Reviews

What is Microsoft Silverlight?

June 8, 2009 By terry Leave a Comment

I’ve been asked several times about Microsoft Silverlight — what is it and do I need it.

Silverlight is Microsoft’s competition for Adobe Flash Player. It’s designed to play videos and allow interaction with the program.

My initial thoughts were that I didn’t need it. I had no application that areqired it and I did not need yet another video display system on my computer. I already had Windows Media Player which could handle video streaming. I already had JavaScript and ActiveScript (Microsoft’s name for its JavaScript interpreter in Internet Explorer). I already had Adobe Flash Player. Wy did I need Silverlight?

I managed to do without Silverlight all through the first version, which was released in 2008. However, in early 2009, I finally had to install it — it was required for one of my new applications.

Continue reading What is Microsoft Silverlight?

Filed Under: Audio, Communications, Free Software, Resources, Reviews, Storage, Vista, Windows Xp

Sunbelt Personal Firewall Now Does Vista!

July 11, 2008 By terry Leave a Comment

Sunbelt Software released a new version of their Sunbelt Personal Firewall, which is my choice for my compute and my family’s computers, on July 7th. The new version supports Windows Vista, which Sunbelt has been promising.

Why do I use the Sunbelt Personal Firewall and not just the Windows XP firewall? The Windows XP Firewall would only stops attempts by other computers to access my computer. The Sunbelt Personal Firewall is a two-way firewall to control inbound and outbound communications. That way, I can control programs that want to "call home" or otherwise access other computers.

Why would I use the Sunbelt Personal Firewall and not the Windows Vista firewall? Microsoft finally woke up and made the Windows Vista firewall a two-wa firewall. However, I expect that it, like the firewalls from some of SPF’s competitors, allows Microsoft’s products to freely communicate with the Internet. I like the Advanced installation setting of SPF because it does not pre-authorize any programs.

For those who want free software, Sunbelt Personal Firewall has a free license for home non-business computers. Of course, like many of its competitors, the paid version has more features than the free version. Either way, the program you download is the same — it’s a fully-functional trial for 30-days.

After 30 days, you can purchase a license for the paid version. If you don’t purchase a license, or after your license expires if you don’t renew it, if you qualify, you can use the free license for the reduced-function free version. The web site clearly shows which functions are included with the paid license that are not available with the free version.

I have the "paid version" on my Windows computers and my family’s computers.

The 1-year license pricing options are: $19.95 for one license, $24.96 for two computers, $29.94 for 3 computers, or $39.95 for the 1-year Unlimited Home Site License (which lets you put it on all your home non-business computers. They have similar discounts for 2- and 3-year options, too.

Download the full-function 30-day trial of Sunbelt Personal Firewall

Or, read my review of Sunbelt Personal Firewall

A Look Inside Secunia Software Inspector

June 22, 2008 By terry Leave a Comment

I’ve found a great tool that examines my computer to make sure that it has the latest updates of the most common software packages — not all the updates, but the security updates for the versions I’m runninng.

It’s called Secunia Software Inspector, from the Danish security firm Secunia (www.secunia.com).

Secunia offers three versions of its software inspectors:

* Secunia Software Inspector — scan on-line (free)
* Secunia PSI — download version for personal use (free)
* Secunia Network Software Inspector — the full-featured product.

Quoting Secunia’s FAQ:

# What’s the difference between the Secunia PSI and the Secunia Software Inspector (the online version)?

The Secunia Software Inspector identifies about 40 of the most common applications, while the Secunia PSI can identify over 4,200.

Contine reading A Look Inside Secunia Software Inspector

Filed Under: Admin Control, Data Security, Free Software, Resources, Reviews, System Security, System Stability, Vista, Windows Xp

Google Desktop – Free Software to Search Your Computer

August 20, 2007 By terry Leave a Comment

Google Desktop is Google’s free search system for your own hard drive. Google Desktop is designed to run all the time, but to do its real work — indexing your hard drive to get the information for its search results — while your computer is idle.

Tech Tip
Since Google Desktop only does its indexing while your computer is idle, you have to leave it running to get the best results. The initial indexing will probably require that you leave the computer running over night.

Your first step is to download and install the free Google Pack software package (the same one that includes Picasa). During this process, you select which optional programs you also want to download, if any. The program you’ll download is the Google Updater, which handles the rest of the process.

The Google Updater is also the program you use to control the Google Pack later, including adding additional programs or uninstalling some of them.

Continue reading Google Desktop – Free Software to Search Your Computer

Filed Under: Free Software, Reviews, Software, Tips & Tricks

CounterSpy 2.0 Released – First Look

February 22, 2007 By terry Leave a Comment

On February 5, 2007, Sunbelt Software released CounterSpy version 2, the latest version of their award-winning CounterSpy anti-spyware / anti-adware program. Once piece of great news — CounterSpy v2 works with Windows Vista, in addition to Windows XP and Windows 2000 Professional.

I’d been waiting on the new version to upgrade. I had decided that I didn’t want to run the beta version on my notebook, so I just waited… and I’m happy with the finished product.

First, one of the issues that Sunbelt was targeting with CounterSpy 2 was to reduce the memory requirements of CounterSpy. I see the difference, too. Version 1.5 could take drastically different amounts of memory — I saw a low of 22MB to a high of almost 200MB. I suspect that CounterSpy had its spyware/adware signatures both significantly compressed and encrypted on the hard drive.

However, to try to speed up the constant processing, I also suspect that it had uncompressed the signatures in memory for faster checking. They were probably still encrypted so that other antispyware applications and antivirus applications

All this is simply my speculation of how it could have used that much memory.

Version 2, though, seems much more efficient. A quick Control-Alt-Delete pulls up the Windows Task Manager so I can click on the Processes tab. I see two files, SBCSSvc.exe and SBCSTray.exe.

Filed Under: Anti-adware, Anti-Spyware, Reviews, System Security, Tips & Tricks

A Vista vs. Linux Matchup

February 21, 2007 By terry 1 Comment

DesktopLinux.com has a great multi-part article where the author is installing Vista and Linux on the same computer for a showdown.

A Vista vs. Linux Matchup describes the installation, issues and compares Vista Ultimate and SimplyMepis 6.1, which is based on Ubuntu Linux.

So far, the articles in the series are “Part 1: Leveling the Playing Field, ” “Part 2: Dual-booting Vista and Linux” and “Part 3: Hardware Wars.” The series has more to go…

Filed Under: Compatibility, Data Security, Graphics, Hardware, Requirements, Reviews, Tips & Tricks, Upgrading, Upgrading to Vista, User Interface, Video

Windows Vista Incredibly Well Received

February 20, 2007 By terry Leave a Comment

Reuters reported today that Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates said on Tuesday the company’s Windows Vista operating system had been incredibly well received.

This is strangely at odds with some of the other articles that I’ve read recently.

Companies like Dell are pushing Vista on many of their popular models. Retail stores with the usual set of prebuilt systems are all pushing Vista. Why not? It’s the first new Microsoft operating system in 5 years! For most people, new OS means New Computer! Yippee!

Filed Under: Reviews, Upgrading, Upgrading to Vista