Shire Enterprises: The Blog » Windows

Webroot’s Spy SweeperÂ® Enterprise 3.0 Named Best Anti-Spyware – 2006

Gary K — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 01:37:44 +0000

If you don’t regularly sweep for spyware, you should.Â According to a decent article on Wikipedia, “Spyware is computer software that collects personal information about users without their informed consent. The term, coined in 1995 but not widely used for another five years, is often used interchangeably with adware and malware (software designed to infiltrate and damage a computer).”Â There are unscrupulous programmers who write code to infest your computer.Â Spyware is different than a virus, but equally as dangerous.

News today from Business Wire says that SC Magazine has named Webroot’s Spy Sweeper Enterprise 3.0 the best anti-spyware program of 2006.Â That’s quite a distinction.Â SC Magazine provides IT security professionals with in-depth and unbiased information through timely news, comprehensive analysis, cutting-edge features, contributions from thought leaders and the best, most extensive collection of product reviews in the business.Â Read the entire release here.

15 Ways to Leave Your Computer

Gary K — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 17:40:33 +0000

The horror stories from Microsoft’s new operating system, Vista, just keep coming in. This one is just weird.
Microsoft now gives you 15 — count ‘em — 15 different ways to leave your computer. For all you Paul Simon fans, there’s got to be a song in there somewhere. From an article by Joel Spolsky:

Every time you want to leave your computer, you have to choose between nine, count them, nine options: two icons and seven menu items. The two icons, I think, are shortcuts to menu items. I’m guessing the lock icon does the same thing as the lock menu item, but I’m not sure which menu item the on/off icon corresponds to.

Do you know the difference between “hibernate” and “sleep” in the computer world? More power to you if you do. I don’t care.

I know MS Vista does not pass the “Mom” test. This one is too geeked-out even for me.

Read Joel’s full article and learn more about Microsoft’s Brave New World.

BeLarc Advisor – Free Personal PC Audit

Gary K — Sat, 04 Nov 2006 23:33:24 +0000

Have you ever forgotten licensing information for a piece of software, or stumbled when you had to call tech. support for an item on you PC? There is a free utility from BeLarc that builds a detailed profile of your installed software and hardware, missing Microsoft hotfixes, anti-virus status, CIS (Center for Internet Security) benchmarks, and displays the results in your Web browser. All of your PC profile information is kept private on your PC and is not sent to any web server.

It’s a simple tool to install.Â Print the information from the screen, and, just in case you have a system melt-down, you’ll have all the information you need when you take your PC to the doctor.