bruceb news

Previously:
Passwords: computer login
Passwords: e-mail
Passwords: Google Accounts & Windows Live ID
Password: password managers

LastPass will help you manage all of your online passwords. You should learn about it, install it, and use it every day. This is seriously good stuff.

LastPass is a free program that memorizes each password typed into a web site and automatically fills it in when you return to the same site. Once it’s up and running, the master password for LastPass is the only password you have to remember.

The feature that makes this genuinely exciting: your passwords are stored online (safely). You can use LastPass on more than one computer – an office computer, a home computer, a notebook, a netbook – and your passwords will be automatically filled in on all of them. […] continued

Windows 95 introduced the Start menu.

Windows 7 represents a big step away from it.

Probably the most noticeable change in Windows 7 will be in front of you all the time, down at the bottom of the screen. The reworked taskbar is an ambitious rethinking of the whole concept of launching and running programs. I expect it will cause some anguish for everyone who resists change – and really, that’s all of us, isn’t it?

I can tell you that it gets better and better, the more you use it and discover its features. Almost against my will, I’ve fallen in love with it. […] continued

There’s an easy way for you to keep up with web sites you visit regularly. If you’re not using some kind of a news reader or feed reader to keep up with blogs, news sites, and other frequently updated web pages, it’s time for you to take a look.

If a page is updated regularly, it almost certainly has an RSS feed. You can set up software that will automatically read the feed and let you focus on the new items from that site. All of your favorite "feeds" are presented in a single place with a consistent look, more streamlined than the original pages. […] continued

Many of you – most of you – will get the 64-bit version of Windows 7 on your next computer, so you can use more than 4Gb of RAM. Even if you don’t buy more memory than that at first, you’ll want the comfort of knowing you can add more later. You’ll recall that many devices that connect to the computer (printers, scanners, etc.) will need a new driver specifically written for a 64-bit operating system. Fortunately, those are becoming widespread and many of them are included with Windows.

Setting up the 64-bit version of Windows 7 on my fairly new Dell Dimension 9200 was a piece of cake – time-consuming but not because of anything having to do with its 64-bitness. […] continued

Microsoft’s new search engine Bing is an interesting alternative to Google. In my experience, search results with Bing are at least equivalent to Google and frequently better in some way, particularly when the left-hand column includes a useful way to narrow down the search results. If you use bruceb favorites as your home page, you’ve probably noticed the Bing search box at the top of the page – try it instead of the Google box sometime. I’ve actually set Bing as my default search in Internet Explorer – click on the down arrow by the search window in the upper right hand corner and click on “Find more providers.”

Here’s a nice list of 50 tricks for Bing that’s worth looking over – you might find something that makes life online a little easier. […] continued

Lots of people have installed Firefox to do their Internet browsing. Sometimes, out of curiosity, I ask people why they use it instead of Internet Explorer. There are people who can give an articulate, well-reasoned answer to that question, although as it happens I haven’t met any of them yet. (“My brother knows somebody who said it was cool.”) But that’s fine – it’s a lovely Internet browser.

If you install a program on your computer, you assume responsibility for keeping it up to date. That is particularly true of your Internet browser, since the bad guys are primarily using rigged web pages to attack your computer and install malware. […] continued

There’s some new wording on a security warning in Internet Explorer 8 that nearly drove me nuts. If you don’t like it either, instructions to disable it are below.

All too often after I installed Internet Explorer 8, I’d click on a website and Internet Explorer would stop dead to ask: “Do you want to view only the webpage content that was delivered securely?”

It happened all over the place, including sites that I trusted. Happens all the time on GMail. I saw it again tonight on a Microsoft download page. You’ve probably seen it too.

Read it again. Do you click on “Yes” or “No” to see everything on the web page? […] continued

Here’s an updated list of ways to be safe and secure with your computer.

Install updates from Microsoft promptly. Look in the lower right corner for the gold shield (WinXP) or update icon (Vista).

Install updates to Acrobat, Flash, Java, and Quicktime promptly. Each will alert you from the lower right corner.

• An easy and safe way to keep up with updates: visit Secunia Online Inspector once a month and follow its suggestions.

Do not install any updates if prompted by a random web page. Example: you’re on a dodgy web site and a window appears: “You must download a new version of Flash player to play this video file.” Close the window and check for an update separately.

[…] continued

Many of you have now gotten Internet Explorer 8, the latest version of Microsoft’s web browser. The rest of you can expect to see it soon, as it is pushed out through the Automatic Update system. (You’ve got IE8 if you have some extra buttons next to the “Favorites” button for “Suggested Sites” and “Get More Add-Ons.”) Here’s what I wrote about IE8 and its new features last month.

It’s not widely known that IE8 has an feature called “InPrivate Filtering” that can be used as a very effective ad blocker.

When InPrivate Filtering is turned on (click on Safety / InPrivate Filtering, or hit Ctrl-Shift-F), it begins watching the web sites you visit for material that is repeated on more than one site. […] continued

Vista is more than two years old and has achieved the dubious distinction that Windows XP achieved at about the same time: installing updates on a new computer has become an arduous, time-consuming pain in the butt.

I took two new Dell Optiplex 760 computers out of the box today. They ship with a lean, streamlined configuration that has virtually no craplets (unwanted software) to uninstall.

When Vista is started the first time, if you check the “recommended” box for automatic updates, it immediately starts to download the first round of updates. I’ve learned that the best thing to do with a brand new Vista computer is to put it online and walk away. […] continued