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After a long wait, a Windows 8 build was finally leaked a few days back. The leaked build was a pretty old M1 build, but that didn’t stop thousands of Windows enthusiasts from taking it for a spin. At first glance, it appeared to be, by and large, identical to Windows 7.However, NaiveUser from MyDigitalLife forums managed to unlock quite a few interesting features including Ribbon UI (user interface) for Windows Explorer.NaiveUser succeeded in enabling several locked features through simple registry tweaks. However, if registry editing is not your cup of tea, then fear not, as the folks at Windows8Beta have released the first Windows 8 tweaking utility.

Windows 8 Tweaker is a straightforward application that enables the following hidden Windows 8 features:

1. Ribbon UI for Windows Explorer: Windows 7 saw Microsoft adding the popular Ribbon UI, which was first seen in Office 2007, to applications like Paint and WordPad. With Windows 8, Microsoft is going a step further, and incorporating the Ribbon interface in the Windows Explorer itself.

2. PDF Reader: PDF (Portable Document Format) is now an open standard, and a virtually universal file format. Microsoft has finally decided to stop messing around with its own document formats, and has added a native PDF reader to Windows 8. However, like the Ribbon UI, this feature is also locked down in Windows 8 build 7850.

3. Advanced Task Manager: Windows 8 will feature a significantly improved and touch-screen friendly task manager. The advanced task manager, seen in the screenshot below, sports a new “dashboard” that will provide a quick overview of various resource usages (CPU, memory, disk, and network). Also present in the new task manager is a new section for startup processes, and a revamped process and application manager.

4. Webcam Application: The final feature that the Windows8 Tweaker unlocks is a native webcam app. The app itself is pretty bare bones, but it gets the job done.

If you have installed the leaked Windows 8 build, then go ahead and grab the Windows 8 Tweaker from here. Don’t forget to chime in with your opinion about the new Windows 8 features in the comments section.

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Google Toolbar 7 Adds Instant Search To Internet Explorer 9

Some good news for Internet Explorer users.

Google has recently released a new version of Google toolbar for Internet Explorer and Firefox. Google Toolbar 7 making your web browsing faster, simpler and “instant”.

The newer UI of Google Toolbar 7 for Internet Explorer and Firefox is sleek and hides all the options under a drop down menu, as shown in the following screenshot

Enabling Instant Search In Google Toolbar 7

After you have downloaded and installed Google Toolbar 7, you will be first asked to choose your default search provider. You may either choose Bing or Google as your default search engine, hit “OK” and restart the browser for the changes to take effect.

To enable Instant search in Internet Explorer 9, go to the toolbar options panel by clicking the tiny wrench icon at the top right of Google Toolbar and choose “Enable Instant for faster searching and browsing”

Once you have turned on Instant search for Internet Explorer 9, you can preview search results on Google.com by typing the keywords on the Google search box of Google Toolbar.

Since I am a regular Google Chrome user, I confused this with the address bar of Internet Explorer only to find out that I have to type the same words in the Google search box of Google toolbar (and not in the address bar of Internet Explorer 9). You can also type Alt+G to get to the Toolbar search box more quickly.

Here is how the Instant search interface of Google toolbar looks like

To clear your search terms, hit the “Escape” key on your keyboard and the search box will be highlighted, waiting for you to type the new keywords you want to search for.

With this new update, Google wants to push their instant search features deeper and let IE users get the feel of “Instant” search without having to use Google Chrome at all.

Privacy Options

Many features in Google Toolbar send anonymous usage information to Google, in order to improve your browsing experience.

If you’re concerned about the privacy of your system and don’t want to share anonymous usage data with Google, you can turn off specific privacy features from the preferences panel

Other features are quite the same as before, it’s just that Google has revamped the overall look and feel of Google toolbar by removing unnecessary UI clutter of buttons and icons from the toolbar panel. To customize which buttons and options appear in the toolbar panel, click the “wrench” icon, go to “Custom buttons” and choose the buttons you want to see in the toolbar area.

Overall, the new Google Toolbar adds a hint of Google Chrome in Internet Explorer 9. While I continue to use Google Chrome as my default browser, those who want Google’s Instant search feature on Internet explorer, can try the improved Google toolbar 7 here. The following video gives a short introduction of what Google toolbar 7 is all about:

You might want to check our ultimate list on Internet Explorer 9 tips and tricks

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AT&T Rolls Out The WP7 NoDo Update For The Samsung Focus Source

Microsoft started rolling out the NoDo update – bringing the much awaited copy & paste feature – to all WP7 handsets, at the end of the last month.

However, some carriers decided to delay the release of the NoDo update for WP7 based handsets including AT&T.

Nevertheless, AT&T has finally started rolling out the NoDo update for the Samsung Focus and the LG Quantum. The HTC Surround will get its NoDo update sometime in May, due to some software issues.

Samsung has also taken this opportunity to roll out a firmware update for the Focus. The new firmware update incorporates some useful changes and bug fixes.

The capacitive buttons on the Focus are temporarily disabled, if an app is open and a* user drags his finger from the screen to the buttons. This will definitely be appreciated by all Focus owners, and will help in reducing all those accidental touches. No more going back to the previous screen, while playing Fruit Ninja!

Another nifty change brought by this firmware is the anti-shake setting being enabled by default for the Camera. Most users don’t really bother to check out the camera settings before clicking a snap, and this small change will definitely come in handy for them.

WP7 is a closed OS, still users need to wait for sometime before they can update their handset to the latest version of the OS.* So much for being a closed OS!

Via – WPCentral

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HTC Desire Z Gets Sense 3.0, Thanks To The Leaked HTC Sensation ROM

It was just a few days ago that the leaked HTC Sensation ROM was ported over to the Desire HD.

The HTC Sensation runs on Android 2.3 Gingerbread with the latest version of Sense (v3.0) running on top of it. The Sense UI in its latest version packs a very nifty lock screen with widgets, and new animations.

Now, rmk40 – a popular developer over at Desire Z modding community, has ported the Sensation ROM for the T-Mobile G2/Desire Z.

The ROM is a highly experimental one and rmk40 recommends general users to stay away from it.

One of the major problems with the ROM is that most of the UI elements are not rendered properly. The reason behind this is the difference in the resolution of the devices. The Sensation has a qHD (960×640) resolution, while the Z/G2 has a WVGA (800×480) resolution screen.

At the moment, the developer has no intention to work and make this ROM fully-functional on the Z/G2. The Desire HD developers are also on the same boat.

If developers of any of the devices are able to solve this problem, the changes could be easily ported to the other handset. Intersted developers can download the ROM from here.

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Google Chrome To Include Profile Switcher For Multiple Profiles

Google Chrome is one of the best browsers available today and with the Chrome Sync feature, it allows you to easily sync all your bookmarks, passwords, extensions, themes and auto-fill across multiple browsers. Chrome Sync is definitely a good option, however, users still face a problem if they want to have separate profiles for work and home.

The latest Canary Build of Google Chrome 12 (v12.0.741.0 canary build) now has a new feature which will allow you to have Multiple Profiles for different Chrome Windows. According to the description of the feature, Multiple Profiles associates every browser window with a profile, and adds a profile switcher in the upper right corner. Every profile has its own bookmarks, extensions, apps, etc..

Once you enable the Multiple Profiles feature, you will see a profile switcher at the right hand side corner. Users will be able to seamlessly switch between different profiles by clicking on this.* Users can also create a new profile through the switcher or through the options as seen in the first screenshot.

The Multiple Profiles feature seems to be under work right now and does not allow users to create a second profile yet. However, it looks they might add the new feature soon and ship it to the canary and development channel.

Multiple Profile is definitely a great feature and one that I have been waiting for a long time. To enable Multiple Profiles in Chrome (Canary Build Only) type about:flags in your address bar and head to the bottom of the page. Once there, enable "Multiple Profiles" feature and restart the browser.

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