update

Configure Windows Update Settings In Windows 8

Configure Windows Update Settings In Windows 8

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Windows Update is a built in tool that comes with your Microsoft Windows. This tool is responsible to keep your system updated with the latest patches and service packs offered by the Microsoft Corporation. Some of them are marked as important, some are critical while others are optional. By default, Windows Update automatically runs on your system after a certain time interval. However, we can always configure the Windows Update settings easily. Similarly, whenever you plug any hardware device into your machine, it searches for device driver automatically. We can disable the Windows to install the automatic updates and device drivers using the Control Panel. The following tutorial will help you manage your updates well.

Control Panel - Windows Update

Go to Control Panel -> System and Security -> Windows Update. You will find the following options under the Windows Update option.

  • Turn automatic updating on or off
  • Check for Updates
  • Install Optional Updates
  • View Update History

Disable automatic update installation

We will explain every option of Windows Update sequentially. Let’s start with the most important and the first option that lets you choose how you want updates to be installed on your system.

  • Go to Control Panel -> System and Security -> Windows Update.
  • Select the Turn Automatic Updating on or off.

Configure Windows Update Settings

You have the following options to choose from:

1- Download and install updates

This will install every important update without asking for your permission. You schedule automatic maintenance of your system by selecting a day and time of the week.

  • Select Install Updates Automatically from the drop down list.
  • Click on ‘Updates will be automatically installed during the maintenance window’.
  • Set the time for automatic maintenance.

Now, your system will automatically check, download and install update on that particular time.

Schedule Automatic Maintenance in Windows Update

2-Download updates , do not install

This will check and download the available updates before you shutdown your system. You can not specify any day and time with this option.

Select ‘Download Updates but let me choose whether to install them’ from the drop-down.

3-Do not download, do not install

Now, the options are becoming more selective for the advanced users. You can allow your system to Check for the new updates but it can not download or install them without your permission.

Select ‘Check for updates but let me choose whether to download and install them’ from the drop-down.

4- Never check for updates

This is highly undesirable option. You are forcing your system to not check for any updates. However, you can still check for the updates manually.

Check for updates

Select ‘Check for Updates’ whenever you wish to see if there is an update available or not. Make sure that your system is connected to the Internet. Windows Update also informs you about the last time your system was checked for updates and how many updates were installed.

Check for Windows Update

Install Optional updates

You will see Install Optional Updates window, once it has checked for the updates. It tells you about the available updates and the memory space needed for them. Click on ‘Install Updates’ to install the available updates.

Install Optional Updates in Wndows 8

Disable automatic device driver installation

As a continuation to the installation of updates, we feel strongly to give a quick tip on how to disable automatic driver installation for hardware devices. This is not configured using the Windows Update feature, however, you need to go to:

  • Go to Control Panel -> System and Security -> System
  • Select Advanced System Settings from the Panel.
  • System Properties dialog box will be opened.
  • Select Hardware -> Device Installation Settings.

View System Properties

Device Installation Settings dialog box lets you set your preferred way of installing updated device drivers. Usually, we may go for automatic installation and there’s no harm in it. However, some people are more conscious about the software being installed on their system, so they can select: “No, let me choose what to do” -> Never install driver software from Windows Update. Save Changes.

Device Derivr Installation Settings

How to uninstall an update

To uninstall installed updates in Windows 8, follow the steps below:

Control Panel ->System And Security -> Windows Update -> View Update History.

This will open a list of updates that have been installed on your machine with their publisher’s name and installation date. You can uninstall any update by:

  • Select update name.
  • Right click and select uninstall .

View Windows Update History

We have tried to cover every aspect related to management and configuration of update installation in your Windows 8 . If you still have any queries, you can ping us through the comments form.

Download Google Drive 1.9 Installer With Offline Access To Google Docs

Download Google Drive 1.9 Installer With Offline Access To Google Docs

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Google has released a new version of Google Drive. The latest version at the time of this writing is 1.9.4536.8202. The new Google Drive 1.9 offers some exciting changes the the software. First of all, the users will see a clear improvement in synchronization and download speeds.

The download speeds will improve by 50% in the version 1.9. The speed improvement can be higher if you have smaller files in your Google Drive account. Let’s discuss some of the new and improved features of Google Drive 1.9.

Right click menu

Now Google Drive comes with a dedicated context menu item. When you right click on any file in Google Drive folder, you will see a new Google Drive context menu item which can be use to either share the file of view the file on the web.

Google Drive context menu item

Offline access to Google Docs

Now you will be able to access Google Docs in offline mode. This means that you don’t need to have any Office suite installed on your computer in order to view or edit the documents in Google Drive which you are not connected to the Internet. The only requirement for this to work is that you must have Google Chrome installed on your computer.

Google Drive in offline mode

Once you have installed Google Drive 1.9, you can go to drive.google.com in Google Chrome. It will open in offline mode if you are not connected to the Internet. You can edit the documents. The changes will be synchronized when the computer connects to the Internet again.

Faster downloading

Google has optimized how Google Drive downloads and synchronizes files locally. Now the users will be able to see download improvements of over 50%.

Download Google Drive

For downloading Google Drive from drive.google.com, you will need to sign into your Google account. Here are the direct download links to the latest Google Drive installers:

Google Drive 1.9.4536.8202 offline installer direct download link [29.7MB]

Java 7 Update 21 Offline Installers Direct Download Links

Java 7 Update 21 Offline Installers Direct Download Links

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Java 7 Update 21 has been released by Oracle. Oracle has been working tirelessly to make sure that Java remains secure in the future. Java was in danger of its existence when many security vulnerabilities were found of which some were already being exploited on the Internet. If anyone is interested in reading the history of updates of Java, just head towards Java tag which will list all the updates we have been covering.

Java 7 Update 21 is a critical update for April 2013. A total of 42 vulnerabilities have been fixes. The update also contains some non-security patches. 39 of the security vulnerabilities are remotely exploitable meaning that they have a very high severity level. Of these 42 vulnerabilities only two affect the server deployments of Java.

Java 7 Update 21

Going deep into the updates reveals that Oracle has changed how Java runs on computers. Now Java requires code signing for executing the Java applets and programs. It will alert the user of unsigned, self signed or expired certificates to make sure that the user understands what he is doing.

unsigned_cert

You can learn about Java code signing here.

Oracle recommends that the Desktop users download and apply this update as soon as possible.

Java 7 Update 21 offline installer links

For Windows

Download Java 7 Update 21 Runtime 32-bit installer

Download Java 7 Update 21 Runtime 64-bit installer

For Mac OSX

Download Java 7 Update 21 DMG

For Linux

Download Java 7 Update 21 32-bit RPM

Download Java 7 Update 21 64-bit RPM

For Solaris and other Operating Systems, you can find the installers here. For complete information about the latest update, you may want to read the release notes.

If you are using Portable applications, you can also download portable version of Java 7 Update 21.

Java 7 Update 17 Offline Installers Direct Download Links

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Oracle has updated Java 7 Update 15 to Java 7 Update 17. The update comes just after the vulnerability found by FireEye, a Polish security firm. Java 7 Update 17 fixes two important vulnerabilities of which one was exploited in the wild. The Java updates are always coming in odd numbers now. This is very similar to Linux kernel releases. The stable Linux kernels always come in even numbers.

According to Oracle, the vulnerability exploited by FireEye was already reported to them in early February but they didn’t have time to fix the vulnerability in the last update which was scheduled to be released on 19th of February. Java 7 Update 17 comes with the fixes to that vulnerability and another one which was not yet exploited.

Java 7 Update 17

Here’s what Oracle says,

The company intended to include a fix for CVE-2013-1493 in the April 16, 2013 Critical Patch Update for Java SE (note that Oracle recently announced its intent to have an additional Java SE security release on this date in addition to those previously scheduled in June and October of 2013). However, in light of the reports of active exploitation of CVE-2013-1493, and in order to help maintain the security posture of all Java SE users, Oracle decided to release a fix for this vulnerability and another closely related bug as soon as possible through this Security Alert.

Although Oracle has fixed so many vulnerabilities in the recent past, the US government still warns the users of using the Java plugin in their browsers. The recommended action will be to update your Java plugin while keeping it disabled for the time being if you don’t need it.

Java 7 Update 17 offline installer links

For Windows

Download Java 7 Update 17 Runtime 32-bit installer

Download Java 7 Update 17 Runtime 64-bit installer

For Mac OSX

Download Java 7 Update 17 DMG

For Linux

Download Java 7 Update 17 32-bit RPM

Download Java 7 Update 17 64-bit RPM

For Solaris and other Operating Systems, you can find the installers here.

Download Adobe Reader 11.0.2 Offline Installers

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Adobe has released yet another security update for Adobe Reader 11. The new Adobe Reader 11.0.2 is available for download (direct download links at the end). Since Adobe was the founder of Portable Document Format (PDF), their native reader for PDF documents is the most popular software for reading and manipulating PDF files.

Since the latest update 11.0.2 is a security update, it does not contain a lot of other enhancements. This update addresses vulnerabilities that could cause a crash and potentially allow a hacker to take control of the system.

Adobe Reader 11.0.2

The latest update has been released for the Adobe Reader XI (11.0.01) users. There is one confusion though. As we had discussed in our earlier article, the version numbering of Adobe Reader gets confusing as sometimes the version number will be written as 11.0.2 and sometimes it will be 11.0.02. I hope Adobe will become consistent in their versioning in the next release.

The two vulnerabilities that have been fixed in this update are CVE-2013-0640 and CVE-2013-0641. You can read more about these vulnerabilities in the security advisory APSA13-02.

CVE-2013-0640 resolves a memory corruption vulnerability that could lead to code execution.

CVE-2013-0641 resolves a buffer overflow vulnerability that could lead to code execution.

By code execution, it is meant that a remote hacker or user will be able to execute code of his choice while exploiting these vulnerabilities.

It is always recommended that you keep all your software up to date to make sure that you always remain secure. Here are the direct download links for the latest version of Adobe Reader.

Adobe Reader XI (11.0.2) offline installer English (en-US)

Adobe Reader XI (11.0.2) offline installer French (fr-FR)

Adobe Reader XI (11.0.2) offline installer German (de-DE)

Adobe Reader XI (11.0.2) offline installer Spanish (es-ES)

Adobe Reader XI (11.0.2) offline installer Japanese (ja-JP)

These direct download links are executable that run on Windows only. To download Adobe Reader in more languages or Operating Systems, just go to this page, select the Operating System and Adobe Reader version which you want to download. This will download the full setup for Adobe Reader in your desired language.

Download Java 7 Update 15 Offline Installers

Download Java 7 Update 15 Offline Installers

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Oracle had released an out of the band patch for Java which was Java 7 Update 13 on 1st of February. This was because the vulnerabilities found by experts were critical and were already being exploited by hackers and pirates. There were some vulnerabilities that remained un-patched at the time. Java 7 Update 15 deals with all those known vulnerabilities and tries to fix them all.

Java 7 Update 15

The new update 15 includes all the earlier 50 fixes and 5 more fixes that may affect the computer security. If you have not updated your Java installation, you may install Java 7 Update 15 which will apply all the patches included in earlier versions of Java. The update also includes non-security patches.

According to Oracle,

Due to the threat posed by a successful attack, Oracle strongly recommends that customers apply CPU fixes as soon as possible.

Java 7 Update 15 control panel

There are two ways to update Java on your computer. You can either download offline installers for the latest version of Java 7 Update 15 from the following direct download links or use a tool called JavaRa to automatically uninstall the previous version of Java and then install the latest one.

Download JavaRa and run the executable with administrative privileges.

JavaRa 2.1

Now click on the “Update JavaRa Definitions” button to make sure that it detects the latest version of Java available on Oracle’s servers.

Finally click on “Update Java Runtime”. You can also remove the old Java Runtime first and then install the latest one.

You can also download the Java 7 Update 15 offline installer setup from the following direct download links:

Download Java 7 Update 15 Runtime 32-bit installer [30.1 MB]

Download Java 7 Update 15 Runtime 64-bit installer [31.5 MB]

For complete information about the latest update, you may want to read the release notes.

Download Java 7 Update 13 Offline Installers With 50 Vulnerabilities Fixed

Download Java 7 Update 13 Offline Installers With 50 Vulnerabilities Fixed

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Java 7 Update 13 has been released by Oracle today. The latest update fixes at least 50 vulnerabilities and security flaws in Java. According to the Oracle advisory the critical patch update is a collection of patches for multiple vulnerabilities. The update also includes non-security fixes to the language and run-time.

The actual Java 7 update 13 was scheduled to be released on 19th of February but owing to the reports that some of the vulnerabilities in Java were actively being exploited by the hackers, Oracle released the patches immediately. We have been covering the updates of Java and after Java 7 Update 11, the next update is Java 7 Update 13. Nobody knows what happened to the 12th update.

There have been some events where Java was found to be vulnerable to exploiting attacks and many vendors including Apple and Mozilla turned off Java in their software by default. This would have been a shock for Oracle and these rapid updates would have been in response of the actions taken from Apple and other companies. This update confirms that Oracle is still interested in the development of Java programming language.

Checking Java version on your system

If you want to check which version of Java you’re running, simply go to java tester website and run the applet. The applet will show the version of Java currently running on your system.

Check Java version

Downloading and installing Java 7 Update 13

The installation of latest version of Java 7 is quite the same. Nothing has changed. Just download the offline installer from the below given links and run the setup file.

Welcome to Java

Installing Java

At the end of the installation, you will need to restart your computer in order for the changes to take effect.

Restart system after installing Java 7

Java can be downloaded from the official Oracle download page but if you want to download the offline installers, here are the direct download links:

Java Runtime Environment 7 Update 13 (32-bit | 30.1 MB)
Java Runtime Environment 7 Update 13 (64-bit | 31.5 MB)

Download Java 7 Update 11 Offline Installers

Download Java 7 Update 11 Offline Installers

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Oracle has released a new version of Java 7 Update 11. The direct download links to the offline installers are included at the end of this article.

Java Runtime Environment (JRE) allows users to run programs and applications programmed in Java language. Java became popular because of its portability. Programs developed in Java could be run on any platform including the mobile platforms. When Java was with Sun, it was developing leaps and bounds but then Oracle bought Java.

Java 7 Update 11

Since Oracle bought Java, it has been in crisis. We receive news about critical vulnerabilities in Java every now and then. The latest zero-day vulnerability was discovered a few days ago. The exploit was discovered in Java 7 update 10. The security firm Alienvault has already confirmed that the exploit is already being used by many websites to silently install malware and even ransomeware in drive-by download attacks.

The security exploit has already been added to Blackhole and Nuclear Pack exploit kits which are popular among hackers for exploiting.

Quickly responding, Oracle has released Java 7 Update 11 which fixes these exploits and vulnerabilities. You can read more about the security exploit in the issue CVE-2013-0422. Here is the summary of the security exploit and its fix released by Oracle:

This Security Alert addresses security issues CVE-2013-0422 (US-CERT Alert TA13-010A – Oracle Java 7 Security Manager Bypass Vulnerability) and another vulnerability affecting Java running in web browsers. These vulnerabilities are not applicable to Java running on servers, standalone Java desktop applications or embedded Java applications. They also do not affect Oracle server-based software.

The fixes in this Alert include a change to the default Java Security Level setting from “Medium” to “High”. With the “High” setting, the user is always prompted before any unsigned Java applet or Java Web Start application is run.

Although most of the browser vendors including Google Chrome, Firefox and Apple as a whole have disabled Java in their respective browsers but if you are using Java on your computer, it is highly recommended that you update to the latest version of Java 10 Update 11 to keep yourself safe from the latest vulnerability.

If you have already installed Java, you may want to go to Java control panel and see which version of Java you are running currently.

Java 7 update 10

If you are not running Java 7 Update 11, you may download it from the links below. All the links are direct download links to complete offline installers.

Download Java 7 Update 11 for Windows 64-bit [31.44 MB ]

Download Java 7 Update 11 for Windows 32-bit [30.02 MB ]

Download Java 7 Update 11 for Mac OS X 64-bit [50.31 MB]

Download Java 7 Update 11 for Linux 64-bit [44.61 MB]

Download Java 7 Update 11 for Linux 32-bit [45.86 MB ]

For more platforms and downloads, you may visit this Java SE Runtime Environment 7u11 page.

Java 7 Update 11 Portable runtime environment is also available for download from Portableapps.

Update: Java 7 Update 13 has been released with over 50 vulnerability fixes. Everyone who is using Java in their systems should update Java as soon as possible.

Download Java 7 Update 10 Offline Installers

Download Java 7 Update 10 Offline Installers

Software , , 0 Comments

Oracle has released a new version of Java 7 Update 10. The direct download links to the offline installers are included at the end of this article.

While we were closing in on Java 8 for the cloud, a Java vulnerability was discovered which put millions of users at risk. Most of the experts advised to stop using Java where possible. But the fact of the matter is that millions of devices and applications are using Java and it can’t be shred without any huge compromise.

Oracle has been working on fixing the vulnerabilities and has finally released Java 7 Update 10. It is highly recommended that you upgrade to the latest version.

To see the latest version of Java installed on your computer, you will need to run javaw utility found in the folder where Java JRE is installed. For Windows 8 and JRE 7, the path is:

C:Program Files (x86)Javajre7bin

OR

C:Program FilesJavajre7bin

An easier solution will be to search for ‘java’ under settings in Windows 8 (Windows Key + W). Select Java from the search results. This will open the Java control panel. Click on the About button in General tab.

Java Control Panel

The latest version is Version 7 Update 10. If you are running any version lower than this, you should upgrade. There are two ways to update Java. One is using the automatic update method and the other is to download the offline installer and run it manually.

For updating automatically, just open the Java control panel again and go to the Update tab. Click on the Update Now button to start downloading the latest version automatically.

Java Control Panel Update tab

Java Update available

Welcome to Java

Dowloading installer

Installing Java

Java 7 Update 10

Download Java 7 Update 10 Windows 32-bit

Download Java 7 Update 10 Windows 64-bit

Download Java 7 Update 10 Mac OS

If you do not want to install Java on your system, Java portable is also available for download. You can easily download Java 7 Update 10 portable edition and run any applications which require Java or JRE for their functioning.

Download Firefox 15 With Silent Updates And Optimized Memory Usage

Download Firefox 15 With Silent Updates And Optimized Memory Usage

Software , , 0 Comments

Although Firefox 15 final version was available on Mozilla’s FTP servers, Firefox 15 has been officially released now and is available from the updates menu. You can either download it using the Firefox Updater by opening Firefox and going to Help –> About Firefox and checking for updates or if you haven’t installed Firefox yet, just download it from the direct download link at the end of this article.

Firefox 15

Firefox 15 comes with a lot of new features, some of which can be considered as major changes to the browser. The biggest touted feature of Firefox 15 is silent background updates. The updating feature of Firefox has been revamped and now the updates process will be more silent requiring less input from the user.

Firefox 15 download

In my opinion, the biggest enhancement in Firefox 15 is its memory usage. Firefox 15 is optimized to consume less memory. It will also take care of the memory leaks from addons. Before installing Firefox 15, I was using Firefox 14 and it was using around 600 MB of memory while Firefox 15 is using only 461 MB till now. I have opened the same number of tabs (11) and same number of addons are installed in Firefox 15. I think this is a huge step forward in comparison to Google Chrome.

Here’s a quick video about comparison of Firefox 15, Google Chrome 21 and Opera 12.5.

Here is the changelog of Firefox 15:

  1. Silent, background updates
  2. Support for SPDY networking protocol v3
  3. WebGL enhancements, including compressed textures for better performance
  4. Localization in Maithili (see all available locales)
  5. Optimized memory usage for add-ons
  6. JavaScript debugger integrated into developer tools
  7. New layout view added to Inspector
  8. High precision event timer implemented
  9. The CSS word-break property has been implemented.
  10. New responsive design tool allows web developers to switch between desktop and mobile views of sites
  11. Native support for the Opus audio codec added
  12. The <audio> and <video> elements now support the played attribute
  13. The <source> element now supports the media attribute
  14. Focus rings keep growing when repeatedly tabbing through elements

Firefox 15 system requirements still don’t have listed any support for Windows 8 but I can confirm that Firefox 15 works in Windows 8.

Download Firefox 15 offline installer

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