Brandon Dimmel

It's the end of the line for Windows 7 -- sort of. After this Friday, October 31, Microsoft will no longer sell Windows 7 licenses to PC manufacturers, otherwise known as OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers). That will force most PC makers to ... turn to Windows 8.1 -- at least, until Windows 10's release next year. For businesses who don't appreciate Windows 8's main features -- like the Start screen, touch integration, and "Modern" (or "Metro") user interface -- there's some good news. Microsoft will continue to allow PC makers to produce Windows 7 ... (view more)

Tor Browser Bundle 4.0 The Tor Browser is a program used to protect your privacy while you surf the web. It's been specifically designed to defend against traffic analysis and network surveillance and can help keep your activities hidden from state ... security. https://www.torproject.org/ Cherrytree 0.35.2 Cherrytree is a unique note-taking application that features rich text and syntax highlighting. Cherrytree allows you to organize your notes into a clear hierarchy, placing the most important items at the top. This tool is compatible with many different languages. http://www.giuspen.com/ (view more)

USB Flash Drives Control 4.0 This program gives helps to give you more control over the USB flash drives attached to your computer. It boasts several useful features, including read mode, write mode, and execute mode, all of which help you control ... how a USB flash drive interacts with your system. http://www.binisoft.org/ CoffeeZip 4.8 This small and simple utility allows you to quickly and easily compress your favorite files. It features support for 64-bit versions of Windows, multi-core compression, integration with Windows Shell, and is free for home and office use. http://ohsoft.net/ (view more)

Some of the web's most popular sites, including Yahoo, AOL, and dating portal Match.com, were recently hit by a wave of malicious advertisements linked to ransomware . The attack was carried out using vulnerabilities in web browsers plugins , and if ... successful, automatically (and silently) installed file-encrypting software CryptoWall on victim's PCs. According to reports, the malicious advertising -- or 'malvertising', as it's being called -- appeared on 22 different websites, including realestate.aol.com, and several Yahoo pages, including Yahoo Finance and Yahoo Sports. Three Million ... (view more)

KeePass Password Safe 2.28 Security experts recommend you use a different password for every one of your accounts. That's a lot of passwords to remember! KeePass can help you manage all of these passwords by storing all of them in a single, secure ... place. http://keepass.info/ Unchecky Beta 0.3 It seems like every time you try to download software there are offers to download other programs. In some cases, these programs are presented to you with checkmarks next to them, meaning they'll be installed by default if you don't uncheck them. Unchecky can help with that by keeping those ... (view more)

When Microsoft launched the Windows 10 Technical Preview a couple weeks ago, the company offered users the chance to provide feedback through a "Windows Feature Suggestion Box." As expected, feedback is pouring in as to which features should be ... present in the operating system's final version. Windows Explorer Tabs Top List So far the most requested feature is adding tabs to Windows Explorer. Microsoft says more than 1,600 people have requested a feature that would effectively treat Windows Explorer the same as an Internet browser. As such, users would be able to create new tabs ... (view more)

OpenSaveFilesView 1.0 This simple tool displays a list of files recently opened by a Windows user. For every file listed, OpenSaveFilesView shows the file name, the order that the files were opened, the time the file was opened, the file size, and ... more. http://www.nirsoft.net/ Spotify 0.9.14.13 Find the newest and best music with Spotify, which places millions of tunes right at your fingertips. Spotify is free to use and can be downloaded to your mobile device or computer. Not only will it play any song, any time, it'll recommend other, similar songs you may not have heard before. http:// ... (view more)

Honeyview: Ultrafast Image Viewer 5.07 This fast and easy-to-use tools helps you view your favorite images, even if they're compressed (ZIP, RAR, 7z). Honeyview will even let you view GPS information attached to an image by opening Google Maps. This ... tool is compatible with Windows XP through Windows 8. http://www.bandisoft.com/ XYplorer Free Edition 14.50.2 This tabbed file manager for Microsoft's Windows operating system boasts several useful features, including file search, preview, and dual pane view. It's also got a highly customizable interface and allows users to automate ... (view more)

A new report suggests that the personal computer may be on the verge of making a comeback. The report comes from industry analysts Gartner and IDC, which state that there was only a slight drop in demand for personal computers during the third ... quarter of 2014. While those figures don't sound too impressive, the outcome is quite startling when considering the trend over the last three years. Since 2011, PC sales have been steadily declining. Some experts went so far as to suggest that we were witnessing the 'death of the PC' , with consumers opting for mobile devices -- like ... (view more)