Every new versions of Microsoft Windows family came with the new version of DirectX, the 3D audio and graphics APIs. It seems that Windows 7 is no exception. The new operating system from Microsoft will feature DirectX 11. DirectX 11 is the latest release of DirectX from Microsoft.

Some of the new features of DirectX 11 are the computer shader technology, which enable the GPU to other operations than just 3D graphics. DirectX 11 that will come with Windows 7 will also include a better multi core resource handling and more efficient utilization of the processing pipeline, hardware tesselation support and more detailed 3D modelling.

News have it that AMD says that its first DirectX 11 compatible hardware will be available in late 2009. This is the same time that Windows 7 is expected to arrive. With the release of DirectX 11 ini Windows 7, surely new games with more realistic 3D graphics will be release.

This is a good news indeed for the gaming industry. Hopefully gaming experience won’t be the same after this.

See also:

• Windows 7 will support two touch screen notebook (0)
• Windows 7 will be ready for Christmas (0)
• Windows 7 will be call Windows 7 (2)
• Windows 7 New Features? (0)
• Vista Service Pack 2 will be available before Windows 7 (2)

Check Point are being generous. Now they are offering most of their product with 50% discount. Yesterday they are offering ZoneAlarm Pro for free, and after the offer have expired today, they are giving 50% discount to their product.

ZoneAlarm Pro now at USD19.95

Check Point products that are getting 50% discount are;

• ZoneAlarm Pro Firewall at $19.95 (Normal price $39.95)
• ZoneAlarm Antivirus at $19.95 (Normal Price $29.95)
• ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite at $49.95 (Normal Price $69.95)

This is one great offer by Check Point. If you are looking for a stable security product, you got to hurry to their website for this offer.

Click here to go to Check Point website and get 50% discount off their products

See also:

• ZoneAlarm Pro that cost $39.95 for free (1)

If you fancy a powerful commercial firewall software, with antispyware for free, then you can hurry and go to ZoneAlarm Pro website for a free download of the ZoneAlarm Pro Firewall.

ZoneAlarm Pro Free Download

Checkpoint, the developer of ZoneAlarm Pro are offering ZoneAlarm Pro that normally would cost you $39.95, for free. This is in conjunction with Checkpoint’s 15th anniversary. The offer is valid from 11/18/08 6am PST to 11/19/08 6am PST.

So what are you waiting for, just click here to go to the download page of the ZoneAlarm Pro that Checkpoint is offering for free. You might want to hurry.

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• ZoneAlarm Pro with 50% Discount (0)
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• Benchmark your PC with PC Wizard 2008 (0)

Just when you though Intel Dual and Quad Core 2 are more than enough for your computing needs, come a new processor from Intel that will eat other processors for breakfast.

Intel Nehalem coming out tomorrow

Enter the new Nehalem with 45nm core, or widely known as Core i7 processor. Benchmarks have proven that the new Intel Nehalem or Core i7 processor provide improvement over 45 to 55 percent than the current Penryn processor. Hyperthreading or HT also make a comeback in Nehalem or core i7 processor.

With four core cpu, with have four logical processor with Hyperthreading (HT) features. So eight processors will appear in your Operating System. That will be eight cores, eight logical processors will make 16 threads. This multiple cores will truly shine in the new Operating System from Microsoft, Windows 7. Windows 7 kernel come with multicore optimization.

Other improvement that Nehalem or Core i7 come with are an integrated memory controller that supports triple-channel DD3 memory, managed cores and caches for energy-efficiency, and lower latencies throughout the processor.

Intel will be having a winner with this one. Hopefully AMD will counter attack with something on par with the Nehalem or Core i7, if not better.

See also:

• No related posts.

On the previous post I have wrote on Windows Registry Branches. In this article, we are going to talk on Registry Values inside those Registry Branches.

Windows Registry Value

There are 5 main type of registry values in the Windows Registry. These value contain data and information for the operation of Windows Operating System.

1. REG_DWORD
   REG_DWORD values are shown in hexadecimal format and use a 4 byte number as data, with the decimal equivalent in brackets next to that. DWORD value can be entered in hexadecimal or decimal format. DWORD value are mostly use for switch value, with the value ‘0′ as off, and the value ‘1′ as on.
2. REG_SZ
   REG_SZ value can be word or number, or the location of file in your Windows Operating System. REG_SZ is also known as the string value.
3. REG_EXPAND_SZ
   This value act as a variable where an input from any application will place a value in REG_EXPAND_SZ value.
4. REG_MULTI_SZ
   This value contain multiple values or list.
   
5. REG_BINARY
   This value contain values as binary data. Usually, REG_BINARY are use for data or information related to hardware that cannot be edited or change by the user.

These are the values that are use in Windows Registry. I will talk on how to create or edit these values on the next article on Windows Registry Editing.

See also:

• Windows Registry Editing Tips (1)
• Windows Registry Branches (1)

What happen when your security software detected a Microsoft Windows Operating System file as a virus and deleted it forever from your Microsoft Windows? The answer is simple, your Microsoft Windows will not be able to boot, or the Operating System might restart itself in a continous cycle.

AVG 8 Security Suite Software

That what will happen if you happen to use Dutch, French, Italian, Portuguese or Spanish version of Microsoft Windows XP and AVG8 as your antivirus program, with recent virus definition file update.

AVG8 with the latest update file detected user32.dll, which is a crucial system file in Microsoft Windows XP as a trojan. Fortunately, AVG have fixed the problem immediately and casualty have been kept to a minimum

This is quite a shocking news considering the glitch came from a well know Security Product Manufacturer such as AVG.

See also:

• No related posts.

Besides new enhancement and improvement, Firefox 3 also come with a funny easter egg, just like the previous version of Firefox with the Kitchen Sink Easter Egg.

This time it is all about Robots in Firefox 3 new Easter Egg.

Firefox 3 About Robot Easter Egg

To view the new Firefox 3 About Robots Easter Egg,

1. Go to Firefox 3 Address Bar.
2. Type “about:robots” without the quote

A disclaimer will appear in the Firefox 3 browser. It seems that this new Firefox 3 about:robots easter egg feature some famous quotes from several movies and TV Series with robots.

As always, the Firefox 3 team never fail to impress.

See also:

• Firefox Kitchen Sink Easter Egg (3)
• Firefox 3.1 porn mode (1)
• Firefox 3.1 beta 1 download (0)
• Firefox 3.1 (soon to be released) awesome bar (1)
• Firefox 3 small back button (3)

Today we are going to delve deeper into Microsoft Windows Registry editing by looking at the 5 main branches of the Windows Registry.

The Windows Registry consist of 5 main branches, as you can see from the pictures below.

Windows Registry 5 Main Branches

Inside this main 5 branches in Windows Registry are registry keys, which are represented by folders, and inside them are Registry SubKeys and Registry Values.

The main 5 branches in the Windows Registry are:

1. HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT
   The HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT branch contains the information Microsoft Windows needs for internal functions such as OLE (Object Linking and Embedding, the ability to copy and paste between different programs and documents) and drag-and-drop. The HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT is also the database for file associations, which is how the OS determines what program opens when you double click a specific file type. This branch is by far the least user-friendly and the least edited from all the branches.
2. HKEY_CURRENT_USER
   This Windows Registry Branch contain several configuration settings for the user that is currently logged in only. All the customizations that have been made to Windows, such as a new desktop configuration, or a change of font will be stored here. Any Windows or application setting that is specific to your user can be found within this branch of the registry. As such, there are many customization options here. HKEY_CURRENT_USER is actually a sub-set of the HKEY_USERS branch, specific to the currently logged in user only.
3. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
   The HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE is probably the most edited friendly registry branch. This branch contains configuration settings that are specific to the computer and the software installed on it, but independent of users. As such, any changes made here will apply to any user that is logged in.
4. HKEY_USERS
   Like the CURRENT_USER branch, this contains individual configuration settings specific to individual users. However, it contains these options for all users that have been created. The users are identified by their SID (Security Identifier) number.
5. HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG
   This is connected to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, in much the same way that the CURRENT_USER branch connects to HKEY_USERS. It specifies hardware and software settings that apply to all users, for a given hardware profile.

Inside each of these 5 main registry branches are keys which hold subkeys and value. We will look into the keys, subkeys and value in the next article.

See also:

• Windows Registry Value (0)
• Windows Registry Editing Tips (1)

A lot of talks have been going on in the IT industry about Windows 7. Surprisingly, instead of being a definitely new Operating System, Windows 7 has come out to be just like its predecessor, Windows Vista. But with promising enhancement and improvement.

Windows 7 Graphical User Interface

Microsoft has chosen a different path on launching their new product this time. Instead of promising the “Wow” factor in their new Operating System, Microsoft, especially Steve Ballmer was saying that Windows 7 will be just like the last one (Windows Vista), but better.

A far cry when they launch Windows XP before.

Let us look at what is new in Microsoft Windows 7, briefly.

Windows 7 has Improved Graphical User Interface
Windows 7 looks a lot like Windows Vista. But that is not a bad thing. Just as Windows Vista borrow heavily from Windows XP before. The only enhancement in the User Interface area of Windows 7 that everybody been talking about is when you hover your mouse cursor over a taskbar button will bring up horizontal preview of thumbnails of each documents open in the application. Hovering over those thumbnail preview will bring full screen preview of the document. The taskbar button can also be drag around freely.

Windows 7 provide some New Applications
Most talk about in the applications department are the “Sticky Notes”. Notes can be posted around your desktop and then gathered to a virtual corkboard. If you create a new note, it will be saved automatically.

Windows 7 have Better Security
Same old news. Every new Operating System from Microsoft will have better security. This time the great leap would be in peripherals using the USB port. This time, you can set a group policy that will force USB drives to be encrypted before files are being copied. You can also disable USB ports through the Windows 7 Operating System.

Windows 7 is Less Annoying
This time the User Account Control (UAC) enforcement tools can be adjusted from Always Notify to Never Notify. Windows 7 UAC can also be setup to only notify the user when programs try to install software applications.

To sum it up, the enhancement are useful, but as a big leap from another Operating System to another, it is not enough to make people brimming with excitement to switch to the new Operating System. Microsoft might as well release a Service Pack to Microsoft Vista and included those enhancement with it.

Other Related Resources on Microsoft Windows 7

See also:

• Windows 7 with DirectX 11 (0)
• Windows 7 will support two touch screen notebook (0)
• Windows 7 will be ready for Christmas (0)
• Windows 7 will be call Windows 7 (2)
• Vista Service Pack 2 will be available before Windows 7 (2)

Microsoft Windows Registry Editing is a high risk practice which can cause serious damage to your Windows Operating System if not done correctly. Below are tips on Windows Registry Editing.

If you read Microsoft Knowledge Base on Registry editing, you will find the statement

WARNING: Using Registry Editor incorrectly can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that problems resulting from the incorrect use of Registry Editor can be solved. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

As scary as it may seems, actually editing Windows Registry manually using Regedit and Notepad is not that troublesome, and if done correctly can produce positive results that will affect your Windows Operating System.

One of the basic tips on Windows Registry Editing that will certainly get you out of trouble when editing Windows Registy would be to backup everything before doing any editing. This is compulsory because if you mess up something, you can easily restore the previous key.

To backup your registry key using Regedit:

1. Go to start menu
2. Run
3. Type “regedit” without the quote and press enter.
4. Go to menu “Files”.
5. Choose “Export”.
6. Save the backup as .reg files.

export registry

If something went wrong after editing your registry using Regedit, you can easily restore the registy key files that you have backed up using the import feature.

We will be looking into other registry editing tips and tricks in the future at badxp.

However if you feel that editing registry manually using Regedit as troublesome, you can use Registry utility such as Regsweep for registry fixing, optimization and cleaning. Refer to my previous post on Registry cleaning using Regsweep.

See also:

• Windows Registry Value (0)
• RegSweep for Windows Registry Cleaning (4)
• Windows Registry Branches (1)