Readyboost is a technology in Windows that was introduced in Windows Vista and improved for Windows 7 by Microsoft. The technology basically allows the computer user to select a flash drive for memory caching. The effect is noticeable on computer systems with 1 Gigabytes or less of computer memory installed. The thinking behind this is that flash memory offers in general a better performance than platter based hard drives.

The improved Readyboost technology in Windows 7 now supports a maximum cache size of 32 Gigabytes opposed to the 4 Gigabyte limit in Windows Vista. Windows 7 also supports up to eight Readyboost devices compared to one in Vista and can improve the startup performance as it can be used during startup as well.

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Tags: readyboost, readyboost monitor, windows 7 readyboost, windows readyboost, windows software, windows vista readyboost
Categories: Windows, software

I have been using the desktop email client Mozilla Thunderbird for many years and have witnessed its rise to become one of the most powerful email software programs. I switched to version 3 since the first beta hit the download servers and have not looked back since. Version 3 of Thunderbird adds many interesting new features to the email client. It does however get rid of some of the old ones that at least some users will miss. It is also a fact that the email client is still only available as a beta version which should not be used without caution (meaning regular backups and extensive testing).

The following five add-ons have recently been added to the Mozilla Thunderbird extensions repository at the Mozilla website. Some of them are not yet compatible with the latest beta of Thunderbird 3. The email user needs to force compatibility in this case with the Nightly Tester Tools add-on (or edit the compatibility setting in the xpi file manually).

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Tags: Email, email client, mozilla thunderbird, thunderbird, thunderbird 3, thunderbird add-ons
Categories: Email

Microsoft Outlook is a desktop email client that is part of the Microsoft Office software suite. The email client does not come with a lot of options to export data like emails, notes, appointments or contacts into other formats or applications. That’s where the Microsoft Outlook Data Export Add-In comes into play. The free add-in provides the means to export data from Outlook into various other formats so that they can be imported into other applications or processed directly.

The add-in is compatible with Microsoft Outlook 2007 and will install a new toolbar into the application after installation. It will also install various runtimes that are needed to run the Outlook add-in.

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Tags: Email, microsoft outlook, outlook, outlook 2007, outlook add-in, outlook export
Categories: Email

It is not really clear why Microsoft never improved the default behavior of the Windows Clipboard. The biggest flaw in the eyes of most users is the inability to store more than one entry in the clipboard. So called clipboard managers are designed by third party developers to provide this and additional functionality. PasteCopy.net is but one of those Windows clipboard managers. It requires the Microsoft .net Framework 2.0 as the name suggests but is otherwise portable and available in multiple languages.

The software program will monitor the Windows clipboard by default and memorize any contents that are copied by the user. Contents that have been copied are displayed in the program’s interface. The length of text and the type of the contents are displayed there with a handy preview feature to preview image or text right in the interface. Images can also be zoomed in case they had to be resized to fit in the interface.

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Tags: clipboard, clipboard manager, pastecopy, portable software, windows software, windows-clipboard
Categories: Windows, software

The iTunes store is offering a good selection of podcasts that iTunes users can subscribe to. Apple uses its own format to serve the podcasts which is problematic for two groups of users. Those who do not want to use iTunes and those who cannot use iTunes. The former group likely uses another software program to subscribe, manage and listen to podcasts while the later are Linux users who do not have the option to install iTunes directly.

Feed Flipper has been designed by Adam Schlitt to overcome this problem. It can convert any iTunes podcasts into a valid RSS feed that can be integrated into any feed reader or podcast viewer. Best of all – at least for most users – is the fact that Feed Flipper is an online service which means it will work with all operating systems and web browsers.

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Tags: apple itunes, feed flipper, itunes, itunes podcast, itunes store, podcasts
Categories: Apple, Online Services

Have you ever “googled” yourself? Chance is you found at least a few websites and resources about yourself even more so if you have deliberately added information about yourself on websites across the Internet. Most users probably do so when they signup for social networking websites such as Facebook or MySpace but information are also provided on personal homepages, business homepages, universities or shopping websites. But not all information are provided deliberately by the user. It can happen that information leak on the Internet or are put up there by malicious users so that everyone who is searching for a person’s name can find that information as well.

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Tags: Google, google profiles, google search, to google
Categories: Google, Search Engines

Connectify was the first downloadable application that used the virtual Wifi capabilities of Microsoft’s Windows 7 operating system to turn the computer system into a Wifi hotspot. The developers offered the program as a beta version that could be freely downloaded. Their intention on the other hand was to sell the software program once they managed to compile a retail version of the virtual Wifi software.

Virtual Router is another application released a few days ago as beta that makes use of the virtual Wifi options in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. Unlike Connectify though it has been released at Codeplex which suggests that the program will remain free even after it has been released in a final version.

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Tags: virtual router, virtual wifi, wifi, windows 7, windows server 2008 r2, windows software, wireless connection
Categories: Windows, software