Vista Start Menu: ViStart

Wasn't Vista's start menu so much better. Especially the search functions which enables you to better find your programs rather than going through the whole start menu?

Well, part of the Vista Transformation Pack 7 and developed Lee Matthew Chantrey and Windows X, the ViStart program would definitely be part of your customization toolkit.

Heres a screenshot of the start menu after ViStart is run.


You may also want to try the Vista Transformation Pack found at Windows X

Google Gears

Google is now on the path to making its Web-based apps available offline.

Google Gears is an open source browser extension that lets developers create web applications that can run offline. For now, it consists components called LocalServer, Database and WorkerPool.

Only the Google Reader will be made for offline use for now. However, as time goes on, other useful applications such as Docs and Spreadsheets, Calendar and Gmail will be put for offline use.
With the talk about a Google Presentation Software (see my previous post), the bringing of these applications offline could post a serious competition to Microsoft in the future.

For interested developers, take a look at Google Gears Developer Website: http://code.google.com/apis/gears/index.html

Google Gears (Beta) can be found at: http://tools.google.com/gears/

Microsoft Surface

I guess many of you may have heard about it already.

Well for a closer view on it, Microsoft has a website for it at:
http://www.microsoft.com/surface/

Security Tip: DropMyRights

Many would know by now with the release of Microsoft Windows Vista, there are added layers of security. One of which, is the User Account Control (UAC) that runs programs with the most minimal privileges to prevent malicious code and viruses from easily gaining administrative powers as you would have to explicitly give permission to them...

However, there is a tool which enables you to emulate that in Windows XP. That tool is aptly named DropMyRights.

The program works by making a shortcut to for example internet Explorer through the DropMyRights Software. It acts like a gateway to your program, running the program, in this case Internet Explorer, with the least amount of privileges, maximising its security.

The difference after using the software might not be noticeable at first. However, when you visit sites which directly uses ActiveX controls or Explorer DLLs, you will find that they won't work anymore unless you give them permission to. It may thwart unknown malicious code exploits. However, there are no guarantees.

After installation of DropMyRights, create a new shortcut to launch Internet Explorer, setting the path like: C:\Installation-path\DropMyRights.exe "c:\program files\internet explorer\iexplore.exe"... change the paths to your own program installation paths.

DropMyRights is a free Microsoft tool. You can get it at Microsoft's MSDN website at: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms972827.aspx