July 2016

Rainmeter 4.0 is the latest version of the popular desktop customization tool for Microsoft Windows. The version is currently available as a beta preview which you can install over existing versions of Rainmeter, or anew.

If you are new to Rainmeter. Basically, what it does is bring customization options to the desktop.

What it is best known for is for its support of desktop widgets that you may display on the desktop. This works even on versions of Windows where the functionality was removed from by Microsoft.

Save Image Router is a new browser extension for Google Chrome and Chromium-based browsers that enables you to configure multiple download directories for images.

Google Chrome supports a single download location by default. All files, regardless of type, are downloaded to that location by default.

While you may switch to another directory manually using the save prompt that the browser displays, it is not very practicable if you do so regularly.

PreviousFilesRecovery is a new portable software program for Windows by Nirsoft that displays previous file versions and lets you restore them should the need arise.

It is the second program that deals with shadow copies on Windows devices after last month's ShadowCopyView release by Nirsoft.

Unlike ShadowCopyView, PreviousFilesRecovery comes with options to restore previous file versions.

PreviousFileRecovery is a new portable software program for Windows by Nirsoft that displays previous file versions and lets you restore them should the need arise.

It is the second program that deals with shadow copies on Windows devices after last month's ShadowCopyView release by Nirsoft.

Unlike ShadowCopyView, PreviousFileRecovery comes with options to restore previous file versions.

That is not the only difference though. Instead of displaying snapshots and associated files on start, it does not display anything on start as it requires configuration first.

TCP Fast Open is a new feature of Microsoft Edge that speeds up the web browser's page loading time by over 10% on average, and in some cases up to 40%.

The feature is currently only available in preview versions of Microsoft Edge available on Fast and Slow Ring Insider Builds.

Microsoft is giving away hundreds of free ebooks currently covering a wide variety of topics that include Windows, Azure, Office, Windows Server, and SharePoint among others.

Opera launched a new Power Saving mode in Opera 39 to improve the web browser's battery life during mobile use.

Opera's own tests showed that the browser's staying powers improved significantly with battery mode enabled. It is still too early to tell how big of an impact battery saver mode makes on day to day operations, but it seems clear already that it extends battery life of devices to a degree.

Firefox 48 will be the first stable version of Firefox that ships with a Rust component included according to Mozilla.

Mozilla has high hopes for Rust, a memory-safe programming language that's advertised as a safe alternative to C++.

Ever since Microsoft introduced Windows 10's free for the first year upgrade offer, rumors circulated around the Internet that the company would introduce subscriptions after that time period that all users who had upgraded to Windows 10 for free would have to pay.

While those rumors are not true as far as I can tell, it is clear that software companies have been moving towards subscription-based services in the past couple of years.

Music tracking, collection and marketplace Discogs released the official Android application on the Google Play store just a moment ago.

The new app comes months after the release of the Discog iOS application. While late to the party -- there are several third-party Discogs applications out there already -- it brings along with it a major feature set.