Now if you have a collection of Hello Kitty pictures you still don’t want to let go of, but you really don’t want the world to know that you hold on to his pictures, there’s a nice way to keep your top-secret files away from prying eyes.

Of course there’s the encrypted, high-security way, that will even give the FBI headaches if they ever get their hands on your computer. That would be using TrueCrypt, and — oh dear lord I hope you’re not reading this article to hide something from the Feds.

Anyway, I don’t think a Hello Kitty picture collection doesn’t exactly require encryption and a hidden partition. A hidden password-protected folder would probably do.

And as far as password protection goes, I think the free Windows utility PenyuLocker is good enough to hide those embarrassing photos you don’t want anyone else peeking in your computer to see. It camouflages the folder as a Recycling Bin icon, and guess what, it also works as a functional Recycling Bin!

From Lifehacker:

Point PenyuLocker at a folder and lock it, it swaps the folder’s icon with the icon of the Recycling Bin and anyone who clicks on the folder is taken to the Recycling Bin for that drive. Placing the folder on the desktop and labeling it “Recycling Bin” would seem to be an ideal spot to camouflage it. Run the application again, enter the password you assigned to the folder, and reverse the process to access your files.

So it’s not exactly Federal-level protection for your files, but if you don’t think it’s worth the hassle, PenyuLocker might do.

On our Windows laptops, we use an army of different software just to protect ourselves from all the different kinds of malware just hanging around the net, waiting for an opening to attack our system. Don’t give me the excuse that antivirus software is expensive, there are a lot of fully-functional antiviruses out there that are pretty good. But even though we have our system running fully-protected, there’s a good chance that one or two viruses might be able to slip in. I usually don’t worry that much, a simple scan with Malwarebytes usually does the job. But what if malware has overrun your computer so much that it’s practically unusable?

If your plethora of antimalware apps doesn’t work, along with *gasp* safe mode, then you might want to try a different approach – Linux. From gHacks, here’s a way to scan your hard drive for viruses using a Linux installation. gHacks recommends that you remove the infected drive and connect it via USB to the Linux machine. Then you can scan the drive via Linux as an external drive. The, install F-Prot on Linux. Scan away.

Lifehacker, on the other hand, suggests that you can make a Live USB and run it to scan your computer. Of course you might want to install the antivirus on your live USB first before doing anything. From Lifehacker:

After making the Live USB stick, boot into it (you may have to set your boot priority in your BIOS, directions for which can be found in step 2 of this post), and install antivirus on it—gHacks recommends F-Prot, but if you don’t want to buy a copy of F-Prot just for this, all of our Hive Five antivirus favorites have Linux versions, and open-source favorite ClamAV (pictured above) is available from Synaptic Package Manager (along with the Clamtk GUI for it—just search for clamav and clamtk in Synaptic [available under System > Administration] and install both packages). Start it up from Applications > System Tools, set it to scan your Windows drive and you’re good to go.

There we go, so I hope you figure out a way to clean your practically unusable drives with Linux, and you learn a bit of the operating system while you’re at it.

So, while everyone else is eagerly waiting for the release of Apple’s iPad, us who aren’t really convinced of the iPad’s abilities to walk on water or its promises to cure cancer are looking someplace else. Enter: Microsoft’s Courier. The Courier is being marketed as a “digital journal.” Instead of Windows 7, we’re seeing the Courier has the same software that runs Zune HD, Pink, and Windows Mobile 7 Series. It makes sense, really. The iPad uses iPhone OS because full Mac OS X will not work well for touch screen interfaces. And of course Windows 7, with all its touch-screen friendly glory, won’t even give the best user experience.

According to Engadget:

The interface appears to be pen-based and centered around drawing and writing, with built-in handwriting recognition and a corresponding web site that allows access to everything entered into the device in a blog-like format complete with comments. We’re also hearing that there will be a built-in camera, and there’s a headphone jack for media playback. Most interestingly, it looks like the Courier will also serve as Microsoft’s e-book device, with a dedicated ecosystem centered around reading.

Okay, I don’t expect this to kill the iPad – there’s seriously no way anyone can beat Apple right now – but look at the potential of the Courier. Check out the video below:

Okay, this device is pretty and all, and the UI is nothing short of amazing (and totally unexpected of Microsoft – I’m kind of used to seeing them churn out releases with drab interfaces) but if you’re wondering when this will come out, you have to wait a bit. Launch date is expected to be around “Q3 / Q4,” and there’s not pricing yet – I don’t expect this to go head-on with the iPad’s price.

What do you think? Would you choose this over the iPad? I know I would, but I’d like to hear your opinions.

So now I’m wondering why install Android in the first place if Windows is still going to be running alongside it. I’d rather wait for the Google Chrome OS netbook, mind you.

Yeah, in case you’re wondering, that really happened to me.

Thank goodness for WinToFlash then.

If you’re wondering what it can do, here’s the official description from their website:

WinToFlash is a software for transfer your Windows XP, Windows 2003, Windows Vista, Windows 2008, Windows 7 setup from CD or DVD to flash in some mouse clicks. This is about you can install your Windows from flash card, USB stick, HDD, etc to your computer or netbook.

With WinToFlash, installing Windows via USB flash drive is as easy as inserting your Windows CD into a computer with a disc drive, plugging in a 2GB or larger USB flash drive, and then running WinToFlash.

Seriously, I wish I had these tools when I started out. Then I wouldn’t have those hours of frustration and screaming my lungs out because my gosh darn netbook just won’t freaking cooperate.

Download WinToFlash here.

Microsoft has acknowledged that these things do happen and that the company is now looking into the matter. MS has said in its statement that the problem seems to be stemming from the notification message in the tray being inaccurate.

MS further explained that in normal operations, the user will only get the notification about the updates being ready for installation when all of the said updates have already been downloaded and ready for installation. This could be the reason why the update may appear on Windows Update but not on Automatic Updates. Another instance is that the user may get a notification of the update having been downloaded and available for installation but the update has not yet been installed
First, you only get the notification that updates are available for installation when all of the available updates are downloaded and ready to install. So if they appear to be available on Windows Update but not through Automatic Updates, that could be the explanation. Second, you may get a notification of downloaded and available, but not yet installed updates, in the shutdown dialog. In this situation the user will only see the updates with updates that doesn’t need user intervention.

Hopefully, Microsoft does find the problem and fixes it. It doesn’t need the negative view that it is manipulating things even when it clearly does not.

This is the first time Netflix will have official support for Microsoft’s media-optimized OS even though users of the WMC have been using a workaround to access Netflix. When the DVD distribution company began offering streaming video services, some programmers were able to create small apps that allowed them to view the content on the Media Center. But since it was unofficial, these apps had a tendency to break down and suffer from glitches especially when Netflix makes changes from their end. It also requires an advanced level of technical knowhow to make it work. The official support for Netflix now eliminates all of these difficulties.

The new Netflix app uses Silverlight to present a seamless interface and easy video streaming capabilities. The app will even guide users in installing Silverlight in case they haven’t downloaded and installed it in their PCs yet.

Microsoft claimed that it whatever netbook PC hardware “evolves” Windows 7 will work perfectly with it. The company reported that it is testing Windows 7 on various netbook PCs since before the upcoming OS was “feature complete”.Microsoft’s plan is to ensure that small notebook PCs will run perfectly with any edition of Windows 7.

This is a good move on Microsoft’s part. It is a firm acknowledgement that netbooks is probably one of the strongest laptop market segment today. With the world economy slowing down, it’s pretty much sure that netbooks will become a more attractive purchase option for people who want to upgrade or add a new laptop for their homes or office. Ensuring that Windows 7 will work perfectly with these units will definitely help in selling the new OS when it finally arrives. The upside here is that Windows 7 will probably be not as bloated if it really wants to target netbooks.

nknown.

Microsoft finally confirmed that the newest version of Windows will keep the codename it has used when it is finally unveiled to the public.

The company will talk about more details of Windows 7 during the Professional Developers Conference this month as well as at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference in November.

Windows 7 is expected to be released by 2010.

After the Mojave campaign that sought to bring people to notice Vista again, Microsoft is now enlisting Jerry Seinfeld to help in its $300 million ad campaign. The celebrated comedian will be paid $10 million to endorse Vista.

The question is, will the guys at Redmond be able to come up with a deceptively simple, but widely effective ad campaign as the Cupertino guys’ (you know who they are) “Get a Mac” campaign.

Justin Long vs Seinfeld. This could be a one hell of a fight.