Geek Squeaks’ of the Week (#42)

It is unbelievable, especially the older we get, just how fast a week seemingly passes by; but, one thing I look forward to each week is Geek Squeaks’.

Geek Squeaks’ is a compilation of articles, created within the past 7 days, by the members (bloggers) associated with the What’s On My PC blogroll (at the right side of the blog). If computers and information technology is in your blood, then these sites (or blogs) are the ones to follow.

Bill Mullins’ Weblog – Tech Thoughts
FreeFixer – A Free, Powerful Anti-Malware Tool

Plato On-Line
Facebook vs. Suicide Machine

411-Spyware.com
How to Remove Antivirus PC 2009

AKS-Feel The Change
Merge two or more PDF files

thePC Security
Freeware PC Security Software Download – Rising PC Doctor

Crazy World of G
You Have Wave

Lifehacker
Memorize Makes Virtual Flashcards and More [Flashcards]

Rarst.net
SuggestRSS.com – finds sites like those in your feeds

Sugarloaf Tech
Remote wipe your BlackBerry without BES

Tech-for Everyone
How To Make Word Open A Normal Blank Page*

AskBillFirst
Those Green Doublelined Words on a Web Page

Free PC Security
Online Armor Free Firewall V4

TuneUp Blog
Survey: Replace Rather Than Clean Up a PC?

Computer Maintenance
Data Backup

Canadian Tech Blogger
IE Usage Down, Chrome Surpasses Safari

Mrintech
Free ASCII Art Designer Software for your PC!

Worthy Tips
Idea To Convert Your Photo To Hand Draw Sketch On Your Desktop

Technize
3 Ways To Test Your LCD Monitor For Defective Pixels

I Love Free Software
WeBuzz.IM – Use Gtalk, Yahoo, ICQ, AIM from Browser

TTC Shelbyville
Repair Internet Explorer

Carputers News and Computer Tips
Learn how to research online…

Snakebytez
Easily and Safely Optimize Vista
by Disabling Unnecessary Windows Vista Services

Freeware Pharmacy
MCE Buddy

What’s On My PC
FREE Online Virus and Malware Scanners

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A Simple Solution to Backing Up Your Browser Settings

The everyday computer user primarily uses the computer to browse the internet. As a result, the web browser (e.g. Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, etc.) becomes one of the most important pieces of software on the computer. Over a period of time, based on the user’s surfing habits, the browser cumulatively collects bookmarks, cookies, history, toolbar settings, extensions, add ons, etc. that the user ultimately becomes dependent on. The problem occurs is when the computer crashes or the user moves to a new computer AND all of those cumulative browser gatherings by the user are lost. I have actually witnessed users that were more upset that they lost their browser bookmark settings, when their computer crashed, than personal documents they may have had.

To prevent this mishap from occurring there is a backup solution, called FavBackup, that will backup your bookmarks and any other settings that are browser specific (e.g. history, cookies, user preferences, extensions and other elements).

FavBackup is a portable app that requires no installation and has the capability of backing up the browser settings for various versions of Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari and Flock.  One point to make is that you will be see two different type of backup and restore options:

(1) – Backup or Restore – allows you to select what you desire to backup or restore

(2) – Full Backup or Full Restore – will perform a backup or restore of all settings in one fell swoop.

FavBackup is very easy to use, fast and efficient; AND is must-have software for any computer user who is tied to their browser. If anything, make FavBackup part of your normal backup routine and use it to at least backup your bookmarks.

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Internet Explorer – Losing ground to Firefox

A What’s On My PC… Web Clip!

Other Browsers Advance as Internet Explorer Slides

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By Mark Long
www.newsfactor.com

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July 6, 2009 1:16PM

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Microsoft’s Internet Explorer continued to lose ground against other browsers in June, according to StatCounter. The market share for Mozilla’s Firefox 3.5 rose rapidly since its launch last week. Opera’s share in Europe has jumped since July 2008 and Apple, Inc.’s Safari has lost global market share, but Safari 4 downloads have been heavy.

[ Read the Story HERE ]

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Browser Speed Comparison Test

We all want faster, safer, and reliable… Checkout the browser speed comparison test at PCGames Hardware. The tests they ran focused on pure speed. You can even run the same tests at Sunspider, Futuremark Peacekeeper, and Acid.

A  “What’s On My PC…” Web Clip!

Internet browser tested
with Peacekeeper, Sunspider and Acid

Big browser comparison test: Internet Explorer vs. Firefox, Opera, Safari and Chrome

June 19, 2009 – by Link, Riemann

PC Games Hardware tested the speed of the internet browsers Internet Explorer 6, 7 and 8, Mozilla Firefox 2.0, 3.0.11 and 3.5b99, Opera 9.6 and 10, Safari 3.1.1 and 4.0, Chrome 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 with the benchmarks Peacekeeper and Sunspider and checked them with the Acid tests as well.

[ Source: PCGames Hardware ]

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Web Browsers run faster in Windows 7(?)

Have any of the readers of this blog experienced this sort of revelation with Windows 7 RC? Please feel free to comment below.

A “What’s On My PC…” Web  Clip! Chrome, Firefox, IE8 accelerate 12% or more in Windows 7 over Vista By Scott M. Fulton, III | Published May 28, 2009, 3:59 PM

If you’ve been testing the final Windows 7 Release Candidate on your own physical platforms, and you wonder what’s giving you that feeling that it’s just a bit peppier, a tad zippier, it’s not an illusion. Betanews tests all this week, concluding today, comparing all the major stable release and development Windows-based Web browsers, running on exactly the same physical computer with fresh Windows Vista SP2 and Windows 7 RC partitions, confirmed what our eyes and gut feelings were telling us: On average, most browsers ran 11.9% faster in Windows 7 than on the same machine running Vista SP2, with most speed gains falling right around that mark.. [ Source: Winsider.com ]

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Transmute – The Ultimate Bookmark Converter

If you are like me, you may be using more than one web browser OR you may be in the process of changing to another browser. The problem most users experience in these cases is moving their bookmarks (or web site favorites) from one browser platform to another; OR trying to keep their bookmarks synced between the different browser platforms. It has been my experience through assisting other users that there is a “high value” placed on their bookmarks (or favorites). I often hear the statements, “please try and save my favorites or don’t lose my favorites”. Most techie types know the various processes to convert and transfer bookmark formats from one browser format to another; however, it can be a daunting task for the everyday computer user.

There is an easy solution to all of this called “Transmute”. Transmute is software that will easily do all of the work for you when you desire to transfer your bookmarks from one browser platform to another.

“Transmute will convert, synchronize, sort, organize and remove duplicates from your bookmarks and more”.

I currently use Transmute to synchronize my bookmarks between Internet Explorer, Opera USB, Chrome, and Firefox. I also look at Transmute as a backup strategy for my bookmarks, as well. There is a “FREE” version of Transmute and a “PAID” version. The “FREE” version supports the major browser platforms and is all most users will need. The “PAID” version takes it one step further and provides support to work with two of the leading “online” bookmarking services (Delicious and Google Bookmarks).

Transmute is available as a full install program or as a portable app that can be run from your flash drive. (NOTE: This is another good tool for the techie toolbox).

Publisher’s Description

Extensive Browser Support

Transmute supports all of the major web browsers including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, Apple Safari, Chromium, Flock and Konqueror!

Easy to Use

A streamlined interface makes Transmute very accessible.

Automatic Backups

By default Transmute will timestamp and back up your bookmark collections before changes are made, providing extra safety.

Cross-Platform

Transmute supports Windows using the Microsoft .NET Framework. However, Transmute will also run on Windows, Linux and Mac via use of the Mono Framework!

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TheWorld Browser – A different kind of web browser…

For those who may not know what a web browser is, it is simply a software application, such as Internet Explorer, that is specifically crafted for retrieving, presenting and traversing information resources on the internet. Many computer users do not realize that there are other browser options out there, other than Internet Explorer; the most popular being Firefox, Google Chrome and Opera (to name a few).

Recently I have been on the hunt for a good portable version of a browser to run from my flash drive. I have tried and used extensively the portable versions of the most popular browsers such as Firefox, Opera, and Chrome; however, I found that after long periods of usage (from the flashdrive), the browsers would start to bog down and/or errors would start to develop.

Sometimes we get so locked into what is popular and forget that there are other options. It was at this point I starting looking outside that circle of “popular browsers” for something different. During that hunt, I tried and tested many (such as Avant, Maxthon, Browzar, QtWeb). I eventually came across a browser called “TheWorld Browser” that not only caught my eye, but has performed beautifully from my flash drive. As a matter of fact, the more I use it, the more I like it.

TheWorld Browser is a “fast, safe and easy way to browse the web” that has features that many of the other browsers do not.  TheWorld Browser is dependent on the Internet Explorer engine, and is guaranteed to be 100% malware free.  This app is small in size (1.4 MB) and, in my opinion, is very fast to the draw…  If you are looking for an Internet Explorer replacement on your PC or a browser to carry with you on your flash drive, I say give this browser a try!

Publisher’s Description

Multi-threaded frame.
TheWorld Browser version 2.0 is among the first multi-threaded frame browser in the world (the first is Internet Explorer 7.0), the multi-threaded window frame can prevent the web pages from freezing.

Intelligent Ad blocking + Blacklist filter.
TheWorld can block popup ad. and float ad. automatically.
TheWorld can block popups and float ads automatically. You can also use a blacklist to filter ads. The blacklist filter works from lower level of HTTP protocol, with regular expression so that you can filter out anything you want.

Web page mute.
TheWorld is the first browser that can disable a web page’s sound with one click.

Powerful Tools
Powerful Tools Built in tools like: Flash filter, unlock page script limited, zoom, Proxy quick switching, Auto complete, Quick media saver, Privacy guard, Mouse gestures, Custom hotkeys and Drag & drop support, make TheWorld one of the most powerful browsers around.

Safer.
TheWorld Browser has built-in safe guards that will protect you while surfing.

Built-in Download Manager.
Which consists of multi-thread download, resumable download, with intuitive download management.

Skins and plugins.
TheWorld Browser supports skins and plugins, we have hundreds of skins and plugins to customize the way you browse. TheWorld has native support for Internet Explorer’s plugins as well.

TheWorld Browser uses the Microsoft Internet Explorer engine and will run on Windows 98/me/2000/xp/Vista.

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