Use Norton user account control (UAC) instead of Vista UAC

User Account Control (UAC) is a security feature of Microsoft Windows Vista that changes the architecture of the access token creation process and prevents users from logging on with full administrative rights.

While the intent of this feature may have been enhanced security, all too often users need administrative rights for routine tasks like installing/updating programs and changing operating system settings. Additionally, many software applications need the appropriate access to run properly. This leads to poor user experiences because UAC always prompts the user on every administrative task. The prompts are slow to display and appear frequently without warning. Also, UAC prompts are confusing and do not provide users with any recommendations. This actually raises security concerns because prompting the user for every action with the intent that the user misses nothing is a false security model. The more a user is prompted, the more likely it is that he or she will dismiss the prompt without reading it.

The net effect is that many users find the UAC security clearance/prompting process annoying, especially those who are a given computer’s sole user and are running the latest Norton Internet Security software.

The Norton User Account Control tool will replace parts of the Windows Vista UAC system. It will utilize the UAC security feature from the Windows Vista architecture, while simultaneously improving user-friendliness significantly. The tool prompts recommendations based on an assessment on the user-action i.e. the signature information of the executable. The tool also has a “remember me” feature that allows users to suppress future prompts from the same action.

The goal of this tool is eventually build a white-list (as well as black-list) database on various administrative actions, and to enable users to make smart decisions without unnecessary prompts, using prompts only as a last resort. The prompt will provide users with as much information as possible, as well as recommendations on the action requested. The Norton User Account Control tool will collect user input as well as information about the application that causes UAC prompts. This data will be processed to help build and improve the comprehensiveness and robustness of the white list.

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Optimize the usage and performance of the laptop's battery with BatteryCare!

BatteryCare is a software created to optimize the usage and performance of the modern laptop's battery.

It monitors the battery's discharge cycles and helps increasing it's autonomy and improving its lifetime.

Features

• Battery's discharge cycles monitoring

  The advanced algorithm accurately records when a complete discharge cycle is performed.

  When the configured number of discharge cycles is reached, a notification balloon pops up to remind that a full discharge is required.

• Complete battery information

  It calculates the statistical remaining time in laptops that don't support the battery time left information and only list the charge percentage.

  Shows all the detailed information about the battery, such as wear level, capacities, consumption, manufacturer, etc.

• Notification area information

  In battery mode, the notification icon shows the remaining time and percentage of battery

• Automatic power plans switching

  Depending on the power source of the computer, BatteryCare can automatically select the power plan you prefer.

• Control over Windows Aero and demanding Services

  Automatically disable the graphics accelerated theme in Windows Vista and/or demanding services that degrade battery lifetime.
  Once the laptop stops running on batteries, the theme is re-enabled and the stopped services are restored.

• Auto-updates

  No need to trouble in downloading new installers, when a new version is available, the program updates itself.

• Lightweight in the system

  Given the concern about the battery optimization, BatteryCare does not interfere with the system performance. It requires only a mere 0,1% of Processor and Memory resources.

More screenshots are available here.

You might be interested in how to prolong battery lifespan.

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Protect your privacy with Tor

Tor is free software and an open network that helps you defend against a form of network surveillance that threatens personal freedom and privacy, confidential business activities and relationships, and state security known as traffic analysis.

Tor protects you by bouncing your communications around a distributed network of relays run by volunteers all around the world: it prevents somebody watching your Internet connection from learning what sites you visit, and it prevents the sites you visit from learning your physical location. Tor works with many of your existing applications, including web browsers, instant messaging clients, remote login, and other applications based on the TCP protocol.

Why we need Tor

Using Tor protects you against a common form of Internet surveillance known as "traffic analysis." Traffic analysis can be used to infer who is talking to whom over a public network. Knowing the source and destination of your Internet traffic allows others to track your behavior and interests. This can impact your checkbook if, for example, an e-commerce site uses price discrimination based on your country or institution of origin. It can even threaten your job and physical safety by revealing who and where you are. For example, if you're travelling abroad and you connect to your employer's computers to check or send mail, you can inadvertently reveal your national origin and professional affiliation to anyone observing the network, even if the connection is encrypted.

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Wonder where did all your hard disk space are use for? Use SpaceSniffer to find out!

SpaceSniffer is a freeWare (donations are welcome) and portable tool application that lets you understand how folders and files are structured on your disks. By using a Treemapvisualization layout, you have immediate perception of where big folders and files are placed on your devices. Treemap concept was invented by Prof. Ben Shneiderman, who kindly permitted the use of his concept into this tool.

Start a scan process and see the overall situation. Bigger are the elements on the view, bigger are folders and files on your disk. You need more detail on a big folder? Just single click on it. The selected element will be detailed with its content.

Need more and more detail? Keep selecting elements and they'll discover their secrets to you. Need a larger view of a small folder? Then double click on it, and it'll zoom to the full extent of the view.

If you need to understand why no more free space is left on media, keep following bigger elements. Maybe you want to focus only on particular file types... ok. Just type the file typeon the filter field (example: *.jpg) and press enter. The view will react and show you only JPEG files.
Want to exclude files? Then type a starting pipe before the filter (example: |*.jpg) and press enter. The view will show everything but JPEG files.

If you want to keep track of examined files you can tag them. Four colors are available. Just hover the mouse on a file and press CTRL+1 to tag it red. There are keys also for yellow, green and blue tagging. Use them as you wish. You can also filter on tags (example: :redwill show only red tagges files, :all will show all tagged files and so on). You can also exclude tagged files (example: |:red will exclude all red tagged files)

Want to know if you have old files? Type the condition in the filter field (example: >2years) and the view will react accordingly.

You can also filter on file size, file date and combine all filters
(example: *.jpg;>1mb;<3months;|:yellow)

Once you have your result, you can produce a textual report by using the embedded Export Module. You can even customize the report layout to match your needs.

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Rename all your files at once with Advanced Renamer

Advanced Renamer is freeware program for renaming multiple files or folders at once. It can use several different methods for calculating the new name including multimedia tools for sound and picture files.

Advanced Renamer makes it easy to set up an advanced batch job using multiple methods on a large amount of files. The eight different methods make it possible for you to change the names, attributes and timestamps of files in one go.

With Advanced Renamer you can construct new file names by adding, removing, replacing, changing case, or giving the file a brand new name based on known information about the file.

This program is a great utility for organising digital pictures for both professionals and beginners. The thumbnail mode lets you display thumbnails directly in the file list giving you maximum control of the renaming process. With this program you can rename all your photos in a snap.

MP3 files often have messed up names and contain weird characters. With Advanced Renamer you can change the names of your favourite music files to more suitable names using the built-in ID3 functions.

Selected features Undo functionality Real time preview of file rename MP3/ID3 renaming Image renaming with EXIF support Thumbnail view Supports both files and folders Several renaming methods Use multiple methods at once Tag rename	Renaming methods New Name with Tags New Case Remove / Delete Replace Add / Insert List File Attributes File Timestamp
Languages English Danish Dutch French German Polish Swedish Turkish

Click here to go the website download.

[Chimalogy]

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Minimize all your applications to system tray using "Minime"

Minime is a tool that allows you to minimize applications to the system tray using a simple hotkey. What makes this tool somewhat unique is that it keeps your system tray clean by minimizing all applications into a single tray icon.

Minime is a standalone executable that doesn’t require any installation and can even be run from your USB drive, woohoo! All icon files are stored as resources and will be neatly put into your temporary directory. Any custom settings will be placed in a settings.ini file when needed.

Click here to go to the site to download. [Chimalogy]

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Update your chrome skin-Google launches Chrome gallery

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