One of the bold claims made by Microsoft is that Windows 10 S will be impervious to all known forms of ransomware. This is because only apps that have been curated and distributed through the Windows Store can be run. However, it seems that Microsoft's claim forgot one little thing - macros. But we can learn from this.
Ever since Bill Gates launched the Trustworthy Computing strategy at Microsoft, the software company has done a good job at addressing security issues in a timely manner. Regular patching, complemented by out-of-cycle releases when critical issues are detected and resolved are now commonplace. So when news broke that it took Microsoft nine months to fix a serous flaw, it was something of a surprise to me.
Custom macro keypads are great for shortcuts in video games, document editing, or anywhere else a good keyboard shortcut comes in handy. The problem is they tend to get expensive, especially when you look at higher-end models. Luckily, it's easy and cheap to build your own.
Windows Vista only: The Vista for Beginners weblog walks through the process of setting up and using speech recognition macros that save you time by automating keystrokes with a voice command. Their guide covers creating macros that can do anything from launching applications, sending batches of keystrokes, inserting blocks of text, or even creating aliases for some of the default commands that might be difficult to remember—a very useful read for anybody interested in making their computer do what they say. For another take on the same topic, check out our must-read guide to controlling your PC with your voice.
Online office suite Zoho continues to push the envelope with advanced features you never thought you'd find in a webapp—this time it's macro recording and playback in Zoho Sheet, their online spreadsheet product. Instead of composing Visual Basic code by hand, Zoho Sheet can record a set of actions and play them back over other sets of data. Hit the play button to see this huge time-saving trick in action. Zoho Sheet—-Macros - Zoho Writer
Windows Vista's built-in speech recognition tools are seriously powerful and convenient, as Adam demonstrated by controlling his PC with his voice, but, as he noted, the process for adding seriously helpful macros to the "technical preview" macro tool isn't quite apparent. Luckily, Rob Chambers of Microsoft's speech division has posted a guide to editing, saving, and enabling speech macros in Vista. Good thing, too, because his own blog has lots of geekily awesome macros available for free copying: a Windows Media Player controller that lets you say something as casual as "Play something by Led Zeppelin"; a simple "Send email to ..." Outlook macro; and many more. Got some of your own favourite macros? Post 'em up in the comments. Thanks, Al! Using Macros of the Day: A Step by Step Guide
Windows Vista only: Microsoft has released a free "Technical Preview" of new macro features for Vista's Speech Recognition features, offering the kind of text substitution and macro-keystroke-firing provided by Texter and similar apps to voice commands. The interface is extremely simple, as explained by Lifehacker reader Abdul—simply choose the type of macro you want to enable, give it the text or commands to fire, and turn on Vista's speech recognition. It worked pretty well with my cheap USB headset on a test run, and the software is pretty refined for a "preview." Windows Speech Recognition Macros is a free download for Windows Vista systems; downloading requires running a Windows Genuine validation tool.
