A few months ago, Microsoft claimed that their search engine, Live Search, is going to leave Google in the dust in a few years, and the first step to take towards that goal was to set Live Search as the default search provider in Internet Explorer 7. To be honest, I am not crazy about it, and despite the fact I admit Google is not perfect, since I can't find anything better, I want to set it as my default search provider in Internet Explorer too. How? That's what we're about to see right away...

- If Internet Explorer is not open already... you know what to do! Notice the default search provider in the screenshot below.


- In the dropdown menu that appears when you click the down arrow next to the search icon, click on Find More Providers.


- Pick your favorite from the page that opens.


- Check the radio button in the window that opens and click on Add Provider.


- As you can see below, changes are applied instantly.


This is it, so feel free to enjoy the search provider you want, and not the one Microsoft thinks you should use...

As you already know, I am sure of this, the default web browser in every Windows version so far was Internet Explorer. If you want to change this, most browsers ask you about setting them as the new default one when you install them, but if you missed that, today I will show you how to make Firefox your default browser in only a few easy steps...

- First of all, make sure Firefox is open - obviously...


- Now, open the Tools menu and choose Options.


- In the window that opens, left click on Check Now, as you can see in the screenshot below.


- Answer Yes.


From now on, Firefox is your default web browser!

Although Windows Media Player's last versions are not bad at all, I must confess I don't feel pretty comfortable using it. Why? The answer is known simply as VLC, or if you want a longer name, "VLC media player". According to some sources, the last version was released 2 days ago, but others say it came up just today, so there you have it...


VLC's last version is labeled 0.8.6d, and despite this beta-style versioning number, this application is a reliable, fast and fully featured media player for a wide range of platforms, including Mac OS X, BeOS, and most popular Linux distributions.

This last version doesn't come with any amazing new features, but fixes some minor bugs and adds a few improvements to this already state-of-the-art media player. Best of all, VLC is completely free to download and use, so all you have to do is go to the official download page, select your operating system, download and install the player, so you can enjoy your music and movies without having to think about acquiring any missing codec or installing "that player".

After the many updates in the last weeks, including the second Beta version of Firefox 3, I was amazed to discover that Mozilla updated Firefox 2 again, for the third time in the last month, if I recall it well, brinding the current version number to 2.0.0.11...



According to Mozilla's release notes, "This release corrects a compatibility issue with some websites and extensions discovered in Firefox 2.0.0.10.", and the response time is simply impressive, because the previous version was released less than 5 days ago!

As a simple user, I must repeat that I am really amazed by the rhytm of updates made to Firefox in the last days. Just think about this - on the 30th, version 2.0.0.11 comes out, on the 26th, version 2.0.0.10 arrives, bringing some security fixes, and version 2.0.0.9 was released on the first day of the month.

Leaving Firefox 2 behind, I hope we'll get the final version of Firefox 3 just in time for Christmas, because if I sit back and think for a while, this is one of the software releases that I would really enjoy to get as "virtual Christmas present"...