Registry Trick for XP users to get updates...at least for now..

Well, that was easy. News of a new hack for Windows XP users has been making the rounds this week — and trust us, it's a good thing if you're one of those holdouts who is now using the operating system in the Wild, Wild, West. Which is to say, you're still running your day-to-day operations on Windows XP, even though we've passed Microsoft's cutoff date for support, patches, updates, and what-have-you.

According to numerous sources, a simple registry tweak allows you to fool Microsoft into thinking that your version of Windows XP is actually a version of "Windows Embedded POSRready 2009" In doing so, you'll set yourself up to receive updates from Microsoft all the way through April 9, 2019. That all said, the company hascaught on that this trick is in use, and it has an as-you-might-expect warning for anyone giving the registry tweak a shot:

"We recently became aware of a hack that purportedly aims to provide security updates to Windows XP customers. The security updates that could be installed are intended for Windows Embedded and Windows Server 2003 customers and do not fully protect Windows XP customers. Windows XP customers also run a significant risk of functionality issues with their machines if they install these updates, as they are not tested against Windows XP. The best way for Windows XP customers to protect their systems is to upgrade to a more modern operating system, like Windows 7 or Windows 8.1," reads Microsoft's statement.

So, while the tweak certainly isn't a panacea that will cure you of all the issues that might come from Windows XP's end-of-life cutoff – according to Microsoft, at least – it's at least better than nothing for those who refuse to abandon the legacy OS.

As for how you might get it to work on your own installation of Windows XP, the trick is simple. You'll want to make a text file and copy and paste this code into it:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\WPA\PosReady] 
"Installed"=dword:00000001

Once you've done that, rename the file to anything you want with the extension .reg. Double-click on it to add it to your registry, restart your system, and run Windows Update. You should (hopefully) see a number of new updates for your machine that weren't there the last time you checked.

To note: The aforementioned registry tweak is only for those running 32-bit iterations of Windows XP. If you're running the 64-bit version of the OS, you'll want to check out the other method for enabling the tweak found here.

Free Shipping on Apple.com for everything until May 29, 2014

Apple is offering online buyers free shipping on all the items available in its online stores through May 29, which is a nice change of pace from the company’s typical free shipping policy that only covers orders of $50 or more, 9to5Mac reports. This will allow buyers to purchase many accessories for iPhone and Mac that are priced under $50, and that wouldn’t otherwise qualify for the free shipping offer.

The free shipping offer appears to have been timed with Father’s Day gift promotions that advertise Apple’s 2013 iPad models on the company’s online store section. At the same time, the company may simply be looking to clear out more stock ahead of its WWDC 2014 event, the publication speculates. Apple is rumored to announce new hardware at WWDC, not just software updates.

However, Apple’s free shipping promotion appears to target only U.S. online shoppers right now. For example, in other international online stores, Apple offers free shipping on purchases of at least €119 (Germany), €120 (France), or £30 (U.K.). Apple is also promoting new iPads as  gifts for dads in these markets.

Recently, reports have revealed that Apple has been interested in selling more iPhone units in its stores, increasing marketing efforts to convince existing iPhone owners eligible for an upgrade to purchase one of its 2013 iPhones.

Buyers who shop at Apple.com should know that Apple will apparently refund their money twice as fast in case they’re not happy with their purchases, as the company has significantly improved its refund procedures, according to a new report.

A screenshot showing Apple’s free shipping promotions as listed on its online store section follows below.

Ebay users, like myself, change your password

eBay on Friday put a notice on its home page urging users to change their passwords after security experts had criticized the auction site for failing to promptly alert customers about a massive break-in and data theft.

The notice, which includes a link to the password reset process, was part of the advice eBay had given its users on Wednesday to immediately change their passwords.

That same day eBay announced a huge data breach in late February and early March. Hackers made off with the user database, which contained names, email and street addresses, phone numbers and passwords for an estimated 145 million eBay users. eBay said that the user information was encrypted.

The attackers compromised a "small number of employee log-in credentials," eBay said, to gain access to its network, then scoured the firm's systems before making off with the database. The San Jose, Calif. company discovered the break-in earlier this month.

"Take a moment to change your password," said Devin Wening, president of eBay Marketplaces, in a notice on the website. "This will help further protect you; it's always a good practice to periodically update your password."

Good reason why you shouldn't give out your Wifi Password..

Do you really know how your various friends, relations, acquaintances, and hangers-on plan to use your Internet connection when they drop by and ask for "the Wi-Fi password"? Unlikely—and yet anything that they do illegally through your home network can bring cops to your door with search warrants, asking tough questions about child pornography.

Case in point: Marin County, California, just north of San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge. Local police in Marin communities like Novato are members of the regional Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) task force, and as such they participate in the common law enforcement practice of monitoring peer-to-peer file-sharing networks for possible child pornography files. In September 2013, Novato detective Amy Yardley was looking for such files being traded from Marin County IP addresses, and she scored a hit on the Ares network with a suspicious file downloaded by a Sausalito Internet subscriber.

Yardley passed the tip to the Sausalito Police Department, where detective Brian Mather obtained a search warrant for the subscriber's address. He showed up at the house with a search team but couldn't find any child pornography within. The home's residents, no doubt unnerved by both the search and the charge behind it, pleaded their innocence and gave Mather a complete list of all houseguests who had used their wireless network in recent months.

Investigating this list took months, but Mather eventually developed a suspect: Mark Magner, age 32, from nearby San Rafael. Police then searched Magner's home and seized his computer. A forensic examination of the machine turned up "multiple videos and pictures that depicted juveniles and children involved in sexual acts," in the words of a police department press release.

Mather called Magner in to the Sausalito police headquarters on April 22, told Magner what had been found on his computer, and arrested him. On May 9, the Marin County District Attorney filed charges in state court, accusing Magner of one count of "possession or control of child pornography." Magner is scheduled to enter a plea at a hearing next week.

Password, please

Offering the use of your property or services to houseguests has always carried some small risk of summoning police—uncle Leo might borrow your car to go buy some smokes but sideswipe someone along the way, while cousin Carrie might be going through a rough patch during which she finds it amusing to call in bomb threats to the local delicatessen. Still, the sheer ubiquity of Internet-enabled devices means that nearly every houseguest who spends more than a few hours with you will likely have access, under your IP address, to a network which they can use to defame, harass, victimize, spam, defraud, hack, or download. (Even my parents—no technological gadget hounds—have one iPad each... and take them everywhere. Fortunately, they're unlikely to attract the watchful eyeball of the state.)

A vocal segment of Internet users has suggested for years that one can simply claim the "someone else used my Wi-Fi" defense (sometimes as a way to cast doubt on just who in the home might be downloading films online). And it's true—the defense is real and it can work. But it's the sort of plea you only get to make after a warrant service team of armed police have turned your home inside out and have you seated on the living room couch as they stare you down and ponder a detailed forensic search of every gadget in your home.

In other words, it's not the sort of argument one wants to be in the position to make. But what else to do? Be a bad host by getting parsimonious with the network password? Ask your guests to sign some kind of "Terms of Service" document first? A Wi-Fi password is the new "can I get you a cup of water?", and though there are ways to set up secondary guest networks and take other security and control measures, it's difficult to mitigate these risks completely—and most Internet users wouldn't know what steps to take, anyhow.

For now, Internet subscribers can take comfort in the fact that such cases of Internet abuse remain relatively rare, and that, if they do happen, the police probably won't send a SWAT team to throw flashbangs through your windows in response.

Print anything from anywhere with Google Cloud Print

Printing at home is dead simple, and most of us don't think twice about it. But it sure is a heck of a lot easier when you can send a print job from any device, anywhere in the world to your printer at home.

A slew of cloud-connected printers let you do this, but even if you're stuck with a printer that doesn't talk to the web you can get in on the print-anywhere fun with the help ofGoogle Cloud Print.

This free service from Google has been around since 2011, when it started as a way to print to any printer you owned from Gmail or other Google services. Since then Google has added a number of features, including greatly expanding its functionality and rolling out an Android app and Windows desktop integration.

Here's how to get set up with Google Cloud Print using a non-Cloud Print capable printer.

All about Chrome

For Cloud Print to work you'll first need to download the Google Chrome browser on a PC connected to your home printer. Sign-in to the browser with your Google Account, then click on the "hamburger" menu icon in the upper right corner of Chrome and go toSettings > Show advanced settings > Google Cloud Print.

Decide which printers you want to register to your Cloud Print account.

Now click Manage and then Add printers under "Classic printers." You'll see a list of printers connected to your desktop PC appear in a new tab. Uncheck the box next to any printers you don't want to use with Cloud Print. My PC has separate options to send jobs to my printer whether it's connected wired or wirelessly. Since my printer is almost never physically connected to my PC I only added the wireless version (marked WS) to my collection of cloud printers in the screenshot above.

There's also an option to automatically register new printers to your account, but this can get out of hand quickly if you connect to a lot of printers with a laptop.

Next click Add printer(s) and you're ready to print from the cloud. You only need to add printers to your account once and then they'll be available to you from any device where you sign in with your Google Account.

You can also try out Cloud Print from an Android device by downloading the Google Cloud Print app from Google Play (if it isn't installed already). Users of iOS devices can print from Google Web apps like Drive and Gmail or use a third-party app like PrintCentral Pro.

Try out Cloud Print in Chrome by opening a PDF document in Google's browser. Select the print option and then select your printer from the Cloud Print menu (not the local destinations).

Google Cloud Print can also work with Microsoft Word and other apps on the Windows desktop.

Windows users can also downloadGoogle Cloud Printer, which adds your Cloud Print options to your regular desktop printing options. That way you can still send a job to your home printer from the desktop version of Excel or Word (or whatever) if you're working on your laptop at a coffee shop.

There is one potentially big drawback to the otherwise awesome Google Cloud Print, however: It will only work when your home PC is awake and connected to the Internet, with Chrome running in the background. If you send a job to your home printer when your PC is asleep or with Chrome shut down, the Cloud Print job will begin the next time your PC is connected to the Internet and Chrome is active.

Microsoft announces Windows 8.1 with Bing for low-cost devices

The rumors were true: On Friday, Microsoft announced Windows 8.1 with Bing, a new version of Windows 8.1 available only to hardware manufacturers.

The new edition of Windows appears to be the same as the standard version of Windows 8.1 (complete with this spring's Windows 8.1 Update), but with one major distinction: Windows 8.1 with Bing ships with Microsoft's search engine set as the default in Internet Explorer. 

That's no major change in and of itself, as Windows 8.1 already defaults to Internet Explorer and Bing. Hardware partners can change those settings on the devices they ship with normal versions of Windows, however. It seems that's verboten for PC makers who embrace Windows 8.1 with Bing. End users will be able to change that in the browser's settings, however—Microsoft's in no rush for another regulatory spanking, it seems.

Beyond that, Microsoft notes that "Some of these devices, in particular tablets, will also come with Office or a one-year subscription to Office 365."

Leaks about Windows 8.1 with Bing first sprung in February, suggesting that the edition would be stuffed with Microsoft services in order to provide the operating system for cheap or possibly even free to hardware manufacturers. Documentation leaked shortly thereafter stated that "Windows 8.1 with Bing helps OEMs add Windows to low-cost devices while driving end user usage of Microsoft Services such as Bing and OneDrive."

Indeed, Microsoft's announcement of the new edition of Windows is rife with commentary about reducing the hardware specifications for Windows 8.1 and quotes like "many of these lower cost devices will come with a new edition of Windows called Windows 8.1 with Bing." Taken together, that strongly suggests that Microsoft is providing Windows 8.1 with Bing to its hardware partners at a discount—no surprise considering the company'swaging a price war with Google for the hearts and mind-share of the next generation of technology users.

Microsoft already made Windows free for phones, small-screen tablets, and so-called "Internet of Things" devices under 8 inches at this year's Build conference. The verbiage in Microsoft's post suggests the free version of Windows 8.1 is actually Windows 8.1 with Bing.