>> UPDATES <<

[Confused Computer User]

Thank you Tech and YoKenny for the replies

I think that IE8 has to be installed manually just like IE7 had to be installed if you were running IE6.

A full backup is a good idea but I was lucky as both of my XP systems updated OK but I reviewed problem reports about updating to IE8 before I attempted it and found that IE-SPYAD and SpywareBlaster's protection had to be removed plus Spybot S&D's Immunize had to be undone and on the XP Pro system I had to disable Avira AntiVir's protection. 

The XP Pro system took the longest as Avira AntiVir had an update to V9 at the same time which lead to a bit of confusion.

I read about SpywareBlaster's protection having to be removed but what is IE-SPYAD?

Apart from these apps are there any other things I should disable?

Is Avira AntiVir worth while? I ask because you mentioned it in your reply.

Is it wiser to stick a bit longer with IE 7 or should we switch to IE8?

Make a full backup of your computer before that. It worked for me on Vista but fail miserably on one of my XP computers...

Ayayaayay... the words Full Back-up are like loud bells in my ears. I have yet to figure out how to do that. I'll probably work on it in two months. That's when I'll Install IE8 as well. I have no will power to do that now.

Thank you again both for the replies.
Cheers

[CharleyO]

***

Information about IE-SPYAD is easy enough to find with a ScanDoo/google search :

http://g.s.scandoo.com/search?hl=en&meta=on&q=IE-SPYAD


***

[Omid Farhang]

Vuze 4.2.0.2
Formerly known as Azureus

Official Site: http://azureus.sourceforge.net/
Download: http://www.filehippo.com/download_vuze/

Change Log:
BUGFIX: UI | Fix wrap on category buttons [TuxPaper]
BUGFIX: UI | Fix rare case when last sash position in My Torrents wasn't being obeyed [TuxPaper]
BUGFIX: UI | Remove device toolbar when device feature not avail [TuxPaper]
BUGFIX: Core | Fix hang on startup with some UPnP devices [Parg]
BUGFIX: Plug | Force decode of HTTP headers to lowercase using ISO8859-1 charset to fix matching error in Turkish [Parg]

[Omid Farhang]

Eudora 8.0.0 Beta 6

Official Site: http://www.eudora.com/
Download: http://www.filehippo.com/download_eudora/

Change Log:
Includes Penelope version 0.5a3.
Using Thunderbird 3.0b2 source code.
See for details.

MAILBOX WINDOW
--------------
- Better way to remember the states of the folder and thread panes when switching between message and mailbox tabs.
- Added the pref "penelope.attachments.detachOnDblClick" which controls whether double-clicking on attachments detaches them from the message or just opens them. It is on (true) by default. There's UI for it in the Penelope preferences panel.
- When pref for opening mailboxes in tabs is turned on, auto-open of mailboxes will detect if the mailbox is already open in a tab and not open a new copy.
- Fixed bug where messages opened in tabs would not show the correct content if the message pane was hidden in the folder view.
- Fixed the "important" tag from randomly appearing. This bug may still occur to messages downloaded with Eudora 8 beta 5 or earlier. All messages downloaded with Eudora 8 beta 6 or later should not see this problem.
- The Layout submenu in the View menu is now shown.
- Default pref to not show the about:rights notification bar.
- Changed the Archive menu item to use Ctrl/Cmd+ as a shortcut instead of the plain "A" that Thunderbird uses.
- Now preventing auto-marked-as-read behavior when a message gets auto-selected when switching tabs.

TOOLBARS
--------
- Incorporated Add New Toolbar functionality in Formatting tab of the Customize Toolbar dialog.
- Removed special toolbar items (separators, spaces, springs/flexible spaces) from the Extras panel.
- Fixed bug where in a new installation you customize the toolbar and then hit Cancel and the text on the toolbar buttons shows up.
- Customize Toolbar dialog now repositions when the toolbar changes.

FILTERS
-------
- Fixed the auto-name filter feature when matching against tags.

IMPORTING
---------
- Fixed bug where attachments were not getting imported from Classic Mac Eudora.

IMAP
----
- IMAP messages were getting expunged when they should not have.
- Longer line length for IMAP logging.

MISCELLANEOUS
-------------
- Use of cmd+M to do a mail check improved.
- The pref directory for auto-saving attachments is now working.
- By default attachments are saved to the pref directory rather than asking for a directory each time.
- Fixed some menu item conflicts which caused the Paste As Quotation menu item to disappear from the Edit menu of composition windows. May also be the cause of this bug:
- Removed phantom menu item in the Tools menu caused by id change.

[Omid Farhang]

Google Toolbar 6.1.1518.856 (IE)

Official Site: http://toolbar.google.com/
Download: http://www.filehippo.com/download_google_toolbar_ie/

Change Log:
(N/A)

[Omid Farhang]

what is IE-SPYAD?

IE-SPYAD contains a set of Internet Explorer "Restricted sites" lists for use with ZonedOut, a free Internet Explorer zone management utility available from FunkyToad.

Taken From "Ad Blocking Resources"
For more info: http://www.spywarewarrior.com/uiuc/resource.htm

[Lisandro]

Gom Player 2.1.17.4710 has been released.
For more details, visit: http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/Gom-Player/1154944089/1

[YoKenny]

Is Avira AntiVir worth while? I ask because you mentioned it in your reply.

Stay with avast!

Ayayaayay... the words Full Back-up are like loud bells in my ears. I have yet to figure out how to do that. I'll probably work on it in two months. That's when I'll Install IE8 as well. I have no will power to do that now.

Thank you again both for the replies.
Cheers

Invest in a hard drive with USB enclosure as they can be purchased for about $50.00 and there are several good Free backup applications such as Karen's Replicator that I use:
http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptreplicator.asp

[Jahn]

NoScript 1.9.1.8

Change Log

+ New "partially allowed subcontent" icon to indicate that the top site is blocked but some active sub-content (e.g. plugin objects or frames) is enabled
+ New script sources inventory behavior reporting "Scripts Forbidden" instead of "Scripts Partially Forbidden" even if 3rd party script sources are allowed unless their hosting document is allowed too
+ New "noscript.clearClick.subexceptions" preference to list sources of embedded content which don't need to be protected by ClearClick
x ClearClick compatibility with the "ShareThis" extension

[Omid Farhang]

Digsby Beta (build 52)

Official Site: http://www.digsby.com/
Download: http://www.filehippo.com/download_digsby/

Change Log:
Major Changes
* MySpace newsfeed is back (protocol change patch)

Bug Fixes
* Fixed a bug that caused plugins like LinkedIn and “Listening to” not to load for new users
* Fixed two bugs that caused incoming IMs to not show in rare cases

[Omid Farhang]

foobar2000 0.9.6.5 beta 1

Official Site: http://www.foobar2000.org/
Download: http://www.foobar2000.org/?page=Download

Change Log:
- Online troubleshooter feature, accessible from the Help menu.
- Fixed: Album List was being compiled with all optimizations disabled until now, since at least 0.9.5, due to bugs in MSVC9.
- Various improvements to the crash report submission system.
- Fixed an obscure bug in the ABX component.
- Fixed a crash when trying to open a lossy WavPack3 file.
- Fixed a crash when decoding certain corrupted AAC files.
- Built-in album art viewer can now view artist pictures (embedded in tags and artist.jpg in the same folder).

[Omid Farhang]

DFX Audio Enhancer 9.103

Official Site: http://www.fxsound.com/
Download: http://www.fxsound.com/dfx/pages/download/index.php

Change Log:
New and improved features in DFX 9
-Automatic preset selection with associated songs
-Backup and restore personal presets
-10 band audio spectrum analyzer
-Improved responsiveness and user control
-Gadget style user interface option
-64-bit Windows support

[drhayden1]

DFX Audio Enhancer 9.103

The free versions don't really show you what the enhancer can really do
I paid the $$$$ and use the full version enhancers on WMP,Winamp and DivX Player
http://www.fxsound.com/dfx/pages/order/index.php?vendor=0&subvendor=0&plus=0&refer=0
Sounds great on a 5.1 Bose system hooked up to your computer
Also have the SRS Sandbox which i use on a few things that the DFX doesn't
http://www.srslabs.com/store/audioproducts.asp


MailWasher v6.4
What's New:
New setup wizard to make it easier for importing and manually entering email accounts
New icon for Vista and Windows 7
http://www.firetrust.com/firetrustpro.html
http://www.firetrust.com/en/products/mailwasher-pro/upgrade
http://www.firetrust.com/en/products/mailw...r-pro/changelog


Not today-All 3 computers are working fine

[Confused Computer User]

Is Avira AntiVir worth while? I ask because you mentioned it in your reply.

Stay with avast!

Ayayaayay... the words Full Back-up are like loud bells in my ears. I have yet to figure out how to do that. I'll probably work on it in two months. That's when I'll Install IE8 as well. I have no will power to do that now.

Thank you again both for the replies.
Cheers

Invest in a hard drive with USB enclosure as they can be purchased for about $50.00 and there are several good Free backup applications such as Karen's Replicator that I use:
http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptreplicator.asp

Thank you YoKenny

[Omid Farhang]

Also have the SRS Sandbox which i use on a few things that the DFX doesn't
http://www.srslabs.com/store/audioproducts.asp

SRS Audio Sandbox fan here!! after windows drivers and my antivirus software, SRS is first thing that I install in my computer, cannot live without that!! it makes my laptop sound really different and alive!