Fear not, here's a quick rundown to get you going!

#1 - Download the Windows 8 .ISO file(s)!

Well duh! Download them from here if you don't have them. Then save it somewhere easy to get to (like your desktop).

#2 - Download and install ImgBurn

Rather that try muddling through with burning the .ISO file with whatever tools you might already have installed (you wouldn't be reading this if you knew what to do with them), download ImgBurn and use that.

This way we're all on the same page!

#3 - Burn the .ISO file to DVD

OK, pop a blank DVD into your DVD writer drive (I'm assuming that you actually have a DVD writer, if you don't I'll show you something else you can do in a moment). With that done, fire up ImgBurn. Select Write image file to disc.

Point the Source to the .ISO file you downloaded and then click on the big button at the bottom-left of the window to kick off the disc writing process.

Annnnnnd after a wait you're done!

Now you've successfully burned your Windows 8 .ISO file to the DVD ... congratulations!

#4 - Use the DVD

You can now use the DVD like any other OS install disc ... pop it in the DVD drive of the system you want to install Windows 8 onto and boot up the PC and you should get that Press any key to boot from CD or DVD message. Press the heck out of that 'any' key and you have lift off!

Note: If you don't get that Press any key to boot from CD or DVD message then you'll need to dig out your motherboard manual and twiddle with the boot device settings.

What if you haven't got a DVD burner or just don't want to hand over an entire machine to Windows 8 testing? Are you stuck? Nope! You have two options:

Option #1 - Create a bootable Windows 8 USB flash drive!

I warn you in advance ... there are a lot of steps involved to do this!

1. Download the .ISO!
2. Mount the .ISO file as a drive ... if you don't have a tool to do this, I suggest SlySoft's Virtual CloneDrive - it's free!
3. Get your 8GB USB flash drive and format is as follows:
   - Insert a USB flash drive into your computer
   - Start a Command Prompt as an administrator (right-click on the entry and select Run as administrator) and type diskpart and press ENTER
   - Type the following BOLD lines a line at a time:
   DISKPART> list disk
   DISKPART> select disk X
   Note: Where X is the number for your USB flash drive you obtained from the list command
   DISKPART> clean
   DISKPART> create partition primary
   DISKPART> select partition 1
   DISKPART> active
   DISKPART> format FS=NTFS
   DISKPART> assign
   DISKPART> exit
4. Make the USB flash drive bootable by:
   - Start another Command Prompt as an administrator and navigate to the boot folder of the Windows 8 ISO image
   - Type the following:
   bootsect /nt60 X:
   Note: Where X is the drive letter for your USB flash drive
5. From a Command Prompt type the following:
   XCOPY X:\*.* Y:\ /E /F /H
   Note: Where X is the drive letter for your USB flash drive and Y is the drive letter of your mounted Windows 8 .ISO file
6. Boot your PC up from your USB flash drive. If your PC won't boot from your USB flash drive then you'll need to dig out your motherboard manual and twiddle with the boot device settings.

Option #2 - Go virtual!

Here’s how!

Note: Your PC must support hardware virtualization for this to work.

1. Download and install VirtualBox (I’m using this because it’s free so you don’t have to shell out on virtualization software … don’t say I never give you anything!).
2. Download the Windows 8 ISO from here. So far I’ve only tested this with the 32-bit ISO.
3. Create a new VirtualBox virtual machine. Call it whatever you want but select Windows 7 as the OS type.
4. In the Motherboard tab under System, check Enable IO APIC.
5. In the Processor tab under System, check Enable PAE/NX.
6. In the Acceleration tab under System, check Enable VT-x/AMD-V and Enable Nested Paging.
7. In the Video tab under Display, check Enable 2D acceleration.
8. Remember to mount the Windows 8 .ISO file you downloaded and you’re good to go!

This is an X-ray cross-section of the 8 megapixel camera in the new iPhone 4S. It was taken by the great folks at Chipworks. I encourage you to check out the original, high-resolution image. It's breathtaking.

Also thanks to Chipworks, we know who built the camera: Sony. This shot was taken using an infrared microscope that can look through the structure into the base layers of the chip. Can you read the lettering?

It might look (exactly) like an iPhone 4 on the outside, but on the inside there are some key differences:

• Dual-core A5 processor - Up to twice as fast
• Improved antenna
• 512 MB of RAM
• Updated 8 megapixel (3264×2448 resolution) rear camera
• Video recording up to 1080p with image stabilization
• Talk-time battery life up to 8 hours (but standby time down by 100 hours)
• Siri voice control
• Comes in black and white

Three prices and three different capacities (assuming contract): 16GB for $199, 32GB for $299, and 64GB for $399.

Queues at Apple retail stores around the world seem to have been subdued today, but given that Apple got over 1 million pre-orders on the first day, maybe people decided to have them delivered.

I'm hearing that AT&T customers are having problems activating their new handsets (seems like it's been a busy day for AT&T) ... not much they can do beyond wait.

It's all part of the plan:

* We will be offering an advertised update (also sometimes called a “major update”) for Firefox 3.6.x -> Firefox 7.0 on 2011-10-06 (1 week and 2 days after Firefox 7’s release)

* The advertised update has no bearing on support levels. It does not mean Firefox 3.6 is end-of-life

* The advertised update has no bearing on the Firefox ESR proposal[3]

* This is part of the old release process and is unchanged from what we have been doing for the past 3+ years

* The prompt is opt-in…if users decline, they stay on 3.6.x and get security updates until the next time we decide to prompt

So don't freak out if you see it!

It's a micro USB adapter for the iPhone.

The downsides - It's currently only available in the UK and costs £8/$12 (pretty pricey for an adapter) and ships October 14.

Apple rates the adapter as compatible with iPhone 4S, 4, 3GS and 3G. Not sure why it wouldn't work with iPods and even iPads for just syncing.

All you need is some liquid helium for cooling!

I bet this would run Crysis!

Awesome!

This is cool. Very cool.

Features from Microsoft's Security Essentials program, which is currently available as a separate download for Windows users, have been ported to the Windows Defender package already built into Windows. This means that Windows 8 users will get out-of-the-box protection against malware, along with firewall and parental controls from within Windows - no separate download required, no need to buy new software.

Another new security feature being baked into Windows 8 is protection from bootable USB drives that are infected with malware.

Awesome news ... but I think that this will severely upset the antivirus industry.

Gabe Aul, director of program management in Windows, explains over on the Building Windows 8 blog:

The key thing to remember though is that in a traditional shutdown, we close all of the user sessions, and in the kernel session we close services and devices to prepare for a complete shutdown.

Now here’s the key difference for Windows 8: as in Windows 7, we close the user sessions, but instead of closing the kernel session, we hibernate it. Compared to a full hibernate, which includes a lot of memory pages in use by apps, session 0 hibernation data is much smaller, which takes substantially less time to write to disk. If you’re not familiar with hibernation, we’re effectively saving the system state and memory contents to a file on disk (hiberfil.sys) and then reading that back in on resume and restoring contents back to memory. Using this technique with boot gives us a significant advantage for boot times, since reading the hiberfile in and reinitializing drivers is much faster on most systems (30-70% faster on most systems we’ve tested).

Microsoft also offers up some data showing how much faster this mode is compared to a normal cold boot:

Microsoft is pulling this trick off by dumping the BIOS and instead going with UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface):

One thing you’ll notice in the video was how fast the POST handoff to Windows occurred. Systems that are built using Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) are more likely to achieve very fast pre-boot times when compared to those with traditional BIOS. This isn’t because UEFI is inherently faster, but because UEFI writers starting from scratch are more able to optimize their implementation rather than building upon a BIOS implementation that may be many years old. The good news is that most system and motherboard manufacturers have begun to implement UEFI, so these kinds of fast startup times will be more prevalent for new systems.

Here it is in action ... it's very fast:

The notebook used in that video is an EliteBook 8640p (Intel Core i7-2620M, 8GB, 160GB SSD).

How does it work? It's actually pretty simple:

When the system is turned on, the graphics card fan will rotate in the opposite direction for 30 seconds. By running in reverse, the fan helps to remove dust from the heatsink fins to ensure optimal cooling every time.

The new fan blades are suppose to offer 20% better airflow.

Does it work? No idea.

Here's a list of what's new:

• The address bar now highlights the domain of the website you're visiting
• Streamlined the look of the site identity block
• Added support for the latest draft version of WebSockets with a prefixed API
• Added support for EventSource / server-sent events
• Added support for window.matchMedia
• Added Scratchpad, an interactive JavaScript prototyping environment
• Added a new Web Developer menu item and moved development-related items into it
• Improved usability of the Web Console
• Improved the discoverability of Firefox Sync
• Reduced browser startup time when using Panorama
• Fixed several stability issues
• Fixed several security issues

There are a number of new features in this release:

• Faster startup
• Address bar highlights domains to make it easier to spot fraudulent websites
• A new permissions tool that allows users to set site-specific permissions for things like saved passwords, cookies, popups, etc. Type about:permissions into the address bar to find this

Grab the download from Mozilla.com.

It's not a new game (2009) and the the graphics aren't Crysis 2 (You know why? Because only Crysis 2 is like Crysis 2!), but I guarantee you that if you like blasting the zombies, then you're gonna love this!

It's mostly a co-op survival game, but there is a very nice solo mode for those not into the group gaming thing.

I've only had this game a few days but it's not an instant favorite. If you've played Left 4 Dead or Left 4 Dead 2 then this game will feel familiar (because you're shooting zombies ... durr!) but in my opinion this game is better on all levels - there's no over the top stereotype characters, the maps are a good size, the gameplay is freer and more open, the guns are good and there's a nice selection, the sounds are meaty and visceral.

All in all a really nice game!

Pick it up from somewhere like Amazon.com or Steam ... it'll set you back less than $20. You won't regret it!

A survey carried out by Intersperience suggests that giving up technology is like kicking an addiction.

The project also involved qualitative research, including challenging participants to get through one full day without using technology. Giving up technology was considered by some to be as hard as quitting smoking or drinking, while one survey participant described it as “like having my hand chopped off” and another called it “My biggest nightmare.”

Yikes!

This update ”Fixes a security vulnerability with certificate validation." This update follows an earlier update to fix a PDF vulnerability (the one that was used by JailbreakMe.com to jailbreak iOS devices via the Safari mobile browser).

This update applies to:

• iPhone 4 (GSM model)
• iPhone 3GS
• iPad 2
• iPad
• iPod touch (4th generation)
• iPod touch (3rd generation)

Fire up iTunes and hit the “Check for Update” button.

This simple to use tool offers loads of awesome enhancements for the Windows right-click:

• Copy To Folder & Move To Folder
• Create or Print File List
• Encrypt & Decrypt
• Open In Notepad
• Open file location
• Administrator Command Prompt
• God Mode & System Configuration Utility (Vista or 7)
• Problem Step Recorder (Windows 7)

Compatible with Windows XP, Vista and 7. Download here.

(via Ghacks)

If your system does get infected with Trojan:Win32/Popureb.E, we advise you to fix the MBR and then use a recovery CD to restore your system to a pre-infected state (as sometimes restoring a system may not restore the MBR). To fix the MBR, we advise that you use the System Recovery Console, which supports a command called "fixmbr".

Rootkits/bootkits are a major pain in the rear to remove, and because they burrow themselves so deeply into the OS, and also create such a massive security vulnerability, the best thing to do might be to either recover the system from a clean backup or wipe the system and reinstall.

It's the only way to be sure that the malware is all gone.

Here are instructions on how to fix the MBR for XP, Vista and 7.

Tools | Trust Center

I've tested it on three machines (both 32 and 64 bit) and does it every time.

I've done some searches but so far no one at Microsoft seems to be aware of this bug.

My only hope right now is to reinstall Outlook 2007 although if I'm going to do that I might as well save my time and upgrade to the newer version (something I've been procrastinating for ages!) I will let you know if it fixes the problem!

Update: Upgraded one machine to 2010 and it didn't fix the problem. It's possible that it's an add-in problem. Unfortunately add-ins are found within Trust Center, which immediately crashed Outlook. Running Outlook in safe mode doesn't seem to help.

OK this works: Solution (at least for now) - uninstall IE9. I did this by:

Windows Control Panel | Programs and Features | View Installed Updates

Select Windows Internet Explorer 9. Click Uninstall.

If you try this always back up first! The system will need to restart in order to complete the process, so make sure you save any unsaved work.

Update: It's possible the problem is caused by GFI Vipre Antivirus. Anyone else seeing this perfect storm of programs causing the problem??

Update: Have uninstalled Vipre and the problem remains. It seems possibly to end the intermittent crashing but the Trust Centre crash still happens. Disabling all the add-ins doesn't seem to fix the problem. So ... it's still a mystery. Stay tuned!

- Kathie (Hey, what am I? The PC Nurse???)

Here's an application called HideAutoUpdate that combines usefulness with tight code. If you like coding, you'll want to take a look at this!

Windows Stability Center has become widespread thanks to the recent spate of hack attacks on websites called the "LisaMoon" attack.

If installed Windows Stability Center is installed will it start automatically when you login to Windows and it will run a fake scan your computer and claim to have discovered a number of security and system problems that require immediately attention.

Manual removal of this malware can be tricky and it is recommended that you use an antivirus tool. However, if you want to attempt to remove this manually, here's how:

First, find and kill he following process:

• [random].exe (where random is a random filename)

Next remove the following registry entries:

• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Shell “%AppData%\[random].exe
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\afwserv.exe “Debugger” = ’svchost.exe’
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\avastsvc.exe “Debugger” = ’svchost.exe’
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\avastui.exe “Debugger” = ’svchost.exe’
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\egui.exe “Debugger” = ’svchost.exe’
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\ekrn.exe “Debugger” = ’svchost.exe’
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\msascui.exe “Debugger” = ’svchost.exe’
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\msmpeng.exe “Debugger” = ’svchost.exe’
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\msseces.exe “Debugger” = ’svchost.exe’
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SystemRestore “DisableSR ” = ‘1′

Well if you've installed IE9 you may have noticed that your search box has gone. This is because in IE9 the search box has gone! Instead you will see a rather small search icon in the address bar.

If, like me, you had searching from the address bar disabled in IE8, this will all seem rather confusing however because no such little search icon appears when you upgrade to IE9.

In this circumstance re-enabling search from the address bar is not straight forward either as that option has also moved. (It used to be under Tools | Internet Options | Advanced.) In IE9 however it has moved to Tools | Internet Options | General | Search. Check the "Search in the address bar" box.

Hey presto you can now search again!

- Kathie (Hey, what am I? The PC Nurse???)

I installed Tea and Kittens extension for Chrome a little while ago (which blocks The Daily Mail's website). Very funny and cute - every time you follow a link to go to that newspaper instead it shows you a random picture of a cup of tea and a cute kitten pic. That was great except my tea consumption went up threefold. And sometimes I do actually need to read the news on that website, so how to go about uninstalling the extension? I looked in the options for Chrome but couldn't find it anywhere. Here's how:

In the address bar type the following:

chrome://extensions/

You can then disable and uninstall it from there.

(If you want to be certain it's not running type in
about:memory
and you can see the memory allocation.)

Chrome is handy in that you can see a very useful task manager by right clicking in the blank bit above the address bar and choosing task manager. This can be usuful if you have a tab that is misbehaving as you can end the process on that tab.

- Kathie (Hey, what am I? The PC Nurse???)

Dear Customer,

Email Security Message
 
We are emailing all our customers to let you know that a company that handles part of our marketing communications has had a security breach. Unfortunately this has meant that some customer names and email addresses may have been compromised.
 
We take privacy and security very seriously and ensure all sensitive customer data is protected.  Please be assured this issue has occurred outside of Play.com and no other personal customer information has been involved. 
 
Please be assured we have taken every step to ensure this doesn’t happen again and accept our apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused some of you.
 
Customer Advice
 
Please do be vigilant with your email and personal information when using the internet. At Play.com we will never ask you for information such as passwords, bank account details or credit card numbers. If you receive anything suspicious in your email, please do not click on any links and forward the email on to privacy@play.com for us to investigate.
 
Thank you for continuing to shop at Play.com and we look forward to serving you in the future.
 
Play.com Customer Service Team

Now today, I get this:

Dear Customer,

As a follow up to the email we sent you last night, I would like to give you some further details. On Sunday the 20th of March some customers reported receiving a spam email to email addresses they only use for Play.com. We reacted immediately by informing all our customers of this potential security breach in order for them to take the necessary precautionary steps. 

We believe this issue may be related to some irregular activity that was identified in December 2010 at our email service provider, Silverpop. Investigations at the time showed no evidence that any of our customer email addresses had been downloaded. We would like to assure all our customers that the only information communicated to our email service provider was email addresses.  Play.com have taken all the necessary steps with Silverpop to ensure a security breach of this nature does not happen again.

We would also like to reassure our customers that all other personal information (i.e. credit cards, addresses, passwords, etc.) are kept in the very secure Play.com environment. Play.com has one of the most stringent internal standards of e-commerce security in the industry. This is audited and tested several times a year by leading internet security companies to ensure this high level of security is maintained. On behalf of Play.com, I would like to once again apologise to our customers for any inconvenience due to a potential increase in spam that may be caused by this issue . 

Best regards,

John

John Perkins
CEO
Play.com

Kudos for the openness!

Ofcom is currently addressing the problem and it looks like their solution will be to require advertisements to be based upon Typical Speeds Range or TSR which will give consumers a clearer idea of what speeds they can expect. They have also suggested that the TSR must have equal prominence to any maximum speed that is achievable by a 'material' number of customers.

So will we be seeing ads like this?

Read more about the speeds and changes to the procedure for fining companies who breach the rules.

Good news for consumers. Let's hope!

- Kathie (Hey, what am I? The PC Nurse???)

The problem seems to occur at stage 6 of 10 of the update process, where the handset reboots after the update. Users trying to install the update are faced with the following error message:

RESTORATION ERROR

An error prevented the restoration of your phone to its previous version.

Your phone can’t be used in its present condition and there are no restore points for it on this computer. The phone might restart and return to normal if you disconnect it. For further assistance, contact your mobile operator.

ERROR CODE
C101002E

Well, if you are affected there is hope ...

WinRumors has outlined a possible fix for the WP7 update handset bricking problem. It's long and convoluted, involved downloading firmware from untrusted sources and there are no guarantees ... but it could bring your bricked handset back to life.

Duke Nukem Forever will launch on May 3 in the US, and May 6 elsewhere. Go, you know you want to pre-order it!

These tweets are by BBC Interactive Operations engineer Geoff Marshall. His tweets have now been set to private.