Windows

With the recent release of Google Chrome web browser (still in beta stage), how many of you have realised that Google actually automatically updates your browser version, without you realising it?

Following the Google Chrome Dev Channel Chooser tool, made available by Google, I have actually updated to the developer's version of 0.2.152.1 (as you can see from the screen-shot below).

(Click here to access the screen-shots of Google Chrome...)

You may purchased a new hard disk drive and replace your current hard disk drive on your machine. Now, with a USB connector cable, you tried to access your previous hard disk drive, like an external drive, to find that there are some folders with security settings preventing you from accessing them! What should you do?

Fear not, as there is a way via the command line using Windows Command Prompt (CMD) to access these secured folders.

(Learn how you can access secured files and folders via command prompt...)

With the recent introduction of Google Chrome, it has, once again, sparked a strong browser war competition against all the browsers, such as Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Opera and some others, such as Netscape.

However, today we are not going to join in the crowd and compare the speeds between all the browsers, rather we are going to provide a simple and quick tip to optimise and speed up Mozilla Firefox.

(Learn more about speeding up Firefox here...)

Yes, it is coming soon. Microsoft has announced that their next generation of Windows Live Hotmail is going to be much faster and better than before. What changes will there be? According to the giant software company, Windows Live Hotmail will:

• be up to 70% faster to sign in and read the email.
• incorporate enhanced technology to identify spams and protect users against viruses and scams.
• be cleaner, simpler and easier to use, because of its sleek design. The idea here is to combine the usefulness of the classic version and the powerful functions of the full version of Hotmail together.
• contain new themes, colours and designs for users' personalisation.
• easier to categorise and group contacts together.
• provide more storage spaces.
• allow users to message using web-based Internet Messaging tool directly.
• let users share calendars with friends and family members.

With so much enhanced features coming up, I cannot wait for it to be released.

It is official now! Windows XP Service Pack (SP) 3 will be releasing soon, just before Microsoft discontinues the sales of Windows XP to the public in June 2008.

Features in SP3

• Previously released Windows XP updates, including security updates and hotfixes.
• Out-of-band releases.
• New OS enhancements.

ZDNet has provided some insights on the upcoming XP 3 features in detail. Microsoft has also provided Release Notes to serve as a guideline for users who intend to install Windows XP SP 3.

Users should be able to get their hands on Windows XP SP 3 on April 29^th, 2008.

After weeks of researching for answer, I finally came up with the solution of how to validate objects within a FormView using ASP.NET 2.0 programming language.

Assuming you have a FormView, and you require users to update information to the SQL database. There is a RadioButtonList and a TextBox. The entry within the textbox is optional, but it will be mandatory if one of the option is chosen. Take for example, the screen-shot below.

(find out how to solve the validation issue...)

valentine.exe is a variation of the Storm trojan that has been going around the Internet for quite some time. As Valentine's Day has just passed, reports (from unknown source) have found several users falling victim to this virus.

The trojan is propagated via email with subjects like "My Heart For You", "You're My Valetine!" and "Poem About Us". The infected file will contain a link to a website or a file named "valentine.exe".

(read more about valentine.exe...)

While Microsoft has already launched Office 2007, the complete revision of how a traditional Office Suite would look like, I am hesitating to make that change. Microsoft Outlook 2003, one of the most useful applications in Microsoft Office, stores its email in a file with .pst extension. There is a special feature within Outlook 2003 (and also previous versions of Outlook) that allows user to select the compression or encryption level.

Basically, there are three level of encryption:

• none
• compressible
• high encryption

(find out more about the encryption or compression feature in Outlook 2003)