What's New

We noticed back in October 2018 that Microsoft's Windows 10 operating system was not creating Registry backups anymore.

The scheduled task to create the backups was still running and the run result indicated that the operation completed successfully, but Registry backups were not created anymore.

Previous versions of Windows 10 created these backups and placed them in the C:\Windows\System32\config\RegBack folder. The backups could be used to restore the Windows Registry to an earlier state.

Revo Uninstaller is a popular established program for Windows to uninstall programs and to deal with traces of uninstalled programs that default uninstallers often leave behind.

Revo Uninstaller invokes the default uninstaller of software programs first and scans the system afterwards for traces. Traces are separated further into leftover files, e.g. in the program directory or temporary files, and data in the Windows Registry.

The program is available as a free limited version and a commercial version called Revo Uninstaller Pro.

ScanFS is a powerful file search software with in-content search and regular expression support for Windows that is free to use for Home use. The application is compatible with all recent versions of the Windows operating system and needs to be installed before it can be used.

The Windows operating system comes with file search capabilities but functionality is bare bones and performance not good at all.

Third-party file search applications like WizFile, Everything, or ScanFS improve the process significantly for the user.

Google Chrome users may soon get additional customization options to change the default functionality and layout of the browser's New Tab Page.

Chrome users who want to modify the New Tab Page currently don't find many options to do so. The best option for many is to download a New Tab Page extension to customize what is displayed on the page.

Google has been working on New Tab Page customization improvements for a while. Recent modifications are now available in Chrome Canary, the cutting edge version of the Chrome browser.

Google started the roll out of new privacy controls for its customers on May 1, 2019 that allow Google customers to configure auto-delete parameters for Activity data that Google collects.

Customers may enable auto-delete to have data deleted automatically when it reaches a certain age. As is the case with most Google features, the new functionality will roll out in the coming weeks to all Google customers.

Menu_Launcher4multiple_FF is a free batch file for Windows to run different Firefox versions and forks using a shared user profile or different profiles.

Internet users have plenty of options when it comes to Firefox-based browsers. They can use the original version of Firefox maintained by Mozilla, or use any of the available forks. Forks like Palemoon, Basilisk or Waterfox are popular, and while their usage share pales in comparison to that of the Firefox browser, they are used by a dedicated following.

Phishing, the attempt to steal important data such as login information, passwords, or credit card numbers from unsuspecting users, is still a major threat on today's Internet. Microsoft's Security Intelligence report saw phishing emails increase by 250% in 2018 alone.

Most web browsers come with certain defenses, usually in form of blacklists and other defensive measures to detect phishing attacks.

One problem with the approach is that it addresses known phishing sites for the most part. The Inception Bar is a new phishing method designed specifically for mobile.

The most recent Nvidia graphics driver, version 430.39, may cause high CPU usage on some systems it is installed on.

Nvidia released the graphics driver 430.39 last week; the new WHQL driver adds support for the Windows 10 May 2019 Update, comes with new or updated game profiles, and includes a new feature to merge two portrait monitors into a third landscape monitor.

Better late than never, I guess. Microsoft released the usual second batch of updates that it releases each month for Windows 10 version 1607, 1703, 1709 and Windows 10 version 1803. The patch for Windows 10 version 1809 is late, as usual, and monthly previews for Windows 7 Service Pack 1 and Windows 8.1 are available as well.