Terry's Computer Tips - Newsletter
June 15, 2008
Terry's Computer Tips Newsletter
http://www.terryscomputertips.com
A computer tips newsletter for users of PC's.
Volume 4, Number 1 — Sunday, June 15, 2008
IN THIS ON-LINE ISSUE:
1. Firefox Version 3 - Coming Tuesday June 17
2. My Computer Security Software Recommendations
3. Which Program Has Locked My File?
4. Recommend my Terry's Computer Tips Newsletter to Your Friends
IN THIS WEEK'S EMAIL ISSUE:
"Article 0." JUST FOR EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS!
0.1. More on Windows XP Service Pack 3
0.2. Read the Articles in This Week's On-Line Issue
0.3. And, Now We Start Our Fourth Year!
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Welcome to the on-line edition of my Terry's Computer Tips newsletter.
1. Firefox Version 3 - Coming Tuesday June 17
I've been an avid user of Firefox since it reached the version 0.7 beta release. At that point, it was getting so much positive press that I decided to try it instead of Opera.
I still use Firefox, although I'm up to version 2.0.0.14 now.
On Tuesday, June 17th, the Mozilla Foundation is releasing Firefox v3.0. This isn't just a beta version or release candidate version (both of which have been available for a while). This is the actual next generation version of the Firefox web browser.
Firefox supporters are going to try to set a record on first-day downloads. Read more, and pledge to download it on Tuesday, at http://www.spreadfirefox.com/en-US/worldrecord . As I write this, 1,242,967 people have pledged to download Firefox on its release day. There's also a world map to show you where those people are located.
What's going to be new in Firefox 3? Find out in the Firefox RC3 release notes.
Have I been using the v3 beta versions or the release candidate (RC) versions? No, I haven't. I use a number of extensions/add-ons for Firefox. Updates for most of these are not released until the new version is released, especially when the update is a major version change such as v2 to v3 (as opposed to a minor update 2.0.0.12 to 2.0.0.13).
2. My Computer Security Software Recommendations
I review my security software recommendations and update them, for each weekly newsletter issue, if I think they need to change.
My Philosophy: Many people want to pick their most economical solution and prefer an all-in-one anti-virus, anti-spyware and firewall solution. In concept, that's a great idea. In actual practice, this type of package is not likely to be the best in all the protection categories you need.
Other people want to pick the best of each type program. I'm one of the these folks. Read about my security software choices.
Anti-Virus
I'm often asked about several other popular anti-virus or anti-virus combination packages. Yes, I realize that they are not in my recommendation list. "Enough said..."
My personal choice is the ESET's small, fast NOD32 anti-virus program, which offers a FREE 30-day evaluation license. I consider NOD32 to be the cream of the crop in anti-virus protection. Unlike some of the others, ESET offers multiple-year licenses also, including updates to the program in the multiple-year license.
Many antivirus programs will offer you an anti-virus signature subscription renewal when your subscription renews. I strongly recommend against this option — buy the full program or make sure you get program updates with the subscription renewal (like NOD32 does). Vendors routinely improve the capabilities and speed of the programs, too.
If you update only the signatures, you miss any program improvements. Fortunately, NOD32's subscriptions include both program updates and signature updates.
Read more about anti-virus programs on my web site.
Related articles:
- Anti-Virus Programs and Online Scanners
- Free Online Antivirus Scan
- NOD32 Anti-Virus Review - A Look at NOD32
Firewall Software
While the Windows XP firewall is much better than no firewall at all, don't count on the Windows XP firewall to meet your needs. You need a two-way firewall, which the Windows XP firewall is not!. Microsoft woke up and supplied a two-way firewall with Windows Vista.
The Windows XP firewall does not control outbound communications originating from your computer — and you should want to have control if adware/trojans/spyware or even commercial products want to talk to the Internet. Whether they are calling home or spewing spam, you want to be able to control your computer.
Do you want Windows Media Player to call home every time you play something? It does! Do you use the Search function in Windows Explorer to find things on your hard drive? Did you know that every time you search, Windows Explorer talks to Microsoft?
I didn't know that when I ran ZoneAlarm, but the Sunbelt Personal Firewall flags that to me, and I can stop it or allow it to happen. Many other programs try to call home when you run them, too.
I recommend my choice for a firewall program, which is Sunbelt Personal Firewall.
You can try the full-featured "paid version" of Sunbelt Personal Firewall free for 30 days — after that, you can register it or, if you're using it on a home non-business computer, you can let it revert to the free, lesser-function license.
Sunbelt Personal Firewall is regularly $19.95 (with discounts for multiple computers and/or multiple years!) for a non-expiring license for the program and includes one year of their updates subscription.
Related articles:
Anti-Spyware / Anti-Adware Software
CounterSpy, from Sunbelt Software, has received many kudos from the computer press for its always-running and periodic full system scans. It is also my personal choice for my PC's and my family's PC's.
Sunbelt released their CounterSpy v2 in February 2007 and I promptly updated my computers to it. Version 2 greatly improved CounterSpy's performance and reduced its load on the computer when it was scanning.
In July, 2007, Sunbelt released v2.5 of CounterSpy, which again both improved CounterSpy's performance against malware and reduced its impact on system resources and responsiveness when its scanning.
Sunbelt continues to release updated program versions. Nicely, they do NOT install the updated programs automatically. You have to use the Update process in the program, which means that you'll know that something significant has changed!
Related articles:
Anti-spam Software
In today's Internet world, the question is not "if" you will get spam, but "how much will you get?"
I use and now I recommend POPFile as my first choice for handling spam. POPFile sits on your computer, between your email program and your ISP mailbox, and handles emial as it downloads.
POPFile uses a different approach to handle spam than some other programs do — it does nothing to reduce spam. It is designed as an email classification tool — you train it to recognize spam and any other type of email that you want to classify. These classifications can help you sort your emails into appropriate folders in your email program.
Sunbelt Software, who makes the anti-spyware program CounterSpy (which I use and recommend) and the firewall that I use and recommend (Sunbelt Personal Firewall) also has a well-regarded, award-winning anti-spam program called iHateSpam for Outlook and Outlook Express. Since I don't use Outlook or Outlook Express for email, I haven't tried iHateSpam.
Mailwasher Pro is my first choice to handle spam before it ever gets into your computer's Inbox. Mailwasher Pro uses on-line Realtime Black Lists mail servers sending spam recently, "training" by you of what you think is spam, and your own "friends" and "blacklist" lists.
Mailwasher Pro can even bounce spam messages, as if your email address was not valid, although the usefulness and appropriateness of this is questionable. There is a free version called "Mailwasher," but it omits the functions that I consider critical for this purpose -- such as safely previewing the emails safely before they ever get to your email inbox.
Related articles:
Cable/DSL Router
If you have a cable modem or a DSL modem, you need to have another layer of inexpensive protection between you and the Internet. A cable/DSL router isolates your computer from direct connection to the Internet. Your computer can easily request your email, web pages, etc. through the router. The responses come back to the router and are smoothly routed to your computer. But, someone on the Internet side of the router can not initiate a connection to your computer — they can only respond to your request.
Even if you only have one computer to connect to your cable or DSL modem, I recommend that you purchase and use a cable/DSL router because of the protection it can give you against attempts to attack through some flaws in Windows itself.
A router isolates your local network, whether it is only one computer or several, from the Internet by actually making it a separate network. The router gets the "public" IP address and handles all your outbound communications and the responses to them. But, it blocks computers on the Internet side from being able to initiate communications with your computer! This will prevent you from falling prey to many worms that try to attack security holes in Windows itself.
For a wireless router, I recommend the Linksys WRT54G wireless router. I'm using the relatively new version 6 of this router.
If you don't want wireless, I recommend the Linksys BEFSR41 wired router. Either way, based on my experience, I recommend Linksys routers for price, reliability and Linksys' habit of releasing updated firmware for their products..
Tech Tip
By the way, if you get tempted by the new "802.11n" routers, please pay close attention. So far, the 802.11n specification has not been approved and finalized.
If you buy one, you may be locked into a specific vendor's implementation of a draft of a standard that never got approved. I recommend choosing 802.11g for now.
See these related articles:
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3. Which Program Has Locked My File?
One of the problems that plagues Windows users is the "locked file" problem. You know, the one that you want to rename or move, but you can't because the file is in use...
If you've opened a document in Word, you can not rename the document on the disk drive until you close the copy in Word. You can save the copy that's in Word, either with the same name or a different one, but that's not always what you wanted to do.
Tech Tip
I'm using Word as an example, but the same issue applies to any file that you open in a program. Until the program tells Windows that it has released the file, Windows protects you from making a dumb move.
Sometimes, though, Windows gets connfused. It won't let you rename or move a file, but you've already closed the program that was accessing it. There doesn't seem to be any reason that Windows should balk and refuse to make your change.
When that happens, sometimes, the easiest thing to do is to reboot. Then, once you've rebooted and are back into Windows again, you can make the change you wanted to make.
Other times, though, you may be able to solve the problem without rebootingn. That's where a little freeware program I found came in very handy for me.
It's called "Who Lock Me?" When you install it, it installs as an option on the right-click Context Menu that you can use in any Windows dialog box or Window (e.g., File-Open, File-Save-As, Windows Explorer). The right-click popup window looks like this, if the file on which you clicked is locked.
Unfortunately, Who Lock Me? is not very helpful if the file you selected is not locked. It just doesn't give any response. For example, if you have a Word file that is not open in Word, it won't be locked by Word. If it's not locked, Who Lock Me? does not give any message.
Now, let's open the file in Word and see what happens. Who Lock Me?'s program window looks like this:
(click on the image for a larger version)
In other words, if the file is locked, Who Lock Me? will tell you the name of the program locking it and even the drive path to that program. With this information, you may be able to solve the issue.
I had the problem several times with the Microsoft Office program ctfmon.exe. That program is used by Microsoft Office to active Windows' Alternative User Input Text Input Processor and the Microsoft Language Bar. These are used for voice recognition, alternative keyboards, some translation utilities and such.
Office thinks that this program is needed (whether you use it or not) and starts it whenever you start a Microsoft Office program. Unfortunately, Office is not connsiderate enough and leaves it running when you exit the Office program. It also sets ctfmon.exe to start automatically with your computer, if it hasn't been set that way already.
Tech Tip
I solve the ctfmon.exe startup problem by using WinPatrol. Office sets up ctfmon.exe to start automatically. WinPatrol comes behind and changes it back to my preferred setting "Disabled."
Where can you get Who Lock Me? It's available as a "beta version" and has been since 2002 (apparently) from http://www.dr-hoiby.com/WhoLockMe/. I've used it for a couple years. It works with Windows XP, 2000 and NT. It does not work with Windows 98, Me or Vista.
4. Recommend my Terry's Computer Tips Newsletter to Your Friends
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Volume 4, Number 1 — Sunday, June 15, 2008
Copyright © 2008 Terry A. Stockdale. All rights reserved.
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