Microsoft has made great strides with Windows 7. Not only decreasing Windows 7 memory footprints, increasing efficiency and also working closer to companies such as Intel, NVIDIA and so on. However, Microsoft has added a new DirectX API called DirectCompute. What this allows to occur is the CPU and GPU (Graphics Processing Unit)  will create a co-processing environment, and it will make Windows 7 have a balance between the CPU and GPU making it faster and more visual.

This API DirectCompute allows applications to use the GPU to accelerate the applications. Even though this API will be distributed with the DirectX 11 API, it is fully compatible with NVIDIA's current DirectX 10 GPUs.

Here is a photographic example of how Windows 7 would handle an application such as Microsoft Word. In this case of this kind of application, the CPU does a majority of the work, then the GPU displays the graphics on the screen.


Now for an application which would take advantage of the parallel processing DirectCompute offers, it would go a little like the below graphic. This would be an application such as video playback, video editing, image editing, and so on. Something that would require a lot more graphics, so both the CPU and GPU would work.


With this new API DirectX on Windows 7 offers, it will allow game developers to create a more realistic environment. Instead of having a static environment such as trees just sitting there, water looking totally fake the trees can move in the wind, and the water can have force and body.


Windows 7 is now in a great position to become the ultimate gaming platform with the power of DirectCompute.

We are always trying to get new content on MS Chat, but lately it has been very tough to add articles and reviews to MS Chat. So now I am going to be taking ideas from the public!

If you have an idea for an article or a piece of software you want to have reviewed, send us an email at topics [@] mschat.net.

Thanks!

With a majority of the new browsers, they all include a feature such as private browsing. The whole point is to allow you to turn on this "private browsing" feature and things like cookies, history, temporary files and any other data usually stored by the browser. The thing is, have you ever tested this yourself? To see if these "private browsing" features truly keep you private. I have tested 3 browsers, Internet Explorer 8, Firefox 3.5 and Safari 4 to see what browser, if any, doesn't do what they say in "private browsing" mode.

First things first
How will I test this? I will delete all cookies off my computer (Yes! For the sake of this article, I have removed every cookie on my computer just for you guys!) and will visit www.about.com and www.zdnet.com browse through pages and then use CCleaner. With CCleaner I will check to see if any cookies have been saved to my computer under Options > Cookies. Oh, and of course remove all the previous data from my browsers themselves too.

Internet Explorer
After browsing around articles and such at ZDNet and About.com for 5 or 10 minutes, I took a look at CCleaner while IE was still opened. As you can see below, some cookies got passed InPrivate mode.



So it appears that through Flash these cookies were saved. Even after I have ended the private browsing session, the cookies remained.

Firefox
After the same amount of time, Firefox didn't fare any better. As you can see, Firefox had more cookies in private mode than IE.



Just like with IE, I could easily explain most of those cookies that were saved (Even though they shouldn't have been) due to Flash advertisements. However, ones from msn.com and live.com, I have no idea. Also just like IE, after exiting private mode, the cookies remain.

Safari
I browsed around... just as much as Firefox and IE, yet surprisingly, Safari only had two cookies that were saved that shouldn't have. As you can see:



But that isn't all. I found something even more interesting. The second I closed Safari, 4 other cookies appeared. The only browser out of this trio to have any difference in the number of cookies after the browser was closed, but it wasn't good, of course.



All the cookies in Safari were also explainable, Flash being the culprit.

Conclusion
You can make whatever conclusion you want. If you want to deny this article, go right ahead. I can't stop you. But if you are a person who listens and pays attention to reason and facts, you will see that, well, these private modes may keep you private at all levels the browser has control over; except Flash. Which one should be able to understand. It is a program within itself and is just a plug-in to browsers, but quite obviously Flash's lacking feature is privacy.

UPDATE: One of my members pointed out I forgot Google Chrome! Sorry. I did a quick test for "Cognito" mode in Google Chrome... The same result as all other browsers occurred.

I remember seeing a title to an article about the fact that Bing is going after Yahoo not Google. However, I didn't read it

If you think about it, it really makes sense though. Recently Microsoft has been attempting to sell its search to Yahoo. If that did happen, Yahoo would just focus on advertising and content for the most part. The thing is, why would Yahoo buy search from Microsoft if their search engine gets even less traffic then theirs?

Which seems to me is a pretty big reason why Yahoo has said no to the search deal. However with the launch of Bing, that could change. Since Bing is hovering around (if not exceeding) the amount of search it gets compared to Yahoo. If Bing keeps its stance in the search market, and grows too, it could be a big bargaining chip to get Yahoo to accept the search deal. But of course, it might not help at all. Maybe for Yahoo, but since Microsoft would then be getting more search than Yahoo, it may not need Yahoo to accept the deal.

Makes sense, does it not?

I guess Microsoft was pretty serious when it said there was a 75,000 download limit for its new beta product, Microsoft Security Essentials. For anyone who really wanted to give it a go is going to need to wait or get it another way, if you know what I mean.

I myself have been using MSE for a day or so, ran a quick scan and a full scan. Thankfully, nothing was found (I hope). For those of you who are wondering, it is basically Windows Defender for viruses with a real-time protection addition.

Also luckily I haven't had to deal with the real-time protection and I would like to avoid using it for as long as a possibly can. Anyways, seeing as this is a process constantly running in the background, you are probably wanting to know "How much memory does it use?". I can answer that for you too! And surprisingly, it isn't much. As you can see in the screenshot below it only uses a little less than 4MB, which is really good for real-time protection. You know, seeing as ones like McAfee take somewhere around 100MB.



Here is a full screenshot of the main page of the MSE program, which as I have mentioned, has a resemblance of Windows Defender.



As you can see, you can set a time for a scheduled scan, but the options are somewhat sad. You can only choose from: Daily, Sunday, Monday, ..., Friday, or Saturday. You would think they would have better options to choose from, or if you could be more specific and choose every other day or something of that sort, but you can't. Of course you can choose the time it runs (It would have been dumb for them not too...) but it also includes a very interesting and good option of having MSE check for new updates and definitions before it runs a check. It never made sense to me to waste about an hour or so of my computers time and not have all the proper updates and definitions.



I would recommend everyone get MSE and try it for themselves. I myself have uninstalled my previous antivirus program (Avast!) and currently trusting my whole computers security to Microsoft's Security Essentials. I will see how that goes and report back, but I won't have much to report since I am pretty careful about where it is I go and download from the internet.

If you are wondering when Microsoft Security Essentials will be officially released, I cannot say for sure, but I remember hearing rumors that it would be before the end of 2009, and possibly in the fall, but one cannot be to sure.

Another thing, sadly MSE won't make it into Windows 7. Seeing as Windows 7 is just about to be shipped out to manufacturers and MSE won't be done by then, it obviously cannot be included. Hopefully it will be included as an update later on or in a Service Pack, but we will see.

Have you noticed something about the Zune advertisements? Yeah, the fact that there aren't really any. Microsoft did have some, but I never really saw them aired.

The current problem is, Microsoft is advertising the Zune Pass. How many people really know what a Zune is? You can check out a couple on YouTube:



As you can see, the Zune isn't really advertised. So the Zune isn't getting known. The Zune is a great product, and with the ZuneHD coming, it will be even better.

Your probably wondering whats my point? It's simple really. Microsoft is trying to get people to buy a Zune Pass without establishing what a Zune is, and what it is capable of doing. Right now, the iPod is an iconic symbol of an MP3 Player, music player, whatever you want to call it. It is really true. I myself am that way, when someone says MP3 Player, iPod!

So Microsoft, if you want to get your Zune product out into the open, for everybody to know about, advertise the Zune and not the cards and such that can go with it! You must attempt to remove the iPod as an icon for the music player, and then, just then, you can try to do your deed.