User Account Control is a feature in Windows Vista that can prevent unauthorized changes to your computer. It will ask for Administrator permission whenever some settings are to be changed. By verifying this actions UAC prevent malicious programs from installing it. Microsoft recommends strongly NOT to disable it or else you have to risk your computer to unauthorized changes by viruses and malwares.
For people who think the message pop-ups from UAC is annoying we got awesome applications where you can tweak UAC to run it quietly in the background. Is the "quiet" mode of UAC less secure?
1. UACcontroller
This standalone tool has the option to choose quiet mode where the UAC will be enabled without the Administrator approval prompt. This free UAC tweaking tool will also has options to disable and enable UAC without the option of touching the registry.
2. TweakUAC
TweakUAC is also a portable tool which allow users to switch UAC to a quiet mode, in which you will be elevated to administrator privilege, which means that the UAC prompts pops will be suppressed. This is ideal when you are up to perform an administrator task such as computer maintenance, un-installation of programs, etc. No installation is required to work with TweakUAC.
3. Norton UAC Tool
Norton UAC tool replaces only parts of the Windows Vista’s standard UAC, it continues to utilize the standard security features with more informative interface. This tool also recommends any action of a pop up based on an assessment of your actions which was impossible in the default standard UAC.
Screenshots of the above 3 apps are given below:
Read more…
FileHippo Update Checker is a useful utility from FileHippo.com where it does the three things below:
1. Scan your Computer for Installed Programs
2. Check the version of the program for ay new releases by sending the information to their FileHippo server.
3. Display the result in your default browser with the download option to update the software.
It will help us in finding the updates quickly rather than going to the particular software’s website to find the updates. Though it will not check all the software’s in your windows, still its a must have tool in each PC for analyzing the updates for all the freeware’s and shareware’s in our PC.
In addition to finding all the updates for your software’s it also list the Beta Updates you may try in your testing environment. You can also disable this feature if you don’t want to install any Beta versions.
This Software works on any Windows OS but it requires Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 to be installed. You can download and install the Latest Build or download the Portable Version without the need for installation.
Here are the screenshots of the Update Checker: 
Read more…
Ever thought of backing up your Internet Explorer settings when you were badly hit by Virus and Spywares. If yes then this post is for you. It is also wise to backup the IE settings when you are planning to format your System.
BackRex Internet Explorer Backup is a backup and restore tool specially designed for Internet Explorer where you can backup the following:
Favorites | History | Proxy Settings | Security Zones | Customizations | Cookies | Dial-up Accounts etc…
The installation is simple and user-friendly where it provides options for Backup and Restore including Schedule Backups. You can use this tool to restore your backups to other computers also even the IE version is different. Internet Explorer version 6, 7, 8 are supported. We tried for IE7 and it perfectly backup up with only about 1.52 MB. You can even password protect your backup archive.
Here are the screenshots of BackRex Internet Explorer Backup Software:
