Firstly go to : > Run, type and hit enter.

Now navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\App Paths

Right-Click on App Paths and select> New> Key

Title the new key the name of the application, in this case; Opera.exe

Right-Click the default string value and click Modify.

Change the value to the path of the executable you want to run. E.g. C:\Program Files\Opera 9\opera.exe

Now, in the white space below right click anywhere and select New> String Value.

Name it Path and enter the value as C:\Program Files\Opera 9\opera.exe

That’s it, the two keys should like above, now close the registry editor. Go to start> Run> type your run command and hit enter. In the above case its Opera.exe. Opera will launch within seconds.

You can do this for any application. All you need to do is enter the path of the application you want to open and also make sure that you remember the name of the key that you give as you have to enter it to launch it.

The Adobe corporation are in the headlines yet again, must be embarrassing now!

Adobe confirmed that the software pioneers were well informed of “potential vulnerabilities” influencing Adobe Reader, Acrobat 9.1.2 and Adobe Flash Player 9 as well as 10. Thus, advising users to make sure their systems are completely secure since hackers are still lurking in the midst.

However, latest reports have suggested that these “vulnerabilities” were substantially clear to many of the public using Adobe Flash Player a whole seven months ago. What do you have to say for yourself Adobe? The first instance where the issue in Flash Player was identified in late December last year and noted in Adobe’s “credible” bug and issue management system.

Recognition must go to Purwire‘s  valued researcher Paul Royal, who has been working at the internet security service provider since January 2009.

Zdnet reported earlier that this so called flaw was a “data loss corruption” but Adobe’s ‘strong’ response team were completely misleaded this time which lead to their public humiliation. However, their reaction to this has been positive hence announcing patches shall be attainable on the 31st July for Linux, Mac and Windows users.

Adobe said in their security advisory that the bug can cause problems for users and so they should remove the authplay.dll file which comes with Adobe Reader,

“A critical vulnerability exists in the current versions of Flash Player (v9.0.159.0 and v10.0.22.87) for Windows, Macintosh and Linux operating systems, and the authplay.dll component that ships with Adobe Reader and Acrobat v9.x for Windows. This vulnerability (CVE-2009-1862) could cause a crash and potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system. There are reports that this vulnerability is being actively exploited in the wild via limited, targeted attacks against Adobe Reader v9 on Windows.”

Have you suffered any problems with Adobe Flash Player? What have you done? Has it been successful? Feel free to comment below.

Hewlett-Packard publicly announced on their website on Friday that the two giants of the computing world ,have come to an agreement which sees HP acquire IBRIX services.

IBIRX, a leading supplier of enterprise-class file serving software which includes data protection, high-availability features and data management services. The hardware giants tend to aim their services at large scale consumers where IBRIX’s solutions enable businesses to cache lots of important data, without much work and money.

HP claim that they want IBRIX to add to their growing portfolio in the eventful, high-performance computing storage market, growing at an annual rate of 20%. This comes as no shock to many of us as IBRIX software is already grouped together with HP Storage Area Network, ProLiant, BladeSystem and ProCurve Hardware.

HP’s vice president of Unified Storage, StorageWorks Division, Jeff Hausman said this action will benefit both companies and the growing market,

“Customers need highly scalable storage solutions that efficiently and cost-effectively manage massive amounts of information. This acquisition expands our portfolio to better support the needs of this market segment. In addition, IBRIX’s highly scalable software leverages industry-standard hardware allowing customers to fully maximize their existing investments.”

IBRIX’s CEO, Milan Shetti  later added that it was also in HP’s and its customers interest,

“Joining forces with HP is a natural fit for our customers, resulting in an enhanced storage solution that scales to meet their data growth. The unique combination of IBRIX’s file serving solutions with HP’s portfolio of products and services enables customers to lower the cost of scale-out architectures while easing the process of storing, accessing and moving critical data.”

HP have said that they are very close in ending the proceedings and will legally own IBRIX in 30 days.

"Our long-term goal is providing hardware for devices with different operating systems...more competition will drive up more innovations and that's good for consumers,"

Chip makers Intel, have announced publicly that they have been participating in the development of Chrome OS.

With the highly anticipated release of Google’s own operating system, many of us considered that Google couldn’t launch an operating on their own. Thus, Google’s Sundar Pichai confirmed this rumour and unveiled a list on Wednesday quoting,

“The Google Chrome OS team is currently working with a number of technology companies to design and build devices that deliver an extraordinary end user experience. Among others, these companies include Acer, Adobe, ASUS, Freescale, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, and Toshiba.”

As you can see, Intel were not included in this group of tech giants. But an Intel representative validated that they worked with Google on the exciting project and the Intel-insider further proved this in saying they were delighted with the progress and outcome of Chrome OS. Well, who wouldn’t be in this stage?

The Intel representative confirmed the speculation by saying,

“We have been privy to the project for some time and we have worked with Google on a variety of projects, including this one. We welcome Google’s move here.”

Will this scare Microsoft?

Seeing Intel and Google work in conjunction must be strange for Microsoft. This is because over they years, Microsoft and Intel have been close friends and this move may upset the balance in the tech market. Especially, as Intel have put their efforts into creating a solely netbook operating system with Moblin, who incidentally are rivals to Google. It’s all a bit complex but all that is happening is that Intel are stuck in the middle of many projects, and perhaps to keep the fine balance, they must now work with Microsoft in a new project.

However, Intel’s Michael Chen, director of Intel’s embedded sales group in Asia, said that his company is completely mutual and is a service for all companies,

“Our long-term goal is providing hardware for devices with different operating systems…more competition will drive up more innovations and that’s good for consumers,”

Furthermore, we can see the operating system market is booming with the release of Chrome OS and soon enought the release of Windows 7. What do you think on Intel’s position at the moment? Are they parting with companies too much? Is Intel making relations worse between Microsoft and Google, by publically announcing they are delighted with Chrome OS? Please feel free to comment below.

Lenovo is the latest candidate in joining the "free windows 7 update" along with Dell and HP

HP was the first PC service to offer a free upgrade to Windows 7 and now has been joined by fellow company Lenovo.

Lenovo have now decided to provide users with a free Windows 7 upgrade with their PC’s and Laptops. The deal has been available for three days now and will come to an end in January 2010. All of the Lenovo systems which have Vista, between then qualify for the free update.

The PC giants have made it clear that companies who purchase more than twenty nine systems will be referred to Microsoft’s volume licensing programme.

Their actions have come after HP, on Thursday announced they would offer a free windows update between 26th June and 22nd October with systems, effectively coming complementary. In addition to HP, Dell are also offering a deal almost identical to Lenovos, starting from 26th June and ending on 31st Jan ’10. In light of these three companies actions, I am sure other PC services are sure to follow especially as Microsoft are offering a “referral” program to major organizations.

The software giants are adament on helping users out as they said earlier last week that they’d provide discounts to users that pre-ordered Windows 7. This is sure to give Microsoft quite a bit of profit from users becoming obliged to buy a computer system to get the free upgrade, which they really needed!

Is it only a matter of time before all of the major PC companies offer the upgrade just to attract more potential customers? Feel free to comment below!

With the latest introduction of the "Bing" search engine into the Microsoft empire, giants stay in the limelight with the supposed release of free antivirus software.

Software giant Microsoft close to supplying “free” antivirus software.

Over the last couple of months, Microsoft has been busy with endless projects. Especially, with Windows 7 RC and the highly regarded Bing search. Thus, the release of the “credit crunching” complimentary, antivirus suite.

Morro

The costless antivirus security, called Morro, is programmed to defend against viruses, trojans, spyware and rootkits. However, when using the antivirus, you will see why it is in beta and cost-free. But these faults are being spotted and refined by Microsoft employers, so hopefully will be out in “beta” soon and in public hands.

The antispyware suite arrives in light of Microsoft’s first, unsuccessful try of an anti-malware subscription service, in Windows Live OneCare. Not surprisingly, it was a disaster mostly because other software products were much more reliable and efficient, such as Symantec and AVG. Thus, when Morro is released, its predecessor will jump off the scene.

Symantec’s president of consumer products ,Janice Chaffin exclaimed:

“Microsoft’s free product is basically a stripped down version of the OneCare product Microsoft pulled from the shelves. A full Internet security suite is what consumers require today to stay fully protected.”

Janice seems to make a fair point in saying that consumers need more than a basic edition of internet security and so users tend to purchase home security suites for around £10- £40 or just go onto the AVG website and use their trustworthy services.

According to reports, Morro will be available to use near the latter stages of the year so keep checking the Microsoft website for updates!

Do you think Morro will be a disaster like Windows Live OneCare? Please feel free to post your comments below or any other feedback.

"The plan is Sweden, Europe, the world. In that order," said Christian Engstrom, the Pirate Party's top candidate.

The Pirate Party are one of the biggest parties in Sweden.

For those of you know who are alien to this topic, let me explain who “The Pirate Party” are and how they started out. The Pirate Party are a political party based in Sweden. Their main aim is to reform laws involving web piracy and copyright laws, as well as backing up users rights to privacy. The party was started up in 2006 and is led by Rickard Falkvinge.

The breaking news, regarding the party, is that they are on the verge of acquiring a number of seats in European Parliament. According to reports, there were poll results coming in suggesting that the internet piracy party is now the 3rd biggest party in Sweden. What an achievement to raise by 7.37% in just a few years! The poll shows the party going up to 8%  allowing them to have a select number of seats in Brussels.

Leader of the party, Rickard Falkvinge, had this to say,

“The establishment and the politicians have declared war against our entire generation. Our politicians are digital illiterates. We need politicians that will not let themselves be bullied by foreign powers. To vote in the EU elections is more important than ever before.”

Sweden has one of the biggest internet user rates globally and were the same country where Pirate Bay founders Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm and Carl Lundström made their status of “internet heroes.”

In the recent trials, if you are not aware, the group have been found guilty of “breaking copyright laws” thus facing a year prison sentence as well as having to cough up £2.5 million as they have apparently damaged major networks including Warner Bros.

Please feel free to reveal your comments on this topic by commenting below.

Microsoft to unveil Visual Studio 2010 on time

Yet more Microsoft heading your way. This time not as controversial as Microsoft are set to release the highly anticipated Visual Studio 2010 beta, which is all ready available to all the public.

Microsoft developer tools solution specialist, Jihad Dannawi quoted:

“On 18 May Visual Studio 2010 Beta 1 (Professional, Suite and Team Foundation Server) will be available to MSDN subscribers through MSDN Subscriber Downloads and to the general public on 20 May through Microsoft Downloads.”

For me this is remarkable as with all the attention surrounding Windows 7 RC, no-one has really paid attention to what Microsoft are working on whilst we are working through the day.

What’s new?

Users can now enjoy the graphical user interface and produce awesome effects using Visual Studio Team System 2010.

Jason Zander, general manager for Visual Studio’s developer division, also revealed some changes to the product:

"You don't need to rush to get Windows 7 RC. The RC release will be available at least through June 2009 and we're not limiting the number of product keys, so you have plenty of time."

No difficulties- all you need to do is download it on May 5th before the site gets overloaded!

Good news for all Windows lovers- Microsoft has announced that the Windows 7 Release Candidate (which is released May 5th) will not expire until June 1st 2010. Since it is out of Beta and near completion, Microsoft is virtually supplying users with a free operating system for just over a year, which incidentally is a longer preview than other Windows platforms such as Vista and XP.

Windows 7 Release Candidate includes some new advancements such as Remote Media Streaming and Windows XP mode. However, one evident disadvantage is that the full version of Windows RC is not intended to install right over Beta RC, as Microsoft stated it is presently testing the normal version.

Ben Gray, of Forrester Research Inc, stated,

“The beta of Windows 7 shows significant promise, and most IT operations professionals are looking forward to its availability and eventual enterprise deployment … start preparing for it now, and the best way to prepare for Windows 7 is by deploying Windows Vista. Short of that, begin testing your applications and hardware for compatibility against Windows Vista; it will pay off with greater compatibility with Windows 7.”

Windows 7 RC is accessible for a considerably longer period than the Release Candidates of Windows Vista were. Vista RC 1 and Vista RC 2  both concluded in June 2007 but RC 2 went on for another eight months of free charge.  I wonder if Microsoft will do the same to Windows 7 as they did to Vista where people using Vista previews restarted 2 hours regardless. Will Microsoft deploy the same plan in order to alert users it’s time to pay up?

Windows 7 RC was scheduled for download just for Windows’ TechNet and MSDN subscribers on the Thursday March 30th. Unsurprisingly on Thursday, it was reported that both websites suffered hitches as the number of download requests were overwhelming.

If demand for Windows 7 is to be similarly overwhelming within the general public, then it is possible that the Windows 7 download site will suffer hitches as well. What are your views on the release of the Windows 7 RC? Are you looking forward to it and will you be waiting in line to download it? If so- Good luck, because there is likely to be an enormous surge in traffic to the Windows site!

Windows 7 RC is almost upon us, well sooner for torrent trackers

Features include improved Internet Radio playback

Just to hype more news surrounding the highly speculated Windows RC, I feel the need to outline some new and improved features, which some of you may of heard before, but nevertheless for those who are a stranger to what is heading our way, this will be eye-opening preview.

First of all, I shall reveal some of the cool, new features that Windows 7 RC will contain,

- Flip your Windows with Aero Peek ( Shortcut: Alt + Tab)

- Improved Internet Radio playback as well as playback support for video content arriving from periphials like Cameras and Camcorders.

- As soon as a specified program has completed installation, automatically, it moves down to the bottom of Start Menu, part of the easy to use interface.

- Customization of jump list length with a limit of ten items defaulted and better flexibility with the list also.

- Indivisual options for gadget view and desktop icon view.

Above are just five new and improved features, a further fourty, if you are interested, have been listed here with great detail.

Next I will try to outline a couple of the outstanding attributes to Windows 7100 build:

Ability to stream your library whilst on the internet using Windows Media Player.

When I first read about this characterisitic, I was stunned and excited from the prospect of being able to listen to your own songs from anywhere in the world by Windows Media Player’s Remote Media Sharing. All you need is a Windows Live ID and, of course, an account on Windows 7. However, a major flaw is that the set up is long and windows media player on the opposing computer must be open, meaning if you go abroad you will have to keep the laptop for over two weeks! Not gonna happen, neither will integration with googlemail accounts.

Perfect attribute for the travelling personal!

Windows 7 will include XP mode

Having an XP feature, will only increase the likability of Windows 7 attracting more or less all enterprise users, however it does require yet another download. On the brightside, it will be available soon as a downloadable plug-in which you can read more about here.

Antidote for the credit crunch temporarily as no cost for XP on Windows 7 Pro, Enterprise and Ultimate.

Desktop Background Picture beats Vista hands down

Not the most significant feature, but when you login to your laptop/computer it will definately have an impact on your mood! There are a huge variety to choose from, and if you would like to see more , other than the one below, visit here.

Beautiful background is always something nice to have in front of you

I hope this article has showed you a few characteristics of Windows 7 RC which were alien to you beforehand. If there are any questions or suggestions, please leave a comment below,