Posted 03/10/10 at 07:28:11 PM by Ryan Whitwam

The recent announcement of the iPad, and revelation that it would not support Adobe Flash, revived debate on the plug-in’s future. If you take Steve Jobs’ word for it, Flash is a CPU hog now and always. Video encoding expert Jan Ozer decided to look into it himself, and the results may surprise you.

On both Mac and Windows platforms, Ozer tested Safari, Chrome, and Firefox (additionally IE was tested on Windows). Safari on the Mac showed HTML5 besting Flash by a wide margin with only 12.39% CPU utilization versus 37.41% for Flash 10.0 and 32.07% for 10.1. Chrome saw HTML5 and both version of Flash with almost 50% CPU usage. Firefox doesn’t support the HTML5 encoding used, but Flash results were similar to Safari.

On Windows, it’s a different story. Safari’s CPU utilization on Flash 10.0 was 23.22%, but 10.1 showed only 7.43% used. Chrome was the only Windows browser that both Flash and HTML5 could be tested in. On Google’s browser, HTML5 used a sizable 25.66% of the CPU. Flash 10.0 was up at 22.00%, but 10.1 used only 6%. Firefox and IE showed similar huge gains from the 10.1 version of Adobe Flash.

Clearly, the GPU acceleration on Windows makes a huge difference and means Flash is more efficient than HTML5 most of the time. The Mac, however, does not expose the necessary APIs for Adobe to do GPU acceleration. Adobe has said the "the ball is in Apple's court". So Apple does not allow Flash to run efficiently on OSX by denying the plug-in access to the graphics hardware? Given these Windows test results, we think that’s kind of unacceptable. Where do you come down in the streaming standards battle?

Make sure you check out Jan Ozer's full rundown here.

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Posted 03/10/10 at 08:09:50 AM by Mark Soper

Whether you are preparing to reuse a hard disk for another operating system, clear off your junk shelves by passing along outdated drives to a friend or relative, donate an old PC to a charity or school, discard a too-small USB drive or flash memory card, or repurpose an SSD, you don’t want to leave any information on the storage device. With stories abounding of identity theft aided by information lifted from discarded storage devices, you want devices you no longer plan to use to have no usable information when they head out the door.

When you erase/delete a file from your computer, it’s not really gone until the areas of the disk it used are overwritten by new information. If you use the normal Windows delete function, the “deleted” file is sent to the Recycle Bin until the space it uses is required by other files. If you use Shift-Delete to bypass the Recycle Bin, the space occupied by the file is marked as available for other files. However, the file could be recovered days or even weeks later with third-party data recovery software. As long as the operating system does not reuse the space occupied by a file with another file, the “deleted” file can be recovered.

In this article, we'll show you how to erase your drives the right way, leaving no trace behind.

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Posted 03/07/10 at 10:06:21 AM by Justin Kerr

Microsoft's TechEd conference doesn't typically get a lot of news coverage around here given it's IT focus, but keynote presenter Eric Rudder was showing off some pretty interesting new Windows phone features which are worthy of note. During his presentation he was able to show off not just a cross platform game that worked across the Xbox 360, PC, and mobile phone, but also how he was able to keep all of his gaming sessions in perfect sync.

Its hard to imagine it will ever be much more than a gimmick when it comes to gaming, but it might have some interesting applications for everyday productivity tools as well. After all, finding a mechanic that works with a gamepad, mouse and keyboard, and even a touch screen is a bit of an unrealistic proposition. And before you ask, no, it won't play Crysis. One thing is clear; Microsoft is taking it's new phone platform very seriously, and is obviously hoping to use it as a hook in the future to help keep you in the MS ecosystem.

Hit the jump to check out the You Tube demonstration, and take careful note of how hard he had to try to say "Windows Phone Series". Yep, he forgot the 7! Guess even Microsoft can't remember its own broken English product names.

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Posted 03/05/10 at 07:58:01 AM by Paul Lilly

This upcoming Patch Tuesday won't be anything like the one last month, in which Microsoft plugged 26 security holes with 13 bulletins, some of which included critical vulnerabilities for Windows.

Those numbers are way down, according to Microsoft, who announced on Thursday it will issue two bulletins to fix just eight vulnerabilities, all of which are being rated as "important."

"We recommend that customers review the Advance Notification webpage and prepare to deploy these bulletins as soon as possible," Microsoft wrote in an official blog post. "To provide additional guidance for deployment prioritization, customers should note that both bulletins will address issues that would require a user to open a specially crafted file. There are no network based attack vectors."

In addition, Redmond said it is continuing to monitor a VBScript issue disclosed on Monday. The software maker said there are currently no known attacks, but is "encouraging" customers to apply the suggested workarounds in the advisory nonetheless.

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Posted 03/05/10 at 07:34:52 AM by Paul Lilly

Do you download updates and plug up your Windows install every 5 days? According to security service vendor Secunia, such is the burden the average Windows user faces.

"It's completely unreasonable to expect users to master so many different patch mechanisms and spend so much time patching," said Thomas Kristensen, the chief security officer of Secunia

Secunia came by its numbers by analyzing the results of its Personal Software Inspector (PSI), a free tool that scans PCs and compiles a list of potentially vulnerable software. According to Secunia, half of those who ran the program in January had 66 or more programs from 22 or more different vendors on their machines, which was also concerning to the company.

"That's why we called for software vendors to create a unified patching standard last year," said Kristensen. "A few vendors said 'We want to hear more,' but a lot just ignored us or turned down the idea outright."

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Posted 03/02/10 at 03:38:04 PM by David Murphy

Let it not be said that I don't pay attention to the demands of the readers.  No sooner did I wrap up another comparative analysis of three slammin' freeware applications for altering your desktop in new and unique ways then, well, you all talked.  And talked.  And talked.

That's not a bad thing, however.  A number of you voiced support for your favorite applications and utilities that you use to radically transform the look of your traditional Windows desktop in some pretty awesome ways.  It would be a shame to let these suggestions languish in the comments thread of an old article, however.  So, this week, Freeware Files is all about you.  I'll be featuring your suggestions for applications and showing people why they should consider your alternatives for giving their desktops a refreshed look.

Got it?  Click the jump and let's check out what your peers are using to make their Windows desktops look amazing!

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Posted 03/01/10 at 07:36:28 PM by Ryan Whitwam

Microsoft Paint has come standard on Windows PCs for a good long while now. While we have a soft spot for Paint, it hasn’t really changed with the technology. Now Microsoft research is working on an application that could be this generation’s Microsoft Paint. It’s called Project Gustav, and it actually looks pretty impressive.

Gustav is meant to mimic real paint in a way that the (apparently poorly named) MS Paint, never has. The application plays nice with Wacom tablets for a more realistic painting experience. Different colors don’t just flow together in Gustav, they blend to create new colors just like real paint. The angle and speed of brushstrokes also create authentic looking ridges and swirls. It’s not that we are art experts here, but Project Gustav just looks like fun. There’s even multitouch support if you fancy some finger painting. There’s a video preview here, if you want to see the possible future of art on Windows.

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Posted 02/24/10 at 01:30:00 PM by David Murphy

Hot on the heels of my "5 Add-ons That Make Windows Explorer Even Better" article comes the appropriately named utility Right Click Context Menu Extender.  It's a recent addition to the freeware world--as in, it was launched five days ago--yet the program shows a surprising amount of prowess for its relative infancy.  As for what the little application actually does, you can probably figure out the general context by its name alone.  The specifics, well, there's the real kicker.

Install the utility to your system and you'll suddenly unlock a wealth of configurable extensions to your average Windows right-click menu.  These are split off into two categories: right-click context options that work in your standard Windows Explorer interface and right-click menu options that only come about when you've performed that activity on the desktop itself.  As to what different kinds of features have been unleashed in your day-to-day PC use, here's a brief overview:

Windows Explorer

• Copy / Move to
• Administrative Command Prompt (opens to the folder)
• Encryption/Decryption
• Hide File/Folder
• Take Ownership

Desktop

• Flip Windows 3D Switcher
• Control Panel shortcut
• Administrative Tools shortcut
• Registry Editor
• Desktop God Mode

Even better, you can specify which options show up in each right-click menu using the application's super-simple configuration menu.  That's it.  While this isn't the kitchen sink of right-menu context options, nor can you add any that aren't already specified by the program, Right Click Context Menu Extender provides a simple way for increasing the power of your middle finger in a manner that's pleasing to all.

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