BardTech

Every Windows user knows that the operating system builds up junk over time. Windows includes some utilities for PC maintenance, but they don’t offer as much as a dedicated tool can. CleanMyPC is an app that offers to keep your PC running at its best. Let’s see what this tool has to offer. Getting Started With CleanMyPC Head to CleanMyPC’s download page and download it to get up and running. Proceed through the installer as usual; there aren’t any special options to choose from or bloatware to worry about bypassing. Once you install the PC maintenance software, you’ll see CleanMyPC’s homepage. We’ll walk through each of the app’s tabs to examine its features. My Computer On the My Computer module, you can scan your computer for junk files that are wasting space. Click to run the scan, then wait a bit while it looks over your system. Once it’s done, you can click Clean to remove the junk files, or choose Show details to see more information about what the scanner found. He...

The digital world as we know it is changing. Net neutrality , the sole principle that protects the free and open internet is under attack. Several European governments have passed draconian internet surveillance laws in recent years. Does that mean that soon more and more countries will join China in building their own Firewalls? Or do we still stand a chance in this war against government authorities trying to control everything you do and say online? Telegram , the encrypted instant messaging app has been under attack from Russian authorities. Where does this development put us and why should you care? Telegram: The Only Messaging App You Need For a while, WhatsApp has dominated the instant messaging scene. However, between the users’ privacy concerns, and the messenger’s security threats , WhatsApp has lost its prime position in favor of Telegram. Created by Pavel Durov, the guy behind the top social network in Russia called VK (aka “Russia’s Facebook”), Telegram is an encryp...

Nintendo has decided to bring the NES Classic Edition back from the dead. The NES Classic Edition will be available in stores in the U.S. again from June 29, so if you know anyone who works in retail you should probably ask them to put one aside for you. The Return of the Nintendo Entertainment System In 2016, Nintendo surprised everyone by launching the NES Classic Edition. This was a Nintendo Entertainment System in miniature, with 30 games built-in. And the NES Classic Edition flew off shelves at such a rate of knots that demand outstripped supply. The NES Classic Edition was a massive hit, and parents tried desperately to get hold of one in time for Christmas 2016. However, despite this incredible demand, Nintendo shopped shipping the retro console to the United States in April 2017. We soon discovered why, as later that year Nintendo launched the Super NES Classic Edition . However, that still meant lots of people were never able to get hold of a NES Classic. Perhaps those un...

The annual Steam Summer Sale has just started and gamers can once again buy virtual games, apps, and even real hardware for a discounted price. While I'm personally not that excited anymore about new Steam sales, as Valve removed much of the excitement from them by doing away with Flash sales, user voting on special deals and such, it may still be of interest to Steam users who are looking to pick up discounted games and other things. As far as Steam sales go, there is not really much that one can say about the sale that has not been said before : thousands of games have been discounted and you can save even more by buying entire game collections. The sale ends on July 5th, 2018 and its official name is the Intergalactic Summer Sale. You can earn Summer Sale cards and sell or buy them on the Store. Valve added a game to the sale called Saliens which you can play to enter giveaways for certain games. Just select planets Not all games are discounted as publishers don't have ...

Microsoft released a whole bunch of cumulative updates for the company's Windows 10 operating system yesterday. The updates KB4284822, KB4284830 and KB4284833 include non-security fixes and improvements for Windows 10 version 1709, 1703, and 1607. The company has not released an update for Windows 10 version 1803, the current version of Windows 10, yet but it is likely that one will be released that includes some of the fixes. Windows 10 version 1607 is no longer supported on devices running Home or Pro editions of the operating system whereas versions 1703 and 1709 are still supported. The updates are available as direct downloads from Microsoft's Update Catalog, Windows Update, and Enterprise update tools. KB4284822 KB4284822 for Windows 10 version 1709, the Fall Creators Update, comes with a long list of fixes and improvements. Addresses several application performance degradations and regressions. New "DisallowCloudNotification" MDM policy to disable Win...

The most recent version of Microsoft Edge for Android includes built-in ad-blocking functionality that users of the web browser may enable. Microsoft released Microsoft Edge, a new web browser for Windows 10 when it released the first version of Windows 10 to the public. Edge did not support extensions by default but launched support for extensions in 2016 . While Microsoft Edge does support extensions, the overall count of extensions available for the browser is quite low . Microsoft revealed that it planned to release mobile versions of Edge for Android or iOS in 2015 but it took the company more than two years to release the first preview version for mobiles. The mobile version did not support extensions when it was released and it does not support extensions up to this day. Edge for Android with Content Blockers Android users who run Microsoft Edge on their devices as a browser or the browser may have noticed a new content blocking feature in the browser recently. The new...

Android users who run Google Chrome on their devices may have noticed that the browser started to download popular pages automatically recently. Google Chrome displays news articles on the browser's new tab page when you open it. The type of articles displayed depends on whether you are signed in to Chrome or not. If you are not signed in, you get the regional top articles but if you are signed in, you get recommendations based on your browsing history. Up until recently, Chrome downloaded only teasers for each article that it recommended on the browser's new tab page. It downloaded the title and a small thumbnail image, and did so when you opened the New Tab page in the browser. Google changed the process recently for users in over 100 countries including India, Brazil, Nigeria, and Indonesia. Instead of just downloading article titles and thumbnails, Chrome downloads entire articles to the local device. The main idea behind the change, according to Google's announcem...

When Mozilla released Firefox 57 back in November 2017 , support for the new WebExtensions system for browser extensions was limited. Lack of support for certain APIs was a big problem as it meant that some extension developers could not port their extensions to the new extension system at all, had to omit features to do so, or wait for APIs to become available to produce a port. The issue would not have been that problematic if Mozilla would not have made the decision to remove the old add-on system in Firefox 57 . New WebExtension APIs were introduced in newer versions of Firefox and others were improved to include new or missing functionality. While it is fair to say that the WebExtensions system willl never support the same capabilities that Firefox's classic add-on system supported, it is clear that Mozilla is making progress and that the new extension system has become more powerful since the release of Firefox 57. Mozilla revealed a list of WebExtension APIs that it p...

Google revealed the initial release of Google Podcasts recently, a new attempt by the company to establish a podcasting application for Android. Google Podcasts is available on Google Play; unlike other apps by the company, it is available for all users right away so that you can give it a try right now and don't have to wait weeks or months before it becomes available. I made the decision to give it a try but had to delay the review until today as the application crashed on several devices that I tried to run it on. Googled fixed the issue recently which gave me the opportunity to give it a try. Is Google Podcast the start of something beautiful as Tristan Greene over at TNW thinks? Let's find out. Google Podcasts Google Podcasts displays a list of top and trending podcasts on start, and top podcasts of categories such as comedy, news & politics, or religion & spirituality when you scroll down. A tap on a podcast displays a short description and available epis...

If you have upgraded to yesterday's new Firefox 61 version you may have received a secure connection failed error when trying to connect to this very site and others. The error message reads: Secure Connection Failed An error occurred during a connection to [site name]. SSL received a record that exceeded the maximum permissable length. Error Code: SSL_ERROR_RX_RECORD_TOO_LONG. The page you are trying to view cannot be shown because the authenticity of the received data could not be verified. Please contact the website owners to inform them of this problem. Here is a screenshot of the error when trying to connect to the site using Firefox 61. We know so far that the issue is related to establishing a secure connection but it is unclear just from reading the message whether that is a site problem, a browser problem, or caused by software that interferes with the connection. Previous versions of Firefox don't throw the error message. Mozilla revealed in the changelog th...

When you open the Google Maps application on your Android or Apple device right now, you may be greeted with a "New! Swipe up to see what's nearby" notification that highlights the improved Explore functionality that Google implemented recently. Google did introduce the feature last month actually but the worldwide rollout of them did not start until today. Note : The functionality is only available in Google Maps but not the lightweight Google Maps Go application . Core improvements went into the explore functionality of the application that highlighted places to eat, drink and other places previously. While lists are not new, Google did change the design of the interface and added new filtering options to the listing to narrow the focus of lists. While you can still display the best restaurants in any place, you can also select specific types such as healthy eating, where the locals drink, or upscale dinners, from the list to focus on those. Google displays lists ...

Microsoft plans to ship major new features in the next version of Windows 10; one of the new features gives users control over media autoplay on the Internet. If you have access to a recent Windows Insider build, you may have noticed already that Microsoft Edge comes with a lot of improvements. One of the new options is a new control to configure autoplay rules for media. The default setting is to allow autoplay but you can modify it to block autoplay. Autoplay can be useful, for instance when you click on a video link as you'd probably expect the video to play automatically on the linked page. But there are also instances where autoplay can be annoying, for instance on sites that display it inside the main content or in the sidebar. Microsoft is not the first browser developer that introduces autoplay controls. Google added options to control audio and video playback (behind flags) to Chrome in 2018 and introduces automatic rules-based autoplay blocking later that year. Moz...

WinRAR 5.60 is a new version of the popular cross-platform compression tool that has been released to the public earlier today. WinRAR 5.60 is the first big release since WinRAR version 5.50 was released back in 2017. It is available as a 32-bit and 64-bit version for Windows and other supported operating systems. The new version of WinRAR comes with a new look and feature improvements. Interface modifications of popular programs are highly controversial usually; think of Mozilla's launch of Firefox Australis or Microsoft's introduction of the Ribbon interface in Office . WinRAR 5.60 new look WinRAR users don't have to worry about the new look of the compression tool on the other hand; the refresh gives the toolbar just a new theme without changing anything functionality-wise. The new WinRAR 5.60 features new icons and new colors for the most part; the functionality is still there and existing WinRAR users will feel right at home. Those who do not like the new looks ...

WinRAR 5.60 is a new version of the popular cross-platform compression tool that has been released to the public earlier today. WinRAR 5.60 is the first big release since WinRAR version 5.50 was released back in 2017. It is available as a 32-bit and 64-bit version for Windows and other supported operating systems. The new version of WinRAR comes with a new look and feature improvements. Interface modifications of popular programs are highly controversial usually; think of Mozilla's launch of Firefox Australis or Microsoft's introduction of the Ribbon interface in Office . WinRAR 5.60 new look WinRAR users don't have to worry about the new look of the compression tool on the other hand; the refresh gives the toolbar just a new theme without changing anything functionality-wise. The new WinRAR 5.60 features new icons and new colors for the most part; the functionality is still there and existing WinRAR users will feel right at home. Those who do not like the new looks ...

The Ultimate Cisco Certification Super Bundle: Lifetime Access is a big eLearning bundle that preps you for nine different Cisco certifications. The bundle has just been discounted by another $10 to just $49 instead of the regular price of more than $3000. Access to all courses is granted for lifetime and all courses are designed for users of all experience levels. The bundle includes the following courses: Cisco 100-105: Interconnecting Cisco Networking Devices Part 1 - ICND1 V3 -- Take the First Step Toward an Invaluable Cisco CCNA Certification Cisco 200-105: Interconnecting Cisco Networking Devices Part 2 - ICND2 V3 -- Make Strides In Your Pursuit of a Career in Cisco Networking Cisco 210-260: Implementing Cisco Network Security -- Become Adept at Securing Networks Running on Cisco Servers Cisco 200-355: Implementing Cisco Wireless Networking Fundamentals -- Work Towards a Base Level Certification in Wireless Networking Cisco 210-060: Implementing Cisco Collaboration Devi...

Opera Software released a new version of the Opera web browser yesterday that brings the version to 54 on the browser's stable channel. The two features of Opera 54 that Opera highlights on the official desktop team blog are news on the Speed Dial page and improvements to the visibility of update and recovery options. Existing users can select Opera > About Opera to run a check for updates. The new version of the Opera browser is also available for direct download from the main Opera website. News on the Speed Dial page Opera Software introduced the personal news section in Opera 39 which it released in May 2016. Opera users could load the personal news section to display news based on a selection of sources, regions and languages. You can display the top 50 news, news from sources integrated in Opera natively, and custom news sources on the personal news page. It works similarly to how RSS feeds work but is built-in the browser and gives you less control than dedicated...