PortableApps.com just updated it Firefox Portable Editions to include the latest beta of version 3.0 RC2. It is as always a snap to install.

Just run the downloaded file, choose where to install it (or extract it, as it is portable) and you are ready to go. You can even take this extracted files to anywhere you want without the need of the original .paf.exe file.

Website Download

About two months ago i made a post about a Preview version of the upcoming Windows Search 4.0. Microsoft just released the final version.

I’ve been using the earlier Preview and it works very well. There aren’t visual changes but the searches are more responsive and the results are displayed faster than before.

It is available for Windows XP as well but i haven’t try it in it because i just reformatted my laptop to install Vista again after making tests with SP3 and Unattended installations.

This final release will update previous installations.

Dowload XP | Vista

Apparently, there were some bugs to fix in RC1 because Mozilla released another release candidate of Firefox 3.0.

There is no change log for Firefox 3.0 RC2 or download links for all languages, but i will update this post when they post them.

I will try it later today to see how it works with all my extensions installed.

Update: All languages are available from the Mozilla FTP server. The download link will take you there.

Website Download

Microsoft has released a new version of Windows Installer. It is responsible for managing application installation and configuration.

There are many changes implemented in this new version. However, most of them are targeted for software developers or IT management. All users will need to install it to take advantage of the new features.

This versions does not configure the Windows Installer service to run in safe mode. I don’t know why Microsoft does this as it is needed to uninstall programs that use Windows Installer in safe mode. You can enable it in safe mode using VistaTweaker.

You can install it over any version you have because it will update it to 4.5 automatically. Just be sure to download the correct version for your Windows installation.

Download

Intel Chipset Software Installation Utility install the necessary files for Windows to handle properly all the hardware like USB, PCI Express, AGP, CPU, among other components in the motherboard.

This is an important driver because this allows Windows to take advantage of the latest chipsets and improves the stability or performance of previous ones.

You can install it over you current installation. If you want to know more, read the release notes.

Release Notes Download

RegDefrag is a program whose only purpose is to defragment Windows registry. It is free and has one of the most simplistic, yet nice, interface.

The developers have been adding features and fixing bugs in the last couple of releases.

Try it if you want to see if applications such as RegDefrag can help you with a little performance increase.

Website Download

If you ever need to gather your system information for a report, for IT technicians or just to know exactly what is on your computer, Auslogics System Information can do it.

It can save reports, present graphical charts, and lets you take a look at running processes, hardware devices and more.

It can show disk drive usage and system resources, such as free ram, cpu usage.

System Information has many options, and all of them show a great amount of details.

Website Download

SMPlayer is an open source, multi-platform video/audio player, focusing in video features.

It uses the well-known (at least in the open source field) command-line player MPlayer. This means SMPlayer doesn’t need external codecs in order to play the files. This is great because it saves you time and troubles when playing less-known formats.

Note: If you are using Windows Vista, the default settings of SMPlayer will disable Aero temporarily while playing files.

For it to work well with Aero, go to Options - Preferences. In the General tab, select gl or gl2 in the Output Drivers: Video drop down list. Aero won’t be disabled anymore.

Website Download