WinPatrol PLUS License Giveaway

Today It Brings Me Special Pleasure To Announce My Latest Software License Giveaway: WinPatrol 2010 PLUS

"Scotty" the Windows watchdog

You say you don’t know about Scotty and WinPatrol? I have recommended it here before, and I’ve used it for so long I can’t remember (I think, all the way back to when a certain “Y2K bug” was going to end civilization). I consider WinPatrol one of those essential programs to have around.
Short version: I am a “Scotty fan”. Rrrrruff!

Much good has been said about WinPatrol (from BillP Studios) over the years.

“..I’ve got more to say, and it’s summed up in two words: WinPatrol Pro. The latest version, 9.8 ^Ɨ, is a must-have tool.” — Steve Bass, “Hassle-Free PC: Clean House on a Junk-Filled System Tray“, Feb 21, 2006.

CNet Editors currently give it 5 stars. (WinPatrol has won several “Editor’s Picks”, in different places, over the years.)

“I would recommend the software to anyone who is looking for additional protections from Internet ‘bugs’ and ‘critters’.” — Ron Schenone. MVP on Lockergnome blog The Blade, 02/16/2007.

Softpedia’s Ionut Ilascu said, “It is definitely a must for your computer.” in a review in 2007. (click here to read entire review.)

Bill Mullins lists WinPatrol in his 10 Best, and has this review: WinPatrolToGo – A Great Addition to Your Geek Toolbox

From the publisher:

“WinPatrol’s Host-based Intrusion Prevention System (HIPS) takes snapshot of your critical system resources and alerts you to any changes that may occur without your knowledge. WinPatrol was the pioneer in using a heuristic behavioral approach to detecting attacks and violations of your computing environment. It continues to be the most powerful system monitor for its small memory footprint.

WinPatrol’s easy tabbed interface allows you to explore deep inside your computer without having to be a computer expert. A one-time investment in WinPatrol PLUS provides a unique experience you won’t find in any other software.”

Features: (clickable. To find out more, just click!)

Removing and Disabling Startup Programs	Removing Active Tasks
IE Helpers – Browser Helper Objects – Toolbars	Expose Hidden Files
Scheduled Tasks	Cookie Management and Filtering
Services Manager	Monitoring and Restoring File Type Associations
Options – Host File/Start Page Monitoring	Windows XP/Vista/Windows 7 32 and 64 -bit

I do not use WinPatrol in place of Anti-malware programs, but alongside them. (WinPatrol is not an antivirus; its purpose is more to prevent bad stuff from getting onboard in the first place. An ounce of prevention..!) I feel a lot better knowing Scotty is being my watchdog. You just install it and that’s it — each time something is about to be changed, Scotty’s bark (Rrrrruff! ) will let you know, and a window will pop up asking for permission for the process. I would use WinPatrol just for that Rrrrruff!, but I also use WinPatrol’s features to remove stubborn startup entries, identify processes  to look for malware, and generally see what’s hidden on a machine. WinPatrol can be used it to “optimize” your startup time by setting some programs to wait a while before launching – very cool! There are other tools for those things, sure, but WinPatrol has them all in one place, and presents the info in a way that’s very “user friendly”.

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Okay. Okay. Okay! The contest!
Bill P. has generously donated five licenses for WinPatrol PLUS to me, to award to my readers. I sincerely thank him for that. So I am going to do a random drawing ¹ contest from folks who “enter”. The contest will end midnight Thursday, June 18th, and the winners announced Friday.
A PLUS license can be used on as many computers as you own.

How to enter? To enter the drawing, simply click on “comment”, and enter a name and a valid e-mail (so we can send you the key) in the form. Actually commenting is optional. And, I shouldn’t have to say this, but it seems I do — multiple entries will result in disqualification. (In this contest. Entry in prior contests doesn’t count against you.)

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WinPatrol is freeware, and a “portable version” is available for carrying on your ‘thumbdrive toolkit’. WinPatrol PLUS is a way of supporting Scotty, and includes important extra features. A comparison chart of the editions is here, and downloads here.

FYI — (I was not asked to put this here, btw) To help ‘kick off’ the new Version 18, BillP Studios is offering a limited time discount sale: HALF PRICE SPECIAL! (Folks, the “limited time” is expiring, so please read this special consideration from Bill P. himself – for T4E readers.)
WinPatrol PLUS Lifetime License
Single User/Multiple Computers/No subscription
SALE Price $14.98
Upgrading provides high performance, real-time monitoring and access to our PLUS Info database. Your investment is a one-time cost. No hidden fees, advertisements or unwanted toolbars. Your support helps continue the development of new WinPatrol features.

Again, my thanks to Bill P.  for making this drawing possible, and for creating this nifty “watchdog” & toolset.

Also FYI — Bill  has an interesting blog, “Bits from Bill“, here: http://billpstudios.blogspot.com/ (I particularly liked Can Facebook Be Trusted?)

Bits from Bill

Technology thoughts leaking from the brain of “Bill Pytlovany

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¹ All entrants will be placed into Random.org’s “randomizer”, and the top 5 results will be the winners.
^Ɨ Current version is 18.1

Copyright 2007-2010 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved. post to jaanix.

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Will System Recovery Delete My Programs?

Most computers today come with manufacturer software and a partition on the hard-drive to provide the ability to do a “System Recovery”, oftentimes accessed through a program called “Recovery Center”.

I have received several inquiries recently as to whether or not running a “recovery” will remove (“delete”) installed programs and files.

A: Well.. Yes and no. It will “delete” your installed programs, and no, it probably won’t “delete” your files.

Huh?

What the recovery software — when launched — will do is offer to copy the files on your machine to a backup location,{usually, it depends on the manufacturer, but most do} and them restore them again after it wipes out your C:\ drive and re-Installs Windows.
(Actually, a factory “image” of your machine taken right before it left for market.)

[note: you already have a copy of your files.. right? You do make backups.. right?!? If you answered, “uh.. no, not yet..” please read this.]

Your computer will basically be “restored” to factory defaults, and you’ll have to reinstall all your programs, and visit Windows Update, and tweak your Desktop.. deja vu all over again. But, the contents of your Documents folder will be copied back.

Because of this, you should consider this type of recovery a method of last resort, not to be tried until other methods — such as the built-in Windows’ System Restore — have been tried first. https://techpaul.wordpress.com/2008/09/04/how-to-use-system-restore-to-fix-windows/
Maybe.. call a Pro first?

Today’s free download: Digsby helps you manage all your IM, e-mail, and social network accounts from one easy-to-use application.

Copyright 2007-8 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix

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Encryption: say no to data theft*

If your laptop is stolen, will the thief be able to read your vital statistics and personal info? They will if you haven’t used encryption. They’ll have your passwords as well. Do you keep any confidential business files on your computer — like some doctors and Veteran’s Affairs employees do?

As I mentioned in my series on the NTFS file system (click here), Windows has the ability to encrypt your stored data as well as controlling access from networked computers. Enabling encryption is easy, and acts invisibly to the user (you) — and by that I mean your files will look like they always do, but to an “unauthorized user” they will look like a garbled alphabet soup of nonsensical gibberish.

Tip of the day: Encrypt your My Documents folder for top-notch security. To encrypt files and/or folders in Windows you must be using the NTFS file system, which most of you will already have on your machines (use the link above to read how to check, and convert to NTFS if neccessary). There are a few different ways to use encryption; you can encrypt individual files; you can encrypt entire folders and, by default, their subfolders; and, you can encrypt your hard drive (of import for laptop owners). The process for the first two are the same, while the third requires a different method.

[Vista Users: Microsoft says, “EFS is not fully supported on Windows Vista Starter, Windows Vista Home Basic, and Windows Vista Home Premium.” Of course, what they mean by that is “NOT supported; and if you want it, spring for Ultimate Edition”. I recommend using the free TrueCrypt to encrypt your data.]

The simplest method to provide encryption to your personal data is to encrypt the My Documents folder, which I will use for purposes of demonstration — as I mentioned, doing so will encrypt all the files inside and also encrypt the contents of any subfolders. Start by right-clicking on the My Documents folder and selecting Properties…accessing the folder may be as simple as clicking the Start button or finding its icon on your desktop or you may have to click Start >My Computer >Local drive C:, depending on your settings and preferences.

When the My Documents folder’s Properties window opens, click on the “Advanced” button.

As you can see, my My Documents is set to “compressed”, but is not encrypted yet. Compression is another feature of NTFS that was very, very much sought-after in the days before giant hard drives (back then, we hadn’t heard of digital ID Theft) and is a method that uses an algorithm to shrink file sizes. You cannot, however, use encryption and compression at the same time, and today the value of the former far outweighs the latter. Fortunately, switching from one to the other requires no effort on your part, simply select “Encrypt contents to secure data” and the rest is automatic.
Now click “OK”, and then “Apply”. Whenever you encrypt a folder, you will be asked if you want to apply encryption to just that folder, or all the files and subfiles and folders; you want the latter, which is the default.
That’s it. You’re done. Your documents are now safe from “unauthorized” eyes.

That is true, unless the person trying to access your data has their hands on your machine and is able to ‘crack’ your User password (you have given your User Account a password, haven’t you?) which may be the case if your laptop is stolen. To prevent data loss in that type of a situation, you want to encrypt your whole startup process and password protect it…which in essence encrypts your whole hard drive. To do so, click Start >Run and then type in “syskey” (no quotes). Now click on the “Update” button.

Select the top radio button, “Password Startup” and enter a good, strong password. Then enter it again for confirmation. Be sure to write down your password and keep it in a safe place — should you ever forget it, it is not an easy task for even an experienced tech to get you back in to your machine.

A final thought: I think it only fair to tell you (what you may have already guessed/know) that a very knowledgable Evil Doer, if they have physical access to your machine, can often get around whatever security you have in place. The hacker expression is, “if I can touch it, I own it.” So please don’t be careless with your, or your company’s, vital data. Also, you may want to consider a more powerful, 3rd Party encryption tool like TrueCrypt.

Today’s free link: most of you already know that the World Wide Web is a wonderfully rich resource for researching information, but did you also know it is an excellent resource for digital images? Need a picture of the Golden Gate bridge to put into your child’s homework assignment? The place to start looking is Google Images.

Copyright 2007-8 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix

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I want to party all the time…

There’s just something about Fridays that you gotta love.

We humans simply must have some light at the end of the tunnel, or we will flag, sag, and eventually quit trying. Friday (for most of us) is that light — the end of the work week is not only in sight, it’s mere hours away!
And Friday for a lot of us (me too… when I was younger) means that we will “go out”; we will “celebrate”; we will eat, drink, and (maybe) dance with friends, co-workers, and complete strangers. We will make merry. A joyous break in the routine.

Friday means the weekend is here. Isn’t that a magical word? “Weekend”. (I smile just thinking it.)
Sure, the weekend isn’t all fun-and-games.. there’s lawns to mow, and cars to wash-and-vacuum, and a “Honey-Do list” a mile long, and grocery shopping.. there’s church, weddings to attend, children’s birthday parties, friends-who-need-help-moving-to-a-new-apartment and,.. have you cleaned out your gutters yet?
Weekends are never long enough.

Tip of the day: Weekends means tackling some household chores and so I am going to remind you that your computer needs an occasional cleaning too. (Nice transition, eh?)

1) Get rid of the dust and lint: Dust and lint can reduce your computer’s performance, cooling efficiency, and even cause fatal short-circuits.
* For desktop PCs, unplug your computer’s powercord from the wall and open your computer’s case so you can see all the kewl circuitry inside. How, exactly your case opens will vary with make/model, but it is usually a side panel, and the side panel is held in place with two thumb-screws (the manufacturer’s Website will have instructions, also).
Once the case is open, use the techniques I described in my recent printer maintenance article to remove the built-up dust bunnies. Pay special attention to air venting areas (and screens), such as by the power supply. (And, be careful and be gentle.)

* For notebooks, your cleaning is going to be a little different: you will want to get all the debris from out from under your keyboard keys, as I describe in this article. And you’ll want to wipe down your screen with an anti-static cloth (which may may require the slightest [just a drop or two.. in one corner..] moistening with plain water.

2) Get rid of disk clutter: Empty the trash that accumulates on your hard drive for a leaner, meaner file system. Fortunately there’s a one-button tool for that in Windows, https://techpaul.wordpress.com/2007/11/07/more-than-you-wanted-to-know-about-the-disk-cleanup-tool/

So let’s not be “all party”, let’s also get busy and do some “Spring Cleaning” and give those machines the attention they deserve.

Today’s free link: Sandboxie is a tool that creates a “sandbox”, or virtual environment, in which you run other programs (namely, your web browser) and those programs and the data they access can’t write to your hard-drive. This is an excellent way to prevent poisoned websites from downloading malware.

Copyright 2007-8 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix

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System Restore/ID Theft/Startup programs

“System Restore won’t work”, “I’m worried about ID Theft, how do I know if an email is legit?”, “I can’t get this #$*& program out of my Startup folder” — these are examples of some of the questions I have received since posting my articles on these topics. Today I’m going to review, and provide more solutions and answers.

Tip of the day: Since I’m going to cover the questions above, there is not going to be a single “Tip of the day” today. Instead, there will be “Today’s three questions”…
More on System Restore: What to do when System Restore just refuses to work. As I mentioned in my first System Restore post, SR simply is not a failsafe miracle worker. There are troubles that can occur that it simply does not repair — such as a corrupted SAM database. It is however a good place to start. It does undo a lot of the damage you can accidentally do to your machine. This fact is why you should always make a back up of your system — either a “disk image” made with a 3rd-party utility like Acronis True Image, or Norton Ghost, and/or Windows Backup Utility (Start >Programs >Accessories >System tools >Backup).
I stated in the prior article, and will repeat here, that you may have to repeat the System Restore process several times before one “snapshot” finally takes. When you use SR, you will see a calendar with available snapshots in bold dates. You should see several. Start with the most recent date and time, and work your way backwards. If you have done this with no luck, you probably have one of those troubles System Restore is not designed for. Either look elsewhere for solutions, or call for some Tech Support (we Tech Support folks need to make a living too, you know).

Legit vs. Phishing: “how do I know if an email is legit?” In my post about the rocket scientist, I discussed phishing and recommended an anti-phishing site toolbar, which combats a form of phishing called “pharming“.
I suggest you take no chances with emails. Simply do not click on links in emails. Also, realize that your bank will not send you links. They know about phishing, and they figure you already know their URL (you should have it bookmarked, so use that…or call them directly). Also be aware that just because an email claims to be from a friend or relative, doesn’t mean that it is. If you are not expecting an attachment.exe “executable” (application) or “you gotta see this!” .jpg from Uncle Fred, by all means don’t open it! Email him and ask him, “did you send me a..?” It is an easy thing for an Evil Doer to spoof a Sender address.
And finally, make sure your antivirus definitions are up to date. If it is not already on by default, open your antivirus’ Options and look in “Update Options” for “Download and install new definitions automatically” (or words to that effect) and make sure it’s selected. If available, have it set to scan email and email attachments as well. (If it’s not, consider switching to the free Avast! or AVG antivirus programs..)

Removing stubborn start up programs: If the methods I described in “My Startup folder is a clown car” proved insufficient for getting rid of a really determined program, there are three more methods you can try. The first is to read my Manage your Startup programs; second is msconfig, and the last is editing the Registry.
If these easy methods in the article didn’t do the trick, start by opening the msconfig utility. Click Start >Run and type in “msconfig” (no quotes), and then click on the Startup tab. Here you will see a list of the programs scheduled to start when Windows boots. Uncheck the checkbox next to the program you are having the troubles with. You will need to restart your system for the changes to take effect.

The second method, editing the Registry, is for advanced users who are comfortable treading in such risky waters. Changes made to the Registry are immediate, and there’s no “undo” feature. If you feel you are determined to dive in, please create a Restore Point before starting and back up the Registry to a .txt file first. Please read (or re-familiarize yourself with) Microsoft’s detailed how-to here. They Key you’ll be working with is HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\CurrentVersion\Run.
But please: this is not for the inexperienced. Do not try this without reading and understanding what editing the Registry is about, and what damage one mistake can do. First use the aforementioned methods and please consider simply using Add/Remove Programs to “retire” the troublesome program altogether…or try a program like StartUp Cop.

Today’s free link(s): I am satisfied with this freeware Startup manager: Ashampoo StartUp Tuner 2.

If you have been a victim of a phish, have been clicking unsolicited links willy-nilly, or let a window that magically popped open one day “scan your computer to remove infections”.. or just want to know your scores — get a free credit report here, and find out if you’re the only “you” accessing your credit.
[Note: I believe it is worth it to have your credit reports monitored.. which is not a free service. For $5/month, I use Experian Triple Alert, which monitors the big three report companies.]

Copyright 2007-8 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix

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Mailbag: reader questions answered, Apple Edition

Today I am going to answer a few questions submitted by readers, in the Q’s and their A’s format.

Q: Will the programs I have on my old Mac run on a new “Leopard” system?
A: There are enough differences in the new OS X 10.5 that some programs may need to be replaced with the latest versions that are “Leopard-compatible” (Norton AV often needs this, for example) to run at their best. The keyword is “may”: most programs will work just fine once you visit Apple Update.
Please note— if you intend to migrate your programs and data from an old machine to the new Leopard machine, make sure you have updated all the software (programs) on the old machine before initiating the migration. Leopard will/can refuse to accept programs that aren’t current.

Q: I am thinking about buying a new iMac and I was told Apple runs on Intel circuits now. Does this mean I would be vulnerable to viruses, worms and spyware like Windows? What security programs would I need?
A: While it is true that Apple runs on the same type of “circuits” as Windows PC’s now, it is not your hardware that is vulnerable to malware and hackers, but the lines of software “code” (programming) that make up your applications/programs.
Now to the second part of your question… The lines of code that make up the Mac operating system (the most recent being OSX 10.5 “Leopard”) are not currently being targeted by the bad guys.. simply because there’s too few machines running it (and the ones that are do not contain credit card number databases). However, some of the programs you would have on your Mac are being targeted for exploits– QuickTime (a media format/player) and the Safari browser, notably. (Neither of which you need, btw.)
And now the last part: as things stand, today, if you are running a fully updated Leopard machine, and the firewall is on, you really don’t need a “protection program”. That statement may not be true this afternoon, or next week, or next month (for future readers, this was written 05/19/08 ) and so you may, for peace of mind, want to install the Norton Internet Security 2008 package*.

Today’s free link: I’m keeping with a Macintosh theme today, and so today’s app is for Apple users. I don’t want it said that I never think of you guys! Watch TV on your iMac with Miro, a C/Net Editor’s Choice. Description: “Democracy Player is a free and open source internet TV/video podcast application, with a beautiful, easy to use interface. You can subscribe to any Internet TV channel, including video podcasts, video RSS feeds, bittorrent feeds, and video blogs. A built-in Channel Guide lists hundreds of channels of all types, all free to subscribe to. Browse videos, download, and watch fullscreen– all in the same application.”

* Folks, please don’t write to tell me “Norton is evil”. Read the reviews for NIS 2008. It may open your eyes.

Copyright 2007-8 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix

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Delete does NOT erase your data*– preventing recovery

I don’t know how long it was that I worked and played on computers before I truly understood that when I erased a Word document from my My Documents folder it was not gone forever.
It was only natural to think it was “deleted”. It was gone, as far as I could tell. It didn’t show up no matter how I searched for it nor how desperately I needed it back. And believe me, there was many a time that I wished I could get a deleted letter or homework assignment back. (I am, in particular, thinking back to my Windows 95 days, and my hard drive was 4.3 Gigabytes. I was a fanatic about “disk doubling” and emptying my Recycle Bin!) If I cannot see it…and my machine cannot see it…and my machine says that the space it took up is now ‘free’…it is gone, right? I certainly thought so.

I think it’s rather important that you understand, if you don’t already, that when you right-click+delete, or drag something into the Recycle Bin, it isn’t really erased. Instead, the name/path entry in the file allocation table (the directory used to locate and ‘find’ files) is altered in a way that tells Windows to no longer display the file and that this (physical) area is now available for future storage. The same thing happens when you take the drastic step of formatting your hard drive — it isn’t “wiped” like taking an eraser to a chalkboard: the Master Boot Table and the file directory are similarly altered, and once that occurs the machine can neither find your files nor your operating system — the rest of the 1’s and 0’s are left in place.

It is because of this fact — that files aren’t erased, but their directories and names are altered — that undelete and unformat utilities can perform their miracles. Instead of ignoring or treating these altered entries as writable space, they (attempt to) deliberately seek them out and rename them back to a recognizable formula, which restores Windows’ ability to ‘see’, find, and display them. So, why couldn’t my undelete restore my file? The most likely reason is: because Windows sees the deleted file as usable space, it has written something new in that location — and now that new 1’s and 0’s are there, your file really and truly is gone. (The more time that elapses since you deleted the file, the more likely it is that it has been written over.)

[ A quick aside: I look at a lot of systems’ hard drives, and I’ve found that today people tend to be the opposite of me and my space-paranoia, born out of small HDs. It strikes me that they don’t “recycle” anything. ]

Tip of the day: Never assume that your data has been erased. In fact, I suggest thinking in an opposite manner: assume that no matter what proactive measures you’ve taken, your data is on that hard drive. Tell yourself that a knowledgeable person with the right tools, if they get their hands on your hard drive, can read it. (There are some people in this industry who insist that your files aren’t really gone until your hard drive has been melted in a blast furnace!) Particularly keep this in mind when the time comes to donate (or otherwise get rid of) your old computer.

If you are security-conscious, and you want to ensure that when you erase something it’s really and truly erased (or you are about to donate your old PC) I recommend that, if you don’t already have one, you download a free file shredder utility (I will put one as today’s free link) and to choose one that offers multiple methods of shredding. What a “shredder” does is it writes new data, and it does it in multiple passes. Typically writing all 1’s on one pass, all zeros on the next pass, and then a completely random pattern of 1’s and 0’s, and so on. It is generally recognized that your shredder should make 6-12 passes.
* If you do this, you can donate your old PC comfortable in the knowledge that only a several thousand-dollar restoration, performed in a sterile lab, might render your personal information readable again. (If you are a corporation, and it’s time to throw out your old hard drives, and there’s highly sensitive data on those drives…melt them.)

Today’s free link: Zilla Data Nuker 2 (Please note: this program is an exception to my rule of always having run and tested the links I suggest. I have not ever needed to download a file shredder as I’ve always had one bundled into the Utility Suites I have on my machines. However, this application is 5-star rated by Cnet, and I was unable to locate it on any “blacklists”. It is the one I would try first.) From Cnet, “This powerful program helps you shred important files & folders so that they cannot be restored & prevent attempts to recover sensitive deleted files from your hard drive by data recovery or forensic software. Shredder allows you to purge, wipe & erase data with methods that far exceed US Department of Defence standards for file deletion (DOD 5220.22). Easily automate the cleaning process with batch files, shortcuts and scheduler. Supports complete folder deletions including subfolders.”

*Original post: 6/22/07

Copyright 2007-8 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix

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