Microsoft Security Essentials 2 available for download, now an even better free antivirus for Windows

by Lee Mathews on December 17, 2010 at 07:30 AM

There's really no question what the most popular, free antivirus program for Windows is here at Download Squad. You, our readers, make it pretty clear whenever we post about the topic that Microsoft Security Essentials is at the top of the heap -- and we tend to agree. With detection rates every bit as good as some competing paid products (and better than many), MSE might just be the best piece of free software Microsoft has ever released.

And it's just gotten better, with the official arrival of Security Essentials 2. The upgrade adds several key improvements, not the least of which is a heuristic scanning engine. One of the big knocks against its predecessor was that MSE's protection relied too heavily upon definitions -- and in today's ever-changing threat landscape, definitions just aren't enough. Still, I never had a single machine at home become infected while running MSE 1, so now that version 2 includes heuristic kung-fu I'm even less concerned about the safety of my Windows PCs.

MSE 2 also offers improved defense by better integrating with existing Windows features. The updated app adds muscle to the Windows Firewall and Internet Explorer to offer increased protection against network and Web-based threats. There's also a new network inspection feature which uses the Windows Filtering Platform in Vista and Windows 7 -- XP users won't benefit from this feature, obviously.

If you're already running MSE, check your update tab for an upgrade notification -- your system tray icon may also be orange if the update is available. You can also download Security Essentials 2 manually from this page and install over the old version. Tags: antimalware, antivirus, malware, Microsoft Security Essentials, MicrosoftSecurityEssentials, mse, mse2, trojan, virus

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Microsoft brings Firefox H.264 video support to Windows 7

by Jay Hathaway on December 15, 2010 at 02:00 PM

Mozilla doesn't support the proprietary H.264 video format in Firefox, but Microsoft does. While Mozilla has been pushing open-source WebM as the format of choice for HTML5 video tags (with Google's help), Microsoft has released a new plug-in that lets Firefox take advantage of Windows 7's native H.264 support. The plug-in looks for HTML5 video tags and passes the video to the Windows Media Player plug-in for playback.

This workaround does make video on the Web more accessible for Windows 7 users, but it doesn't end the Web video format wars. There's still no single format supported by every current browser in every current OS. Microsoft is framing it as an issue of consumer choice and access to content, but H.264 is still proprietary and subject to licensing fees that Mozilla doesn't want to pay. Supporting an open source format such as WebM makes both financial and philosophical sense for the future of Firefox. Tags: browsers, firefox, h.264, HTML5, microsoft, mozilla, plugins, video, web, windows 7, Windows7

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AllMyApps is a sexy download store for Windows

by Lee Mathews on December 16, 2010 at 04:30 PM

The Mac App Store is coming next month, but Windows users have a similar store they can enjoy right now. AllMyApps has just launched in beta, and it's ready to help you find, install, and share loads of great free (and eventually paid) software.

Apps are grouped by category such as utilities, security, office, video, and communication and you'll find just about every must-have free Windows app you can imagine in the AllMyApps catalog. Favorites like Firefox, Chrome, Skype, Dropbox, 7-zip, and Microsoft Security Essentials are all there for the downloading. The only one of my core apps I found absent was Sugarsync -- all of my other required apps are listed.

Program detail pages include basic information about their functionality, screenshots, relevant tweets, and other useful tidbits like the app's current version, number of downloads, and file size.

AllMyApps' coolest feature is personalized lists. Create an account, sign in, and you can create as many software bundles as you like. Assemble your personal favorites for easy reinstallation on a new system or after a reformat. Put together a first aid kit for all those emergency calls from panicy friends and family in need or your IT know-how. Make as many as you like, and AllMyApps will tuck them away for easy retrieval in the future. As does any good Web 2.0 app, AllMyApps allows you to easily share lists via Facebook and Twitter. You can also generate embeddable widgets -- complete with each apps' icon and an 'install all' link.

You'll need to install the AllMyApps desktop client in order to get the install ball rolling, but it's tiny, uses barely any resources, and is also totally free. Tags: allmyapps, apps, bundles, downloads, installers, sharing, utilities, windows

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Windows Phone 7 "Mango" may add HTML5, Silverlight support to WP7's browser

by Erez Zukerman on December 16, 2010 at 07:30 AM

Over at ZDNet, Mary Jo Foley has been speculating about the future of Windows Phone 7. According to Foley, a major update is due around Jan/Feb 2011, adding copy/paste functionality and two major browsing enhancements: HTML 5 support and a Silverlight plug-in. Foley also wonders whether enterprise tweaks might be part of the game plan as well. Microsoft, of course, doesn't comment on rumors -- so we'll have to wait for someone to score some hands-on time with the WP7 update.

Despite the update's appetizing codename, Microsoft doesn't seem to be converging on a single food-related theme for its Windows Phone OS. The next release, Windows Phone 8, is codenamed "Apollo". We can only hope 8.5 will be codenamed "Starbuck".

Bear in mind this is all sheer speculation; however, after Windows Phone 7's somewhat lackluster launch, any sort of improvement could be exciting. Tags: business, developer, flash, microsoft, silverlight, speculation, windowsphone7

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Windows Live Writer, Movie Maker, and Photo Gallery get a new, no-frills plug-in site

by Lee Mathews on December 16, 2010 at 12:30 AM

At long last, Microsoft has given plug-ins for Windows Live apps their own home. You'll now find enhancements for Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, and Live Writer at plugins.live.com -- rather than at gallery.live.com, where they were nestled in amongst the sidebar and sideshow gadgets.

The new site makes it easier to search for and browser plug-ins, though it's only helpful in the Live Writer section which has nearly 200 offerings. Movie Maker and Photo Gallery muster just over a baker's dozen combined, so you likely won't need to browse by tag to find what you're looking for. Tags are now displayed as well -- but again, they really only come in handy if you're looking for Writer enhancements.

This baby's as spartan as they come, offering only text listings, download totals, last update datestamps, and a single bold, red featured label on Inkubook's Photo Uploader -- though even that disappears when you click in to its detail page. There are no screenshtos, no user comments, and no ratings to help you decide whether or not a particular plug-in is worth an install. Tags: live writer, LiveWriter, movie maker, MovieMaker, photo gallery, PhotoGallery, plug-ins, windows live, WindowsLive

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Hands-on video review of Office for Windows Phone 7

Filed under: Windows Mobile, Microsoft

If you weren't aware, it's impossible to take screenshots with Windows Phone 7. Perhaps once it's rooted we'll be able to -- but until then, screenshotting apps for reviews is laborious -- you have to take a photo of the screen -- and the quality is inevitably low.

So, looking for an alternative, I decided to do a video review of Office for Windows Phone 7. It's about 10 minutes long, and the video quality is excellent. You should be able to clearly see the text on the screen, and the audio commentary should be informative (and perhaps even funny).

In the video I step through the three key features of Office for WP7: OneNote (and its integration with SkyDrive); Word and Excel (viewing and editing); and SharePoint integration (though I sadly couldn't get it to work). OneNote definitely stands out as one of WP7's killer features, especially when combined with SkyDrive synchronization. Word and Excel, which lack the ability to sync, seem rather useless in comparison -- but still, being able to view Word and Excel documents on the move is surely a good thing.

The video review is after the break.


[Note: if you have a subwoofer you might want to turn it down; there's some annoying bass 'thumps' in the video. They won't be there next time, I promise!]
Hands-on video review of Office for Windows Phone 7 originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 16 Nov 2010 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Windows powering one in ten HPC clusters, but not top supercomputers

"Windows is coming," analyst says
Windows is powering more than one out of every ten installed HPC clusters according to a survey, but the success of Microsoft is mainly being seen with low-end customers while IBM and HP dominate the largest supercomputers.As the SC10 supercomputing conference kicked off in New Orleans this week, analysts gathered to discuss the state of the market. Read more

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Best Networking Tweaks for Windows Server, Vista and XP

IPv6 tunneling, TCP, gigabit adapters and more will all work better with these simple adjustments
Like most Sys Admins, my job includes managing both Linux and Windows machines. This is the start of a two-part series regarding tweaks I have found for networking in each type of system. First up: Windows. Read more

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