web site or web page, and look at the address in the web browser, it will likely begin with the following: http:// . This means that the website is talking to your browser using the regular 'unsecured' language. In other words, it is possiblefor someone to "eavesdrop" on your computer's conversation with the website. If you fill out a form on the website, someone might see the information you send to that site.

This is why you never ever enter your credit card number in an http website!
But if the web address begins with https:// , that basically means your computer is talking to the website in a secure code that no one can eavesdrop on.

You understand why this is so important, right?
If a website ever asks you to enter your credit card
information, you should automatically look to see if the web address begins with https://.

If it doesn't, there's no way you're going to enter sensitive information like a credit card number.

PASS IT ON (You may save someone a lot of grief).

Microsoft launches free Web publishing tools WebMatrix

2011-01-13T23:38:00.000-08:00

Microsoft launched free Web publishing tools today in a new software suite called WebMatrix.

The software is targeted at Web developers who may be using free open-source software to build websites. WebMatrix includes tools for running a website, including a Web server, database and Web frameworks. It also includes a tool for running search-engine optimization reports to help developers make their sites more prominent in Web searches. It's available in nine languages.

The WebMatrix tools work with free Web publishing platforms such as WordPress, Joomla!, DotNetNuke and Umbraco.

"The target audience for WebMatrix is the universe of web developers that aren’t already hard-core .NET and ASP developers," said Jon Rooney, senior product manager with the Web platform team. He said the tool is powerful enough for Web designers working at agencies to use.

"There’s a whole market out there for people who are using various open-source products who want to do things like blogging. They are looking for inexpensive. free tools," said Al Hilwa, an analyst who covers application development software at IDC, a research firm in Framingham, Mass. "WebMatrix hits the spot for that kind of thing. It’s a way for Microsoft to reach what's typically not its core base of developers."

Hilwa compares it to Microsoft's FrontPage software. "A long time ago Microsoft had a thing called FrontPage. It was a very different tool but hit at a similar market, people who want to do quick and dirty websites who are not programmers."

Here is where you can download the free WebMatrix software.

Also, Microsoft has made some video tutorials you can watch.

Ref: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com

Android Finally Beats iPhone in US Sales: Variety Wins

2010-05-11T02:46:00.000-07:00

Android fans will be celebrating the news that Google's smartphone OS has passed Apple's iPhone in total US market share. But the reality is that the sales dominance of Android was inevitable.
In the first quarter of 2010, Apple secured a 21% market share, Android surged to 28%, and RIM's BlackBerry held strong at 36%. I don't mean to ignore BlackBerry here, but they've been dominating sales for so long, and with so little change in their fundamental business, that they're barely worth discussing from a sales perspective. It'd be like writing a post about how U2's latest album is selling well.

It was really a foregone conclusion that eventually Android would beat the iPhone in sales, for a bunch of simple reasons (including the recent study showing Android dominating mobile web use). iPhone OS is limited to one smartphone, on one network (the second-place network in terms of customers), and offers only one real model at a time (the iPhone 3G is technically still available but it's not dramatically different in design or functionality from the 3GS). Android, on the other hand, is available in several iterations from several different manufacturers in several different price points on every single major network. Want a keyboard? Go for a Motorola Cliq or Droid. Like HTC's Sense UI? Try the Droid Eris, Hero, or Incredible. Want to buy your GooglePhone direct from Google? Opt for the Nexus One. Hate your life? Try one of those Samsung phones with the custom UI that Gizmodo's Matt Buchanan compared to various unsavory bodily excretions.

So of course Android eventually came to top iPhone in market share, if not mindshare. It hearkens back to that whole Windows vs. Mac OS argument, with Android taking the Windows path: multiple manufacturers, designs, and price points leads to bigger sales, if not greater customer satisfaction.

This will all be shaken up nicely by the end of the year: Microsoft is due to launch their groundbreaking Windows Phone 7 phones and HP may re-launch Palm's WebOS with new hardware and enough money to break into the big time. But Android will probably continue to gain users (and possibly take over the world).

Fast Company http://www.fastcompany.com/1643889/android-finally-beats-iphone-in-us-sales-variety-wins

Twitter Zaps Bug By Wiping Out Followers

2010-05-11T02:31:00.000-07:00

Twitter users had a big shock on Monday when they checked into the micro-blogging service. Their follower and following numbers were at 0, meaning they were suddenly very unpopular or something was seriously wrong with the site.

It was the latter, of course. To kill a bug that allowed a user to force other users to follow him or her, Twitter temporarily reset all follower/following counts to zero, according to the Twitter Status blog. Everything was back to normal by 11 a.m. Pacific.

"We identified and resolved a bug that permitted a user to "force" other users to follow them. We're now working to rollback all abuse of the bug that took place," the company said.

The glitch didn't cause protected (private) updates to become public, according to Twitter, which did not report the number of users impacted by the bug.

According to tech blog Gizmodo, the security hole allowed users to get any fellow Tweeter--even famous folk with "Verified Accounts"--to follow them.

Using Twitter's web interface, you could have tweeted "accept conanobrien" (that's Gizmodo's example, but any username would have worked), waited a few moments, and then checked your list of followers.

Voilà! Another fan of your clever 140-character observations. Well, that is, until Twitter killed the bug.

PC World

Internet is biggest threat to endangered species, say conservationists

2010-03-22T04:27:00.000-07:00

Corallium rubrum, also known as red coral or precious coral, in Calafuria near Livorno, Italy. A proposal the regulate the trade, especially on the internet in this species was defeated at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. Photograph: Giovanni Marola/AFP/Getty Images

The internet has emerged as one of the greatest threats to rare species, fuelling the illegal wildlife trade and making it easier to buy everything from live lion cubs to wine made from tiger bones, conservationists said today.

The internet's impact was made clear at the meeting of the 175-nation Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites).

Delegates voted overwhelmingly today to ban the trade of the Kaiser's spotted newt, which the World Wildlife Fund says has been devastated by internet trade.

A proposal from the US and Sweden to regulate the trade in red coral – which is crafted into expensive jewellery and sold extensively on the web – was defeated. Delegates voted the idea down mostly over concerns that increased regulations might damage poor fishing communities.

Trade on the internet poses one of the biggest challenges facing Cites, said Paul Todd, a campaign manager for the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

"The internet is becoming the dominant factor overall in the global trade in protected species," he said. "There will come a time when country to country trade of large shipments between big buyers and big sellers in different countries is a thing of the past."

The Ifaw has carried out several surveys of illegal trade on the internet and found that thousands of species are sold on auction sites, classified ads and chatrooms, mostly in the US but also Europe, China, Russia and Australia.

Most of the illegal trade is in African ivory but the group has also found exotic birds along with rare products such as tiger-bone wine and pelts from protected species like polar bears and leopards.

A separate 2009 survey by the group Campaign Against Cruelty to Animals targeted the internet trade in Ecuador, finding offers to sell live capuchin monkeys, lion cubs and ocelots.

"As the internet knows no borders, it causes several new problems regarding the enforcement of the protection of endangered species," the group said in its report.

The newt is a textbook example of what can happen to one species through trade on the web. According to a study by the WWF, the black and brown salamander with white spots is coveted in the pet trade. Now numbering only around 1,000, about 200 annually have been traded over several years, mostly through a website that was operated in the Ukraine.

"The internet itself isn't the threat, but it's another way to market the product," said Ernie Cooper, who spearhead the investigation into the newt for TRAFFIC Canada. "The Kaiser's spotted newt, for example, is expensive and most people are not willing to pay $300 for a salamander. But through the power of the internet, tapping into the global market, you can find buyers." The red and pink coral, of which there are 32 species, is harvested in Mediterranean waters and turned into expensive jewellery in Italy, Taiwan and China, according to the marine conservation groupSeaWeb. It is the most widely traded and valuable of all precious corals but has no international protection, resulting in a brisk international trade in the species, the group claims.

Opposition to the proposal was led by Japan, which also rallied its supporters last week to defeat an attempt to ban the international export of Atlantic bluefin tuna, a key ingredient in sushi.

They were joined by several coastal states including Indonesia, Malaysia and Iceland, all of whom argued the corals are crucial to the survival of local communities and are not over-harvested.

Meanwhile, delegates approved a voluntary conservation plan for endangered tigers that calls for tougher legislation in countries home to the big cats to tackle widespread smuggling and boost money spent on law enforcement.

The British plan also calls for countries to better control tiger farms – China has the most – and to phase out traditional medicine markets which fuel demand for tiger parts.

The proposal includes no funding for the 13 tiger-range countries, only a request for donor assistance.

Tiger numbers have plummeted because of human encroachment, the loss of nine-tenths of their habitat and poaching to supply the illegal trade. Their numbers have fallen from 100,000 at the beginning of the 20th century to around 3,600 today.

Article is from http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/mar/21/endangered-species-internet-threat

Email scam targets Facebook users

2010-03-18T01:48:00.001-07:00

Computer hackers are targeting Facebook users with an email scam that attempts to steal their passwords, web security firm McAfee said.

McAfee said some users of the world's most popular social networking site were receiving emails that appeared to be from Facebook informing them their Facebook password had been reset and to click on an attachment to retrieve it.

The security firm said the attachment is actually a "password stealer" that is installed when a user clicks on it and can potentially access any user name and password combination on that computer, not Facebook-related information.

"This threat is potentially very dangerous considering that there are over 350 million Facebook users who could fall for this scam," McAfee said in a statement.

The subject line of the scam email reads: "Facebook Password Reset Confirmation! Customer Support."

McAfee advised anyone receiving the password-reset message to delete it and not to open the attachment.

Because of its huge membership, Facebook is a frequent target of computer hackers seeking to steal passwords.

In its 2010 Threat Predictions report released in December, McAfee said email "was increasing in popularity as the preferred method for targeting attacks against individual users, corporations and government institutions".

AFP

Google could be your next ISP

2010-03-18T01:40:00.000-07:00

Internet behemoth Google now boasts a network that's bigger than all but two of the world's ISPs, and telcos fear the search giant is just one step away from becoming an ISP itself.

US network measurement expert Arbor Networks this week released a new report claiming that, if Google were an ISP, it would be the fastest growing carrier in the world and the third largest globally.

"Based on anonymous data from 110 ISPs around the world, we estimate Google contributes somewhere between 6-10 per cent of all internet traffic globally as of the summer of 2009," Arbor's chief scientist Craig Labovitz wrote.

Instead of relying on third parties to deliver its services, the search giant has spent billions over the past several yearsbuilding data centres spanning millions of square feet all over the world.

Its equipment is in place at more than 60 public exchanges and, Labovitz said, over the past year the company has deployed its Google Global Cache servers in more than half of all large consumer networks in North America and Europe.

Google has effectively cut out the middleman and now more than half of its traffic is sent directly from its servers to the world's consumer ISPs, Arbor revealed. Next, it could cut out the ISPs as well by offering internet plans itself.

With a wealth of infrastructure already in place, Google recently announced it was taking the next step by building an experimental fibre-to-the-home network in parts of the US servicing initially between 50,000 and 500,000 homes.

Google plans to connect these homes to the internet at blistering speeds of 1Gbps. By comparison, the upcoming National Broadband Network in Australia is predicted to offer about 100Mbps.

"I think Google is gearing up to be potentially quite a formidable competitor to existing telcos and ISPs, given their moves into the infrastructure level," Warren Chaisatien, research director and principal analyst at Australian firm Telsyte, said.

Indeed, at the recent Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Google chief executive officer Eric Schmidt was heckled by telco representatives in the audience who feared that Google was increasingly competing with them not only on the infrastructure level, but also by selling its mobile phone, the Nexus One, directly to consumers online, and by releasing apps such as Google Voice, which allows users to bypass the networks to make voice calls.

Schmidt stressed the Google was purely experimenting in an effort to see what was required to bring networks up to 1Gbps, which could pave the way for more exciting applications and convince telcos to upgrade their networks.

Analysts aren't buying it. "I think what we are seeing today is that Google is conquering the world, starting from online content but now they are building infrastructure," Chaisatien said.

Chaisatien believes that, in the next five to 10 years, the ISP, telecoms and utilities industries will merge to form "smart grids". He said this was "one of the key arenas that Google intends to play very strongly in".

Steve Dalby, chief regulatory officer with iiNet, said the ISP saw Google as a significant player in the online world but did not fear it any more than other potential competitors.

Peter Coroneos, chief executive of the Internet Industry Association, which counts both Google and the ISPs as members, said increasing competition between Google and telcos would only provide better outcomes for consumers.

He pointed to the roll-out of cable networks in the US, which unlike in Australia are not controlled by existing telco players, but by companies traditionally in the television space. The end result is consumers get more choice and cheaper access to the internet.

"What we're witnessing is technological convergence and, in the long term, people are going to be getting their internet access from many different sources," Coroneos said.

"Change is necessarily painful but the successful well-managed companies will always adapt, and that's why in the face of the cable threat in the US the telcos are still profitable companies."

Google's push into infrastructure will inevitably add to fears surrounding its overwhelming corporate power, and increase regulatory heat on the company. But Coroneos pointed out that Facebook this week overtook Google as the most trafficked site in the US, showing that dominance can never be assured.

"Competition is important and we have very strong laws in Australia to prevent abuse of market power ... so you would expect our competition laws to keep it in check," he said.

Source: smh.com.au

Microsoft unleashes Internet Explorer 9

2010-03-17T23:32:00.000-07:00

Microsoft yesterday unveiled a very early edition of its next-generation browser, IE9. So early, in fact, that it's more "pre" than pre-release, pre-beta or even pre-alpha.

Ladies and gentlemen, say hello to "IE9 Platform Preview."

That's a new name for Microsoft, and one meant, as one company manager said yesterday, to evoke the "major change" the software maker believes it's taking in Internet Explorer development.

Just what is Platform Preview? Can you even run it? And if so, do you want to?

Those are just some of the first questions you'll undoubtedly have over the months ahead as Microsoft starts adding muscle to the bare bones framework of IE9.

Microsoft's calling this a "Platform Preview." Is that just a fancy name for beta? Not even close.

This build is not a fully functional browser by any stretch. It lacks critical user features, including an address bar (what?) and a back button. Instead, Microsoft is billing this as a lightweight frame wrapped around the IE9 rendering, layout and JavaScript engines that it's passing around so developers and the technically adventurous can try it out and let Microsoft know what they think.

Will there be a beta? Yes, says Microsoft. What it's not saying is when it will ship a feature-complete beta. And since this is the first time that the company's cranked out what's essentially a developer pre-alpha -- or even pre-pre-alpha -- there's no history to go on to speculate when that might be.

Can I run the preview in Windows XP? No.

IE9's graphics processor powered-acceleration requires Direct2D and DirectWrite, APIs created for Windows 7 , then back-ported last October to Vista Service Pack 2 (SP2). Windows XP? Flat out of luck.

Will IE9 run on Windows XP when it ships in final form? Don't count on it.

In its own FAQ , Microsoft took on the question, but didn't answer it. "It's too early to talk about features of the Internet Explorer 9 Beta," the company said.

But the chances that IE9 will run on the 2001 OS are slim to none. Elsewhere in that same FAQ, Microsoft said as much when it noted that IE9 relies on "technologies [that] depend on advancements in the display driver model introduced first in Windows Vista." That's the tip-off, as Vista completely departed from the XP driver model, one of the issues that gave early Vista users fits.

It would be impossible to backport those technologies to XP, economically brainless to do so for an OS slated for retirement in four years, or both.

When will Microsoft release IE9? The company isn't saying.

How do I use the Platform Preview without an address bar? To browse to a page, select Open from the Page menu, or press Ctrl-O. In the Open Web Page dialog that pops up, type the destination URL, then click OK.

If I download the Platform Preview, what happens to the real Internet Explorer? Nothing. The preview and IE7 or IE8 co-exist peaceably, a new twist for Windows, which won't allow users to install, say, both the creaky IE6 and the newer IE8.

Do I have to have IE8 on the PC before I can try the preview? Yes.

That's not a problem for people running Windows 7, since IE8 is bundled with the OS, but if you're running Vista, you must first upgrade to IE8, if you haven't already. Windows Vista (and anyone running Server 2008) users must also have installed the October 2009 Platform Update that, among other things, brought Windows 7's hardware acceleration support for 2D, 3D and text to the older operating system.

I watched the webcast of the MIX10 keynote, where the Microsoft presenters must have said "HTML5" a hundred times. What is HTML5? The next-generation of HTML (hypertext markup language), the underlying development language of the Web.

A lot of the interest in HTML5 revolves around how it could replace rich-media plug-ins like Adobe's Flash or Microsoft's Silverlight for embedded audio and video. Apple is a proponent of HTML5, for instance, because it could replace Flash -- a technology the company, especially CEO Steve Jobs, seems to dislike at best, despise at worst -- for playing video.

Other browser makers, including Mozilla (Firefox), Google (Chrome), Apple (Safari) and Opera have been beating the HTML5 drum for some time, so Microsoft's late to the party. But as Sheri McLeish, an analyst with Forrester said today, "When Microsoft gets serious about something, you'd better be ready to get out of the way."

For more on IE9 and HTML5, check out Paul Krill's story in InfoWorld .

And FYI ... by our count, Microsoft's people used the term HTML5 just 39 times in Tuesday's MIX10 keynote.

Will Microsoft update the preview? How often? Yes, about every eight weeks, says Dean Hachamovich, the general manager for IE.

Will IE9 be the first Internet Explorer browser not released in conjunction with a new version of Windows? No, but unless Microsoft boosts Windows 8 development to light speed or delays IE9 for a couple of years, it will be the first since 2001, when Microsoft launched IE6 just months before the debut of Windows XP.

Where do I get IE9 Platform Preview?Here .

You'll also find a short user guide and release notes -- the latter include known problems with the build -- at the same location.

Article is by Gregg Keizer (Computerworld (US)

The World's Most Powerful FREE PDF Tools

2010-03-17T02:00:00.000-07:00

Introduction

A PDF tool comes in handy when you need to:

Merge, split or reorder pages of a PDF document;
Rotate or crop pages
Add a header and footer
Add page numbers
Add a watermark
Encrypt or decrypt
Highlight text or annotate
Tweak viewer preference or change metadata
Convert PDF to images, or vice versa
Convert PDF to text, or vice versa
Convert PostScript to PDF
Do other functions

In this review, programs designed to combine merging, splitting and other capabilities in a single application are discussed under General Tools. Those designed for a more specific task are grouped under Specific Tools.

Free PDF Tools to Merge, Split, Reorder, Encrypt, Decrypt, Rotate, Crop, Reformat, Header, Footer, Watermark, Images to PDF, PDF to Images, Form Fields Delete/Flatten/List, PostScript to PDF, PDF Information, Scan to PDF, and Create Transparent Image.

Merge two or more PDF files into a single PDF file; Extract or Reorder pages from a PDF file into a new file; Encrypt or Decrypt PDF documents with 40 or 128 bit Encryption; Rotate pages by 90, 180, and 270 degree; Crop a page to modify its layout of Print or View by specifying its margins; Put multiple pages into one page to save paper and inks when printing hard copies with note lines for handout; Add Headers and Footers to present information, such as date, time, page numbers, or the title of the document, in the top or bottom margins of a document; Add stamp using a formatted text in your international language; Add Stamp using image file (bmp, jpg, gif, png, tiff, and wmf); Convert images (bmp, jpg, gif, png, tiff, and wmf) into a PDF file with layout options; Save PDF pages into images (png, jpg, bmp and tiff) with DPI options; Delete, Flatten or List the PDF Form Fields inside a PDF file; Convert Postscript file into PDF; Add information (Title, Author, Subject, Keywords, Created, Creator, Producer and Version) to the PDF document; Scan your Paper Form or Photo into images (PNG, JPG, BMP, TIF and GIF) or PDF; Create a transparent image with options to adjust one Color and the left Colors' transparency. Version 7.0 adds Windows 7 support, PDF Information, Scan to PDF, and Create Transparent image for PDF.

What's new in this version:

Version 7.0 adds Windows 7 support, PDF Information, Scan to PDF, and Create Transparent image for PDF.

Download here http://www.pdfill.com/pdf_tools_free.html

Microsoft Security Essentials Its Free and Suprisingly Great!

2010-03-16T13:55:00.000-07:00

Microsoft has finally released its freely available version of its antivirus and antispyware offering. It’s a new kick at the bucket because it failed miserably with its charge product. We don’t know why Microsoft would want to get into a crowded space right now. The offering seems to have interesting merits, however.

The product comes available for Windows XP and Vista/7 in both 32-bit and 64-bit installations. The Windows XP installer is slightly bigger than the Vistainstaller but the amazing part is that the entire package is a mere 8MB.

We were impressed at how quick the program installed on our Vista installation. Microsoft seems to have accomplished something that seemed be a holy grail in the world of antivirus – a small program with a small footprint. In reality, this what an antivirus should be – small, yet powerful. Ok, we’ll hold back on producing it a success yet because it is not.

The interface of the product is as simple as you can image. A scan took a mere 15 minutes and we threw many viruses at it. The trick is not standard antivirus but the fact that many of its competitors seem to be going away having to rely on signature updates but to a combination. For example, Norton’s new offering for 2010, seems to be using this approach. A computer program is a representation of the human mind and if the human mind is evolving but computer code is not, then new viruses and antivirus can easily render the product useless.

The resources used by the product seems to be very lightweight. Security Essentials uses around 80-100MB of RAM and 75% of CPU time during a full scan. During normal activity, the application uses less than 8MB of RAM and rarely registers any CPU activity.

As mentioned, scanning took very little time and resources. Once a virus was detected, a large system tray pop-up appears so you can remove the infected file, quarantine it, view further details, or allow it. You have the option to send the information to Microsoft or not.

In conclusion, the product is good but not good enough. After all, you can’t get all the features of similar but full featured products by other antivirus makers. But for a free product, it is worth taking a look.

During our experience, we found that free is not always good. We found mediocre products in AVG and Avast, Avira. Because they are free, they are always trying to convince you to upgrade to their charged version. But if their free version is already so mediocre, that makes me think twice about handing them my money. The other side of the coin is that the charge product could definitely be better.

To download Microsoft Security Essentials, Please click here http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/

Test has been conducted by Ronny Ko for Bityard Alpha.

Internet ScamS - A Good TOpic......

2007-11-05T17:11:00.002-08:00

Internet Scams are a dime a dozen. Many of the internet scams that we report on originally started as offline scams but made their way to the online world.

Everything from cheesy MLM programs to online versions of the same scams we have reported on in other articles and almost anything else scammers can dream up. Internet scams don't only waste your time but can really cut into your pocket book as well.

Before you buy any business opportunity that is Internet based, you should do the following:

Make sure they list contact information. Names of people who are involved with the site, phone numbers, an address etc. An e-mail address is fine when someone isn't asking for money but when companies are asking for your hard-earned cash, e-mail isn't enough in our opinion.
x
Go to a few sites that report on scams (like www.mazu.com or www.worldwidescam.com). Do not waste your time with the Better Business Bureau. The Better Business Bureau is not a government agency plus they have no real power. I have heard as many complaints about the Better Business Bureau as some of the scams out there.
x
See what kind of return policy they have. Most business opportunities should at least offer a 30-day trial when you are checking them out.
x
Lastly, got to a search engine (we like Google or a meta-engine like Metacrawler) and see if you can find any dirt or complaints about the company. This is hardly a science and I know that people tend to complain more than they praise, but you might be able to find something out. If you find one or two people complaining, ignore it. If you find 30 or 40, something is going on.
Good luck in your online adventure. The Internet scams are out there.

Information ABOUT EMAILS

2007-11-05T17:11:00.001-08:00

Information you need to know about your email

Change your password often. The quick act of changing your password can ensure your e-mail remains private. In addition, passwords that use both letters and numbers are harder to break.
Don't share your password. Most e-mail administrators will not ask for your password. Do not be duped by malicious e-mails asking you for your password. This is a well-known, although not-too-common trick designed to fool you into sharing your password. As a rule, never share it with anyone.
Never open attachments from unknown sources. They may contain what are known as "letterbombs" or "viruses," which can damage your PC.
Always remember to sign out when you are done. It's quick, easy and may save your account from unwanted trespassers. If you are using a public terminal, at an internet cafe for example, it is advised that you close the browser you were using when you are ready to end your Internet session.
Don't reply to unsolicited messages ("spam") mail, or other harassing or offensive mail. By responding, you only confirm that you are a person with an active e-mail address who can be plagued with constant unwanted e-mail solicitations. Instead, forward the unsolicited message to the customer service department of the source's e-mail (usually of a form similar to abuse@[implicateddo main].com) . To help control spam, BelizeMail provides members with "filters" for incoming mail. These can easily be set up to send certain messages (such as those that include certain words) directly to your online trash can.
Make sure that you are using the most up-to-date Internet software (e.g. browsers such as Microsoft Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator). More recent versions often offer enhanced security protection.
Always use a secure network. Most corporate networks and Internet service providers are protected by administrators who watch for potential security problems and act to protect users from "hackers" (malicious users) who may try to steal personal information that is transferred through the network. Although the risk is small, use caution when on any unfamiliar network. Use stations maintained by sources you trust, or ask if the Internet terminal you are using is protected against security break-ins.

Use common sense when you're on the Internet and maintain a healthy dose of skepticism. Use caution when revealing personal information, such as your physical address, to anyone you meet in cyberspace; even if they claim to be someone of authority.

Thanks

Find Out If Your Computer Is Secretly Connecting to the Web

2007-10-13T18:13:00.000-07:00

If you are trying to track down why your computer is running so slooowwwly, try using this simple DOS command from Digital Inspiration to uncover a possible problem:

* Type cmd in your Windows Run box.
* Type "netstat -b 5 > activity.txt" and press enter.
* After say 2 minutes, press Ctrl+C.
* Type "activity.txt" on the command line to open the log file in notepad (or your default text editor)

This .txt file will have a record of everything that has made an Internet connection in the last couple of minutes; you can then check your task manager to find out where it is and take care of it.

References: Article is written by WENDY BOSWELL for http://www.lifehacker.com/

Greatest free applications of all times....

2007-10-13T18:06:00.000-07:00

Image, Image Editing and Graphics

GIMP – http://www.gimp.org
The GNU Image Manipulation Program is a Photoshop replacement that doesn’t have "quite" as much functionality but it’s excellent for free. It comes installed by default on many Linux distros and is also available in Windows. Worth a look.

Inkscape - http://www.inkscape.org/
Inkscape is an Open Source vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Illustrator, Freehand, CorelDraw, or Xara X using the W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format.

Paint.net - http://www.getpaint.net/index2.html
A really good, lightweight alternative to Photoshop. It offers layers, unlimited undo, special effects and a wide variety of useful tools. The download is around 2mb too so absolutely worth a look – I use this when Photoshop is playing up.

XnView - http://perso.orange.fr/pierre.g/xnview/enhome.html
XnView is software to view and convert graphic files, apparently really simple to use and supports more than 400 graphics formats.

ImageMagick - http://www.imagemagick.org/script/index.php
A lesser known application but it offers the ability to "create, edit, and compose bitmap images. It can read, convert and write images in a variety of formats (about 100)". Use it to "translate, flip, mirror, rotate, scale, shear and transform images, adjust image colors, apply various special effects, or draw text, lines, polygons, ellipses and B?zier curves."

Blender - http://www.blender.org/download/get-blender/
A 3D Studio Max alternative, very comprehensive and full-featured.

Artweaver - http://www.artweaver.de/index.php?en_version
Artweaver is a simple Freeware program for creative painting, i.e. Artweaver offers you all artistic effects which you need for your work. You can create sketches from photos and experiment with a wide range of brushes. The brush simulation is thereby so realistic as possible.

Office

OpenOffice – http://www.openoffice.org
It’s basically Microsoft Office so you need little else with this installed. It has MS Office support (in both reading and writing) so this fantastic suite is fully compatible.

Scribus - http://www.scribus.net/
Scribus is an open-source program that brings award-winning professional page layout to Linux/Unix, MacOS X, OS/2 and Windows desktops with a combination of "press-ready" output and new approaches to page layout. Underneath the modern and user friendly interface, Scribus supports professional publishing features, such as CMYK color, separations, ICC color management and versatile PDF creation.

Google Documents - http://docs.google.com/
Google documents is a free service that simply requires registration in order to use it. You create Microsoft-Office-esq documents in an online environment and they store them on their servers. You can export them and save the files to your hard drive too. In addition, Google allows multiple user collaboration which means numerous people can all be working on the same document at the same time and it will update in real time. Very cool stuff.

Foxit - http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/rd_intro.php
Foxit Reader is a free PDF document viewer and printer, with incredible small size (only 2.1 M download size), breezing-fast launch speed and amazingly rich feature set. Foxit Reader supports Windows 98/Me/2000/XP/2003/Vista. Its core function is compatible with PDF Standard 1.7.

Web and web development

Andrew Sellick covered this in his comprehensive list Top 15 free and open source web developer tools so this part of the list is mostly his (he's a friend so this content use was agreed).

Firefox - http://www.mozilla-europe.org/en/products/firefox/
Firefox is arguably the second most popular browser available (sitting behind Internet Explorer 6). It's extendable, customisable, secure and massively popular. You can develop plugins for it, other people develop plugins for it - it's just worth having.

Opera - http://www.opera.com
This is my personal browser of choice, sexy tabbed browsing, customisable, standards complient and fast. As they put it themselves: "The award-winning Opera Web browser The coolest, fastest, and most secure free Web browser available."

Opera web developer toolbar - http://operawiki.info/WebDevToolbar
The web developer toolbar is a menu and toolbar setup for Opera which brings together functions related to web development, validation services and links to standards and other documentation.

Amaya - http://www.w3.org/Amaya/
Amaya is a Web editor to create and update documents directly on the Web. Browsing features are seamlessly integrated with the editing and remote access features in a uniform environment. This follows the original vision of the Web as a space for collaboration and not just a one-way publishing medium. Amaya started as an HTML + CSS style sheets editor. Since that time it was extended to support XML and an increasing number of XML applications such as the XHTML family, MathML, and SVG. It allows all those vocabularies to be edited simultaneously in compound documents.

Notepad++ - http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm
Notepad++ is a free source code editor (and Notepad replacement), which supports several programming languages, running under the MS Windows environment.

Kuler - http://kuler.adobe.com/
A very powerful colour-picking tool, allowing for the easy creation of colour schemes.

Aptana - http://www.aptana.com/
The Aptana IDE is a free, open-source, cross-platform, JavaScript-focused development environment for building Ajax applications. It features code assist on JavaScript, HTML, and CSS languages, FTP/SFTP support and a JavaScript debugger to troubleshoot your code.

Color Cop - http://www.colorcop.net/
A very handy tool for capturing colours anywhere on your screen. Color Cop makes it quick and easy in those situations where you need to know what colour is being used.

Firefox web developer toolbar - https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/60
The Web Developer extension adds a menu and a toolbar to the browser with various web developer tools. It is designed for Firefox, Flock, Mozilla and Seamonkey, and will run on any platform that these browsers support including Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.

Internet Explorer Toolbar - [another long url]
The Microsoft Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar provides a variety of tools for quickly creating, understanding, and troubleshooting Web pages. This version is a preview release and behavior may change in the final release.

Firebug - http://www.getfirebug.com/
Firebug integrates with Firefox to put a wealth of web development tools at your fingertips while you browse. You can edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page.

Watchfire WebXACT - http://webxact.watchfire.com/
WebXACT is a free online service that lets you test single pages of web content for quality, accessibility, and privacy issues. It is very similar to Bobby and usefull to anyone wishing to check the accessibilty level of their templates/site.

JsUnit - http://www.jsunit.net/
JsUnit is a Unit Testing framework for client-side (in-browser) JavaScript. It is essentially a port of JUnit to JavaScript. Also included is a platform for automating the execution of tests on multiple browsers and mutiple machines running different OSs.

Xenu - http://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html
Xenu’s Link Sleuth (TM) checks Web sites for broken links. Link verification is done on "normal" links, images, frames, plug-ins, backgrounds, local image maps, style sheets, scripts and java applets. It displays a continously updated list of URLs which you can sort by different criteria. A report can be produced at any time.

Vischeck - http://www.vischeck.com/vischeck/vischeckURL.php
Vischeck is a way of showing you what things look like to someone who is color blind. You can try Vischeck online- either run Vischeck on your own image files or run Vischeck on a web page. You can also download programs to let you run it on your own computer.

Feng GUI - http://www.feng-gui.com/
Find out how people View your website or image and which areas are getting most of the attention. The ViewFinder Heatmap service, is an artificial intelligence service which simulates human visual attention and creates an attention heatmap.

Fiddler - http://www.fiddlertool.com/fiddler/
Fiddler is a HTTP Debugging Proxy which logs all HTTP traffic between your computer and the Internet. Fiddler allows you to inspect all HTTP Traffic, set breakpoints, and "fiddle" with incoming or outgoing data. Fiddler includes a powerful event-based scripting subsystem, and can be extended using any .NET language.

browsershots.org - http://browsershots.org/
Browsershots.org is a free open-source online service providing screenshots of your web site in a multitude of different browsers. It is not as advanced as BrowserCam but a fantastic tool none the less.

Expresso 2.1 - http://www.ultrapico.com/Expresso.htm
Expresso is useful tool for learning how to use regular expressions and for developing and debugging regular expressions prior to incorporating them into your code. It provides a very cut down version of RegexBuddy but most importantly it is simple to use and free.

ColorJack - [very long url]
ColorJack is an amazing online application providing users with the ability to match colours that work well together. Perfect for those developers who struggle to get a good colour scheme together.

Development Applications (IDE's)

Eclipse - http://www.eclipse.org/
Eclipse is an open source community whose projects are focused on building an open development platform comprised of extensible frameworks, tools and runtimes for building, deploying and managing software across the lifecycle. It’s quite hardcore in my personal opinion so certainly not one for beginners.

NetBeans - http://www.netbeans.org/
All the tools software developers need to create cross-platform Java desktop, enterprise and web applications. Runs on Windows, Linux, MacOS, as well as Solaris. I never got on well with NetBeans but it is a good application, just not one I choose.

Geany - http://geany.uvena.de/
Geany is a text editor using the GTK2 toolkit with basic features of an integrated development environment. It was developed to provide a small and fast IDE, which has only a few dependencies from other packages. It supports many filetypes and has some nice features

Code::Blocks - http://www.codeblocks.org/
A free c++ IDE built to meet the “most demanding needs of its users”.

SharpDevelop - http://www.sharpdevelop.net/OpenSource/SD/Default.aspx
A free IDE for C#, VB.net and Boo projects on Microsoft’s .NET platform.

Operating Systems

Ubuntu - http://www.ubuntu.com
The most popular Linux distro at the moment - offering astonishing performance, usability and support (from a massive online community) all for free.

PCLinuxOS - http://www.pclinuxos.com/
One of my favourite Linux releases; PCLinuxOS is very different to Ubuntu but powerful and usable in equal measures. I find it a lot more intuitive but purely though personal preference. It too is supported by a healthy community.

Fedora - http://fedoraproject.org/
I'm not a Fedora user but there are an awful lot of them. Fedora was the daddy long before Ubuntu appeared on the scene and therefore it inherits a lot of excellent features from how long these guys have been doing it. Excellent software, strong communities and worth a look. This is Linux too incase you didn't know.

openSUSE - http://www.opensuse.org/
Quoted as being one of the more fully featured, usable editions of Linux - openSUSE has a lot of users and is one of the major players in the scene today.

Lots more Linux! - Distrowatch has info on lots more
Linux is free and it is becoming a viable alternative to Windows these days; here is Distrowatch - a site that links to reviews on each release as well as offering a brief description, background and links.

Video Playback

Media Player Classic - [long url]
Amazingly lightweight and incredibly durable - MPC succeeds where most others fail. It really will play anything and doesn’t even need installing.

VLC Media Player - http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
A very popular application; a highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats. It will play just about anything too.

Youtube - http://www.youtube.com
Youtube is maybe an odd choice to put into the video playback area but there's a good reason for it. You can upload your videos to Youtube quite happily for free and there are hundreds upon thousands of hours of footage on there. From the illegal to the completely random Youtube has more video playback options than your wildest dreams.

Audio

Audacity - http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Audacity is free, open source software for recording and editing sounds. It is available for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems.

Winamp – http://www.winamp.com
While not open source, it is free and very good indeed. Far better than iTunes in my personal opinion.

Amarok - http://amarok.kde.org/
This is one of the best media players I have ever encountered, unfortunately it's purely limited to Linux (KDE environments only) so it's beyond the reach of Windows users and the "Ubuntu mainstream". It's amazing though and I highly recommend it.

Foobar2k - http://www.foobar2000.org
Foobar2000 is an advanced audio player for the Windows platform. Some of the basic features include full unicode support, ReplayGain support and native support for several popular audio formats.

Anti-Virus and Security

AVG - http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1
A popular and comprehensive, free anti-virus application. I use it. Simple.

Avast! Home edition - http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html
Also quite popular and available for free.

Antivir - http://www.free-av.com/
A free antivirus application (although it doesn't detect spyware). It apparently has one of the best detection rates out of the free antiviruses on offer.

Clamwin - http://www.clamwin.com/
A free antivirus with a high detection rate for infected files. It's not very invasive because it doesn't do on-access virus scanning - you specifically need to say which folders to scan. This is both good and bad - good if you're IT savvy because you don't need on access scanning because you're not stupid enough to do "dodgy" things unprotected. It's bad if you're not because it won't tell you that there's a problem until you tell it to look.

Comodo Firewall - http://www.comodo.com/products/free_products.html
Comodo Firewall, rated by PC Magazine Online as an Editor's Choice, constantly monitors and defends your PC from internet attacks. It's easy to install and use and passes the industry's most stringent firewall "leak" tests.

Windows Defender - http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx
Windows Defender is a free program that helps protect your computer against pop-ups, slow performance, and security threats caused by spyware and other unwanted software. It features Real-Time Protection, a monitoring system that recommends actions against spyware when it's detected and minimizes interruptions and helps you stay productive. It's Microsoft though, but good enough I suppose. Not my sort of thing but a lot of people use it.

Spyware Terminator - http://www.spywareterminator.com/
Does exactly what it says on the tin. Spyware gets terminated. End of.

Arovax Antispyware - http://www.arovaxantispyware.com/
Another free antivirus, another one that does what it says on the tin.

Downloading and Download Managers

Orbit - http://www.orbitdownloader.com/
Orbit Downloader, leader of download manager revolution, is devoted to new generation web (web2.0) downloading, such as video/music/files from Myspace, YouTube, Imeem, Pandora, Rapidshare. And to make general downloading easier and faster.

Utorrent - http://www.utorrent.com/
The single best torrent application available. I've used many many alternatives and this is the single greatest one around. It has a tiny footprint (only a few Kb of RAM) and doesn't need installing. Excellent.

Azureus - http://azureus.sourceforge.net/
One of the most popular torrent clients available, this Java built monster does the job very well. My gripe with it is that it munches it's way through your RAM at an alarming rate (being a Java application). Good though, just a bit hungry for machines are left online 24/7/365 like mine is.

Flashget - http://www.flashget.com/en/download.htm
FlashGet is a leading download manager and has the highest amount of users on the internet. It uses MHT(Multi-server Hyper-threading Transportation) technique, supports various protocols and has excellent document management features. FlashGet is a freeware without any adware or spyware.

Freedownloadmanager - http://www.freedownloadmanager.org/
FDM is a powerful, easy-to-use and absolutely free download accelerator and manager. Moreover, FDM is 100% safe, open-source software distributed under GPL license.

Remote Access

rDesktop - http://www.rdesktop.org/
rdesktop is an open source client for Windows NT Terminal Server and Windows 2000/2003 Terminal Services, capable of natively speaking Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) in order to present the user's NT desktop. Unlike Citrix ICA, no server extensions are required.

LogMeIn - https://secure.logmein.com/home.asp?lang=en
Their website states "20 million users trust LogMeIn solutions for remote support, access & backup" so that probably says enough.

Useful Applications that don't get their own category

CDBurnerXP - http://cdburnerxp.se/
This is an amazingly useful, free burner application. Although I don't believe it works on Vista yet...

Notepad2 - http://www.flos-freeware.ch/notepad2.html
It's basically notepad but more helpful for doing code and stuff in. It's just notepad with more functionality; which makes life a bit easier. Code highlighting is handy and it doesn't need installing and it doesn't touch your registry. It's safe, simple and very useful.

Thunderbird - http://www.mozilla-europe.org/en/products/thunderbird/
Mozilla's alternative to Outlook. It's just brilliant, possibly the best email client I've ever used; which I use on a day-to-day basis.

7Zip - http://www.7-zip.org/
WinRAR and Winzip need paying for (eventually), 7zip is free and does the same thing. That's it really.

Google Desktop - http://desktop.google.com/
This is a surprisingly useful application to have. It has desktop search (it searches through all your files and folders for what you've searched for, including your email - which is VERY useful). It will also do RSS updates straight to your desktop, news updates, weather information, to-do lists, notepads, you name it. It does it all.

Games

FreeCiv – http://www.freeciv.org/index.php/Freeciv
A free development of the popular Civilisation games created by Sid Meier.

FreeCol - http://www.freecol.org/
Exactly the same but for Colonisation.

References:

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An A-Z Index of the Windows NT/XP command line

2007-10-13T18:03:00.000-07:00

ADDUSERS Add or list users to/from a CSV file
ARP Address Resolution Protocol
ASSOC Change file extension associations
ASSOCIAT One step file association
AT Schedule a command to run at a later time
ATTRIB Change file attributes

BOOTCFG Edit Windows boot settings
BROWSTAT Get domain, browser and PDC info

CACLS Change file permissions
CALL Call one batch program from another
CD Change Directory - move to a specific Folder
CHANGE Change Terminal Server Session properties
CHKDSK Check Disk - check and repair disk problems
CHKNTFS Check the NTFS file system
CHOICE Accept keyboard input to a batch file
CIPHER Encrypt or Decrypt files/folders
CleanMgr Automated cleanup of Temp files, recycle bin
CLEARMEM Clear memory leaks
CLIP Copy STDIN to the Windows clipboard.
CLS Clear the screen
CLUSTER Windows Clustering
CMD Start a new CMD shell
COLOR Change colors of the CMD window
COMP Compare the contents of two files or sets of files
COMPACT Compress files or folders on an NTFS partition
COMPRESS Compress individual files on an NTFS partition
CON2PRT Connect or disconnect a Printer
CONVERT Convert a FAT drive to NTFS.
COPY Copy one or more files to another location
CSVDE Import or Export Active Directory data

DATE Display or set the date
Dcomcnfg DCOM Configuration Utility
DEFRAG Defragment hard drive
DEL Delete one or more files
DELPROF Delete NT user profiles
DELTREE Delete a folder and all subfolders
DevCon Device Manager Command Line Utility
DIR Display a list of files and folders
DIRUSE Display disk usage
DISKCOMP Compare the contents of two floppy disks
DISKCOPY Copy the contents of one floppy disk to another
DNSSTAT DNS Statistics
DOSKEY Edit command line, recall commands, and create macros
DSADD Add user (computer, group..) to active directory
DSQUERY List items in active directory
DSMOD Modify user (computer, group..) in active directory

ECHO Display message on screen
ENDLOCAL End localisation of environment changes in a batch file
ERASE Delete one or more files
EXIT Quit the CMD shell
EXPAND Uncompress files
EXTRACT Uncompress CAB files

FC Compare two files
FDISK Disk Format and partition
FIND Search for a text string in a file
FINDSTR Search for strings in files
FOR /F Loop command: against a set of files
FOR /F Loop command: against the results of another command
FOR Loop command: all options Files, Directory, List
FORFILES Batch process multiple files
FORMAT Format a disk
FREEDISK Check free disk space (in bytes)
FSUTIL File and Volume utilities
FTP File Transfer Protocol
FTYPE Display or modify file types used in file extension associations

GLOBAL Display membership of global groups
GOTO Direct a batch program to jump to a labelled line

HELP Online Help
HFNETCHK Network Security Hotfix Checker

IF Conditionally perform a command
IFMEMBER Is the current user in an NT Workgroup
IPCONFIG Configure IP

KILL Remove a program from memory

LABEL Edit a disk label
LOCAL Display membership of local groups
LOGEVENT Write text to the NT event viewer.
LOGOFF Log a user off
LOGTIME Log the date and time in a file

MAPISEND Send email from the command line
MEM Display memory usage
MD Create new folders
MODE Configure a system device
MORE Display output, one screen at a time
MOUNTVOL Manage a volume mount point
MOVE Move files from one folder to another
MOVEUSER Move a user from one domain to another
MSG Send a message
MSIEXEC Microsoft Windows Installer
MSINFO Windows NT diagnostics
MSTSC Terminal Server Connection (Remote Desktop Protocol)
MUNGE Find and Replace text within file(s)
MV Copy in-use files

NET Manage network resources
NETDOM Domain Manager
NETSH Configure network protocols
NETSVC Command-line Service Controller
NBTSTAT Display networking statistics (NetBIOS over TCP/IP)
NETSTAT Display networking statistics (TCP/IP)
NOW Display the current Date and Time
NSLOOKUP Name server lookup
NTBACKUP Backup folders to tape
NTRIGHTS Edit user account rights

PATH Display or set a search path for executable files
PATHPING Trace route plus network latency and packet loss
PAUSE Suspend processing of a batch file and display a message
PERMS Show permissions for a user
PERFMON Performance Monitor
PING Test a network connection
POPD Restore the previous value of the current directory saved by PUSHD
PORTQRY Display the status of ports and services
PRINT Print a text file
PRNCNFG Display, configure or rename a printer
PRNMNGR Add, delete, list printers set the default printer
PROMPT Change the command prompt
PsExec Execute process remotely
PsFile Show files opened remotely
PsGetSid Display the SID of a computer or a user
PsInfo List information about a system
PsKill Kill processes by name or process ID
PsList List detailed information about processes
PsLoggedOn Who's logged on (locally or via resource sharing)
PsLogList Event log records
PsPasswd Change account password
PsService View and control services
PsShutdown Shutdown or reboot a computer
PsSuspend Suspend processes
PUSHD Save and then change the current directory

QGREP Search file(s) for lines that match a given pattern.

RASDIAL Manage RAS connections
RASPHONE Manage RAS connections
RECOVER Recover a damaged file from a defective disk.
REG Read, Set or Delete registry keys and values
REGEDIT Import or export registry settings
REGSVR32 Register or unregister a DLL
REGINI Change Registry Permissions
REM Record comments (remarks) in a batch file
REN Rename a file or files.
REPLACE Replace or update one file with another
RD Delete folder(s)
RDISK Create a Recovery Disk
RMTSHARE Share a folder or a printer
ROBOCOPY Robust File and Folder Copy
ROUTE Manipulate network routing tables
RUNAS Execute a program under a different user account
RUNDLL32 Run a DLL command (add/remove print connections)

SC Service Control
SCHTASKS Create or Edit Scheduled Tasks
SCLIST Display NT Services
ScriptIt Control GUI applications
SET Display, set, or remove environment variables
SETLOCAL Control the visibility of environment variables
SETX Set environment variables permanently
SHARE List or edit a file share or print share
SHIFT Shift the position of replaceable parameters in a batch file
SHORTCUT Create a windows shortcut (.LNK file)
SHOWGRPS List the NT Workgroups a user has joined
SHOWMBRS List the Users who are members of a Workgroup
SHUTDOWN Shutdown the computer
SLEEP Wait for x seconds
SOON Schedule a command to run in the near future
SORT Sort input
START Start a separate window to run a specified program or command
SU Switch User
SUBINACL Edit file and folder Permissions, Ownership and Domain
SUBST Associate a path with a drive letter
SYSTEMINFO List system configuration

TASKLIST List running applications and services
TIME Display or set the system time
TIMEOUT Delay processing of a batch file
TITLE Set the window title for a CMD.EXE session
TOUCH Change file timestamps
TRACERT Trace route to a remote host
TREE Graphical display of folder structure
TYPE Display the contents of a text file

USRSTAT List domain usernames and last login

VER Display version information
VERIFY Verify that files have been saved
VOL Display a disk label

WHERE Locate and display files in a directory tree
WHOAMI Output the current UserName and domain
WINDIFF Compare the contents of two files or sets of files
WINMSD Windows system diagnostics
WINMSDP Windows system diagnostics II
WMIC WMI Commands

XCACLS Change file permissions
XCOPY Copy files and folders

Microsft Windows Shortcuts

2007-10-13T18:00:00.000-07:00

Microsoft windows keyboard shortcuts. You might know most of these shortcuts, but probably not all of them. If you have more keyboard shortcuts, please let me know :)

* CTRL+C (Copy)
* CTRL+X (Cut)
* CTRL+V (Paste)
* CTRL+Z (Undo)
* DELETE (Delete)
* SHIFT+DELETE (Delete the selected item permanently without placing the item in the Recycle Bin)
* CTRL while dragging an item (Copy the selected item)
* CTRL+SHIFT while dragging an item (Create a shortcut to the selected item)
* F2 key (Rename the selected item)
* CTRL+RIGHT ARROW (Move the insertion point to the beginning of the next word)
* CTRL+LEFT ARROW (Move the insertion point to the beginning of the previous word)
* CTRL+DOWN ARROW (Move the insertion point to the beginning of the next paragraph)
* CTRL+UP ARROW (Move the insertion point to the beginning of the previous paragraph)
* CTRL+SHIFT with any of the arrow keys (Highlight a block of text)
* SHIFT with any of the arrow keys (Select more than one item in a window or on the desktop, or select text in a document)
* CTRL+A (Select all)
* F3 key (Search for a file or a folder)
* ALT+ENTER (View the properties for the selected item)
* ALT+F4 (Close the active item, or quit the active program)
* ALT+ENTER (Display the properties of the selected object)
* ALT+SPACEBAR (Open the shortcut menu for the active window)
* CTRL+F4 (Close the active document in programs that enable you to have multiple documents open simultaneously)
* ALT+TAB (Switch between the open items)
* ALT+ESC (Cycle through items in the order that they had been opened)
* F6 key (Cycle through the screen elements in a window or on the desktop)
* F4 key (Display the Address bar list in My Computer or Windows Explorer)
* SHIFT+F10 (Display the shortcut menu for the selected item)
* ALT+SPACEBAR (Display the System menu for the active window)
* CTRL+ESC (Display the Start menu)
* ALT+Underlined letter in a menu name (Display the corresponding menu)
* Underlined letter in a command name on an open menu (Perform the corresponding command)
* F10 key (Activate the menu bar in the active program)
* RIGHT ARROW (Open the next menu to the right, or open a submenu)
* LEFT ARROW (Open the next menu to the left, or close a submenu)
* F5 key (Update the active window)
* BACKSPACE (View the folder one level up in My Computer or Windows Explorer)
* ESC (Cancel the current task)
* SHIFT when you insert a CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive (Prevent the CD-ROM from automatically playing)

Dialog Box Keyboard Shortcuts

* CTRL+TAB (Move forward through the tabs)
* CTRL+SHIFT+TAB (Move backward through the tabs)
* TAB (Move forward through the options)
* SHIFT+TAB (Move backward through the options)
* ALT+Underlined letter (Perform the corresponding command or select the corresponding option)
* ENTER (Perform the command for the active option or button)
* SPACEBAR (Select or clear the check box if the active option is a check box)
* Arrow keys (Select a button if the active option is a group of option buttons)
* F1 key (Display Help)
* F4 key (Display the items in the active list)
* BACKSPACE (Open a folder one level up if a folder is selected in the Save As or Open dialog box)

Microsoft Natural Keyboard Shortcuts

* Windows Logo (Display or hide the Start menu)
* Windows Logo+BREAK (Display the System Properties dialog box)
* Windows Logo+D (Display the desktop)
* Windows Logo+M (Minimize all of the windows)
* Windows Logo+SHIFT+M (Restore the minimized windows)
* Windows Logo+E (Open My Computer)
* Windows Logo+F (Search for a file or a folder)
* CTRL+Windows Logo+F (Search for computers)
* Windows Logo+F1 (Display Windows Help)
* Windows Logo+ L (Lock the keyboard)
* Windows Logo+R (Open the Run dialog box)
* Windows Logo+U (Open Utility Manager)

Accessibility Keyboard Shortcuts

* Right SHIFT for eight seconds (Switch FilterKeys either on or off)
* Left ALT+left SHIFT+PRINT SCREEN (Switch High Contrast either on or off)
* Left ALT+left SHIFT+NUM LOCK (Switch the MouseKeys either on or off)
* SHIFT five times (Switch the StickyKeys either on or off)
* NUM LOCK for five seconds (Switch the ToggleKeys either on or off)
* Windows Logo +U (Open Utility Manager)

Windows Explorer Keyboard Shortcuts

* END (Display the bottom of the active window)
* HOME (Display the top of the active window)
* NUM LOCK+Asterisk sign (*) (Display all of the subfolders that are under the selected folder)
* NUM LOCK+Plus sign (+) (Display the contents of the selected folder)
* NUM LOCK+Minus sign (-) (Collapse the selected folder)
* LEFT ARROW (Collapse the current selection if it is expanded, or select the parent folder)
* RIGHT ARROW (Display the current selection if it is collapsed, or select the first subfolder)

Shortcut Keys for Character Map

* After you double-click a character on the grid of characters, you can move through the grid by using the keyboard shortcuts:
* RIGHT ARROW (Move to the right or to the beginning of the next line)
* LEFT ARROW (Move to the left or to the end of the previous line)
* UP ARROW (Move up one row)
* DOWN ARROW (Move down one row)
* PAGE UP (Move up one screen at a time)
* PAGE DOWN (Move down one screen at a time)
* HOME (Move to the beginning of the line)
* END (Move to the end of the line)
* CTRL+HOME (Move to the first character)
* CTRL+END (Move to the last character)
* SPACEBAR (Switch between Enlarged and Nor mal mode when a character is selected)

Microsoft Management Console (MMC) Main Window Keyboard Shortcuts

* CTRL+O (Open a saved console)
* CTRL+N (Open a new console)
* CTRL+S (Save the open console)
* CTRL+M (Add or remove a console item)
* CTRL+W (Open a new window)
* F5 key (Update the content of all console windows)
* ALT+SPACEBAR (Display the MMC window menu)
* ALT+F4 (Close the console)
* ALT+A (Display the Action menu)
* ALT+V (Display the View menu)
* ALT+F (Display the File menu)
* ALT+O (Display the Favorites menu)

MMC Console Window Keyboard Shortcuts

* CTRL+P (Print the current page or active pane)
* ALT+Minus sign (-) (Display the window menu for the active console window)
* SHIFT+F10 (Display the Action shortcut menu for the selected item)
* F1 key (Open the Help topic, if any, for the selected item)
* F5 key (Update the content of all console windows)
* CTRL+F10 (Maximize the active console window)
* CTRL+F5 (Restore the active console window)
* ALT+ENTER (Display the Properties dialog box, if any, for the selected item)
* F2 key (Rename the selected item)
* CTRL+F4 (Close the active console window. When a console has only one console window, this shortcut closes the console)

Remote Desktop Connection Navigation

* CTRL+ALT+END (Open the m*cro$oft Windows NT Security dialog box)
* ALT+PAGE UP (Switch between programs from left to right)
* ALT+PAGE DOWN (Switch between programs from right to left)
* ALT+INSERT (Cycle through the programs in most recently used order)
* ALT+HOME (Display the Start menu)
* CTRL+ALT+BREAK (Switch the client computer between a window and a full screen)
* ALT+DELETE (Display the Windows menu)
* CTRL+ALT+Minus sign (-) (Place a snapshot of the active window in the client on the Terminal server clipboard and provide the same functionality as pressing PRINT SCREEN on a local computer.)
* CTRL+ALT+Plus sign (+) (Place a snapshot of the entire client window area on the Terminal server clipboard and provide the same functionality as pressing ALT+PRINT SCREEN on a local computer.)

Internet Explorer navigation

* CTRL+B (Open the Organize Favorites dialog box)
* CTRL+E (Open the Search bar)
* CTRL+F (Start the Find utility)
* CTRL+H (Open the History bar)
* CTRL+I (Open the Favorites bar)
* CTRL+L (Open the Open dialog box)
* CTRL+N (Start another instance of the browser with the same Web address)
* CTRL+O (Open the Open dialog box, the same as CTRL+L)
* CTRL+P (Open the Print dialog box)
* CTRL+R (Update the current Web page)
* CTRL+W (Close the current window)