Bundled programs and optional installation wizard clauses are everywhere. Nearly all programs that you might try to install on your PC would have some sort of on opt-in or opt-out clause within their setup wizards and while most of the time this shouldn’t be seen as a major concern, users need to realized that those options shouldn’t be neglected and overlooked as sometimes carelessness and negligence towards that could lead to certain rather unpleasant issues with your PC. One glaring example is when some form of undesirable software application is added to another program as an optional install. This is how a large portion of Adware, Browser Hijackers or other kinds of PUP’s (potentially unwanted programs) are getting distributed. Since a lot of users do not pay enough attention to the details and settings within the installation wizards of new programs, oftentimes they end up installing some pesky and irritating application in addition to the program that they actually wanted on their computer.

The issue with this is not only that the added software could be annoying but in some cases, such optional applications might also cause certain security problems. Many Adware and Hijacker programs could be potentially capable of making your system susceptible to various online threats and the best way to prevent this happening to your computer is to ensure that no such undesirable programs make it inside your PC’s system.

 This is what leads us to the problem with optional clauses within installation wizards – many of those are confusing, misleading or even hidden from plain sight within the Custom installation menu. Normally, a careful user would be able to navigate through the setup menus and find (and disable) anything optional that is potentially unwanted. However, if you want to be certain that there’s nothing left, there is also a neat software tool which can help you achieve that and here, we will give you some more information about it.

Unchecky

Unchecky is a basically a software program that has the sole purpose of automatically unchecking any installation wizard checkboxes such as optional installs, clauses for changing your browser’s frontpage and search engine or ones for installing new toolbars and browser extensions (among others). The software application is unobtrusive and unnoticeable while working. However, once you try to install some new piece of software, you will notice that any checkboxes within the setup wizard have been automatically unchecked (even the ones that are hidden in custom settings menus!).

The installation of Unchecky is as simple as it could be – you simply run the .exe installer, choose language and click on Install. The process happens in an instant and after that, the program is already working in the background. A Desktop icon gets created from which you can access the minimalisitc and clear interface of the program where you can find a couple of basic options. Unchecky requires almost no system resources to run so it will not affect your computer’s performance whatsoever even if your machine isn’t all that powerful.

If you, for whatever reason want to disable the tool, you can do it from its Home tab by simply clicking on Suspend Device (Administrator Rights required). TO get it back up again, just select Resume service and Unchecky will be enabled once more. Of course, the functioning of the tool will not prevent you from manually checking the optional clauses in any installation wizards that you might want to be opted-in, however, it will keep you from accidentally installing or allowing something that you might not actually want.

Conclusion

This little yet effective software tool is surely a great addition to anyone who wants to add an extra layer of security to their system. Even though the task of Unchecky is simple, this program can go a long way towards keeping your computer clean and making it better protected against any potentially unwanted programs or undesirable browser changes. Keep in mind that file bundles and optional installs are some of the most common reasons for people landing Adware and Hijackers so if you think that you won’t be able to manually uncheck everything unwanted from the installation menus of new programs, we recommend that you give Unchecky a go.

The post Unchecky review (anti-bundled software tool) appeared first on Malware Complaints.

Introduction

Google Chrome is a heavy-duty browser program that is famous for it’s wide array of different settings and customization options as well as for its versatility, speed and performance. It is considered by many to be the best browser there is and there’s certainly a lot of evidence to support such a claim. That said, however, users must bear in mind that Chrome is certainly not flawless which is the reason why many people still seem to go for other alternatives when it comes to choosing a web-browsing program. Regardless, there is no doubt that Google Chrome has been the most popular and most commonly used browser for quite some time and its constant evolution and improvement is what ensures that it remains on the top.

Interface

As you might expect from a modern browser, Chrome supports tabs and following the current trend among browsing programs, the Interface of Chrome is minimalistic and clean. Similarly to IE 11 and Edge, Chrome too has its search and address bars combined which is normally seen as useful, but one must bear in mind that it reduces the privacy that the browser provides as anything typed in the Omnibox (the address+search box) gets sent to the Google servers even if you haven’t hit Enter to issue the search.

Chrome’s new tab page is similar to that of Firefox as it has a search engine bar and tiles with recently visited sites. The customization of the new tab page isn’t anything amazing as there are browsers such as IE11 and Opera that offer much more in that department. Still, it can be useful and you can always change the new tab page to something else from the browser’s settings.

Chrome handles tabs well, however, there is something that we do not like about this browser’s tabs and it becomes apparent once the users has opened a lot of them. If you open many enough tabs in Chrome, you will no longer e able to tell them apart at the top of your screen as the only thing you will see from each tab would be a tiny triangle-like shape with no website icon or title. Firefox and Opera handle this aspect of tabs in a much better way as Firefox simply hides excess tabs leaving enough space for the visible ones and allows the user to access the hidden ones by clicking on an arrow, whereas Opera always shows the icon of the website on each tab regardless of how many are opened at once.

Performance

Chrome has pretty much always been one of the fastest browsers out there and still offers satisfying performance. However, it is no longer the fastest one as there are other, lighter browsing programs that outmatch Chrome in terms of speed. One other thing we should mention here when it comes to performance is that Chrome is one of the most demanding browsers. It is infamous for it’s high RAM consumption and if you are using it on your laptop that is working on a battery, you will also notice that the battery would get drained much faster than it would if you are using some other browser. Chrome might be a lot of things but being a lightweight browser isn’t one of them. To use it effectively, you’d better have a computer with enough RAM and, if you are a laptop user, a good, strong battery. Otherwise, there are other good web browsers out there that aren’t as power-hungry as Chrome is.

Customization

Chrome indeed has a lot to offer in terms of versatility and customization. Chrome’s web store offers a rich library of all sorts of extensions and add-ons to boost the functionality of your browser and the extensive settings that the program provides can help you modify it so that it suits your needs. However, when it comes to ways you can tweak your browser, there are other alternatives that have more to offer such as Opera and Vivaldi. That said, you can hardly find greater variety of of options for expanding your browser via add-ons, which might also be a problem in Chrome. There are many instances of not so desirable or not so safe extensions which could lead to a number of issues so one must always be careful what they are installing on Chrome. Also, a lot of add-ins require access to different aspects of your browser and oftentimes tend to collect personal data which is the reason why Google Chrome isn’t the most privacy-oriented web-browsing application.

Extra features

There are a lot of neat features that Chrome has to offer – it has a built-in Flash and also supports PDF so it can be effectively use as a reader so you might not even need to download and install a dedicated reader program. It should also be noted that the browser was one of the first to provide its own Task Manager (separate from the Task Manager of Windows) to help the user monitor the activity of the program.

On the other hand, Google Chrome lacks certain rather common features that other browsers posses such as reading mode or integrated social sharing which is no big deal but would still be useful to have it.

A positive trait of this browser is that is has a very good syncing and installing it and switching to it is very easy and happens in about a minute.

Security and privacy

In terms of security, Chrome is considered to be one of the more secure browsers – it receives frequent updates and has very high-level support. However, when it comes to privacy, many users and researchers frequently point out that Chrome isn’t concerned with the privacy of its customers and oftentimes violates the user’s personal space. Web-site tracking, collecting of information, extensions that require way too many permissions, etc. This has lead to a lot of people leaving Chrome for more privacy-oriented alternatives and there indeed are a lot of other good browsing programs that allow for a much more private web experience.

Conclusion

Google Chrome is still one of the best browsers out there and is a solid tool for exploring the internet and helping with your work. You will hardly find anything that other browsers can do that Chrome cannot (with a few exceptions). It is a versatile program that gets innovations introduced on a regular basis. There is even a version of Chrome that allows users to experience beta changes to the program that are still not officially introduced.

However, as was said in the beginning of the article, there are several things that certain users might find unpleasant about Chrome such as the high RAM and battery use or the low privacy levels that it offers. Still, there is no doubt that it is a good program that can gets the job done which is why it is still the most popular browser out there.

The post Google Chrome Review – the current top browser appeared first on Malware Complaints.

Introduction to Brave Browser

Brave is a newly developed browser based on Chromium – its creators are led by the co-founder of the Mozilla project, Brendan Eich and Brian R. Brody. According to the developers behind this browser, it’s main purpose is to allow the users to have safer and more privacy-oriented web experience. This is the main goal of Brave and in our opinion it does indeed deliver upon it. The program combines features from other browsers into one product making it a good choice not only for people who want to stay low-key and avoid getting tracked but also for users who simply want to be able to roam the online world without getting obstructed every five minutes by some irritating pop-up or some intrusive big web-banner.

Interface

Brave’s interface is plain and clean but it looks good. There are very few buttons there – only the bookmark menu, the main menu of the browser and a bookmark button. As with all modern browsers, Brave supports tabs and one interesting thing about the way tabs are handled is that hovering over a certain tab displays a preview of the page. This can be helpful if a lot of tabs are opened at once but some users might find this feature to be distracting rather than helpful. Luckily, you can disable it from the browser’s settings.

Performance

This is a lightweight browser and it is a quite fast and well-performing one. In fact, it is no slower than the top browsers on the market meaning that it loads at least as fast as Chrome and Firefox. Therefore, if you decide to give it a try, performance shouldn’t be an issue. Also, the resources that it would require from your PC will not be too much meaning that the browser is unlikely to affect your system’s performance.

Features

As should already be obvious, most of Brave’s features are focused towards safety, security and privacy. Similarly to Opera, the browser has an integrated ad-blocker and also has a Do not Track feature that is enabled by default. Unless the user goes out of their way to disable it, website will not be able to track one’s activities and keep data records on them. In fact, many site owners have been disgruntled with Brave as it directly affects the revenue that they earn due to an increasing number of the users of this browser. Statistics about the number of blocked ads and trackers are also provided. If the users wants to, they can manually unblock the tracking and ads for a certain site while still having the rest of the websites blocked.

Extensions (Lacking)

Something that might cause users to turn away from Brave is its lack of extension support. As odd and weird as this might sound, there is actually a reason behind this decision of the developers. As some Chrome extensions could potentially be malware or some other sort of unwanted software, the creators behind Brave have decided to leave out extensions support out of security and privacy concerns. This is sure to divide users between those who want to be able to customize their browsers via add-ons and those who value online privacy and security over additional extra features. In our opinion, Brave would be good for casual browsing but the lack of extensions could prevent customers to use the browser for more sophisticated tasks.

Brave Browser Review

Having safe and secure web-experience is important and it is also nice to be able to surf the online world without getting interrupted by unpleasant advertising materials. There are certain tools and certain browsers that offer ways to achieve that but if you truly want a program dedicated to web safety and privacy, then Brave might be a good choice for you. However, you must bear in mind that due to the lack of extensions, the opportunity to customize the browser as well as the program’s versatility have been greatly limited. If you do not mind those limitations and do not need the browser for any sophisticated operations, then you will certainly enjoy Brave with its ability to remove any unpleasant web distractions and also with its superior speed and good performance.

The post Brave Browser Review – online Security and Privacy appeared first on Malware Complaints.

Introduction

Mozilla Firefox is a free, open source web browser created back in 2002. Currently, it is considered to be one of the best browsing options out there and it’s popularity has been just as high throughout the past decade or so. It combines performance, security, privacy and customization making it a one of the top three browser applications out there. Even though some claim that in more recent times, Firefox has been slowing down in terms of improvement and modernization, there is no doubt that it is still a solid piece of software with a lot to offer.

Interface

Firefox has a stylish outlook that is pleasant to the eye. The tabs are rounded unlike those of other popular browsers such as Chrome or Opera. The program handles the tabbed interface rather well and arguably, better than Chrome. The reason we say that is because if you have a lot of tabs opened in Chrome simultaneously, they will be all displayed at the top but you won’t be able to recognize them since as there won’t be enough space for their names. With Firefox, once the tabs get way too many, the browser simply hides the remaining that you can access by clicking on an arrow to scroll left or right to see hidden tabs. Some might see this as unusual and might prefer the way Chrome or other browsers handle tabs but we think that this feature is a neat addition. In our opinion, the best way of handling many tabs is that of Opera where even if there is an excessive number of tabs, each one still has the icon of the site displayed on top making finding the tab you are searching for easier.

One other peculiar thing about Firefox is that it doesn’t combine the address and the search bar unlike most modern browsers and goes with the old school interface of having separated boxes. It is up to anyone’s personal preference to determine whether this is good or not. Having a combined box makes it easier and faster to browse but having the boxes separated makes the user’s searches more accurate and more secure. One neat thing about Firefox’s search bar is that you can choose what search engine/provider to use further helping make your search request more accurate.

The new tab page of Firefox is a combination of a search engine and most visited sites. It isn’t anything special yet it can still be useful. However, the Speed Dial of Opera seems as a more convenient and useful new tab page.

The three-dash menu of Firefox includes tiles representing different settings and in our opinion this looks better than the way other browsers handle their menus with a lot of lines of text which might feel overwhelming at times.

Performance

Firefox is a fast browsers and is on the top of the list in terms of performance. It isn’t, however, the fastest one out there as Firefox is outmatched by Chrome, Edge and Maxthon. On the other hand, Firefox doesn’t use that much system resources in comparison to Google Chrome while still offering a very good performance and high loading speed. In fact, Firefox uses about as much RAM as Edge does which is pretty much half of the memory used by Chrome.

Extra features

Firefox is widely-known as one of the browsers that allows for heavy customization – the program has a lot of potential add-ons and extensions and also provides a number of useful features.

• For example, this browsers offers a reading mode option where any distracting page content would get removed leaving only the text and making it easier for the user to focus on it.
• Additionally, Firefox supports social network sharing which allows the user to quickly share something to any social media site by simply clicking on a single button without need to actually access the social platform.
• One other feature that the browser has is the so called Firefox Hello which is basically a tool that can effectively replace Skype as it allows for chat and live video conversations without the need to install additional software for that purpose.
• The syncing between Firefox and other browsers is another interesting trait of the former as it not only makes it possible to transfer bookmarks, profile names and passwords from other browsing programs but it also enables the user to continue their browsing session after switching to Firefox.

There are a lot more useful functions that this browsing software has and it’s capabilities can vastly be expanded via the rich library of add-ons that anyone can download. One thing that Firefox lacks is integrated Flash support and recently, the use of Flash on Firefox has been dying out.

Security and privacy

Firefox is famous for it’s high security and its respect for the user’s privacy. This is the browser which first introduced the Do not Track option. Also, the program includes malware and phishing protection and it also supports integration with antivirus systems. This web-browsing tool is oftentimes considered to be one of the safest of the popular browsers and for a good reason. Therefore, if you are looking for a versatile browser that comes with many additional features but still offers a substantial amounts of protection and is privacy-oriented, then Firefox is definitely a good choice.

Conclusion

Firefox is surely a great option that balances many important aspects such as versatility, customization, performance, low memory usage, security and privacy, holding all of those to a high standard. There is a reason why it is one of the most popular browsing options on the market and there aren’t many negatives to its name. Surely, it cannot be said that it is the best web-browser as this is highly a subjective matter but there is definitely a lot to like about this program and you won’t go wrong with it if you decide to give it a go.

The post Mozilla Firefox Review – stability, performance, customization appeared first on Malware Complaints.

Introduction

As we already mentioned, IE with its newest version – 11, is currently considered one of the best browsers. It belongs to the top 5 browsing programs due to its good performance, high levels of security and satisfying array of settings and options that it can offer. Even though it is still not the fastest and lacks certain features that other browsers might have, IE 11 is undoubtedly a very good program that a lot of users might enjoy. Unfortunately, due to its past and the problems that it used to have, there are still a lot of people that see this program as undesirable or of lesser quality. However, many are sure to be left surprised if they gave the latest IE a go.

Interface

The Interface of Explorer 11 isn’t as slick or as interesting as that of other browsers that have a more modern look to them. It’s looks haven’t changed that much over the years and some might say it appears old school. However, there are actually a couple of neat and smart things about IE’s interface that we should point out here. For example, the search bar and the address bar have been combined within the so called The One Box. This helps save up space effectively increasing the space for that pages get to have on the PC screen. Also, The One Box and the tabs are on the same row to further decrease the space that is being taken. This might actually be considered bad by some users as the tabs might seem way too clustered together, especially if an individual likes to keep a lot of tabs opened at the same time. That said, there is certainly a bigger area for a page’s contents to be displayed. Additionally, as a way to save up even more space, there are very few browser buttons and the toolbar is minimalistic. Everything feels clean and plain without any unnecessary content to distract you.

Tabs and New tab page

The new tab page is a good addition as it shows the most visited sites allowing for quicker access to them. This is similar to Opera’s Speed Dial and while it might not be as effective, it is still a neat feature. The tabbed interface of IE is something that can be expected from a modern browser and Explorer delivers upon that. The tabs can be pulled and dragged into new windows and if you pull a tab to the side of the screen, it will become a new window that takes exactly the half of the screen’s space.

Pinned websites

Something interesting that isn’t present among other browsers is that IE allows you to pin down websites to your Taskbar. All you need to do is drag a website’s icon to your Window’s Taskbar and you got yourself a pinned site. Even the Taskbar icon of the pinned site would be changed according to the site’s design. This comes to further show how IE is all about the websites that the user visits and doesn’t try to push its own branding.

Extensions

While IE doesn’t have as many extension options as Firefox or Chrome, there is still a satisfyingly big collection of ways to expand the capabilities of your browser. There is also a nice feature to Explorer 11 that notifies you of an extension is consuming overly-high amounts of PC resources so that you know what could potentially be slowing your browser and PC performance. Another good thing about IE is that it also has an effective pop-up blocker to help you avoid interaction with unwanted banners and pop-ups.

Performance

Currently, IE is considered the third fastest browser out there being outmatched in terms of speed only by Chrome and Firefox. The program has a good has good startup time and loads pages rather quickly. However, it seems to consume a bit more RAM than other popular browsers so if you do not have a lot of memory on your PC you might want to take that into consideration.

Security and privacy

The security of IE has been greatly improved throughout the years and currently this is one of the most secure browsers out there so if you are seeking for a safe browsing program, Explorer 11 is certainly one of the best options out there. In terms of privacy, IE has a lot to offer as it is certainly a browser that values the personal space of its user. When installing Internet Explorer, the user is presented with a checkbox for “Do not track” that is set to on by default. If the user leaves it that way, websites would not be able to track the user’s activity. There is also another feature called Tracking Protection which blocks third-party tracking and cookie placement. All of this makes Internet Explorer one of the safest and most privacy-oriented browsers out there which is certainly a valuable trait, especially nowadays when almost all websites try to gather private data from their users.

Conclusion

If you are looking for a fast, secure browser that values one’s privacy and still offers a satisfying amount of options with a couple of unique and useful features, then you should probably try out Internet Explorer 11. A lot of changes have been made to IE and most of its past problems have been resolved. Currently, even though it is not the best browsing program in most aspects, it gets pretty close to the best ones making it a balanced browser with several highly-beneficial traits to its name.

The post Internet Explorer 11 Review appeared first on Malware Complaints.

Introduction

VLC is one of the more popular media player options out there and for a good reason – it is a versatile program capable of opening a remarkable variety of data formats for both audio and video files. The user wouldn’t need to download any extra codecs as VLC already has them by default which is the reason why you will hardly ever stumble upon a file format that this player will not be able to open. This is really convenient and can save you a lot of time and nerves. There are quite a lot of good and popular media player programs out there which seem to lack the versatility of VLC, oftentimes being incapable of playing certain file types or requiring manual downloading of extra codecs to open less common data formats. With VLC, the user would hardly ever face such an issue which is the reason why it is the preferred choice of many customers. The program can be used on Windows, Mac OS and Linux so there is no problem with the compatibility.

Interface

The default Interface of VLC might seem a bit old-fashioned and not overly stylish but this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. On the flip side, the plain interface of the program makes it easier to navigate through its menus and settings. The player is easy to use and most of the options are self-explanatory. Also, if you feel like you want to have the program’s interface reinvigorated, you can always do that by choosing from a big list of skins for your player to replace the default interface with something that you would fancy more. In addition, we should also mention that there are a lot of customization options like choosing which buttons to appear and which to be left hidden allowing you to modify the program’s look the way that would best serve your needs.

Plug-ins and Extensions

One great thing about VLC is the wide variety of plug-ins and extensions to choose from. They are all available on the official site of the program and allow for even greater customization freedom. There is a description and a comment section below each add-on so that users could share their opinions and find out more about a certain extension.

200%!

Have you ever had the unpleasant situation of downloading a song or a movie where the sound is way too low and even when you have maxed-out the volume settings on your PC, speakers and player, the sound is still not loud enough. VLC has a potential solution for such an issue as it allows the user to boost the volume beyond the 100% mark all the way up to 200%. The difference is indeed noticeable when you compare the sound levels to other players so if you really do want louder, this might be the program that you are looking for.

Watching during downloading

One neat thing that VLC can do is play video that haven’t been fully downloaded yet. This can basically allow you to watch a movie while it is still being downloaded on your computer. This could, for example, be helpful if you decide that you don’t really want to watch this movie and there’s no need to fully download it on the computer. Also, the program can play files that have been zipped directly from the archive so there would be no the need to unzip them.

Other features

As you might expect it from a good media player, VLC comes with many more settings that we cannot list here. There are different modes for playing audio and video, good subtitle customization and sync options, different playlist settings, etc. In addition to that, it is all rather easy and simple to use and no one should have hard time navigating through this player and making use of its many features.

Negatives

There isn’t really much to say here. One thing that some might find a bit irritating is the fact that the player takes several seconds to start instead of starting instantly but this also depends on how powerful the computer it is used on is. Also, another somewhat annoying trait of VLC is that it doesn’t allow you to go back or forth when watching a movie by using the left and right keyboard arrow buttons the same way other players do. However, you can still navigate through a movie using the arrow keys, but you will first have to hold the Shift button and also, the transition isn’t as smooth as one might want it to be. Apart from those two minor inconveniences, there is not much else that we can point out as a downside to VLC.

Conclusion

If you are looking for a solid media player program for your computer that can open nearly all video and audio file formats and allows for a lot of customization, then VLC might be something that you will like. It serves both as a good movie and music player that will hardly ever have any issues playing a certain type of file. Add to that the fact that there s a satisfying amount of additional settings and a couple of unique features and you got yourself a very good program with only a few small negative traits.

Summary

Pros

• Superb support of different file formats
• Lots of customization options
• A big library of add-ons

Cons

• Doesn’t run as smooth as one would like it to

The post VLC Review – a player with superb file format support appeared first on Malware Complaints.

Introduction

Vivaldi is a free, open-source Chromium-based browser developed by a number of programmers who used to be involved in the creation Opera. Having said that, it should come as no surprise that the interface of Vivaldi heavily resembles that of Opera with square tab icons and a menu on the top-left side of the screen. However, there are quite a lot of unique traits related to Vivaldi that set this program apart from Opera or any other browser that you might have encountered.

Unique tab management

One thing that should make a lasting impression after starting to use Vivaldi would be the peculiar, yet very convenient tab management. First of all, the user is free to choose where the different tabs would be displayed – they can be listed horizontally at the top as with most other browsers or one could have them vertically at either side of the screen. Also, one could stack browser tabs on top of each other creating groups of tabs for quicker access and for saving screen space. Vivaldi really encourages its user to use all the customization freedom that they are given in order to create a browser that maximally suits one’s needs.

Speed Dial

Similarly to Opera, Vivaldi too has a Speed Dial page that is set as the new tab page by default. The speed dial is basically a page with bookmarks listed as tiles on the screen – it is fully customizable as one would expect. Of course, if you want, you can change the new tab page to something else and not the Speed Dial from the browser’s settings menu.

Transition

One particularly pleasant aspect of Vivaldi is that transitioning to it is very simple, easy and quick. It takes no more than a minute to complete and once you launch the browser, all your bookmarks from your previous default browser would have been transferred to Vivaldi. Therefore, if you are thinking about switching up to those browser, you wouldn’t need to worry about restoring your previous browsing configuration.

Extensions

One other good thing is that, since Vivaldi is build on Chromium, the user is allowed access the Google Web Store and could download and install extensions from there directly to Vivaldi without any effort. There are also a number of pre-installed extensions such as Adobe Flash that come with the browser by default.

Compatibility and performance

There shouldn’t be any issue with compatibility as Vivaldi supports Windows, Mac OS and Linux, however, when it comes to performance, there are a couple of things to be noted. First of all, Vivaldi isn’t the fastest browser out there. Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, IE, Edge and Opera seem to score better when it comes to browsing speed. This likely has to do with the second note we ought to make here and that would be the system resource consumption that comes from Vivaldi – this browser tends to require significant amounts of CPU and RAM which means that if you tend to have a lot of tabs opened all at once, you might experience performance issues with your PC if the machine isn’t very powerful. Therefore, we would advise you to consider the capabilities of your computer before deciding to switch over to Vivaldi. Of course, this doesn’t mean that this browser would make your PC super slow and you wouldn’t be able to normally surf the internet with this program but performance and resource usage is still an important aspect that needs to be taken into consideration.

Conclusion

While Vivaldi might not be the fastest or the best-performing browser out there, it certainly is a good browsing option for users who value customization as this program offers a lot of options and settings aimed towards that. It includes a lot of useful (and some not that useful) features – above we have mentioned only the most notable ones as the rest is for you to explore for yourself. All in all, if you seek a browsing program that is susceptible to heavy customization and you don’t mind a bit slower performance, then Vivaldi might be the option for you.

The post Vivaldi Browser Review – a Highly-Customizable Browser appeared first on Malware Complaints.

Introduction

Developed by Kingsoft, the WPS Office package is a kit of several software programs that provide the user with all the main office tools that one might need. There is a writer program, one for creating spreadsheets, one for presentations and even a PDF reader that can convert files from PDF to .doc/.docx and vice versa. As we already mentioned, the office suite is free, but there are also two paid version: premium and professional – each suited for the specific needs of the user.

Interface

The interface of WPS Office programs is similar to this of Microsoft Office – the same ribbon-based interface is implemented, where the toolbars are placed in different tabs. Anyone who is familiar with Word, PowerPoint or Excel should have no issue navigating and using the WPS programs.

Compatibility

As you might expect, WPS programs work with all the standard document formats so that compatibility isn’t an issue. As far as Operating Systems are concerned, the WPS Office suite is available for Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS and Android.

Features

While WPS programs may not have as many different features as their Microsoft counterparts might, there’s certainly a good variety of options to choose from as well as a couple of neat additions which some of the users might enjoy.

WPS supports a small cloud storage (1GB) which users can use to save and backup their files and alter access them from other devices. Of course, 1GB is nothing to be overly excited about but then again, considering the fact that most document files hardly ever go above 1 Mb, one gigabyte should prove to be more than enough for casual document backups.

Another thing that you might notice as soon as you open the WPS Writer is that there is a wide variety of templates to choose from (and they are free). While they aren’t automatically available and must first be downloaded, the process takes no more than a couple of seconds so it doesn’t really affect your working process.

There is also a neat backup feature that saves unfinished files in the WPS folder even if you haven’t manually saved them before closing the program. This is extremely useful in instances where your device suddenly shuts down for whatever reason and you did not have the chance to save the file that you were working on. So far, this feature has proven to be invaluable and a nice addition to the WPS programs. Of course, this is not to say that WPS is the only office software kit that has this backup feature, yet we had to mention that it works properly and is highly effective.

Spell Check

Something we noticed while using the WPS writer is that its spell-checker wasn’t all that good. While it worked fine, the word database seemed to lack a lot of words that are technically correct and so the program was marking them as incorrect. Additionally, when a we right-clicked on an incorrect word in order to replace it with a correct one using the automatic suggestions, we found out that the list of suggestions is rather ineffective as most suggested words had totally different meaning from the one word that the original was supposed to be. This makes it somewhat confusing and oftentimes ineffective to use the suggestions which is why most of the time we were forced to manually correct the word instead of using the supposedly faster option of using the predetermined list of word suggestions from the Writer.

Ads

One big negative in our opinion with WPS applications is their frequent and oftentimes rather intrusive pop-up ads. While the program does not mess with your browser and does not fill it with advertising materials (as many other free programs tend to do) it still generates irritating content when you try to use any of the offices tools. Furthermore, in a couple of instances, we noticed that even when none of the WPS programs were opened, a pop-up ad appeared at the bottom-right corner of the computer’s screen. Of course, the ads appear only on the free version and most of the time, the object of the advertisement is the paid versions of the Office suite. Regardless, we find the ads to be highly irritating at times, especially as of late. Currently, once we try to use the WPS Writer, there is a banner-ad that can be skipped only after a period of 5 seconds has passed – it might not seem like much but it can become quite annoying with time.

Conclusion

WPS is a fine choice for an office package that offers its users all the necessary tools for creating and editing document files. Apart from the free version, you can buy either one of the two paid ones to gain access to additional options as well as stop the ads that the free version comes with. As far as functionality is concerned, the office applications are adequate and have a couple of neat additions and features that can improve your working experience. To sum up – if you are looking for an adequate Office package alternative that is free and you don’t mind occasional ads displayed on your screen, then you might might want to give WPS Office a try.

Pros

• Free for use
• Cloud Storage
• Variety of templates
• Good backup feature

Cons

• Ads
• Ineffective spell-checker (WPS Writer)
• Ineffective suggested correct words list (WPS Writer)

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Today, we will introduce you to an alternative set of office tools developed by The Document Foundation group that goes under the name of LibreOffice. It is a kit of programs similar to those provided by Microsoft Office, that are distributed and available for free.

Characteristics

As we already established, the goal of the LibreOffice project is to provide its users with all the necessary office software tools. The following applications are the main programs that this office kit provides: Writer (for writing, similar to Word), Impress (presentations, similar to PowerPoint) , Math (for mathematical formulas), Draw (for creating graphics), Calc (spreadsheets, like Excel), Base (for creating databases).

File Format and OS Compatibility

Probably the most important aspect regarding all of the aforementioned LibreOffice programs is the fact that they work with all the standard file formats meaning that, for example, the Libre Office Writer can open and save well known and widely-used formats such as .doc (Microsoft Word 2003) or .docx (Microsoft Word 2007). This means that if you are sharing a project with a co-worker who uses the Microsoft Office package, there would be no difficulty for either of you when it comes to accessing shared files. Also, if you have been using Microsoft Office but decide to switch to Libre, you’d still be able to open your old documents. Of course, this format compatibility is to be expected by any office program developer who wants to create a desirable product.

As far as OS compatibility is concerned, LibreOffice is available for Windows (XP to 10), Mac OS and Linux. There is also a version for Android.

Interface

There is a visible difference between the interface of LibreOffice programs when compared to the Microsoft counterpart. Instead of using the common ribbon-based interface, Libre has gone for a more old school one where instead of showing the menus in different tabs, the menus are shown in toolbars and icons. This could make it easier to navigate the different tools of the programs using the keyboard. The different interface is neither a good nor a bad thing and it all depends on the user’s preference.

Features

One thing that you might notice about LibreOffice programs is that they seem to lack the variety of templates and options that you could have with Microsoft. However, if the user wishes to expand the capabilities of the office programs, they can download a wide array of free add-ons and plug-ins to boost the functionality of LibreOffice. While some might find it annoying that in order to get something additional, you’d need to manually download it, others could see this as a positive since you can only choose the tools you need, keeping the programs clean of anything that might not be needed or necessary. Again, it’s a matter of personal perspective. One thing that Libre lacks is a Cloud Storage but you always can install a Dropbox desktop tool to make up for that.

Other notes

One thing that many free programs are known for is the tendency for generating intrusive ads as a way to either earn money for their developers or to persuade the user into buying the paid version of the product so that the ads would go away. However, this is not the case with LibreOffice – there is only one version and it is free for use, deprived of any sort of irritating content, vaguely disclosed optional installs in the setup wizard or potential unwanted changes such as a new default browser search engine or starting page. This is rather important as it is a rarity to see a free program that doesn’t have intrusive tendencies and doesn’t try to push a paid version of itself or other products that the user might not want.

Conclusion

While many would still go with the classic and choose Microsoft Office over potential alternatives, one should still bear in mind that LibreOffice is an absolutely competent and functional option that offers a satisfying amount of options and tools without demanding anything in return. Therefore, if you are seeking a free software office kit option that still gives you all the needed functionality for both regular and professional use, you might want to check this one out.

Summary

Pros

• Free
• No ads
• Full set of office tools and options
• Versatile compatibility for file formats and Operating Systems

Cons

• Additional templates require manual installation
• No cloud storage

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Introduction to Opera

Opera is a Chromium-based browser which means that it shares a lot of similar characteristics with other browsers based on Chrome (Google Chrome included). However, there are a couple of things that need to be mentioned here which set apart Opera from other browsing programs which you might have encountered and used. The main thing that Opera is known for is a number of innovations that it has introduced. As you might have heard, Opera is said to be the first browser to use tabbed interface. It is often argued that what Opera did back then wasn’t exactly the tabbed interface that we know now, yet it did similar job before any other browsing program offered such an option. Here, we will go over the most popular and useful of them.

Built-in add-blocker

One neat feature that Opera has is an integrated ad-blocker that can be enabled from the browser’s settings. It works rather well and manages to block nearly all forms of intrusive ads that you might encounter on the Internet. The feature even stops YouTube video adverts that start playing at the beginning or in the middle of the video that you are currently watching. There is even a counter at the top-right which shows you how many ads the browser has blocked so far. If you want to disable the ad-blocker for a specific site, you can easily do so by clicking onto the X button next to the blocked ads counter and turn off the switch that gets displayed. All in all, a useful feature that has the potential to make one’s browsing experience much more pleasant.

Pop Out videos

Another interesting option that you have with Opera is to move the video that you are watching to a separate window which stays above your browser or any other window or program that is currently opened. That way, you can watch a YouTube or Facebook video while doing something else on your PC without the need to have the actual page with the video currently visible on your screen. In order to activate this, you’d simply need to hover your mouse over the specific video and click on a small double-screen icon that gets displayed on the top of it.

Speed dial

This is yet another unique feature that Opera has – the Speed Dial is a separate page which works similarly to a Bookmark Menu. The Speed Dial is the default page that opens each time you open a new tab. The sites displayed in the Speed Dial are organized as tiles making it easier to find the one you are looking for and also making it tab-friendly (for Android users, for example). You can freely organize and customize the Speed Dial page but you cannot change its surf engine which is always Google.

Mouse gestures

In addition to the previous options Opera offers, users are also able to make their browsing faster and more efficient by using mouse gestures in order to navigate through the pages. For example, holding the right mouse button and swiping left or right would enable you to go back and forward between the different pages. Also, if you hold the right mouse button and swipe down, a new tab will open. While some might find it easier to do those actions the regular way or via keyboard combinations, once one gets used to using the mouse gestures, the browsing becomes faster.

Virtual Private Network (VPN)

Opera is the only big browser that offers a VPN feature to help users improve the security of their system when using a public Wi-Fi network. As we all know using public Wi-Fi comes with a number of potential risks as getting your data stolen by hackers, or getting redirected to shady websites. A virtual Private Network helps you avoid that risk. A VPN can also enable you to access content that is unavailable for your geographical location such as certain YouTube videos, for example. Enabling this option is simple, all you need to do is go to Settings, scroll down until you find it and place a tick in the checkbox. After that, a VPN icon will appear left of the website URL and you’d be able to turn it on and off from there.

Lacking features

There are two main things that Opera seems to lack which might annoy some users. The first one is a Reading Mode option which is useful when reading articles on sites with a lot of banners and obstructive content. The other one is a social sharing tool. Also, in some cases, certain websites might fail to recognize the browser which can be rather annoying, though instances of this are rather rare.

Performance

Opera is one of the faster browser, yet it is not the fastest that you can have. Popular browsers that provide greater performance speed are Mozilla, Chrome, Maxthon and Edge. That said, Opera is still a good performer and it also has a Turbo Mode which, when enabled, compresses data that is transferred, effectively increasing the speed and decreasing the size of the loaded data. This is especially useful when the Internet connection isn’t fast or when the data which can be loaded is limited by your Internet provider. Also, there is a Battery Saver feature which reduces the browser’s use of energy – perfect for laptops when they aren’t plugged in to the grid.

Compatibility

Opera is compatible with versions of Windows from XP to 10 and it is one of the few browser which still issues updates for XP. It can also be used on Mac OS and on several of the more popular Linux systems.

Conclusion

All in all, Opera is a neat browser that comes with a number of unique features and options that users some might find highly-beneficial. And while this browser might not be the fastest and the best performing, there are very few things that it lacks which other browsing programs might offer.

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