Author Archives: GEEK!

Microsoft changing IE8’s default settings…

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Microsoft has altered the way Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 is set up when you first run it. It’s a few minor changes, but they are very helpful if you currently have a default browser and you’re just installing IE8 because you have to (due to Windows Update).

From mid-August (so Microsoft says), there will be an update to IE8 to make this new functionality work.

From then on, when you first start Microsoft Internet Explorer, clicking ‘Use Express Settings’ will no longer automatically set Internet Explorer as the default browser. From GEEK!’s understanding, if you do want IE as the default browser, you must click ‘Choose Custom Settings’ and a screen will appear asking whether you would like to set IE as the default browser or not.

I am very glad that Microsoft is making this alteration – I’m bored of having to reset my default browser settings every time Microsoft releases a new Internet Explorer version.

It is pretty easy to work out that Microsoft is probably doing this to avoid more fines for promoting Internet Explorer too much. They have received charges for promoting Internet Explorer too much in the past, and it looks like Microsoft is having to give other browsers another chance.

Amazon changes Windows 7 pre-order price

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Just a quick notification to let you know that if you were planning to get Microsoft’s brilliant pre-order offer from Amazon, you’ve missed your chance on the £50 offer.

Sadly, I noticed yesterday that Amazon has now amended the price to just under £75, which is a big blow.

Obviously the cheap pre-order stock was going a bit quicker than Microsoft and Amazon expected.

Ah well, Microsoft will have to wait for my purchase of Windows 7. I was really hoping I could get it for £50 from Amazon, but £75 is too much at the moment.

For now, I’m quite happy to be on Vista. I know, even if I’d pre-ordered I would have had to wait until October 22nd – but it doesn’t look like I’ll have my copy of Windows 7 on launch day anyway.

First looks at the Microsoft Office 2010 Technical Preview with screenshots

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Well, I was very pleased to receive an email from Microsoft early this morning letting me know that I’d been accepted for the invitation only Office 2010 Technical Preview. So I’ve got my copy, and I’m going to do a little review here so people can get an idea of what they are in for.

Well, to be honest, I’m pretty impressed with it. The GUI is pretty similar to Office 2007’s, but there are some pretty cool new features that have really brushed up the usability of Office. The image below shows a typical new Word document in Office 2010:

office2010

If you view the image full size (click it), you’ll see the ribbon from Office 2007 has gone – hoorah! It’s been replaced with a new button with the Office logo, which is a different colour for each piece of Office software. Click it, and you get a handy little menu of Options. Here’s what it looks like in Word…

2010menu

It’s quite cool. Anyway, that’s enough of a taster for now. Over the next couple of weeks, I’m going to do a series of blog posts outlining the highlights of Office 2010, so stay tuned to GEEK!.

Is SPAM one of the most annoying things in life? I think so.

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There is nothing that angers me as much as SPAM. Email SPAM that is. I honestly can’t think of anything that bugs me more. My inbox was sprinkled with some disturbing emails today – here’s the line up…

SPAM

Please note the image shown above contains some mature content that may be unsuitable for younger readers.

Do you know why it annoys me so much? Because every time I get it in my inbox, it makes me think of the time I waste hitting the now worn-out Delete key on my keyboard. I must spend hours of my life deleting emails telling me about new “life changing pills” and “big savings”. And believe me, that’s the clean side of it.

SPAM really depresses me. The fact that there are people out there who like programming computers to use our emails to send us fake emails that are just booby-traps to more SPAM.

And, yes, there are plenty of SPAM filters out there that will rid the crud from my inbox, but I still feel terrible seeing my Junk folder fill up with thousands of emails monthly.

So yes, if you’re one of the many million or so people who hate SPAM, there’s not a lot we can do. But it does make you think, how much time, energy and money do we waste deleting SPAM?

VLC Media Player officially hits 1.0 after 13 years of work!

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Wow! After 13 years of long development, VLC Media Player has finally reached version 1.0. VLC is well known as a free media player that can decode many formats of video. It even plays a lot of HD content, and best of all – it’s totally open source.

The project was first started back in 1996, and ever since it has proven very popular to the general public.

I remember when I first started using VLC many years ago – it’s always been great at decoding weird and wonderful video formats. There isn’t any other freeware around that has the capabilities of VLC.

The VideoLAN website claims that the new version fixes a number of bugs, adds a range of new features, and adds even more codecs that can be used with VLC.

I don’t think I’ve ever known a piece of software that took so long to reach version 1.0 – but what a great piece of software to have the honour of taking 13 years to reach a 1.0 version.

I’m very glad that the developers of VLC are going to continue work with VLC – it’s a wonderful piece of software that is continuously expanding.

If you’d like a copy of the new 1.0 version, you can grab it for free (of course) from the VideoLAN website. If you’ve never tried it before, you’ll be amazed at what it can do.