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June 2013
CPU-Z 1.65
29 June 2013
A new Version 1.65 of the CPU-Z information utility has been released. This version adds support for new chipsets.
Game Patches
29 June 2013
Game Patches
28 June 2013
AMD Catalyst for 8.1 Preview
27 June 2013
AMD has released the Catalyst for 8.1 Preview graphics driver, designed specifically for the Windows 8.1 Release Preview. This driver provides WDDM 1.2 support for the HD 5000 and 6000 series, and WDDM 1.3 support for the HD 7000 series and above.
Nvidia GeForce 326.01 for 8.1 Preview
27 June 2013
Nvidia has released the 326.01 graphics driver. This driver is designed specifically for the Windows 8.1 Release Preview, and is available via Windows Update once Windows 8.1 is installed.
Windows 8.1 Preview
27 June 2013
Microsoft has released a Preview build of the Windows 8.1 Update for Windows 8 users. A list of new features in Windows 8.1 can be found in this Windows Blog Article, this Technet Article, and this Official Product Guide. The final release version of Windows 8.1 will be available later this year.
Game Patches
27 June 2013
Windows Update
26 June 2013
Microsoft has released an Update that addresses a security vulnerability in the Windows Remote Desktop Client on Windows XP.
Firefox 22.0
26 June 2013
Mozilla has released Version 22.0 of the Firefox browser. The most significant changes are that Firefox now takes into account the general display scaling settings when rendering text, HTML5 video playback speed can now be adjusted, there is a new Services category for the Add-ons Manager to separate social networking related plugins, and JavaScript performance has improved. Details are on page 3 of the updated Firefox Tweak Guide.
Nvidia GeForce 320.49 Beta
26 June 2013
Nvidia has released the 320.49 Beta graphics driver. This driver is for GeForce 8 and higher graphics cards under Windows XP, Vista, 7 and 8. It is the launch driver for the new GTX 760 GPU, and it also fixes a range of issues reported with the 320.18 WHQL drivers. The driver package also contains the 9.13.0604 PhysX drivers.
CCleaner 4.03
26 June 2013
A new Version 4.03.4151 of the free CCleaner system cleaning utility has been released. Changes include improved Firefox, Opera, IE 10, IE 9 and Office 2013 cleaning, the addition of a command line option to reboot after cleaning, added support for several programs, as well as minor improvements and bug fixes.
Game Patches
26 June 2013
Game Patches
25 June 2013
Game Patches
24 June 2013
Autoruns 11.61
24 June 2013
Microsoft has released Autoruns 11.61, updating this free startup software identification utility. This version adds more autostart locations, and fixes bugs.
Game Patches
22 June 2013
GPU-Z 0.7.2
22 June 2013
GPU-Z, a free graphics card information utility, has reached Version 0.7.2. Changes include support for new chipsets as well as bug fixes.
Winamp 5.64
20 June 2013
The free Winamp media player has been updated to Version 5.6.4.3415. This update contains a large number of improvements and fixes.
Game Patches
20 June 2013
Java Runtime Environment 7.25
19 June 2013
Oracle has released an Update 25 to the Java Runtime Environment 7.
Chrome 27.0
19 June 2013
Google has released Version 27.0.1453.116 of the Chrome browser. This update contains security and bug fixes.
Windows Update
19 June 2013
Microsoft has released an update that resolves issues in Windows 8. The update comes in 32-bit and 64-bit versions. The list of issues the update resolves is not yet available.
Update: This hotfix resolves a "The last backup did not complete successfully" problem as explained here.
Game Patches
19 June 2013
Site Update
16 June 2013
Rather than repeatedly answering individual emails that ask me the same sorts of questions, I thought I'd take a moment to publicly post some answers to common questions.
Question: What games are you currently playing?
Answer: Sad to say, in recent times I've become much less inspired to play games. They mostly seem like highly scripted interactive movies, with the same cliched storylines and repetitive gameplay. That said, at present I enjoy the "free roam" mode that's available after finishing the story in Far Cry 3; I replay some of the fun set pieces in Crysis 3; I periodically play the ARMA 3 Alpha; and I regularly jump into Team Fortress 2. But I yearn for open-world games that allow genuine exploration, such as the Fallout, Elder Scrolls or GTA series.
Question: Are you having problems with the 320.18 WHQL GeForce drivers?
Answer: I've read the numerous complaints about the "highly buggy" recent drivers from Nvidia. Personally, I've had no problems whatsoever on My System. No Desktop, browser or game-related crashes, glitches or stutters. My longest continuous gaming session has been around 3 hours.
Question: Are you going to upgrade your ageing system?
Answer: With the release of Intel's new Haswell CPU architecture and the GeForce 700 series graphics cards, it's a good time to upgrade, especially as the core of my system is now almost 5 years old. However, I'm in no hurry. As mentioned earlier, no new games have inspired me enough, and my current system is still coping with most games at maximum visuals, or close to it. I'll wait for price drops and signs of what any next-gen games are going to need before committing to an upgrade. For now, my tentative upgrade list includes: i7 4770K CPU, ASUS Z87 Deluxe Motherboard, an EVGA GTX 780, 16GB of G.Skill RAM, and likely an 850W Seasonic M1211 PSU. The rest of my system will remain the same, as listed in the link further above. When I upgrade, I aim to have the build last for several years, with only minor upgrades in between.
I hope that satisfies any curiosity you might have had on these topics :)
Media Player Classic Home Cinema 1.6.8
16 June 2013
A new Version 1.6.8 of the free Media Player Classic Home Cinema player has been released, containing DVB-T improvements and bug fixes.
Game Patches
15 June 2013
Game Patches
14 June 2013
Game Patches
13 June 2013
Flash Player 11.7
12 June 2013
Adobe has released Version 11.7.700.224 of the Flash Player plugin for browsers.
Game Patches
12 June 2013
Microsoft Security Updates
12 June 2013
Microsoft has released its monthly set of Windows security updates which you can download from here or get through Windows Update.
VLC Media Player 2.0.7
11 June 2013
The free VLC Media Player has been updated to Version 2.0.7. This version contains various bug fixes.
Game Patches
11 June 2013
AMD Catalyst 13.6 Beta 2
10 June 2013
AMD has released the Catalyst 13.6 Beta 2 graphics driver for the HD 5000 series and above on Windows Vista, 7 and 8. This updated beta also improves performance in PCMark 7 and 8 on the new A10, A8, A6, and A4 Series APUs, and resolves HDMI audio drop-out issues on the Radeon HD series.
Game Patches
8 june 2013
Game Patches
7 June 2013
iTunes 11.0.4
6 June 2013
Apple has released a new Version 11.0.4 of the iTunes software. This update contains bug fixes.
Skype 6.5
6 June 2013
A new Version 6.5.0.158 of the communications utility Skype has been released. This version improves video messaging, as well as simplifying contacts, and also contains bug fixes.
Game Patches
6 June 2013
Autoruns 11.6
5 June 2013
Microsoft has released Autoruns 11.6, updating this free startup software identification utility. This version adds Authenticode SHA1 and SHA256 hash reporting to Autorunsc, and contains bug fixes.
Process Explorer 15.31
5 June 2013
Microsoft has released Version 15.31 of the free Process Explorer utility, which is a more detailed version of Task Manager. This update adds an option to disable the heatmap display in the process view, and has a bug fix.
Process Monitor 3.05
5 June 2013
Microsoft has updated the free Process Monitor system monitoring utility to Version 3.05. This version adds a context-menu entry that opens the filter edit dialog with contents prepopulated with the specified row and column value.
Chrome 27.0
5 June 2013
Google has released Version 27.0.1453.110 of the Chrome browser. This update contains security and bug fixes.
Game Patches
5 June 2013
Game Patches
4 June 2013
TweakGuides Tweaking Companion for Windows 7
1 June 2013
It looks like Windows 7 is going to remain very popular for quite some time. Accordingly, I've taken the opportunity to give the TweakGuides Tweaking Companion for Windows 7 a thorough update, bringing it up to Version 2.0. Although the bulk of the advice in the guide remains much the same, there are a range of changes and improvements throughout. The main changes are shown in the version history at the bottom of the TGTC download page.
Game Patches
1 June 2013