Secure your PC from Internet browsing risks

Dell Kace Secure Browser is a firefox based browser from Dell. It runs in a sandbox on your system and prevents any malicious changes to your Windows operating system. When using the Secure Browser any changes or malicious files inadvertently downloaded from the Internet are contained within the secure browser, keeping the underlying OS and computer secure from hostile changes. Any changes resulting from browser activity may be quickly and easily reset to effectively “undo” such changes and return it to its initially installed state. This makes it much easier to clean a system and bring the user back to full productivity.

Learn more about it, and download at http://www.kace.com/products/freetools/secure-browser/

Download now, its free.

Windows Application Blocker : Block Any Application With One Click

Windows Application Blocker is another freeware from door2windows that allows you to block any application with just one click.

How to block an application:

1. Run the tool.
2. When it asks for the password, click OK.

3. Type the application’s executable name in the Application Executable Name textbox (Add the extension also).
   
   You can find the application’s executable name with the following tutorial:
   
   1. Right-click on the application’s shortcut.
   2. Select Properties.
   
   3. The application’s executable name will be in Target textbox.
   
4. Click Block.

How to unblock an application:

1. Run the tool.
2. When it asks for the password, click OK.

3. Select the application that you want to unblock from the Blocked Applications list.

4. Click Unblock.

How to change password:

1. Run the tool.
2. When it asks for the password, click OK.

3. Click Change Password.
4. Type your new password in the Enter new password textbox.

5. Click OK.

Remove Downadup/Conficker/Kido Worm from your PC

Conficker worm is the most widespread worm in today's date. It has been making news since last few weeks.
This worm is one of the most deadly worm which attacks your network and modify your system settings. It gets launched automatically at system startup and stays in memory in stealth mode to prevent its detection. It spreads itself through pen drives, network holes and it also features a method of cracking administrator password.
Almost all the antivirus vendors have released separate tools to remove the worm. These standalone programs do not require any installation. Just download, unzip/extract if required and then run on the infected PC.

There are lot of tools available on web which can remove various versions of Conficker aka Downadup aka Kido worm.

Some Conficker Removal or Deletion tools are as follows:
1. Avert Stinger Standalone tool from McAfee
2. F-Secure Worm:W32/Downadup.AL Removal Tool from F-Secure
3. Symantec W32.Downadup Removal Tool from Symantec
4. Conficker Single PC Removal Tool from Bitdefender
5. Conficker Network Removal Tool from Bitdefender

You can download any of the above tools to remove conficker or downadup or kiddo virus from your computer safely. Leave a comment if none to the above tools works for you.

Impress your audience with professional cliparts and sounds in your presentations

If you find the accompanied Clip Art and sounds in Microsoft Office insufficient, then you can try out Microsoft office online Clip Art at Microsoft Office Online. Here you can find plenty of professional Clip art, Sounds and much more rich media for your documents, presentations, etc. The media is well categorized as well as you can search for your choice.

Create hidden private storage area on Pen Drives and Hard Disks - SafeHouse Explorer

If you want to protect your personal data from curious eyes, you need to hide and encrypt it on your USB memory stick, local hard drive or any removable media like ipod. In this way nobody can view it without your permission. Here is a free, reliable application, SafeHouse Explorer which hides, locks and encrypts any documents, spreadsheets, photos, videos and anything else. It uses super strong 128-bit advanced encryption technology which ensures total protection of your data. Moreover unlike other similar product, you can create unlimited number of private storage vaults as large as 2,000 GB each.

SafeHouse Explorer works with Windows 2000, XP, Vista, Server 2003, 2008 and
64-bit XP/Vista/Server and very easy to use. You can drag and drop file on to SafeHouse Explorer window for encrypting it (After creating a private storage vault). Your files are completely invisible until you enter your password. After you enter your secret password, you access your files using SafeHouse Explorer's familiar drag-and-drop Explorer-like interface.

With SafeHouse Explorer, you can protect any files residing on any drive, including memory sticks, external USB drives, network servers, CD/DVDs and even iPods.
Features of this 100% free, full featured application include:

* Complete full-featured stand-alone security solution.
* Hides, locks and encrypts documents, spreadsheets, photos, videos and anything else.
* Perfect for USB memory sticks and other portable media - even iPods
* Super strong 128-bit advanced encryption ensures your total protection.
* Unlimited number of private storage vaults as large as 2,000 Gigabytes each.
* Graphical password strength meter helps you choose strong passwords.
* Can be run directly from USB memory sticks without prior Windows installation.

Download SafeHouse Explorer from here

Rs 500 laptop display on Feb 3

NEW DELHI: A $10 laptop (Rs 500) prototype, with 2 GB RAM capacity, would be on display in Tirupati on February 3 when the National Mission on
Education through Information and Communication Techology is launched.

The $10 laptop project, first reported in TOI three years ago, has come as an answer to the $100 laptop of MIT's Nicholas Negroponte that he was trying to hardsell to India. The $10 laptop has come out of the drawing board stage due to work put in by students of Vellore Institute of Technology, scientists in Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, IIT-Madras and involvement of PSUs like Semiconductor Complex. “At this stage, the price is working out to be $20 but with mass production it is bound to come down,” R P Agarwal, secretary, higher education said.

Apart from questioning the technology of $100 laptops, the main reason for HRD ministry's resistance to Negroponte's One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project was the high and the hidden cost that worked out to be $200.

The mission launch would also see demonstration of e-classroom, virtual laboratory and a better 'Sakshat' portal that was launched more than two years ago. Sources also said that the ministry has entered into an agreement with four publishers — Macmillan, Tata McGraw Hill, Prentice-Hall and Vikas Publishing — to upload their textbooks on 'Sakshat'. Five per cent of these books can be accessed free.

The mission, with an 11th plan outlay of Rs 4,612 crore, is aimed at making a serious intervention in enhancing the Gross Enrolment Ratio in higher education. The mission has two major components. One, content generation through its portal 'Sakshat', and two, building connectivity along with providing access devices for institutions and learners.

In this context, government would give Rs 2.5 lakh per institution for 10 Kbps connection and subsidise 25% of costs for private and state government colleges.

The mission would seek to extend computer infrastructure and connectivity to over 18,000 colleges in the country, including each department of nearly 400 universities and institutions of national importance. The mission would focus on appropriate e-learning procedures, providing facility of performing experiments through virtual laboratories, online testing and certification, online availability of teachers to guide and mentor learners, and utilization of EduSat and DTH.

BSNL, Novatium roll out low-cost computer

‘Nova netPC’ is available in two packages of Rs.1,999 and Rs.2,999

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and Chennai-based IT solutions company Novatium on Friday rolled out a low-cost home computing device that could help the former achieve a target of 9 million broadband connections across the country in the next couple of years.

At a press conference after the launch of “Nova netPC” on the BSNL’s network, Chairman and Managing Director of BSNL Kuldeep Goyal said affordability issues over buying a desktop PC or laptop would no longer stand in the way of broadband penetration, especially in rural areas.

Essentially, the user is provided with a set top box, keyboard and mouse while most hardware functions of a computer will be managed by a central server. Most of the widely used applications will be available to the user. The central server will facilitate access to the BSNL’s broadband conduit, for which the user will need to subscribe to any of the DataOne monthly plans.

Nova netPC, available in two packages (down payment of Rs.1,999 and a monthly charge of Rs.199, and an upfront fee of Rs.2,999 and monthly subscription of Rs.175), is available at BSNL’s outlets in the city.

Mr. Goyal said the total number of broadband users in the country was only 5.25 million, which was less than 1 per cent of the population. In developed societies, the penetration levels were as high as 60 per cent or more.

BSNL aimed to account for about 60 per cent of the 20 million broadband connections stipulated as target for 2010 by the government. BSNL, which now has 3 million broadband users, has equipped at a cost of Rs.1,600 crore 23,000 of its network of 30,000 telephone exchanges for broadband connectivity. BSNL enjoyed a 56 per cent market share in the broadband space, he pointed out.

“Negotiations with the Universal Service Obligation Fund, a body mandated with scaling up rural telephony, are in an advanced stage on providing near-free broadband tariffs and subsidised customer end equipment for rural users,” he said.
3G technology

BSNL’s plans for the immediate future include rollout of 3G technology on its GSM network (the national launch planned from Chennai now has been rescheduled to February), providing broadband on optic fibre for high-end users and facilitating wireless broadband (WiMAX) in 1,000 rural blocks.

Advance purchase orders for WiMAX equipment had been placed with suppliers.

Novatium CEO Alok Singh said the link-up with BSNL fitted in with the company’s vision of making computing simple and affordable and taking broadband to the nook and corner of the country.

The netPC, which is protected with 11 global patents, had been around for over a year in Delhi and would shortly go commercial. In addition to 1,000 users in the capital, the netPC had been launched in Mauritius. In Chennai, where BSNL issued 8,000 new connections a month, Novatium targeted a sale of 1,000 units by January end.

Post-launch, Nova netPC devices were distributed to four BSNL customers.

Kaspersky Anti-virus 7.0 Genuine License free...

Yuvayantra.com, a web portal from TATA is giving away Kaspersky Anti-virus half year subscription on member registration. So hurry, register yourself at http://www.yuvayantra.com and grab your half year Kasperpsky Anti Virus Genuine License free of cost.

Grab Free & Exclusive Formula One 2008 Stickers Including Free International Shipping

Shell the official partner of Ferrari is giving out free Formula One stickers of their cars and drivers, unlike other such free offers which are limited to United States only this offer is available world over including free shipping.

The offer is valid till 12-00 hours GMT on 31st December 2008 and all you need to do is to fill and submit a small form providing address and email details.

Click here to avail this offer : http://www.shell.com/home/ferrari-en/html/iwgen/motorsport/app_stickers.html

SMS For Free With Peekamo

Peekamo has announced the launch of its mobile social network service. The launch marks the availability of this service in India which enables users to send and receive text messages on their cell phones for free.

The SMS-sponsored messages can be sent to individuals as well as groups, and a user's cell phone number does not show. Users of Peekamo can create a profile, find other users, and enjoy their benefits for free. This service allows Peekamo users, to connect with people outside their network as well.

Peekamo maintains that it solves the cost and technical problems of messaging with its universal platform for mobile to mobile, PC to mobile and mobile to PC text messaging.

Speaking about the service, Al Sajoo, Chief Executive Officer, Peekamo, said, "Digitalization of communication has ushered in certain innovations that have facilitated us to stay connected with our near and dear irrespective of which part of the world they are in. Our service has already garnered a good customer base in U.S and Canada and we are sure that this innovative service will be widely accepted and appreciated in India also."

Peekamo ensures that the service is 100% spam free. Advertisements though, are embedded into messages.

Rediff's New Toolbar for Firefox 3

Rediff.com has introduced a toolbar for Firefox 3. The new toolbar allows users to search the Web and access popular vertical searches for fares, jobs, products, images, videos, ringtones, and languages.

The new Rediff toolbar also allows users to use the search bar as an address bar, where the toolbar intelligently identifies the 'url' keywords and directs the user to the website instead of displaying search results.

Another feature of the toolbar, available on Firefox as well as Internet Explorer, is quick access to all the updated news on business, sports, movies and cricket; this is available on the toolbar itself as snapshot view without having to actually visit any news site.

The toolbar works around the POP UP blocker feature inside the Firefox browser environment, allowing users to conveniently use the blocker feature from the toolbar itself, instead of getting into the settings, says Rediff.

In addition, the toolbar offers access to all regular Rediff services like Rediffmail and Rediff Bol, the Instant Messenger. Though it's designed to compliment Firefox 3, the toolbar provides consumer friendly applications for all versions of both browsers, the Internet Explorer and Firefox.

Opera 9.5 RC 1 Now Download-able

Internet browsers trying to play catch-up again! Opera CEO Jon von Tetzchner has released Opera 9.5 release candidate 1 (RC 1) for desktops five days after Mozilla released Firefox 3 RC 2. Opera 9.5 RC 1 is now available for download from the Opera Web site.

Opera 9.5 RC 1 attempts to bolster security with anti-phishing and anti-malware technology. For instance, Opera users will now get warning messages upon visiting hacked Web sites carrying Trojans and malicious code as part of the 'Fraud Protection' feature that draws on the likes of Haute Secure, Netcraft, PhishTank, and Google. Meanwhile, Firefox 3 RC 2 downloads an updated blacklist of malicious Web sites provided by Stopbadware.org, a group co-founded by Google.

Apart from enhanced security, Opera 9.5 RC 1 includes a new skin for Windows and Mac platforms along with a fix for all POP accounts to download email messages. There's also a new 'Opera Link' feature in RC 1 that enables easy synchronization of bookmarks between different devices running different versions of Opera.