It's been a few days since we had a news post about Google, so what better time to throw another one up, but to celbrate search engine company's 8th birthday?  The little search engine that has helped change the world first launched as a research project in 1996 by Stanford University graduate students Larry Page and Sergey Brin and has seen phenomenal growth since, due to its much-praised PageRank technology for determining relevant search results. Some other relevant dates in Google Hi...

In 1992, an English physicist , working in Switzerland made public this nifty little tech project he had been working on to share documents and data more easily within his research organization.  This little gadget he had invented was what we now know as the World Wide Web, that sprawling interconnected series of files that seems to dominate our lives now.  Everywhere you go, you see addresses for web sites plastered on billboards, book covers, newspapers etc.  It is a major ...

Improve your luck with the Fortune Suite from Stardock! Fortune adds a great new visual style, over 30 icons, two gadgets, a wallpaper, a logon, and a bootskin to your PC. This suite includes the "fortune ball" gadget, which is sure to add an element of fun to your Windows experience. Just think of a question and click on the gadget for your answer. This suite includes: WindowBlinds Visual Style Icon Package Wallpaper Boot Skin Logon Skin and 2 gadgets; weather* and a Fortune ...

Ok, everyone takes it as generally accepted fact that Internet Explorer under Windows has a track record of being horribly insecure unless the user takes steps to tweak security settings, install pop-up blockers, bog their system down with AntiVirus, and run regular sweeps of the system to make sure nothing nefarious ever makes it through.  But then there's the rest of the computing population that has turned their noses up in contempt and gone off to use Firefox and Opera under Windows.&nb...

If you want to find the company with the most patents held in the United States, you need look no further than Big Blue.  IBM, the behemoth of the enterprise technology world, is the big kid on the block when it comes to technology patents (they were granted 2,941 patents in 2005 alone), and in recent years has taken steps to be less of the scary 900 pound gorilla in the corner, and more the benevolent patriarch to the tech community.  First through the donation of certain patented tec...

Welcome back Weekly Poll fans to a fun-filled, exciting, thrilling Monday!*  According to my calendar and little to-do list gadget, it looks like it's time to get a new poll up, and do a bit of a summary on last weeks results.  Pretty much the standard fare you've come to expect.  So sit back and relax as I spin you a tale of  a question in search of answers.  Which answer would our questing question choose?  Which answer would rule supreme among its brother and sis...

Since I started covering WinCustomize in July, I've tried to bring in some regular, weekly content up on the front page and in the articles sections.  This comes in the form of daily news articles, weekly polls, the moderator picks of the week, product announcements, contests, Skinner of the Month and more.  The hope is to generate more community involvement, to encourage our daily visitors, skinners and forum readers to take an active role in making this site a more relevant and inte...

Today, Microsoft posted their first public post-RC1 build of Windows Vista to beta testers.  This build, 5728 includes a number of bug fixes and interface tweaks but nothing major in terms of functionality or usability.  This is an interesting number since the 5700 range has been reserved for the final, Release To Manufacturing, the final build of Vista that goes to DVD reproduction and then ships to retailers worldwide.  This indicates that Vista could be declared "done" by the e...

When you go out to buy a copy of Windows Vista next year, regardless of what version you purchase, you'll receive a DVD that has every edition loaded on it and ready to go.  The unlocking mechanism for which components will be installed is going to be the CD key that will either come affixed to your computer case, or attached the the manual.  They're calling the system Windows Anytime Upgrade, where users can upgrade from their current version to a more powerful one just by purchasing ...

So you bought some music from an online site like WalMart's music store, or any other service that gives you a DRM-wrapped.  Today, you have a license associated with your purchased music that tells Windows Media Player that the files are in fact yours and allows you to play them.  Currently, you can move your license files around to any PC you own that you want to play your music on.  It's a cumbersome method, but it makes it possible to share purchased music on a network. Ent...

As the GUI Championships 2006 progresses, we're slowly revealing what prizes are up for grabs in this years competition.  Earlier in the week, we revealed cash prizes totaling $3850, a good step towards our touted $12,000 total prize package!  Today, we fill in a few of the remaining blank spaces on the prize grid. The event prizes revealed today are: Best Overall WindowBlinds Best Overall Icon Pack 2nd Place, Overall Competition So what are you going to get for having...

  Microsoft has issued a declaration of sorts to developers on MSDN.  The message?  "be cool!"  At least, that's the word from Windows chief, Jim Allchin.  His declaration to developers reads as a pep rally speech before the big game in an attempt to whip the home crowd into a frenzy.  Claims are made of an expected 200 million people purchasing and loading Vista in the first 2 years, and that those millions of people will be looking for applications, cool applic...

US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales went before Congress this week to urge senators to pass legislation that would require Internet Service Providers to retain logs of customers online activity for at least a year or two for use in police or federal investigations.  This lobbying comes amidst the most recent push to regulate online content, specifically that which is considered unsafe for minors. The proposed data retention rules are strongly supported by law enforcement officials at mo...

At long last, ObjectBar 2.0 is available now on Stardock.com . This upgrade is free to existing customers. ObjectBar is a program that can replace or extend the Windows taskbar. It provides the functionality of the Start bar while adding a vast array of new features and benefits. Because it is so flexible and skinnable, it can be made to look like any sort of toolbar, menu, dock, etc. found on any OS, or it can be used to create something entirely new, giving you a level of personalizati...

First Dell, then Apple, and now Toshiba has begun to recall laptop batteries.  Around 340,000 of them!  Toshiba is just the latest in a string of companies doing recalls on Sony-made laptop batteries.  However, this time it's not because of risk of fire or explosion.  The impacted batteries on Toshiba laptops merely fail to retain a charge after a fairly short period of ownership.  This defect impacts Dynabook and Satellite laptops made between March and May of this ...