Software

Usually people have problems trying to get to particular content on the web, but there are plenty of reasons why you might want to block particular websites too - especially if your kids are using your computer. There are plenty of commercial services for this, but if you are willing to put in a bit of effort, you can enjoy the peace of mind of blocking annoying or unwanted content for free.

SafeSquid is a proxy server that processes your browser's request for websites, checks them against its internal rules and forwards the content on if it is safe. You can of course set the rules however you like. Unlike a lot of free software, this is actually easy to use - but if you have any problems, don't worry we will be covering it in a full PC Answers tutorial soon. ... read more »

Microsoft has finally pulled out of the security market by ditching its OneCare product in favour of a slimmed down free version next summer. The first version of OneCare was woeful, but 2.0 was actually well received. Major strides is useability and performance by the big secuirty companies like Symantec though appear to have killed off OneCare's future, as well as a rise in Mac popularity where additional security suites are not needed.

Codenamed Morro, the new anti-virus tool will be tailored for lower end machines and be compatible with XP, Vista and Windows 7 - in fact it may well become the new secuirty tool found within Windows 7 itself. Let us know your experience of OneCare and what you'd like to see in Windows 7's security center instead.

Vista was late arriving, very late, and you could say it took until this year’s SP1 update to become what we consider a stable OS. But Vista’s successor, Windows 7, might now make it to the shelves before the 2010 schedule.

In fact, Microsoft is distributing copies of Windows 7 today at the Professional Developers Conference (PDC) in Los Angeles. Details have been leaking out of Microsoft for a little while about what it will include, but amongst the main highlights are: Multitouch features, that will allow developers and users to use trackpads and touchscreens in more inventive ways; Device Stage, which will provide a central location for interacting with pretty much anything you plug into the computer; Action Centre - a self-diagnosis tool for the OS; and StreamOn, a new way to control audio/video content on PCs and devices. It’s presumed that StreamOn will have something to do with Live Mesh and Media Centre. ... read more »

We like to keep you up to date on important open source software releases, so forgive this very slightly delayed notice that the rather excellent OpenOffice.org version 3.0 has been released.

Regular readers will probably know that we highly recommend this office suite - it provides pretty much all of the functionality you need from an office suite, but doesn't cost you anything. If you can't justify the price-tag for MS Office and don't like leaving it all online with Google, OpenOffice.org could be the soloution you are looking for. Check out more release information here:http://www.openoffice.org/dev_docs/features/3.0/

Finally Google released its long-awaited (and much rumoured) web browser today - Google Chrome. Why the world needs another web browser is a good question, but Google is clearly intent on cutting into a space dominated by Microsoft and Mozilla. We've just downloaded the beta version of the lightweight browser (a tiny 475KB setup file), here's our initial thoughts: ... read more »