Running the application you need on your computer isn’t always as easy as you might think. Yes, a native app may exist for your OS of choice, but if it doesn’t or if you need to keep your OS free of clutter, things get complicated. Getting access to the cloud can also be challenging. This is one reason why I like VMWare Workstation. It’s a virtual workstation manager for Windows.

VMware Workstation is cloud capable and cloud aware. VMware Workstation’s operating system support, user experience, feature set and performance will dramatically change the way you work with virtual machines. It’s one of the best companion apps for any technical professional as they move to the cloud.

One of the most popular reasons why corporate customers use a virtual machine is to evaluate the next generation operating system.  With VMware, you can install, say, Windows 8 and give users access to it, without actually upgrading a specific machine or risking introducing an undesirable user experience into the enterprise.  The latest version of VMware Workstation is optimized for running Windows 8 on Windows PCs. Its Easy Install feature simplifies the task of creating Windows 8 virtual machines. Its Unity mode will intelligently scale windows with Metro applications and multi-touch support will ensure you get the true Windows 8 experience in a virtual machine.

One of the BEST reasons why you’d use VMware Workstation is its new web interface. It allows you to access your virtual machines from a tablet, smart phone, PC or any device with a modern browser. No plugins or special add-ins are necessary. Now you can power on, off, or suspend your virtual machines and interact with them from almost anywhere.

Using a virtual machine on your computer is one of the best ways to use incompatible applications. It also makes it easy to keep your PC free from poorly written apps or apps that don’t uninstall cleanly. VMware wrote the book on virtual machines and is one of the BEST ways to accomplish these tasks.

The biggest problems with VMware are that it’s expensive and complicated to setup and use. At $250 for a single workstation license, you need to make sure you take advantage of its 30 day trial before you buy.  It’s also a very complicated application to setup and configure. Many consumer users will need to either seek assistance from the help file, printed documentation or support forums to insure that they get the best performance out of the app. Please note that I’ve given this app a low usability rating because of its level of complexity.

download VMware Workstation

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Too many times I needed a file that I’ve created at the office or at home and I couldn’t access from another location because I forgot to copy it or to email it to myself! Well, I was glad to find a way to access my files from office, home, or wherever I am from my android phone! Yes, I can access all my important files from anywhere. And, If I modify something to my files, when I save the document, it’s getting synced with the file stored in the “cloud” and so I can access my file from any other device later.

More and more the term “cloud” is used in our lives, and this feature of the internet is getting more and more popular. It is easy to share, to access your files anywhere, and most of all, it is safe! I save my important files there, I don’t have to worry anymore that my computer might crash. You can start by having 5 GB of space for free in the SugarSync Cloud, and you can gain more free space by sending invitations to friends (send 20 invitations to get 2 GB extra for free), do some small tasks that will teach you how to use the SugarSync application and you get extra space, and whenever one of your friends will accept the invitation, you will gain 500MB, at maximum of 18 GB. Wow, now that’s a lot of free space, a safe space to save ALL your important data! Imagine that you can store a little less than the capacity of 5 DVDs there, and share what you want, with who you want, even if that person doesn’t use SugarSync! And the best part is that the application is multi-platform. It’s working on Windows (including Windows 8), Mac, Android, iOS, Blackberry, Symbian, Windows Mobile.

No matter what device you have, you can use it!

Download SugarSync application

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The best sold product by Microsoft is ready to be delivered to the market with a new face and a new modern feature: the Cloud integration. Steve Ballmer was eager to unveil this product as fast as possible, preparing the media and the new customers to accept it as part of the Windows 8 “revolution”.

Microsoft Office 2013 Home Premium, which is part of the Microsoft Office 365 family, is already available for free as a preview version, which will expire on its official release. All you have to do to get it and make it run, is to download the installer from here, then sign-in into Office 365 Home Premium account with your Windows Live credentials. A new online UI will appear from where you can open your applications, documents, and custom settings on any PC (PC running Windows 7 or 8 and Internet connection required).

The package offers new full versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Publisher, and Access. In case you are already using Windows 8 Release Preview, these apps are fully integrated into the interface with lots of extra add-ons on Windows Store. You will have 25 GB of free online space on SkyDrive to store your documents for easy access and sharing. When the Preview version will expire, the free access will be gone.

The full version Office 365 Home Premium will come also with full Skype integration, additional 20 GB of SkyDrive online storage and Mac compatibility. All these will be available on up to five PC’s or mobile devices. It is not clear what prices will Microsoft ask for their four cloud subscription plans: Home, Small Business, ProPlus and Enterprise, but all these will be available only if you pay a monthly fee.

Stay tuned, for our full preview of Microsoft Office 2013.

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The Cloud.  If you don’t have a piece of it, you’re behind the times and you may be in a serious predicament.  Getting your own private piece of the cloud is so important that I co-wrote and edited an important piece on it for Information Week last summer. The gist of the article was alternatives for what I consider to be one of the absolute BEST online backup and file access tool on the internet today, and really the application and service to copy or beat – Dropbox. It’s a multiplatform tool; and again, it’s a must have.

Dropbox is a free service that lets you bring all your photos, documents, and videos anywhere. This means that any file you save to your Dropbox will automatically save to all of your connected computers, phones as well as the Dropbox website. You’ll never be without the data you need, as long as you have an internet connection.

Dropbox makes sharing files easy.  You can invite your friends, family and teammates to any folder in your Dropbox, and it’ll be as if the data was saved right to their computers. You can send people links to specific files in your Dropbox if sharing an entire folder isn’t appropriate. This makes Dropbox perfect for team projects, sharing party photos with friends, or any number of file sharing needs.

If your computer has any kind of meltdown, and you lose EVERYTHING, don’t worry. Dropbox has you covered.  You can use Dropbox to restore all the data from your backup folders in a snap. It’s perfect for hard drive upgrades and computer rebuilds.

read full review | download Dropbox

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I had a friend of mine come to me and tell me of a malware infection he caught over the weekend. It happened because he was sent a piece of email, that he did NOT open; but the message hit his inbox and created a huge amount of havoc anyway. The virus got around his AV scanner.

Having the right AV scanner for your system is important, as my friend is likely going to have to completely blow his system and rebuild it from scratch. This is one of the reasons why I like ESET NOD32 Antivirus. It’s a professional malware prevention application for Windows.

ESET NOD32 Antivirus intercepts and eliminates viruses, worms, Trojans, spyware and other Internet threats with their proactive, heuristic technology. ESET NOD32 Antivirus protects you from known and emerging threats. It offers a simpler, more secure digital experience; and its accompanying Internet security training teaches you how to avoid cyber threats, scams and hackers to make your online experience even safer.

Its New, Enhanced Interface allows you to manage functionality efficiently with intuitive controls that includes access to Most Frequently Used Actions from all its screens. It also enables easier navigation of the advanced setup tree, including its customized, behavior-based HIPS to improve your PC’s security by specifying rules and permissions for the system registry and active processes and programs.

In today’s information-centric communities, ESET NOD32 Antivirus helps protect your data and your PC when you share files.  Not all computer threats come through the Internet. Removable Media Control protects you from potentially infected files exchanged through USB flash drives, CDs and DVDs. Its Cloud-Enhanced Whitelisting allows you to scan faster using its Cloud-Powered Reputation engine that compares your data to trusted files compiled in ESET’s Live Grid database of over 100 million ESET users.

Read full review | Download ESET NOD32 Antivirus

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You’ll hear me say it over and over again – you simply can’t run a computer now-a-days without some kind of antivirus or security software running in the background.  You’re just asking for problems if you think you don’t need one…and if you get a virus, bug or worm, THEN what do you do??  This is why I’m thankful for applications like Zemana Anti-Malware. It’s a specialized malware scanner for Windows and it’s the kind that most people need.

Virus scanners are great a preventing infections, but on the off chance you do get one while you’ve got security software installed, then you have serious issues.  The bug is likely smarter than the software you have. It’s likely buried itself deeply within your operating system, and isn’t leaving without a fight. In many cases, the best thing you can do is to copy your data off (to an external drive, to the Cloud, etc.) and then blow your computer and rebuild it. It’s the safest and easiest way to insure you get rid of the infection.  It’s also hugely disruptive and a pain to do.

Zemana Anti-Malware is a second-tier malware scanner designed to rescue your computer from viruses, Trojans, rootkits, etc. that have infected your system despite all the security measures you have in place.  The best thing is that Zemana Anti-Malware can peacefully coexist with other security software on your computer. In the past, having multiple security programs installed on your PC often resulted in slow-downs, crashes, and, surprisingly, less security than running just the single security app.

read full review | download Zemana AntiMalware

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Several sources already confirmed that the new tablets from Amazon will not come soon to UK or other European market. The Android based Kindle Fire and the touch-screen e-book reader are not available on Amazon UK and that’s due to the fact that both products were not distributed on the European markets.

The cause of this delay is Amazon’s Kindle Fire Silk browser present in the latest tablets, which rises serious security concerns. It seems that this browser is collecting all your Internet history in order to obtain faster access to web-site pages. It may sound weird, but in order to be the fastest tablet browser, Fire Silk is showing a copy of any accessed web-site which is saved in the cloud. This is doable thanks to the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) which is used as a Web proxy. Anytime you are stationed on a page, Amazon has to keep the connection between your device and EC2 open, making it obvious how easy your activity can be tracked.

The European data protection laws doesn’t accept this security breaches making it impossible for Amazon to sell these products abroad. Although it was meant from the beginning to use an European data center, the officials still think that data can be vulnerable to US law.

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