News and Tips

More companies join Microsoft on Patch Tuesday

Microsoft have traditionally released updates to Windows on the second Tuesday of the month, but now they have been joined by two more companies – Adobe and Oracle have both used the latest Patch Tuesday to release critical updates to their Windows software. This week has seen one of the biggest release of patches to date, with Microsoft releasing 11 updates to fix 25 problems, including three patches to media playback software which could allow a hacker to gain access to a PC when the user plays a malicious audio or video file. Another problem that has been fixed and affects all Windows versions, including Windows 7, could allow a hacker to execute code on a system by sending malicious network queries.

Adobe also used last Tuesday to issue 15 fixes for its Acrobat and Reader software, which should be installed on your PC automatically by the Adobe Updater program. If you use Oracle software, you’ll also find that its inbuilt update function will install some of the 47 fixes issued for bugs in their software. We recommend that you use Windows Update to keep your PC updated with the latest Microsoft fixes.

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Hide fonts that you don’t use in Windows 7

The Windows 7 Fonts panel, accessed through the Control Panel, allows you to preview all of the fonts installed on your system – essential if you are looking for a particular typeface to jazz up a document or presentation. However, if you have lots of fonts installed, the window can easily become cluttered, making it difficult for you to find what you are looking for. Fortunately the Fonts panel has a little-used feature that allows you to hide fonts that you don’t want to use. To hide a font, follow these steps:
Open the Fonts panel with Start > Control Panel > Fonts.
Select the font that you don’t want to use and click the Hide button.
Repeat step 2 until only the fonts that you are interested in are left. Tip: you can see what a font looks like by clicking the Preview button.



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