Free Antivirus Software From Microsoft

Keeping your Windows PC secure from viruses and spyware can be both difficult and expensive, and some of the popular security suites out there are known to slow down computers.

Yes, there are quite a few free antivirus software programs available on the web but they are often designed to convince you to purchase the professional edition and thus nag users with prompts to purchase the commercial version.

 If you are looking for a non-bloated software that doesn't nag you at anytime, try Security Essentials - it's one of the best anti-virus and anti-malware programs that is lightweight and absolutely free as long as you are running a genuine copy of Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7 on your computers.

Microsoft Security Essentials is a capable application that has been streamlined to run efficiently even on notebooks or older computers with low resources. But even on a modern computer with multiple cores and several gigs of ram, a lightweight antivirus solution will definitely make your computer a bit speedier. Security Essentials is also ideal for running in virtual environments such as the new XP Mode for Windows 7.

Microsoft Security Essentials is not just lightweight but easy to use as well.  After downloading the small installer (it's less than 10 MB in size), installation takes less than a minute and it will immediately start protecting your computer from virus attacks. When Security Essentials is scanning your computer for problems, you can still work as normal as the software has been designed to use a limited amount of system resources if a user is using the computer while a scan is in progress.

The software will automatically download new definition from the Internet through Windows Update, and these will be installed on the computer without requiring user intervention. Additionally, Security Essentials is the first product to make use of Microsoft’s Dynamic Signature Service that enables the program to get the latest definitions as soon as their computer suspects a threat.

Although viruses have traditionally been the main security concern in Windows PCs, the security landscape has changed and computers users now have to face threats of rootkits, malware, and spyware in addition to viruses. Windows Defender was designed to keep adware and spyware off your computer but Security Essentials works against most types of threats. The software has received favorable reviews and one of the testers noted that Security Essentials detected all of their sample threats correctly without giving any false positive reports.

Stay secure without sacrificing your computer’s speed or your hard-earned money. Microsoft Security Essentials replaces both Windows Live OneCare and Windows Defender.

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Some Disruptive Innovations that changes their Market

Who are the movers, the shakers, the companies that affect profound change? And what products do they bring to market that disrupt all others, making other companies completely re-think their strategies? Let’s take a look at seven of those products whose competitors wish had never existed.

That’s what we’ll find out with this infographic by professional networking site Focus.com. You’ll see how 7 companies such as Skype, Netflix, Apple and Google rolled out products and services that approached their market in such a unique way that they changed everything. 

Besides those usual suspects, there are a few surprises in the group, too — products that lowered prices, approached their markets in unheard-of ways, even created new markets — and changed the world. See how they did it in this rich infographic, and then let us know of disruptive innovations you’ve encountered. What do you think will be the next disruptive product or service?

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Ctrl+Alt+Compete ,A Feature length documentry and Interviews

Ctrl+Alt+Compete is a documentary that “takes a revealing look at the startup and emerging business scene through the eyes of 5 founders and their teams and tells a story of the passion, fortitude and insanity that is bringing a startup to life”.

Some Interviews Segments with folks of the Movie cntrl alt compete

Ctrl+Alt+Compete

• • Ctrl+Alt+Compete - RSS
  • Ctrl+Alt+Compete - RSS (MP4 Low)
  • Ctrl+Alt+Compete - RSS (MP4 HD)
  • Ctrl+Alt+Compete - RSS (WMV)
  • Ctrl+Alt+Compete - RSS (WMV High)
  • Ctrl+Alt+Compete - RSS (Zune)
  • Ctrl+Alt+Compete - RSS (Audio)
  • Comments On Ctrl+Alt+Compete

hare104

CTRL+ALT+COMPETE is a feature-length documentary that takes a revealing look at the startup and emerging business scene through the eyes of five founders and their teams. Have a look at some of the interviews, segments and deleted scenes from the documentary. You can also check out our page on Facebook. 

• 
  

  2 minutes, 34 seconds
  INTERVIEW: Tim O'Reilly
  

  Ctrl+Alt+CompeteTim O'Reilly is the founder and CEO of O'Reilly Media, Inc.
  Tim is a fixture in discussions of technology and innovation
  and has a long history of advocacy, meme-making,
  and evangelism. In this video, Tim shares 
  his path to successand addresses questions 
  around what sparks…
• 
  

  

  2 minutes, 37 seconds
  INTERVIEW: Simon SinekCtrl+Alt+CompeteSimon Sinek is the author of a book called Start With why and creator of a simple model, "The Golden Circle", what codifies what makes the most inspiring people and organizations so successful.  In this video Simon offers his perspective on the human drive and passion to…
• 
  

  1 minute, 19 seconds
  CLIP: prepping for DEMO pitch with AboutOneCtrl+Alt+CompeteThe entire team has been slogging hard to get the product ready...the demo and presentation have crafted, polished and rehearsed...and it all comes down to the "pitch" where you unveil your product to press, investors and the world. Here's a peek at the experience of Joanne Lang and team…
• 
  

  1 minute, 33 seconds
  CLIP: prepping for DEMO pitch with GuardlyCtrl+Alt+Compete"it's kind of like these young tech entrepreneurs are turning into the rockstars of the 21st century... "Have a look as the Guardly team prepares to
  take the stage at DEMO.
• 
  

  2 minutes, 15 seconds
  Ctrl+Alt+Compete offical trailer

  Ctrl+Alt+CompeteExcited to share the official trailer for Ctrl+Alt+Compete
  AND announce that the film will be premiering at
  the Napa Valley Film Festival in November!
  Why did we make this film? We believe technology is
  fundamentally changing the world.
  The things that technology entrepreneurs create,…
• 
  

  3 minutes, 25 seconds
  INTERVIEW: Ben Huh - Founder and CEO of Cheezburger Network"what great entrepreneurs do is find opportunitywhere other people see none"--Ben Huh
  
• 
  

  3 minutes, 36 seconds
  INTERVIEW: Graphic.ly CEO Micah BaldwinCtrl+Alt+CompeteMicah Baldwin is Co-Founder, CEO and Chief Community Caretaker of Graphic.ly, an interactive digital comic book and Graphic novel reader, community platform, and marketplace. In this video, Micah shares his thoughts on
  "social capital", what does it take to really…

 

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A Movie on Microsoft, Ctrl+Alt+Compete

Ctrl+Alt+Compete is a documentary that “takes a revealing look at the startup and emerging business scene through the eyes of 5 founders and their teams and tells a story of the passion, fortitude and insanity that is bringing a startup to life”. 

Daryll McDade explains more in a guest blog on the Bizspark site and names the 5 startups under the spotlight as Aboutone.com, LiquidSpace, POPVOX, Guardly, Supergiant Games. The movie gets its first airing at the inaugural Napa Valley Film Festival this November and will become more broadly available in the months after.

Checkout the Interviews of Movie Folks 

Right about now I’m imagining that you’re thinking to yourself, “Microsoft made a movie? Really??  What the…?!” Yup—we did and here’s why…

We believe developers are fundamentally changing the world.  The things that developers create, the ideas that they’re able to make reality, the tangible value they deliver is reshaping the way people live their lives every day.  There are lots of tech startups out there taking their shot at changing the world.  There’s no shortage of ideas…the infrastructure to build quickly is cheaper and more accessible than it’s ever been…there’s lots of capital floating around for the right idea.  If only it were that simple!  Building a startup from nothing to something is hard—REALLY hard.  There is a “story behind the story” of just how hard it is for these ideas to go from inception to reality and become the products and services that we use every day.  It’s a story of the power of people pouring their passion, drive and dedication into building something that changes the world—no matter how hard.  We believe that is a story worth telling and sharing.

 In the blog post, Daryll mentions that in addition to more than 100 hours of footage the team captured more than 70 interviews to get the perspective of several seasoned entrepreneurs, investors, industry watchers and tastemakers. Not all of that made it in to the movie so they plane to share it on the Facebook page and YouTube channel. If you’ve been following along with Ctrl+Alt+Compete you’ll know there are already some interview segments with folks like Tim O’Reilly on Channel 9.

This should be fun. Check out more at www.ctrl-alt-compete.com and follow them on Twitter

Checkout the Interviews of Movie Folks

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How to Make Windows startup Faster

Does your Windows computer take really long to start-up?Make Your windows startup faster.As yo all know this problem occurs regularly with windows XP as well as with Windows Vista.

Well, you are not alone with this problem but fortunately, with some minor tweaks, you can get your sluggish Windows to start much faster without re-installing Windows or adding any new hardware.

The logic is fairly simple. Your computer loads quite a few software programs and services during start-up (look at all the icons in your Windows System tray). If you can trim this list, your computer’s boot time will decrease.

I have been testing a free utility called Soluto and it helped reduce the start-up time of my Windows computer from 3.15 minutes to around 1.25 minutes. All this with a few easy clicks and without confusing the user with any technical jargon.

         

After you install Soluto, it sorts your start-up programs list into three categories:

• No-brainer – remove these programs from start-up with giving a second thought.
• Potentially removable – another list of start-up programs that may also be removed provided you know what these programs do.
• Required – Certain programs and services are required to run Windows properly and therefore should not be removed.

Depending upon the software app, you may then either choose “Pause” to completely remove that app from the start-up queue or choose “Delay” when you want the app to run automatically but not immediately at start-up. Soluto will launch the “delayed” app once the boot up is over and your system is idle.

You can also hover the mouse over any program name and Soluto will display the number of seconds that the app adds to the start-up time. And don't bother about making mistakes because Soluto has a useful "Undo all" feature that will restore the start-up list to the original state with a click.

     

Once you are done classifying your start-up programs list, reboot the computer and you should notice a difference between the start-up time.

Where to download Soluto?

The official site for Soluto is soluto.com but in order to download the program, you should head over to mysoluto.com.

Alternatives to Soluto

If you are tech-savvy, you can also use a utility like Sysinternals Autoruns to manually prevent all the non-essential Windows processes and programs from running at start-up.

Just uncheck all the Autorun entries and Services that you don't wish to load at startup and reboot your system. You’ll however need a separate program to get the “delay” feature which is so handy in Solute.

           

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Microsoft to unviels Windows 8 Tablet-Rumour or Truth

Windows 8 Tablet mockup

Next week a high-ranking Microsoft Corp executive will stand on stage and show off a new version of Windows on a tablet computer.

It won't be the first time. Chief Executive Steve Ballmer did it last year. Co-founder Bill Gates did it 10 years ago.

This time, when Windows chief Steven Sinofsky shows off an early version of its next touch-enabled, tablet-friendly operating system -- code-named Windows 8 -- to independent developers at their annual conference in Anaheim next, there is a sense that it really matters.

"It's a big deal," said Todd Lowenstein, portfolio manager at HighMark Capital Management, which holds Microsoft shares.

"Investors are hungry to see how they are going to join where the market's going. They've been lagging and they need to catch up and surpass what's going on, to demonstrate they truly are an innovative company."

Despite foretelling the tablet revolution a decade ago, Microsoft is last off the blocks with a salable device. The tablet PC Gates unveiled at the Comdex tech show in November 2001 was too clunky to catch on. The slick-looking Hewlett-Packard prototype slate brandished by Ballmer at the Consumer Electronics Show in 2010 did not even make it onto the shelves.

The first generation of touch-enabled tablets running Windows 8 are expected on the market in about 12 months.

That gives Apple Inc two and a half years head start with its iPad, which has already sold 29 million units. Tablets running Google Inc's Android software will also have gained ground, likely boosted by an expected Amazon.com device.

The shift away from desk-based PCs -- which mostly run on Microsoft software -- toward tablets and smartphones is happening quicker than expected. The future of Microsoft, and its moribund stock, may hinge on how well Sinofsky can sell the latest combination of tablets and Windows.

"Windows 8 might actually matter if they can do the touch-screen innovation," said Michael Yoshikami, Chief Executive of fund manager YCMNET Advisors. "Otherwise Windows 8 is just Windows 7 with one more number."

Hearts and minds
First, Microsoft needs to get itself back in tune with developers and entrepreneurs who are flocking from Microsoft-centric programing platforms to the more exciting realms of Apple and Android.

The shift to a Apple-based culture is noticeable among innovators and entrepreneurs, said Matt McIlwain, managing director at Seattle-based venture capital firm Madrona Venture Group.

"Five years ago I would have said 80 percent of the startups or ventures who came to pitch us pulled out their laptop and started showing us their PowerPoint presentation," said McIlwain. "Now 80 percent pull out their Mac. If I were Steve Ballmer, that would be concerning to me."

The enthusiasm of independent software developers is key for the health of what Microsoft calls its Windows "ecosystem". It has stirred excitement with its new motion-controlled Kinect system for the Xbox game console, but is lagging in the exploding market for mobile apps.

Apple iPhone and iPad users can download 425,000 apps, while Android users have a choice of 250,000. There are only 30,000 apps for Windows Phones, although that is expected to grow when Microsoft launches its own app store with Windows 8.

Microsoft finds itself playing only a background role in many tech-savvy startups, such as fashion site StyleCaster, which uses Apple computers, Google email, Linux web systems and Amazon.com Inc for its data storage.

"In the last four or five years, ever since the iPhone platform came out, you have even more developers who have moved over onto Apple systems, and that's created more and more tools," said Drew Butler, StyleCaster's vice president of technology.

Not everyone is so downbeat. Wes Greene, lead mobile developer at Seattle-based Groundspeak, which makes a leading app for geocaching -- basically GPS-enabled treasure hunting -- for Windows, Apple and Android phones, expects Microsoft's deal with Nokia to bring it into the mobile mainstream.

He likes what he has read so far about Windows 8.

"It's kind of cool to see it's not like three separate companies any more, it's all falling into line."

Wall Street restive
Microsoft also needs to connect with Wall Street and investors, who are nonplused with a share price that hasn't budged in the past decade.

Next Wednesday, Ballmer and his top lieutenants are set to make their annual presentations to analysts, in the midst of the developer conference, to explain their strategy.

Analysts will likely focus on the perennial issues -- how long Microsoft should persevere with its massively money-losing Bing search business, and what it should do with its $53 billion cash pile.

Ballmer may also need to address a rising tide of protest from unhappy shareholders, including influential hedge fund manager David Einhorn, who has called for Ballmer's removal and demanded the sale of the online services unit -- including Bing -- which has lost more than $6 billion in the last three years.

In addition, a letter from an anonymous investor to Microsoft's lead independent director was widely circulated over the summer, calling for the company to issue $40 billion of debt to fund a massive share buyback and to direct all its domestic cash flow toward paying dividends, which might increase the share price by more than 50 percent.

Some are hoping for a repeat of Microsoft's special dividend in 2004 which handed back more than $30 billion to shareholders. At the very least, most investors are looking for an increase in Microsoft's dividend later this month, from the 2.5 per cent dividend yield it sits at now.

Whether through innovation or financial engineering, investors are looking for Microsoft to show it has more value than its $26 share price -- nine times expected earnings -- indicates.

"The stock is reflecting a no-growth, or ex-growth kind of multiple," said Lowenstein. "Their hurdle is to convince investors this is not the case." 

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The Interconnected World of Tech Companies

The “tech world” is really more of a “tech family.” Between digital giants’ appetites for acquisitions and the tendency of their ex-employees to start new companies, it’s easy to see how nearly every blip in the ecosystem is closely related.

We’ve mapped just a few of these family ties between “Xooglers,” the “PayPal Mafia”, “Softies” and the many other tech connectors who have yet to be nicknamed.

Our guess is that if you gathered a handful of tech veterans in a room, you could keep the tech connection game going forever. So while this graphic is hardly exhaustive, we’ll keep it going in the comments — feel free to add connections to the list!.

Info-graphic Presentation..

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Microsoft unveils first smartphone, Mango edition with windows platform

The first smartphone based on the new "Mango" edition of Microsoft's Windows Phone platform was unveiled on Wednesday in Tokyo.The phone is the first of several handsets due over the next few months, that Microsoft hopes will signal its return to the smartphone market as a serious player.If that wish sounds familiar, it is. This time last year the company was hoping the first version of the Windows Phone 7 would accomplish the same thing. But that didn't happen.

Despite getting several thousand applications and generally positive reviews, the new platform, which replaced Windows Mobile, was relegated to the sidelines by a rush of new Android devices and updates to Apple's iPhone.Far from boosting its market share, the introduction of the new operating system saw Microsoft lose share.

Microsoft captured 2.7 percent of the smartphone market during the first quarter of 2011, according to IDC. But a year earlier during the first quarter of 2010, its market share was 7.1 percent, the market research company said. In terms of handsets shipped, those with Windows Phone 7 or Windows Mobile fell from 3.9 million to 2.8 million phones in the two periods.

"We've gone from very small to....very small," quipped Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer earlier this month on his company's lackluster performance.

Mango, officially Windows Phone 7.5, adds some 500 improvements to the Windows Phone 7 platform, according to the company. They include an e-mail "conversation view" that is said to make long e-mail discussions more efficient, a "threads" feature that brings together text, instant messages and Facebook chat, and Internet Explorer 9 for faster Web browsing.

"Mango is a substantial improvement bringing multi-tasking and other needed features," Al Hilwa, an analyst with IDC, wrote in an email. "This really begins to close the gap and in a couple of ways exceeds its competitors."

Some of those improvements can be seen in the new handset, the IS12T, which will be available in Japan only. Built by Fujitsu Toshiba Mobile Communications, the phone will be available in September or after. No price was disclosed.

The company is one of several partners Microsoft is working with on Mango handsets. Others include Taiwan's Acer and China's ZTE, but perhaps the most awaited phones will be from Nokia.

The Finnish cell phone maker threw its weight behind Windows Phone 7 earlier this year when it announced a wide ranging agreement with Microsoft to collaborate on future handsets and technologies.

Nokia is losing market share to aggressive competitors, but it remains one of the world's largest manufacturers of smart phones, so it has the potential to help Microsoft shift the market.The launch of the phone came just hours after Microsoft signed off on the operating system and declared it ready to be installed in consumer handsets. That should mean additional phones will get launched in the coming weeks.

"Now everything rests on the diversity of the device portfolio that begins to emerge," said Hilwa.

Looking ahead, IDC predicts Windows-based smartphones will account for 20 percent of the market in 2015, making them second only to Android.

"Microsoft will claw its way to success and market share over the next couple of releases," the analyst said. "Its chances will be helped significantly with a successful Windows 8 release in 2012 which will create synergies between the PC and the phone in new ways."

For Japanese consumers, the IS12T phone has a 3.7-inch screen and a 13.2 megapixel camera. Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are included in the CDMA-based phone. It weighs 113 grams and Fujitsu Toshiba says the battery should provide more than 11 days on standby and more than 6 hours of talk time.

The phone has 32GB of memory and is waterproof with an IPX5 rating.

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Is Microsoft going to launch a social networking site

Tulalip Home

Is Microsoft geared up to launch a social networking site? This has become the hottest question of the month. If rumors are true, the fight of the three giants, Facebook, Google and Microsoft will be an interesting war to watch out for. However if the speculations comes true it would not be very surprising as far trend goes.

Inception of the speculation:

A writer from Fusible reportedly found out that the site Socl.com had been bought by Microsoft and the site Socl.com hosted a teaser page for a service called Tulalip. Members of the Google+ network were also among the ones who witnessed it. Tulalip, the name of the Native American tribes near Microsoft's Redmond office, seems to be a social search feature integrated with Twitter and Facebook.

The project, entitled Tulalip, advertised itself in the splash as a service that lets users "find what you need and share what you know easier than ever" and there appear to be the options to connect via Facebook or Twitter. It also showed a link which said "See how it works."

Contradiction:

However if you go to Socl.com now, you will witness a whole contradictory affair. It will flash a message saying: "Thanks for stopping by. Socl.com is an internal design project from a team in Microsoft Research which was mistakenly published to the web. We didn't mean to, honest."

Hence, for now Tulalip and Socl.com will remain unsolved mysteries only. However this leaves room for many unanswered questions like, what made Microsoft remove the splash and replace it with a briefing message? Are they really going to join the league of social networking sites?

 

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