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Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Web services

Easily restore Windows services to default settings with a web app


I don't know how they manage to do it, but they do. Every now and then a customer drops off a system for repair and things that a home user should ever need to monkey with - things like TCP/IP settings, registry entries, Windows services - have been mangled beyond recognition.

Services in particular can be a big pain to reset, simply because of how many their are. Fortunately, there's an incredibly handy web app which makes the process a whole lot easier.

Serviceseditor.com supports Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7. Click the appropriate version, and you're presented with a comprehensive list of radio buttons covering all the built-in services. Scroll through the list and toggle any values you don't want set to the default Microsoft settings and press the submit button. You'll receive a .reg file which you can then merge with the Windows registry.

It's quite a bit faster than clicking through services.msc manually to get things back to normal and (obviously) doesn't even require an install. Slick!

Filed under: Microsoft, Browsers

Internet Explorer 8 becomes a gentleman today

Back in July, Microsoft detailed a few changes that were "coming soon" to the Internet Explorer 8 installer. In a nutshell, the new version was designed to be less...well...presumptuous.

Previously, the installer's Express mode would automatically set IE as your default browser without so much as an "excuse me." That's no longer the case. As stated in the official blog post, "IE will never install, or become the default browser without your explicit consent."

In a nutshell, if you're the click-first-and-read-warnings-later type, you no longer have to worry about your browser of choice getting hijacked during a Windows Update-related mishap. The change is all part of Microsoft's commitment to user choice and control. Stop snickering.

Clearly Microsoft has learned not to make the same mistake as Corbin Dallas.

[via ZDnet]

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