What's New

BitTorrent Sync is a file synchronization service that uses BitTorrent technology as its foundation. Unlike other file synchronization services, it is not relying on Internet servers to store data.

Note: BitTorrent Sync 2 is currently in active development which means that it is not final. This is just a snapshot describing the current state of development and no representation of the final product.

Firefox 35 is the latest version of the web browser that is made available to all Stable channel users as of January 13, 2015.

All other Firefox channels, that is Beta, Aurora, Nightly and Extended Support Release, are also updated to the next major version which in this case means Beta 36, Aurora 37, Nightly 38 and ESR 31.4.

You can find out which version and channel you are running by typing about:support in the browser's address bar and hitting enter.

The page that opens up displays the information under Application Basics.

The Windows Hosts file allows you to redirect hostnames. That sounds awfully technical but think of it as a beats-everything-else solution to set hostname targets.

Examples? You can redirect any domain name on the Internet to another IP address. This is helpful when you move your website to a new server and want to check everything out before DNS propagates around the world.

Do you know which programs ran in the past on your Windows PC? It is likely that you know at least some of them, the programs that you have started manually for example.

Depending on how the computer is used, it may be just a tiny fraction of executable files that are run on the system.

Files may be executed automatically by the operating system for example, or by other users who have access to the system (and same user account).

If you want to display a list of recently run programs on the PC, you can do so in two different ways:

Pale Moon and Firefox are two popular web browsers that share many features. Most Firefox add-ons run perfectly fine in Pale Moon for example and the same is true for the majority of about:config tweaks.

Differences exist on the other hand and it is likely that the gap widens in the future due to decisions made by both development teams.

The majority of social media and messaging sites display the number of unread messages, friend requests and notifications on their site so that users see on first glance what is new.

On Facebook for example, you see new friend requests, messages and notifications, and on Gmail the unread mail count.

It may sometimes be useful to boot one or multiple computer systems from a network computer instead of locally.

Maybe you want to boot another operating system or an update but the computer has no disc drive and only a slow USB 2.0 option or none at all.

Or you may need to maintain computer systems on a network using specialized software that you need to boot those systems from.

I have configured my desktop PC to go turn off the monitor after 5 minutes and to go sleep after 10 minutes of inactivity.

While I don't have to worry about battery usage (because it is a desktop PC), putting it to sleep saves energy which in turn is beneficial to the utility bill.

I noticed recently that the PC would wake up automatically from sleep without me being anywhere near it.

This guide provides you with the tools and knowledge to analyze the issue in detail on your own device.

Finding the cause

From this month forward, Microsoft will no longer release free Advanced Security Notifications before patches are made available on Patch Tuesday, the second Tuesday of the month.

The company's Advanced Notification Service informed customers about security updates in advanced so that customers could get a better understanding of affected products.

If you think about how computer systems are controlled, mouse and keyboard probably come to mind first before touch and voice commands.

It is rather interesting that little progress has been made in improving mouse or keyboard usage. While some progress has been made, for instance by using lasers, not much has changed in terms of how the peripherals are designed.

Game Downloader is a free program for the Windows operating system that you can use to discover, browse and download more than 350 different PC games in various categories.

PC gamers have many choices when it comes to playing games on their computer. From platforms like Steam, Gog or Origin over free to play games and freeware games to game emulation.

YouTube is not the only online platform on which Internet users can upload, share and watch videos but it is without doubt the most popular one.

While that is the case, there is a growing number of users and content producers who dislike YouTube or some of its features but stick with it because of a lack of alternatives.

Dailymotion and Vimeo, two other video services, never managed to grow substantially to get close to YouTube's level of traffic.

I have to admit that I never quite got the world's fascination with services like Instagram. While I do have an account, I only use it when I write about the service.

There must be something to it though as it is used by millions who use the app to create and share media with others.

Since videos can be shared as well on Instagram, using the service can accumulate quite some data.

If you need an extra push sometimes to get work done as you get distracted easily, you may find programs and services useful that restrict what you can do on a device or computer until you complete work for the day.

That's the main idea behind the new text editor FORCEdraft as it prevents you from switching away from it to pursue other interests on the PC.

As is the case with these types of programs, there are ways around them but more about that later.

If you are using Microsoft's Outlook.com email service you have various options to connect to it. You can use the web interface, mobile apps or desktop email clients.

Regardless of how you use the service, you may want to make sure that it is properly protected against hacks and other malicious attacks.

Outlook.com accounts are directly linked to Microsoft Accounts. This shows when you try to locate security related settings on the Outlook website as you will notice quickly that there are none.