Mozilla adds Ubisoft Uplay to the blocklist

When Mozilla detects serious security or stability issues in add-ons or plugins, it may decide to block them for all users of the browser. A security vulnerability has recently been discovered in Ubisoft’s Uplay software which can be exploited by third parties. The majority of online magazines and reports call it a rootkit, which is not the really the term that should be used to describe the software. Unlike rootkits, the program does not attempt to hide the functionality on the system, and it is much more likely that it is simply code that has not been tested enough.

When PC users install a Ubisoft game that makes use of the UPlay networking service, a browser plugin may be installed on the system as part of the process. It is not really clear what the plugin is being used for at all, and disabling it should not have any effect on the games requiring UPlay.

As far as games go, it is used by Assassin’s Creed games, Homam VI, the Tom Clancy series and several other games. It may also depend on where you have purchased the game on, as some versions of the mentioned games may come without Uplay after all.

Sites like Rock Paper Shotgun quickly advised users to turn of the plug-in in their web browser of choice

    Firefox: about:addons – Plugins – Disable the Uplay and Uplay PC Hub plugins
    Chrome: Visit about:plugins and disable
    Opera: Settings – Preferences – Advanced – Downloads – Search “Uplay”, delete
    Internet Explorer:  Press Alt, then Tools > Manage Add-ons, and disable UPlay there.

Reports suggest that Ubisoft may have resolved the issue by pushing out an update to Uplay that brings the version of the application to 2.04.  At the time of writing, it is however not clear if the update resolves the issue completely.

Mozilla in the meantime has added Ubisoft Uplay to the blocklist of the Firefox browser which effectively blocks the plugin from being loaded when the browser starts. Being on the blocklist furthermore blocks the plugin from being installed in the browser.

I’d still recommend to remove the plugin from any browser it may be installed in just to be on the safe side.




Source:  http://www.ghacks.net/2012/07/31/mozilla-added-ubisoft-uplay-to-the-blocklist/

10 music services for work

Do you listen to music while you are working on your computer? For me, it depends mostly on the tasks that I’m doing. When I’m writing an article, I usually do not listen to music as I need to concentrate on the writing. It is different for other computer related tasks though, and even coding is that more pleasant when there is music playing in the background. I somehow do not seem to have issues listening to music when coding, while I have lots of problems concentrating when music is playing while I’m writing articles.

The following list suggests ten music services that you can use to listen to music when you are working on your computer. They do not include Internet Radio which for many is probably the most obvious choice when it comes to these things.

All services below are free of charge, do not require an account, and should not be country-locked.

Music Services for work

Get Work Done Music – A minimalistic interface with three buttons of which two let you switch between different tempos. Limited to dance music.

Ghostly – Mood based music selection from aggressive over frenetic to neutral and sad. Also provides sliders from tempo and digital/organic style music. Also available as an app for iPhone and iPod Touch.

Console.fm – A selection of genres that you can select from, including Chill Out, Dubstep, Trance or Electronica. Mostly dance-like music with just a few exemptions.  App for iPhone is available.

Trance around the world – If you are into trance music, then this may be for your. Lots of tracks compiled into mixtapes that you can listen to.

A strange isolated place – If you are into dance mixes then this one may be for you. You can place the mixes right on the site or download many of them to your local system.

Music for programming – A set of mixes for programmers and other computer workers who like to listen to music while doing their job.

Mixture – Another service that is making mixtapes available on the website.

Ex.fm – Pop music, offers trending music, a monthly mixtape and a lot more to keep you entertained.

8 Tracks – Finally a mixtape music service that offers music genres besides electronic music. Check out swing swing for a taste of what it offers.

Stereomood – Pick a mood to start listening. From jazzy over good carma to doing laundry or yoga, it is all there for the taking.
Extras

Demovibes – Ah the demo scene. If you enjoy demos and intros, then this collection of some of the best tunes of the last ten or so years is definitely one to go to. Includes download links. Also, C-64 music archive (Sid tunes, good times) and Amiga Remix

Rainymood – If you find music to distracting, why not listen to rain instead? Or try YouTube for white noise tracks?

Did I miss a service that you are listening to while working? Feel free to share the link in the comments.




Source: http://www.ghacks.net/2012/07/31/10-music-services-for-work/

HootSuite: Automatically post RSS Feeds to Google+, Twitter and Facebook

While it is still possible to largely ignore social networking sites as a webmaster, it is already becoming apparent that webmasters without a social marketing strategy will eventually fall behind webmasters who use these new sources of traffic and engagement. What more, it is likely that Google will continue to push its Google+ service, and one of the fallouts from this will be a deeper integration into the company’s ranking algorithm.

Manual updates and posts are ideal when it comes to posting on social networking site, not only for engagement but also to make sure that readers who are subscribed to a site’s RSS feed do not read the same message on social networking sites they follow it on repeatedly.

Sometimes though you simply may not have the time to post manually to the important social networking sites, and that’s when automated posting solutions may come into play.

Hootsuite for the most part if a commercial service that allows webmasters to monitor social networking traffic. One of its features is the option to automate postings on social networking sites such as Google+, Twitter or Facebook, and that’s what this guide is about.

First thing that you need to do is create an account over at Hootsuite and add at least one social networking account to it. The service supports the following sites:

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Google+ (only pages)
• LinkedIn
• Foursquare
• WordPress
• MySpace
• Mixi

Once you have added at least one social networking account, you see each account listed in its own tab in the Hootsuite web interface. Locate the publisher link on the left sidebar and select RSS Feeds from the available options there.

To add a new RSS Feed simply click on the plus icon in the interface and fill out the configuration form that opens up. You need to select the social networking profile that you want to post on and the feed url that you want to use for the automated posting of messages. A maximum of one post is posted to the selected social networking site which you can change in the options to up to five posts in hourly intervals. Once that is done the service will automatically post to the social networking profile.

The majority of features that the site offers, scheduled posting and statistics, are not available for free users of the service.

You can remove social networking sites from Hootsuite under members in your main dashboard. When you do that, you may still need to revoke access on the social networking site as well (this was for instance the case for Twitter).

Hootsuite is excellent if you are looking for a free service that allows you to post RSS Feeds automatically to popular social networking sites.




 Source: http://www.ghacks.net/2012/07/31/hootsuite-automatically-post-rss-feeds-to-google-twitter-and-facebook/

Digg relaunch, what you can expect

Back in 2005 and 2006 when I started blogging Digg was one of the catalysts that helped get the word round, and I’m forever thankful for that. Soon thereafter the site deteriorated when users started to game the system for fun but more often than that for money.

If you paid enough, power users made sure that your site would hit the front page. Even worse, some users used their voting power to down vote excellent stories when they were from sites they did not like, or voicing views that they did not share.

I eventually had enough and decided to delete the Digg bookmark and never look back. Fast forward to today. A few weeks ago Digg was sold, and the company that bough the site’s contents and userbase promised to launch a redesign of the site in August 2012.

A first mockup of the design along with information about what the company intents to change have been posted on the Rethink Digg website. What you will notice right away is that the new homepage will look more like the frontpage of a portal or newspaper than how Digg, and other news aggregator sites like Reddit, look like usually.

More pressing than a new design are changes to the site’s voting system, and that’s something that the developers plan to address with priority. Instead of just relying on votes by Digg users, the new system will also take into account Facebook likes and Twitter shares. While this may sound like a solid addition to prevent gaming of the system, it may in turn favor large sites like Mashable with its incredible amount of shares per article.

To avoid this from happening, the new Digg is putting moderators in charge to determine whether articles should be placed on the service’s frontpage, and putting more weight on votes by Digg users than on the other metrics.

Good news is, the new owners do away with the controversial Diggbar and newsroom feature.

Success and failure depends largely on the score system, and whether it introduces a level playing field for all types of websites, or whether it will again be an aggregation of news stories posted on the top 100 or so sites on the Internet with smaller sites only appearing occasionally in the mix.

Do you think that Digg can be turned around or is it too late for that? I certainly will check out the new site and monitor it for a couple of days once it launches to see how it turns out to be.




Source: http://www.ghacks.net/2012/07/30/digg-relaunch-what-you-can-expect/

Google replaces Gmail video chat with Google+ Hangouts

It is becoming apparent that Google is pushing its Google+ networking service with all of its might into the market. I’m not saying that Google+ is a bad service, or that it is weaker or less usable than other social networking services, but if it would have been created by a startup and not Google, it would be nowhere near its current traffic levels.

Google back in 2008 introduced video chat capabilities to its email service Gmail. It allowed Gmail users to quickly initiate video chats with other users of the service which sometimes worked better than having to send multiple emails back and forth. In many respects, it is a similar feature to Facebook’s Skype integration, even though that happened later.

Probably the biggest issue with video chat until now was that it was only available on Gmail and based on peer to peer technology. Today Google announced that it is replacing Gmail video chat with the Hangout feature of Google+. This has several advantages on paper:

• Video chats are now also available on Google+ in compatible web browsers, and on Android and iOS devices, next to being integrated into Google Mail directly.
• If both chat participants use Google+, the full Hangout experience becomes available which means that the chat participants count increases to nine, and that features such as screen sharing, document collaboration or video watching become available as well.

Google notes that it will roll out Hangouts for Gmail from today on, and that all Gmail users should be able to use the service in the coming weeks. A short demonstration video has been created by Google to promote Gmail Hangouts and the new features that it introduces.

You can read the official announcement over at the official Gmail blog. What’s your take on the change?

Source: http://www.ghacks.net/2012/07/30/google-replaces-gmail-video-chat-with-google-hangouts/

Opera Mobile use 47% up, impressive growth in emerging markets

Opera Software’s ability to grow even in markets where it is facing multi-billion Dollar companies like Apple, Google or Microsoft has kept the company alive throughout all these years. It is like David is again fighting against Goliath, but this time, it is against several Goliaths in every country of the world.

One of Opera Software greatest strengths is the company’s mobile strategy which has seen impressive growth in the last couple of years. In the past twelve months, Opera Mobile products grew by 47% surpassing the 200 million user mark in June 2012. About 17 million of these users are Opera Mobile users, while the bulk of the 200 million total users are using Opera Mini instead.

But Opera has not only noticed an upwards trend in users, but also in pageviews which grew to over 115 billion pages in June 2012, an increase of more than 55% in comparison to June 2011.

Opera’s growth is especially apparent in emerging markets. In Africa, Opera Mini’s user base grew by more than 100% in 36 countries, with Liberia topping the charts with an unbelievable user growth of 2904% in a year’s time.

The core reasons for Opera Software’s success in Africa and other emerging markets can be attributed to several factors. First, in these markets, cheaper phones have a much higher market share than top of the line products such as Apple’s iPhone or the majority of Google Android devices. When you look at the top 10 handsets in African countries, you will notice that Nokia is the dominant company here, followed by Alcatel and then Samsung.

Opera in particular is benefiting from distribution deals with telecommunication companies that ship the browser with their devices.

Opera Mini ships with a data compression technology that reduces the size of data transfers on the Internet . Opera Mobile users too can enable the compression technology to save money when they are using the Internet.

Will Opera’s growth continue? It is likely that it will, at least in the next twelve month period as the company has brokered deals with major Indian and South-American telecommunication companies.




Source: http://www.ghacks.net/2012/07/30/opera-mobile-use-47-up-impressive-growth-in-emerging-markets/

Microsoft Surface RT tablets available on Windows 8 launch

If I had to pick one thing that I’m fully excited about in regards to Microsoft’s upcoming operating system Windows 8, it is the prospect of trying out and buying a Surface tablet that Microsoft announced a month ago. Without rehashing what has already been said, the Surface tablet family comes in two major shapes. First with ARM processors and Windows RT, and then with Intel processors and a full version of Windows 8.

I’m not really interested in a Surface RT device as I can’t use it to run legacy Windows applications on it, other than those – like Microsoft Office – that Microsoft is making available as specialized versions. And since I do not want to use a computer without the software that I’m using on my desktop PC, I have made the decision to evaluate the Surface Pro tablet to see if it ticks all the right boxes.

The operating system is not the only difference between those two device families. Surface RT devices come with 32 or 64 Gigabyte of storage, while Surface Pro devices with 64 or 128 Gigabytes of flash storage.

All devices ship with the option to attach two different physical keyboards to them to make writing tasks more comfortable. That, its size and weight, and the fact that it provides me with a touch-enabled device that I can test Windows 8 on is what got me interested in first place.

According to Paul Thurrott, I may have to wait until the beginning of 2013 before I can get my hands on a Surface Pro device.  He discovered that Microsoft revealed the launch date of its Surface devices in “a filing with the US Security and Exchange Commission” (which he failed to link).

The next version of our operating system, Windows 8, will be generally available on October 26, 2012. At that time, we will begin selling the Surface, a series of Microsoft-designed and manufactured hardware devices.

Microsoft will make Surface RT tablets available when Windows 8 launches. The company previously indicated that Surface Pro devices would become available at least 90 days after the launch of Windows RT, and 90 days after October 26 means at the end of January 2013 at the earliest.

This is disappointing news for Windows users who may have planned to get hold of a Surface Pro device by Christmas 2012.

Microsoft has yet to reveal the retail price for all Surface tablets, which, among other things, can make or break the tablet.

What’s your take on Microsoft Surface? Are you interested in one? If yes, what interests you the most? If not, why not?




 Source: www.ghacks.net/2012/07/30/microsoft-surface-rt-tablets-available-on-windows-8-launch/
 

Comodo Ice Dragon, Firefox-based web browser

Comodo Ice Dragon should not be confused by Internet users with Comodo Dragon, a Chrome-based web browser that has been available for some time now. The two browsers share several traits, for instance Comodo’s commitment to making the browser more secure than the original product, or improving the browser’s resource usage.

Comodo Ice Dragon at the time of writing is only available on the Comodo forum and not on the official website. While it is not a beta product by any means, it looks as if Comodo plans to keep a low profile for the moment to sort out bugs and issues that users of the browser report to the company.

This also shows in the version of Firefox that is currently used for Comodo Ice Dragon. At the time of writing, Firefox 13 was used as the core, and not the recently released Firefox 14.0.1 version. Considering that Firefox 14.0.1 resolved various security fixes, it is definitely cause for concern if Comodo can’t keep up with new releases of the browser.
The first release of Comodo IceDragon introduces a handful of features that Comodo engineers have implemented on top of Firefox’s core engine.

• Option to enable Comodo Secure DNS during installation. Note that this will be implemented system-wide if accepted. It switches the system’s default DNS to Comodo’s which just like other third party DNS systems incorporates  security features among other improvements.
• Comodo furthermore has added the company’s own Site Inspector feature natively into Ice Dragon. It is displayed as a button in the interface that you can click on to find out if malicious activity or malware has been detected on the site in question.
• Lastly, a social media button has been integrated into the browser’s main toolbar that you can utilize to share links on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn.

Both buttons can be removed from the interface, but the underlying programs can’t be removed from the browser as they are not listed as add-ons.

The majority of browser add-ons will work in Comodo IceDragon as well. It is different when it comes to themes which most of the time won’t work properly which can probably be attributed to the design changes introduced in the browser.

When you look at the feature set that Comodo added to the Firefox browser, you will notice that it is not really adding that many security related features to it. For now, it looks more like a way to distribute Comodo products with a browser than to improve the browser’s security significantly.

Firefox users on the other hand should feel right at home as everything is at its usual place in Ice Dragon.

Success or failure of Comodo Ice Dragon depends largely on how development will progress in the next couple of months. If the developers add additional security options to the browser it could become a viable alternative for security conscious Firefox users, especially if Comodo implements security features natively into the browser’s core.




Source:  http://www.ghacks.net/2012/07/30/comodo-ice-dragon-firefox-based-web-browser/

Create desktop shortcuts for Windows Metro apps

One of the things that you can’t do in the Windows 8 Release Preview is create desktop shortcuts for Metro apps. Say you have a favorite Metro app that you want to access regularly from your desktop.  In Windows 8, you would have to press the Windows key first, and then either use the search to find it or locate it in the Metro interface and click on it to start it up.

If you have installed a program like Start8, you may get direct access to the app via the start menu that those applications add to the Windows 8 operating system, but if you do not use those programs, you are pretty much without options to create shortcuts for Metro apps.

The free program Metro App Link provides you with the option to create shortcuts for all default Metro apps that ship with Windows 8. While it is not a universal solution because of that, as it does not support third party apps that you install using the Windows Store, it at least gives you the option to create shortcuts to several popular apps on your desktop.

ou can start the program right after you have downloaded and unpacked it on your system. Note that the Smartscreen Filter may kick in to prevent that you run the program on the system. This is a protection filter that is blocking new and malicious programs  from being launched or installed. You can bypass the Smartscreen Filter easily with a click on more info though.

The program displays only the app icons and no titles but since the apps use fairly general icons it should not be too hard to identify the proper apps that you want to create shortcuts for. Simply click on create shortcut and a new desktop shortcut is placed on your Windows desktop.

You receive a security warning when you click on the shortcut for the first time. You can uncheck the always ask before opening this file box to prevent this from happening in the future. The program then loads the app right in the Metro interface as if it was started there.

If you want to create shortcuts to the default Metro apps, then this program can help you do so. It is likely that someone will eventually come up with a solution to create shortcuts for third party Metro apps as well. For now, that is all we have got.




Source: http://www.ghacks.net/2012/07/29/create-desktop-shortcuts-for-windows-metro-apps/

Opera Backup Professional

While it is actually pretty easy to backup an Opera user profile manually, some users may prefer software for a number of reasons. This may include a one-click backup process without configuration hassles, a better selection of individual items to backup, or options to schedule backups regularly.

Opera Backup Professional is a free program for Windows that allows you to backup Opera with just a few clicks of the mouse. The application tries to locate an installed version of the Opera browser automatically on the system when it is started up.

The program currently does not support the manual selection of an Opera directory which is bad news for Opera portable users and Opera users who have more than one version of the browser installed on their system. If you are one of those users,  I suggest you check out the browser backup software Favbackup instead which supports the manual selection of browser directories for all browsers it supports.

If you have only one version of Opera installed, there is not a reason not to use Opera Backup Professional on the other hand. The program divides the backup options into profile and mail related data, and gives you the option to backup both or only one of the data sets. For each set, you can furthermore select specific items that you want to exclude from the backup.

Everything that you can think of appears to be included in the backup, from cookies and contacts to saved sessions, site preferences or old mails.

You can create a new backup with a click on the backup button in the main interface, or the selection of a backup profile under backup in the menu bar. Here you can quickly save all data, or only mail or profile related information.

The restoration works in a similar fashion, only that you will receive a warning message if the Opera installation folder is not empty as the data and folders will be erased before the backup is restored.

Opera Backup Professional is available for 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the Microsoft Windows operating system. It is compatible with all recent versions of Opera, and requires the Microsoft .Net Framework 2.0.

The biggest issue that is holding the program back is the missing manual folder selection option, as it limits the program’s functionality significantly. Still, if you only got one version of the browser and you want to backup it, then this program may be worth a shot.




Source: http://www.ghacks.net/2012/07/29/opera-backup-professional/

Immersive Explorer, Metro-style app for the desktop

The Metro user interface that Windows 8 ships with is certainly controversial with the majority of users either hating or loving it. If you are part of the group that likes Metro, or at least thinks it is not totally bad, then you may like where the Windows Explorer replacement Immersive Explorer is heading to.

The program, available for both Windows 7 and Windows 8, is a desktop replacement for Window’s default file browser in Metro-style. What does that mean? Well, after you run the program you will immediately notice that it starts in fullscreen and displays an interface that looks and acts in many ways like other Metro applications.

The interface itself is optimized for touch-screens and other input methods that do not use the mouse and keyboard primarily. While it is certainly possible to use Immersive Explorer with the mouse and keyboard, its full potential becomes only available on touch-based devices.

The program displays common folders, user profiles and drives on the start screen, and it takes a single tap or click to display the contents of the folder on the screen. You can run programs with another tap or click, or use the back and forward buttons at the top to quickly navigate to another folder.

This early version supports picture viewing and MD5 and SHA1 hash calculation. What you will notice is that several options displayed in the program interface, like displaying the folder size or file operations are not yet supported by the application.

Among the future features listed by the developer on the project website are audio and video playback support, touchscreen support, file system operations, advanced view filters and sorting, and picture manipulations.

As of now, it is more a concept of a program than something that you can really use in day to day activities on your system. If the developer improves the program and implements the future features into it, it could become an alternative file manager for Windows 7 and 8 users who work with touchscreens and prefer to do so on the desktop as well.

The developer has promised to release the source code of the application when it reaches version 1.0, which should definitely be something to look out for.

Update:  Please note that Windows 8′s Smartscreen Filter may kick in when you try to start the program. Check out this Smartscreen Filter bypass tutorial if you have troubles getting around the protection.



Source:  http://www.ghacks.net/2012/07/29/immersive-explorer-metro-style-app-for-the-desktop/

Webmasters: Verify your website’s Web of Trust reputation rating

Ilev yesterday mentioned in a comment that Web of Trust was flagging the Loginhelper.com website as a malicious site. When I checked the ranking it was in the lowest sector which meant that visitors with Web of Trust installed would receive a warning before the site was fully displayed to them.

That was a problem, not only because it meant that the site lost visitors every day who did not want to visit a malicious site, but also because it may have impacted other ratings and rankings on the web.

Since it is my site, I was pretty sure that the ratings were incorrect, and the most plausible explanations were either that competing webmasters left bad ratings for the site, or that users misinterpreted the purpose of the site. Two users left negative comments claiming that it was a phishing, scam and spam website.

I had to find a way to resolve the issue to get my site’s reputation rating into the green which would remove the warning message when WOT visitors went to the site. Read on to find out what I did.
Checking a site’s WOT reputation

You can check out any website’s Web of Trust reputation rating on this page. Just go there, enter the domain name and wait for the results to be populated.

Here you see the domain’s rating in four different areas: Trustworthiness, Vendor reliability, Privacy and Child Safety. By default, red and orange Trustworthiness, Vendor reliability and Privacy ratings will display a warning message as an overlay that many WOT users will certainly take serious.

The big issue here is that it is not clear why the ratings are that low, and while you can click through to the WOT website for additional details, most WOT users probably trust the rating without doing so. As a webmaster, you also do not know why someone has rated your website poorly when you look at the ratings alone.

It is important to read the comments on the site’s reputation scorecard as well if there are any to understand the issues at hand. Now, these comments may still be bogus, especially if they have been placed with malicious intent, for instance to hurt a website’s reputation. You may also find links on the page from trusted third party sources such as Symantec or hpHosts.

How to improve a website’s Web of Trust rating

Lets assume the site is clean and not engaging in any illegal or malicious activities. If that is the case and it is listed in the reds on WOT, your best chance to get the situation resolved is a review on the WOT forum.

For that you need an account at the website, and once you have created it,I would suggest you rate your website and leave a comment as well. What you should do as well is contact users who left a negative comment asking for a new review of the site. Be polite and do not pressure them. While this will not convince the malicious competitor to change your site’s rating, it may very well convince a regular WOT user to modify the site’s rating.

To request a review, you first need to claim ownership of the site. This is done on the WOT Reputation Scorecard page where you find the link on the left sidebar underneath the site’s screenshot and description. To claim ownership you need to add meta tags to your site for the verification process.

Once you have verified it, you can request an evaluation of the site on the forum.  Be descriptive and polite when you are asking for a review. Explain the situation but do not use too many words to do so. Just a couple of sentences should be enough.

After that all you can do is wait for WOT users to take a look at the site and leave a comment on the forum or on your site’s Reputation Scorecard.

I’d suggest you monitor the forum and the scorecard of the site, and since both support RSS, it is probably best to use that to monitor the process.

Closing Words

The process is not ideal, as it only works well for popular sites with thousands of ratings. If you have a site that is not that popular, a handful of maliciously placed ratings can hurt a website’s reputation immensely. As a webmaster, I’d recommend monitoring all of your website’s reputation scorecards using RSS to make sure you do not miss a single comment that WOT users leave.




 Source: http://www.ghacks.net/2012/07/29/webmasters-verify-your-websites-web-of-trust-reputation-rating/

Transform Windows 8 into Mac OS X

Don’t like the way how Windows 8 is shaping out to look like when it is released? Prefer the look and feel of Apple’s Mac OS X operating system? Then you may be interested in the Mountion Lion Skin Pack for the Windows 8 Consumer Preview which changes the interface of the operating system significantly.  The developer has promised to release an update once Windows 8 final is released by Microsoft so that this should not be of concern right now when installing the skin pack.

What makes this total conversion interesting is that it does not require you to patch system files by yourself or to prepare the operating system in another way. The Mountain Lion skin pack comes with a single installer for 32-bit or 64-bit editions of Windows that will do all the installing and configuring for you.

The full download has a size of about 35 Megabytes and you need to know that some of the programs that it will install require the Microsoft .Net Framework 4.0. This should not be an issue though as support for it is integrated natively into Windows 8. You should pay attention to the installation process as you may end up otherwise with the Babylon Toolbar. The rest of the installation is straightforward and very comfortable. Just follow the installation instructions and restart the computer afterwards.

The installer gives you the option to uncheck third party programs from being installed. For the best user experience it is however suggested to keep the default configuration. You end up with more than ten different programs, including popular applications such as Rocket Dock, Xwidget or Moveex.

The log in screen looks identical, but the rest of the operating system will look more or less like a copy of the Mac OS X Mountain Lion operating system.

If you are used to work with Mac OS X you will probably feel right at home. Pure Windows users on the other hand may need some time getting used to the skin as it changes several interface elements significantly. The Windows taskbar for instance is moved to the top of the screen, while the dock is listed at the bottom of the screen.

You can uninstall the Mac OS X skin pack like any other application on the system, and you end up with pretty much the same system as before. When I uninstalled the skin pack, only the top position of the Windows Taskbar was not changed by the process, but it took less than ten seconds to move it back into its bottom position.

The Mountain Lion theme for Windows 8 may not be after everyone’s liking, but those who want to give it a try benefit from the straightforward installation and uninstallation of the total conversion.
If you ask me, I’m not a fan of total conversions as they are never as good as the original. I had a few usability issues when I tested it and decided to uninstall it rather quickly again.




 Source: http://www.ghacks.net/2012/07/28/transform-windows-8-into-mac-os-x/

Safari for Windows discontinued?

With Apple’s latest update for Mac OS X came Safari 6, an update to the default system web browser.  And just like Microsoft does with Internet Explorer 9 and Internet Explorer 10, it looks as if the new browser version is exclusively tied to that operating system. Note: Technically, Microsoft is tying the IE browser to the latest two versions of the operating system, and Apple the Safari 6 browser to Mac OS X Lion and Mountain Lion.

Previous versions of Safari were also available on Windows, but the latest update to Safari 6 may introduce Apple’s departure from the Windows operating system. When you open the Safari page you only get information about the browser, but no download links. Previously users were able to download Safari for Mac and Windows from the Apple page. All previous download urls redirect to the main page with no apparent option to download the browser for Windows or pre-Lion versions of Mac OS X. Safari 6 has been exclusively distributed via software updates for OS X Lion and Mountain Lion users.

The absence of download links does not necessarily mean that Safari for Windows has been discontinued, especially since Apple has not released an official statement yet regarding the issue.

According to Macworld, an Apple spokesperson hat that to say about the issue:

    Safari 6 is available for Mountain Lion and Lion. Safari 5 continues to be available for Windows,” she said. Specifically, the final version of Safari available for Windows users is Safari 5.1.7.

Apple may have its reasons for discontinuing Safari on Windows. One possible explanation it the browser’s low market share on Windows which may not justify the costs of maintaining and supporting a version of Safari for Windows.

Other explanations may be possible. Maybe it takes longer to develop and release the Safari 6 update for Windows, or Apple has it ready but wants to keep the version exclusive for its operating system for now.

How do you think this is going to evolve? Has Apple discontinued Safari for Windows, or will the company release the browser at a later time?




Source: http://www.ghacks.net/2012/07/28/safari-for-windows-discontinued/

How to add search providers to uTorrent’s torrent search

Despite the route that uTorrent has been taken in the last year or so, it is still one of the most popular Bittorrent clients on today’s Internet. When you look at the feature set you will notice that some of them are not really that well known in comparison to others. While you probably know about the uTorrent apps store or uTorrent Plus, you may not know that you can use uTorrent to search popular torrent websites.

When you look at the client’s top right corner you will notice the search form there. While it may look as if this is a search for local torrents that are currently processed by the client, it is in fact a torrent search engine that allows you to search various online torrent indexing websites from within the Bittorrent client.

All you need to do is type a search term into the form and either hit the enter key right away to search the default torrent search engine or click on the down arrow next to the search icon to pick one of the available search engines from the list.

By default, only BitTorrent and Mininova are available. A click on manage search providers opens a configuration menu that you can make use of to add or remove torrent search engines from the program.

To add a search engine you first need to know its search url. Visit the search engines’s website and search for TEST or another phrase that you can easily identify when you look at the web address of the results page.

A search for test on the Piratebay for instance displays the following web address http://thepiratebay.se/search/test/0/99/0

All you need to do know is to remove everything after search from the address and add that address to uTorrent. For the Piratebay, you would add Piratebay|http://thepiratebay.se/search/ to uTorrent’s list of search engines. You should not have issues adding public torrent search engines to uTorrent.  Please note that searches are opened in the default system browser and not in uTorrent directly.

Have another uTorrent tip that you would like to share? Feel free to leave a comment below.






  Source:  Source: http://www.ghacks.net/2012/07/28/how-to-add-search-providers-to-utorrents-torrent-search/

The Spirit Engine 2 [Game Saturday]

The Spirit Engine 2 is a side-scrolling role playing game for the PC that has been around since 2008.  Back then it received lots of praise from the community, and I have to say rightfully though. The game shares all the traits of a successful roleplaying game, from party selection to a compelling story, a combat system that plays a lot like earlier Final Fantasy titles, and character progression throughout the game.

When you first start you are asked to pick a difficulty level and three of the nine available characters. Three character classes, Knights, Musketeers and Priests, are available, and it may make sense to have one of each class in your party. One that is out of the way you are introduced into the game’s mechanics.

Your characters meet up in the tutorial as well which is a nice change from many other games where the group has already met and you do not know really anything about how that came to happen. If you are not into the story though you can skip past at any time to concentrate on combat and character progression.

Combat plays in realtime more or less, with skill chains playing an important role in the game. When you look at the screenshot above you notice that the two characters have three different skills listed underneath. The green bar indicates the ready level, and once it reaches a certain threshold, an action is executed. What makes this game interesting is that you can pause that for a while to accumulate additional momentum to execute up to three skills at the time.

This becomes an important part of your arsenal quickly in the game as it allows you to finish off enemies that would otherwise move to the back, or avoid temporary barriers and stuff like that.

The character first in line is usually attacked by the enemies unless they have special powers allowing them to target multiple characters for instance. You can move characters around in order with the spacebar which may save a character from dropping to the floor. Unconscious characters come back after a while unless the whole party is lying on the floor, at which time the battle is lost.

The combat balance is pretty good on normal, not too easy and not too hard to frustrate you. Graphics and sound are really good as well and add to the atmosphere of the game.

The game will entertain you for a good ten hours or so which on normal difficulty. When you play on harder difficulties you may need to replay certain areas to grow stronger before you head out to harder areas. As far as replay value goes, it needs to be said that the plot itself does not change even if you select a different party or difficulty level. Still, you may be interested in trying a new party on harder difficulty levels once you beat the game on easy or normal.

Conclusion
If you are into role playing games then this game could be exactly what you are looking for.  It ticks all the right boxes and should keep you entertained throughout the whole game.




 Source: http://www.ghacks.net/2012/07/28/the-spirit-engine-2-game-saturday/

How to check your website’s tags on OpenDNS

As a website owner you have to cope with a lot of situations. One of them is the classification of your website by services such as Web of Trust, business filtering solutions or OpenDNS. The reason for this is that false classifications can get the site banned in the network, and if you do not happen to use the network, your only chance to know about it is if someone who is using it notifies you about it.

OpenDNS is a DNS provider that you can switch to instead of using your ISP as the DNS provider. Doing so may speed up the DNS lookup process, allow you to access websites that would otherwise be blocked in your country, region or network, increase the Internet security by using automatic protection against phishing and other Internet attack forms, and make use of the service’s web filtering system to block types of websites from being accessed on the computer or router.

And it is exactly that web filter that may be reason for concern. OpenDNS uses its community to tag websites, a system it calls Domain Tagging. Any OpenDNS user can add tags to websites, and while they won’t become active immediately, it may very well be that a website gets classified with tags that may not be justified. In addition, it can mean that these tags may prevent a percentage of OpenDNS users from accessing the site.

One example: When you look up ghacks.net you find the following tags: adware, blogs, P2P/file sharing, uncategorized, software/technology and research/reference.  Of these tags, blogs and software/technology have been approved, while all remaining tags are currently up for voting.

I think that adware, P2P, uncategorized and maybe even research/reference are not suitable and should be down voted. If users disagree, it can happen that Ghacks is tagged as an adware site or a P2P site, and if that is the case, it would be blocked on computer systems that use a moderate filtering level.
If you look at the adware category it reads:

Sites that distribute applications which display advertisements without user’s knowledge or choice. Does NOT include sites which serve advertising.

We do not distribute applications here and should not be listed as adware as a consequence.
Ghacks is also not a P2P site.

Sites that facilitate the sharing of digital files between individuals, especially via peer-to-peer software, including torrent sites.

To check out your domain visit the Domain Tagging community page over at OpenDNS and enter the domain name in the upper right corner next to the check a domain title. It pays to look closely at the tags and make sure the appropriate tags are listed on the page for voting.If they are not, you can add them to the domain provided that you have an OpenDNS account. All new tags that you add are in voting and it may take some time before they are either approved or rejected.

If your domain has been tagged incorrectly you can request a review on the same page. Here you can add information why you are requesting a review. There is however no guarantee that a moderator will change a site’s status after a review.





  Source: http://www.ghacks.net/2012/07/27/how-to-check-your-websites-tags-on-opendns/

Want to try YouTube’s Carousel Look? Then do this

It seems like Google is constantly trying out new designs and testing them on the live side by randomly selecting a percentage of the user base. The latest design that is currently making the round is YouTube’s carousel design which changes the frontpage in a fundamental way.

I need to point out right away that this is only working for me if I’m not logged in on the site. Once I log in, the frontpage changes to the old design which stays there until I log out again at which point the new carousel design comes onto the screen again.

Before we look at how you can activate the new design on your computer, you are probably interested in how it looks like once you have activated it. Take a look at the screenshot below to find out.

What you basically get here is a full screen view of video recommendations. To be honest, I’m not entirely sure where your own video stream and subscriptions would fit in here, but would say that they are added somehow to the stream dynamically.
The design itself looks optimized for small screen devices, probably with touch, as it is making the selection process a lot easier on the screen.
To test out the new design you need to do the following in your web browser of choice:

• In Google Chrome, open YouTube.com, and press Shift-Ctrl-J
• In Firefox, open YouTube, and press Shift-Ctrl-K
• In Opera, open YouTube, press Ctrl-Shift-i, and switch to Console
• In Internet Explorer, open YouTube, press F12 to open the web developer toolbar, and switch to Console

Paste the following code into the form and hit enter. In Chrome you should get an undefined message and see that the frontpage is switched right to the new carousel design.
document.cookie="VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE=eKxEWQ3xcc8; path=/; domain=.youtube.com";window.location.reload();

When you are done testing and want to switch back to YouTube’s old page design, you can either delete all cookies that the site has stored on your computer, or log in which also gets rid of the design for the time being. Check out the excellent Web Browser Maintenance guide over at Loginhelper for information on how to clear the cache and cookies in your browser of choice.
Do you like the new homepage layout?



  Source: http://www.ghacks.net/2012/07/27/want-to-try-youtubes-carousel-look-then-do-this/

Steam account limited? Find out why and how to gain access to all Steam features

Steam is probably the most popular gaming platform on the PC right now offering not only a game store and means to launch games from a single client but also community elements that include a friend system, groups and chat among other things.

Some Steam users may have noticed that a handful of Steam features are not available to them. When a Steam account is limited, users are unable to send out friend invites or initiate chat sessions. Several other features are still available, including accepting chat sessions, being added as a friend or the creation of community groups.

To verify that a Steam account is limited, you could try to start a chat session with an existing friend or send out an invite to a new person on Steam.

Valve has implemented limited accounts to protect the user base from spammers and abusive users. If the system would not be in place, those users could simply create a Steam account and start messaging and inviting Steam users without limitation. To avoid this, limited accounts were introduced.

Every Steam account is limited by default until at least one purchase is made in the store. A purchase includes a direct purchase in the store, the registration of a paid game in the account using a game serial number or a microtransaction in a game. It does not include demos, non-Steam games that get added to the store, promotional items like free weekends or free to play games like Team Fortress 2. Once has a purchase has been made, the account stops being limited and becomes fully functional on Steam.

Gamers who just installed Steam to play a free to play game like Team Fortress 2 are the most likely candidates for noticing that some of the software’s features are not available to them. The easiest way to get around this is to either purchase a discounted game or make an in-game purchase to enable all social features on Steam.

A limited account should not be confused with a suspended or banned account.  Accounts may be suspended for a variety of reasons, including piracy or hacking, payment fraud, sharing accounts, or buying, selling or trading accounts.  Steam users who try to log into a suspended account see the following error message when they try to do so.

It reads:

Steam – Contact us
Steam Support has suspended this account
Accounts typically become suspended when an account has been accessed by someone else, or a payment dispute is in progress.
Please contact Steam Support to resolve this issue.

You find additional information about limited and suspended accounts on the Steam Support website.





  Source: http://www.ghacks.net/2012/07/27/steam-account-limited-find-out-why-and-how-to-gain-access-to-all-steam-features/

Bypass can’t be opened messages on Mac OS X Mountain Lion

Apple has integrated a new security feature into the newest version of its Mac OS X operating system that acts pretty much the same way as Microsoft’s SmartFilter technology. Apple basically divides applications into verified and unverified applications. Gatekeeper checks during installations whether an application is verified or not. If it is verified the installation commences without interruption. Applications that are not verified on the other hand are blocked automatically giving the user no choice but to cancel the operation in the dialog window.

    “[Application name]” can’t be opened because it is from an unidentified developer.

    Your security preferences allow installation of only apps from the Mac App Store and identified     developers.

This can be an issue for users who regularly install application that are not verified by Apple. You may ask yourself why Apple is integrating such a feature into the OS. The most likely answer is that  Apple is trying to protect the bulk of the system’s userbase from installing malicious applications on the system. It is the same motivation that Microsoft has with its Smartscreen Filter by the way.

Advanced users on the other hand may find the feature annoying as it is limiting what they can do with the operating system. Thankfully, both Apple and Microsoft are providing users with options to bypass or turn off the feature.

You have got two options to bypass the Gatekeeper protection and install the application on your Mac system.

Bypass temporarily

If you only install unverified applications occasionally you may be interested in the following option. Hold down the Ctrl key before you click on the installer. Select open in the new, and on the next screen open anyway to continue with the installation of the non-verified application.

Disable Gatekeeper in Mac OS X Mountain Lion

To disable the Gatekeeper functionality completely you need to change security settings in the operating system. Open the System Preferences of the operating system, and select Security and Privacy there. Locate the allow applications downloaded from section and switch from the current setting to anywhere to allow all software installations on the operating system.

Other options
Sometimes all you need to do is make sure you are installing the latest version of an application. Instead of installing an old version from CD, you may want to look on the developer website for a newer version of the application that is fully compatible with Mountain Lion.





 Source:  http://www.ghacks.net/2012/07/27/bypass-cant-be-opened-messages-on-mac-os-x-mountain-lion/

Move the Firefox button to another location in the browser

I have to admit that I do not really like the Firefox button that Mozilla at some point in development added to the browser. Thankfully though the developers decided to hide the old menu bar and make it available on demand so that users who prefer to work with the old menu bar can activate it again if they prefer it over the single button menu.

I have two issues with the Firefox button. First, some features are not as easily accessible as they were before, and second, it sits there alone in the address bar with no option to move it to another location in the browser. I’m not sure why Mozilla locked the button in its place but there are at least 23923 users who would love to move the button to one of the browser toolbars instead.

Moveable Firefox Button is an extension for the web browser that enables you to do just that. Once you have installed and restarted the browser, you will notice that the Firefox button has been moved from its title bar location to the first visible toolbar of the browser instead.

You can now use the customize feature of Firefox to move the Firefox button to another location in the browser. This is either done by clicking on the button and selection Options > Toolbar Layout, or by right-clicking on a blank spot on one of the toolbars and selecting customize from the context menu there.

The size and layout of the button depends largely on the selections you make in the customize menu.  The smallest size becomes available when you check the use small icons parameter and select icons under show in the customize menu.

You can move the Firefox button to any browser toolbar and location, including to the browser’s add-on bar. What you may notice now is that the title bar looks awfully empty, which can mostly be attributed to Mozilla’s decision to move page titles away from it as well. An add-on like Aero Window Title adds titles to the titlebar again so that the space gets filled out with useful information.

It may take some time to get used to the new position and smaller size of the Firefox button.





  Source: http://www.ghacks.net/2012/07/27/move-the-firefox-button-to-another-location-in-the-browser/

Google Search: left sidebar moves to the top

Google according to several sources in the US is currently rolling out a layout change for Google Search that is moving the left sidebar to the top of the results page. The left sidebar was introduced several years ago by the company to provide users with advanced search filtering options. It was a controversial move at the time as it was one of the first major changes to a search results page that was left untouched for the most part otherwise.

Available on the sidebar are links to different product searches, e.g. video, images and maps, as well as a listing of search tools that Google visitors can make use of to define a data range for their search or filter search results by factors such as reading level or location.

Moving the sidebar to the vertical spot just above the search results can only be the first step in a bigger redesign for a number of reasons:

• The left sidebar is now displaying lots of whitespace, and we have seen in the past that Google usually has plans to later fill that whitespace with content
• The new vertical toolbar lists several links that are also available on the top of the screen on the blackbar. Search, images and maps for instance are all also displayed there.

Here is what is likely going to happen. Since Google is working on becoming the one and only stop for all things search and beyond, the company is moving additional modules on to the search pages. We have seen that with Google Knowledge Graph for instance which is displaying encyclopedic information about certain search terms on the right sidebar on the search results page.

That in turn reduces the space available for advertisement, Google’s core income source. A likely scenario therefor will be that Google will move some of the ads from the right side to the space where the left sidebar was positioned before. Moving ads from the right to the left would be huge, as it would surely improve ad revenue for the company even further as advertisement would be more visible on the page.

Since the change is currently being rolled out, it may take a while before you see the change on your computer. How do you think will the final page look like when Google has completed the redesign?



  Source: http://www.ghacks.net/2012/07/27/google-search-left-sidebar-moves-to-the-top/

You’ve Got Mail: I just created an AOL Mail account

AOL, which was previously known as America Online, announced today that they have released an update for their mail service AOL Mail. According to AOL, that email service has 24 million users which may not look like much when compared to the hundreds of million Gmail, Hotmail or Yahoo Mail users, but it is still making AOL one of the largest mail providers on the planet.

I can’t really compare the new design to the old, since I have never used it. To be frank, I did not really know that AOL was still offering its email service thinking that the company went full steam ahead with its tech acquisition strategy. As with every change, it is likely that part of the existing user base does not like it.

Still, when I opened my account after signing up I saw a well designed interface. It took a while to realize that AOL pushed me into the basic interface, and when I clicked on the link to switch to the standard interface I was welcomed with a message that told me that my browser was not supported. Now, I do not know if this was because of using NoScript, or because of using Firefox Nightly at that time. Still, a link was displayed that allowed me to keep the standard interface.

Here is the lite version screenshot,

and here a screenshot of the standard version.

The lite version lists contacts and a calendar link, but not advanced features that only the standard version offers. You can for instance use the built-in chat to chat on AIM (which supports Facebook Chat), send text messages to any U.S. phone for free from your inbox, or customize the interface with different styles and themes.

If you do not like the fancy default theme you can switch to a number of themes, including classic AOL mail or a high contrast theme.

When you look behind the curtain you will notice that AOL Mail comes with a solid set of features. From IMAP and POP3 support and various spam filter settings to mobile clients for iPhone, Android and Blackberry, mail filters, alerts and options to transfer mails and contacts from other mail accounts to AOL.

And what about the classic AOL You’ve got mail message? It is unfortunately – or thankfully – not integrated into the program anymore. If you are too young to remember, here is the sound again that AOL played every time you received an email.

I have to admit that I like what I’m seeing with the exception of the Today on AOL folder that is displayed above your inbox and on the frontpage when you open the mail interface. It is too early to judge the mail client though, and I run a series of tests in the next couple weeks. To begin, I’d invite all of you – and the spammers out there – to write me emails to martin.brinkmann@aol.com.

Are you a user of AOL Mail? If so, feel free to share your experience. You can read more about the relaunch in this press release or on the AOL Mail Tour site.




  Source: http://www.ghacks.net/2012/07/27/youve-got-mail-i-just-created-an-aol-mail-account/

Delete Google Chrome browsing data on exit

Google Chrome offers its users several options when it comes to clearing the browsing data. One of the quickest ways is to use the Ctlr-Shift-Del shortcut to bring up the clear browsing data menu where you can select the data types that you want to delete (Firefox users: the same shortcut is opening the browser’s delete browsing data menu as well).

Besides selecting what you want to delete, you can also select from which point in time on you want the items to be cleared.If you prefer to use the mouse, you can click on the wrench icon, and then on Tools > Clear Browsing Data to open the same menu this way.

It is rather interesting that Chrome does not ship with options to automatically clear all browsing data on exit. While it is possible to delete all cookies and site-data, it currently does not seem possible to delete all data on exit.

You need to use browser extensions or third party programs like CCleaner to automatically delete Google Chrome browsing data. One of the extensions that you can use for that purpose is Click&Clean which offers a rich functionality.

Here is the list of data that it can clean automatically when the browser window is closed:

• Browsing history
• Download history
• Browser cache
• Cookies
• Local Storage
• SQL databases
• Indexed databases
• File system
• Application cache
• Web applications data
• Reset search engines
• Reset zoom levels
• Saved form data
• Saves passwords
• Extensions cookies
• Extensions Local Storage
• Extensions SQL databases
• Extensions indexed databases
• Extensions file system
• Google Gears data
• Reset Chrome Local State

Plus the following that are not Chrome specific:

• Recycle Bin
• Temporary files
• Recently opened files
• Flash Local Shared Objects (LSO)
• Silverlight Cookies
• Java Cache

You can furthermore select to delete the data using secure overwrites to protect the data against file recovery attempts, configure Click&Clean to run an external application like CCleaner or Eraser, and whitelist cookies and site data to block the data from being deleted with the rest of the data.
It is not really clear why Google is not integrating an option to delete all browsing data on exit in the Chrome browser.

The Click&Clean extension for the browser makes more than up for it though, and it is recommended to anyone who wants that feature to be available in the browser.




  Source: http://www.ghacks.net/2012/07/26/delete-google-chrome-browsing-data-on-exit/

Firefox: Open links and media in external browsers and players

Sometimes I want to open links that I have in front of me in the Firefox web browser in other programs. This can be Flash-based contents that I can’t play in the web browser because I do not have the Flash plugin installed in it, or an Internet Radio stream that I want to play in my favorite music player AIMP3 and not the Fox itself.

Copying and pasting links works most of the time, but it means to tap on a few keys and to click a few times with the mouse to do so.

Enter Browser View Plus, an extension for the Firefox web browser that reduces the process to two clicks. Once you have installed the extension in Firefox and restarted the browser afterwards, you are ready to send links to web browsers and external programs.

The add-on detects installed browsers, media players and download managers automatically and adds all programs that it finds to the selection menu. While this works well for popular choices such as Chrome, Internet Explorer or the excellent VLC Player, you may notice that it does not detect all of your favorite programs automatically. That’s however not an issue, as you can open the program’s preferences to add those programs manually to it.

Here you can add up to five web browsers and up to five media players and download managers. A click on the browse button opens the file browser that you need to use to pick the program executable. Once done enter a menu text that you want to be listed in the selection menu when you invoke the add-on’s feature, and you are ready to go and use the new program as well.

You are not limited in the selection of programs that you can add to the extension, and as long as they can process links, you should be fine doing so. It may require some tinkering though to find out which programs work and which do not.

When you are on a page with a link that you want to open in another browser or program, you simply right-click the link and select open with from the context menu. I have tested it with a handful of different types of links, YouTube video links, general web links, Dailymotion, Shoutcast radio links, and a selection of downloads and other media type links.

Verdict

Browser View Plus is a handy extension for the Firefox web browser for users who sometimes or even often want to open links they see in the browser in other programs. The automatic integration of programs should get you started with the add-on right away, and there is enough room to add your own programs to the mix and hide existing ones you do not need.




  Source: http://www.ghacks.net/2012/07/26/firefox-open-links-and-media-in-external-browsers-and-players/

Add experimental Dropbox support to Mozilla Thunderbird

If you are a user of the Mozilla Thunderbird email client you are probably aware by now of the program’s Filelink feature that allows you to upload files that you want to send to recipients instead of attaching them to the emails directly. Thunderbird handles the uploading and integration of links that point to the files automatically, making it a comfortable feature to use.

Current iterations of the browser support two file hosting services, Ubuntu One and You Send It, with the outlook that additional services will be integrated into the next versions of the email client.

If you have followed development of the feature closely you may have noticed that the popular file synchronization service Dropbox was integrated in Thunderbird for a short time, before it was removed again. While I do not have anymore details on the decision, it appears as if Mozilla and Dropbox somehow could not come to an agreement for the integration of the service.

Instead of integrating it directly in Thunderbird, Mozilla is now planning to release an add-on for the email client that adds Dropbox integration to the software’s Filelink feature again. Before you head over to Bugzilla were the add-on is currently hosted on,  I’d  like to stress that this is beta code and that it may have bugs and other issues that have not yet been fixed or even discovered yet. With that said, I have to say that I did not encounter any issues using Dropbox as the file link provider in Thunderbird.

There seem to be issues sometimes when you try to use the Filelink feature with Dropbox. You receive an error that the file could not be uploaded. It is in this case added as a normal attachment to the email.

Once you have installed the add-on and restarted the email client, you need to authorize Thunderbird to use Dropbox storage. This is done under Tools > Options > Attachments > Outgoing > Add.

Select Dropbox from the list of available providers and click on the set up account button afterwards. A new window opens where you are asked to sign in to Dropbox to authorize Thunderbird. Please note that you need JavaScript enabled in Thunderbird for this to work.

Once done you should see a screen in the outgoing tab similar to the one above. Here you see the available and used storage space of the account, and the attachment size threshold at which point Thunderbird will suggest to use a file hosting site instead of sending the attachment directly with the email.

All Dropbox uploaded files are stored under Apps > Mozilla Thunderbird on Dropbox.





 Source: http://www.ghacks.net/2012/07/26/add-experimental-dropbox-support-to-mozilla-thunderbird/