The UAC (User Account Control) was introduced in Windows Vista as a protection against malicious programs, Trojans and other nasty applications from running without the user’s permission, and possibly causing harm to the system and user’s files. But the way it was implemented, it left users with few choices. Many decided to disable it because it got in their way far too often. The UAC in Windows 7 was improved and an ability to set different levels of protection was added, but it’s still not perfect. It has the annoying habit of popping up even when you are logged in as administrator.

Twitter has finally joined the growing league of companies and services that offer two-factor authentication to secure accounts of users from being stolen or misused. Account hijack is serious matter and no company is immune, especially high profile ones such as Twitter.

To get started with two-factor authentication, go to Twitter’s account settings page, scroll down to the section “Accounts security” and check the box that says “Require a verification code when I sign in.”

I’m not a very big fan of browser toolbars. Well, who is? But I’m not talking about product toolbars that are bundled with software installers to promote services like the Ask search engine, Babel translation, Yahoo and other such products that barely anyone use. I’m talking about toolbars that are part of the web browser – bookmarks bar, status bar and add-on bar in Firefox. Any horizontal toolbar on the screen means less vertical space for web pages, and I like to have as much space as possible for viewing. I do not use bookmarks bar, the status bar has been thankfully done away with in Firefox. What’s left is the add-on bar.

IObit has launched a brand-new version of its anti-malware product, IObit Malware Fighter 2, with a completely revamped interface. The new product has a faster and better detection engine, real-time protection, a way to analyze suspicious files using cloud-based scanning and a new UI design that is more in tune with Windows 8’s Modern interface.

Last week, Google gave everyone 15 GB of free storage in Google+ photos by combining the disk space of Gmail and Drive with Google+. Today, Flickr one-upped Google by taking the storage space all the way to 1 Terabyte. The biggest change Yahoo brings to the table is there will be no more selling of Pro subscription, and many of the previously imposed restrictions on free accounts were lifted, including the limitation on picture resolution and size. The announcement states:

At Flickr, we believe you should share all your images in full resolution, so life’s moments can be relived in their original quality. No limited pixels, no cramped formats, no memories that fall flat. We’re giving your photos room to breathe, and you the space to upload a dizzying number of photos and videos, for free.

AOMEI Tech Co. has released a new version of AOMEI Partition Assistant, and along with a name change, has added several new features, one of which is support for UEFI boot. The previously called AOMEI Partition Assistant “Home Edition” has been changed to AOMEI Partition Assistant “Standard Edition”. The term “Home” was dropped in favor of “Standard” because the new edition is now completely free to use for both private and commercial purposes, eliminating the need for businesses to buy licenses.

Pattern locks are popular on touch screen devices such as smartphones because they are easier to enter than typing passwords. When Windows 8 debuted, pattern locks became an alternate but necessary inclusion. Although most people are using Windows 8 on traditional non-touch based systems, touch-based laptops, tablets and monitors are catching up especially after the release of the Surface pro tablets.

The universal appeal for portable applications lie in the fact that they aren’t associated in any way with the host computer. You can run them from a hard drive or a flash drive. You can move portable applications from one drive to another, or between computers and it takes all associated data and settings along with the program. If you don’t like a portable application, you can simply delete it because there are no file or registry leftovers to deal with. Portable applications operate almost in stealth.

Start Menu Reviver is a new start menu replacement for Windows 7 and Windows 8, that succeeds at merging the design style of “Metro” with the traditional list based menu system in a way that Microsoft failed.

At first appearance, Start Menu Reviver looks more like a Windows Phone launcher than a Windows start menu. But flick the mouse to the right, and the menu expands to reveal the familiar programs list.

Here are the results of last week’s Themefuse WordPress Themes Giveaway. Based on the random number generator at random.org, we have picked three winners. Each have won a premium Wordpress theme of their choice designed by ThemeFuse. The three winners are: