Maybe you just reinstalled Windows, or maybe you deleted a device from Windows Device Manager by accident.

Whatever the case may be, we’ve received quite a few requests for various — and some hard to find — hardware drivers lately so we decided to create a driver request forum for this purpose.

If you have a driver that you’re desperately looking for, or don’t know which drivers you need for your computer, request away right here in our forums. If it’s out there, we’ll do our best to find it

Antivirus 2010 is a rogue anti-malware program. It’s also older brother to Antivirus 2008 and 2009. It’s usually picked up via internet ads claiming that your computer is infected and also through trojan horses. It tries to force it’s victim to purchase it as well. Yeah right.

While it’s quite annoying and can produce different pop-ups including a fake blue screen of death, it’s actually rather easy to remove thanks to the free Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware.

Per a member’s request, I have posted a quick and easy removal guide here on our free support forums.

It should also be noted that Antivirus 2010 and other malware like it can be easily thwarted by using solid anti-malware protection. I have listed many free programs here to choose from that will help keep you safe and free of malware going forward.

Mozilla Firefox has been updated to v3.6.3. This release fixes a critical security issue according to Mozilla Foundation Security Advisory 2010-25:

Title: Re-use of freed object due to scope confusion
Impact: Critical
Announced: April 1, 2010
Reporter: Nils (MWR InfoSecurity)
Products: Firefox

Fixed in: Firefox 3.6.3

Description:

A memory corruption flaw leading to code execution was reported by security researcher Nils of MWR InfoSecurity during the 2010 Pwn2Own contest sponsored by TippingPoint’s Zero Day Initiative. By moving DOM nodes between documents Nils found a case where the moved node incorrectly retained its old scope. If garbage collection could be triggered at the right time then Firefox would later use this freed object.

You can update your version through Firefox’s internal updater by opening Firefox and selecting Help > Check for Updates. You can also get the full download here.

Update: JS-Computing.com forum member, torquemasterice, has recommended a free program aimed at simplifying this process called, WinToFlash. WinToFlash works with Windows XP, Windows 2003, Windows Vista, Windows 2008 and Windows 7. It is important to note, however, that WinToFlash is currently in beta. If you run into bugs with WinToFlash or choose not to use it, you can continue reading the tutorials here.

A few folks have asked us if there’s a way to install Windows from a flash drive. Well, there sure is.

I have posted the simple methods here on our forum.

There are a couple of reasons why we prefer installing Windows from a flash drive. One, installing from a flash drive is much faster than installing from a CD or DVD. And number two, we waste fewer disks!

Have an easier method that you would like to share? Drop us a comment below or on our forum thread.

We’ve just updated our free technical support forums. Feel free to come check it out and let us know what you think! Feedback and feature requests are always appreciated.

Our favorite internet browser, Firefox, has been updated to v3.5. You can update your version of Firefox by opening Firefox and selecting Help > Check for Updates.

Firefox 3.5 is based on the Gecko 1.9.1 rendering platform, which has been under development for the past year. Firefox 3.5 offers many changes over the previous version, supporting new web technologies, improving performance and ease of use. Some of the notable features are:

• Available in more than 70 languages. (Get your local version!)
• Support for the HTML5 <video> and <audio> elements including native support for Ogg Theora encoded video and Vorbis encoded audio. (Try it here!)
• Improved tools for controlling your private data, including a Private Browsing Mode.
• Better web application performance using the new TraceMonkey JavaScript engine.
• The ability to share your location with websites using Location Aware Browsing. (Try it here!)
• Support for native JSON, and web worker threads.
• Improvements to the Gecko layout engine, including speculative parsing for faster content rendering.
• Support for new web technologies such as: downloadable fonts, CSS media queries, new transformations and properties, JavaScript query selectors, HTML5 local storage and offline application storage, <canvas> text, ICC profiles, and SVG transforms.

Windows Vista SP2 has been released today and is ready for download. You can grab SP2 from either Windows Update, or from Microsoft’s website here.

What’s new:

•SP2 contains Blue tooth 2.1 feature pack supporting the most recent specification for Blue tooth technology
•Ability to record data on Blu-Ray media,
•Adds Windows Connect Now (WCN) Wi-Fi Configuration to Windows Vista SP2,
•exFAT file system now supports UTC timestamps, which enables correct file synchronization across time zones.
•SP2 provides support for new form factors, such as ICCD/CCID. new form factor support –example USB form factor as opposed to PCMCIA).
•Support for the new VIA 64-bit

CPU Security:

•SP2 includes all previously released security updates, and builds on the proven security benefits of Windows Vista
•Secure Development Lifecycle process updates, where we identify the root cause of each security bulletin and improve our internal tools to eliminate code patterns that could lead to future vulnerabilities
•Reliability
•SP2 addresses previously released reliability updates, as well as addressing crashes, caused by Microsoft code, discovered since the launch of SP1 Performance

•Resume performance when Wi-Fi connection is no longer available after resume from sleep
•Inclusion of Windows Search 4 for improved indexing performance, improved relevancy in search, broader indexing scenario inclusion, as well as new Group Policy integration for Windows Search, •Improvements to the RSS feeds sidebar gadget to improve update performance and responsiveness.

Application Compatibility:

•It is our goal that applications that run on the Windows Vista Operating System today and are written using public APIs will continue to work as designed on Windows Vista SP2.
•Previously released Application Compatibility updates are included in Windows Vista SP2.
•Spysweeper and ZoneAlarm now working with POP3 email accounts.

Administration and Support Improvements:

•Customers installing .net framework 3.5 service pack 1 will notice shorter download and installation times with Vista service pack 2 or Windows 2008 service pack 2 already installed,
•Service Pack Clean up tool (Compcln.exe): This tool helps restore the hard disk space by permanently deleting the previous versions of the files (RTM & SP1) that are being serviced by Service Pack 2.
•Single installer for both Vista & Server 2008
•Ability to detect an incompatible driver and block service pack installation or warn users of any loss of functionality
•Better error handling and providing more descriptive error messages where possible
•Better manageability through logging in system event log
•Componentization for Serviceability of the installer

Some Specific Fixes/Additions Include:

•Inclusion of Hyper-V
•Event logging support in SPC
•DNS Server now listens over ISATAP address
•Fixes DRM issues from WMP upgrades
•Windows Vista Feature Pack for Wireless
•Reduction of resources required for sidebar gadgets
•Improved power settings for WS08

We’ve updated our free technical support forums.  Feel free to join and let us know what you think!

On my primary computer, I’m currently running Windows Vista Ultimate.  This computer has three internal SATA2 hard drives.  I have one 140GB primary drive along with two 500GB secondary drives.

Soon after installing and optimizing Vista, I noticed that when I opened a portable application or file on one of my secondary drives, there seemed to be a delay in Vista of about 10 seconds.  I would notice the pause… then the drive clicked a few times before finally opening the desired file.  I started thinking, what the heck is going on?

After some digging around, I found out that Windows Vista — by default — turns off hard drives that are not in use due to inactivity, in order to conserve energy.  If people rarely access their secondary drives, then it made sense.  However, in my case I’m constantly accessing files on these backup drives when using my main PC.

The solution to this frustrating problem?

Not allowing Vista to turn off these secondary hard drives.

If you are experiencing the same problem or want full efficiency out of your hard drives, follow these simple steps:

• Go to Start> Control Panel> Power Options (you may have to click “classic view” on the left sidebar).
• Select your desired power plan:

• Next click “Change plan settings”
• Select “Change advanced power settings”
• Per the below screen shot, select the “Hard disk” option and change it to “never”:

• Click apply and OK.

That’s it.  This frustrating problem should plague you no more

Via our contact form, we received an e-mail from Jim asking us for a recommendation on a free, easy to use video converter. Jim said he has several video files he would like to transfer to his iPod, but that they are in the wrong video format and he hates using iTunes. Can’t say we blame you there Jim

Well Jim, I’ve been using this piece of freeware for a while now and love the simplicity.  WinFF is a frontend GUI (graphical user interface) for the popular commandline video encoder known as FFmpeg. 

In other words, WinFF makes it very easy to convert your video files to DVD, AVI, WMV, VCD, Quicktime, cell phone format, etc.  Yes, you can convert your video files to MP4 as well for use on your iPod. A great thing about WinFF is that is supports batch jobs, so you can queue up all your files at once. Keep in mind though that depending on the size of your video files, they can take a while to convert.

You can also use it to convert your audio files to MP3, M4A, WMA, WAV, Ac3, etc.

It should also be mentioned however, that while WinFF is a great file converter, it will not transfer your converted files to your iPod. Since you dislike iTunes, you can use the free Winamp + the ml_ipod plugin to accomplish this task.

Download it here and give it a shot.



Have other suggestions? Leave us a comment!