Gym

Member since: Jun 25th, 2009

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Download Squad	5 Comments

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Comodo Internet Security 4 adds application sandboxing (Download Squad)

Jan 25th 2010 11:19AM I had the same problem with eEye's Blink product, and it wasn't even free.

6 free Windows programs to fix and prevent PC problems on your own (Download Squad)

Jun 25th 2009 10:13AM Is there really any product that does all these things anyway? Lee's right. Don't get the crud on there in the first place, and it doesn't take too many things to do that.

I tend to favour the one-job-one-tool approach as the tools tend to be better in each case. That has long been the philosophy in the Unix world, which is much more mature than Windows. But an all-in-one tool has the merit of being be easier, simpler and cheaper - if you can live with it not being up to scratch in all areas.

In my prevention suggestions, I should also have mentioned Windows SteadyState as a solution for some instances. Set up a clean machine, install what's needed, then set up SteadyState, and thereafter a reboot will get you back to your clean config. User preferences and data can be preserved, and you can allow patching and some other updates to work, while wiping all the junk off automagically on reboot. Perfect for public computers, but useful in other cases too.

6 free Windows programs to fix and prevent PC problems on your own (Download Squad)

Jun 25th 2009 8:14AM @Lee

Absolutely agree on installing blindly. 1 oz prevention v 1lb cure. Teach users to read what it says before hitting OK. Unfortunately so many applications give "OK" pop-ups so often that users have become conditioned to hitting OK.

Admittedly tests are not the real world, but NOD32 as not missed an "in the wild" sample on the Virus Bulletin test since 1998. And it's generally seen as the best test in the industry. (BTW you need to register to see all the content on their site.) IMV, good AV is one of the few categories of software worth paying for, and I only want to pay for one. Running two side by side is asking for trouble anyway. I'm in the UK, and MS Security Essentials is not yet available here, but from what I've seen so far on this site it looks very promising.

Re. the things that MSSE caught that NOD32 didn't: I've seen some AV flag "malware" that I would not call malware, just because the program has a potential for malicious use. The SysInternals (now MS) PsTools suite is a case in point.

6 free Windows programs to fix and prevent PC problems on your own (Download Squad)

Jun 25th 2009 7:48AM Did you really expect a one-click clean-up tool to work on an OS that's still in beta?

6 free Windows programs to fix and prevent PC problems on your own (Download Squad)

Jun 25th 2009 7:43AM Some thoughts on prevention. I do IT security as my full-time job (I'm a CISSP) so I need to know these things.

The reason why AVG, etc are free is that they don't catch everything, and they don't get updates so frequently as the paid-for ones. Virus Bulletin (www.virusbtn.com) as a regular test of major AV products, and you'll see there how poorly some of these products perform. But even some pay-for AV's are a bit patchy. You'll see there that the most consistently good one is NOD32 - plus it's the least resource-hungry. And no, I'm not affiliated.

If a non-savvy user is on XP, put DropMyRights on there and set up a link to use that to start their browser - which should be Firefox. Add the WOT add-on, and if you think they can handle it, NoScript. NoScript blocks active content, but allows you to whitelist domains as needed. Just show them how to do a temporary or permanent whitelist if a page doesn't show they what they expect/need.

Savvy users should use Sandboxie, instead of DropMyRights, which has a freeware license, but after 30 days it starts nagging you to upgrade to the paid-for version.