Bo's Freeware Front Page

5 Free firewalls Plus We got Security up the whazoo
08/06/2007
Security Free for all!!
Check out these other great security freeware:

"In order to access this content, you must first register online." Um... excuse me? I think I'll pass, thank you very much. Chances are that you have encountered a site that requires you to register in order to receive the content. No doubt your reaction in many of these cases is similar to the above example. I'll be honest: I absolutely hate these things. Web sites sneak these registration forms in all of the time. You'll routinely see this type of thing on newspaper sites, such as The New York Times. On countless occasions I have given up on reading the content that I intended to see because of these registrations. Why? Is it pure laziness? Maybe. The fact that I don't tie my own shoes has nothing to do with this, though. On top of that, who knows what they're doing with this information? You've probably upped your spam intake by providing your e-mail address and other demographics to these forms. Sure, most people fake this information, but it's still a hassle.

Because of this annoyance, I was overjoyed to find BugMeNot. This site gives you the login codes to a couple thousand of these "free" registration sites. This frees you from the hassle of giving up your personal information. The site is incredibly simple to use. All you have to do is type in the URL of the offending site, and the login information will be given to you. If you have another one that you would like to add, just submit it to the site. BugMeNot is constantly growing with new site submissions, so stay tuned. Is this an ethical thing to do? Well, you can decide for yourself. As for me, I think this site is fantastic. Take that, all of you registration form practitioners! Yeah, I'm looking at you, Washington Post

Computer security is at a premium, but that doesn't mean you have to pay a premium price for firewall software--in fact, you don't have to pay anything at all. These virtual blockades are completely free and can keep hackers and other unwanted visitors from crawling through the crevices of your network connection. Hey, for this price why not get em all?

Trojans, and Hackers, and Spyware...oh my! If you are connected to the Internet, and being as how you are reading this, I can assume that you are. Don't tell me I don't have a grasp of the obvious! You need not only good anti-virus software but a good firewall as well. Our featured freeware this time consists of five, that's right 5 of them.

Which one do we favor of all of these? The number one answer has to be Zone Alarm which has remained the industry standard. And the bonus?.It automatically updates itself over the net. This little beauty is all you will ever need unless you are a security freak. If this is the case, for a little pocket change you can update to Zone Alarm Pro. Don't take our word for it, take it for a spin yourself.

Okay, lets take a little tour of these beauties shall we? Click here to check out the Firewall Freeware

Get the Latest DirectX End-User Runtime

Download the December 2005 release and update your current version of DirectX, the core Windows technology that drives high-speed multimedia and games on your PC. Click Here for more downloads like this one

Disk Investigator - Discover all that is hidden on your hard disk

DELETE DOCTOR

FileAlyzer

SmartFix -fix and eliminate the pesky bugs and problems

WinSock XP Fix v1.2 - Repair TCP/IP

Clean Disk Securit

IP Lookup

A-ToolBar

MyIE2 - Makes Microsoft Internet Explorer all it should have been but isn't

Cyberhawk download and review - detect malicious computer activity from SnapFiles

KL-Detector - detect keylogger activity

ERUNT - Registry Backup Utility
Includes a handy Registry Optimizer

Clone Spy - Dup file finder and more

Spyware sledgehammer

Microsoft Windows Power Toys

123 Password Recovery

Ranish Partition Manager

ZoneAlarm-Free firewall-Our Favorite

Dupeless

Windows® Defender (Beta 2)
Replaces Microsoft Windows AntiSpyware beta

Shoot the Messenger By Author Steve Gibson-Windows security

Restoration - Recover Deleted Files

Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool (KB890830)

Spyware Terminator

MSN Messenger 7.5 for Windows

Microsoft Express Editions

HijackThis

MP3 Repair Tool 1.5

Spybot Search & Destroy - A must have and our current favorite

Pop-Up Stopper

Outlook Express Tweaker

Cobian Backup v5.1.3.0 [4.1M]

Add-Aware by Lavasoft

New Mydoom removal tool available

McAfee Stinger

a2 free - Easy Spyware Eradicator

MRU-Blaster

Context Menu Editor

Star Downloader

SpywareBlaster-Keep spyware from installing in the first place!

PhishGuard
anti-scam tool

PC Inspector File Recovery v3.x
Deleted Data Recovery - Our favorite

DBXtract - Recover Outlook Express "DBX" files from a corrupted folder.

Mailwasher - Spam Filter for the Average User

Spamihilator - Free Spam Blocker & Our favorite

POPFile - Spam Filter for Experienced Users

Microsoft's Malicious Software Removal Tool

X-Setup Pro

Crap Cleaner

Rootkit Scanner - BlackLight

What is Spyware Anyway?

WYSIWYG Web Builder 1.8

HandyBits VirusScan Integrator

BHO's

WinPatrol

Spyware Doctor 3.2

The Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool checks Windows XP, Windows 2000, and Windows Server 2003 computers for and helps remove infections by specific, prevalent malicious software—including Blaster, Sasser, and Mydoom. When the detection and removal process is complete, the tool displays a report describing the outcome, including which, if any, malicious software was detected and removed.

MRU-Blaster is a program made to do one large task - detect and clean MRU (most recently used) lists on your computer.

These MRU lists contain information such as the names and/or locations of the last files you have accessed. They are located ALL OVER your registry, and for almost ANY file type. By looking at these MRU lists, someone could determine what files you opened/saved/looked at, what their file names were, and much more! (And, in many cases, the lists are displayed in drop-down menus automatically.)

With additional plug-ins that allow you to clean out your Temporary Internet Files and Cookies, MRU-Blaster enhances the protection of your privacy!

MRU-Blaster is freeware/donationware.

[Download MRU-Blaster] 494 KB

Spyware, adware, browser hijackers, and dialers are some of the fastest-growing threats on the Internet today.
By simply browsing to a web page, you could find your computer to be the brand-new host of one of these unwanted fiends!

The most important step you can take is to secure your system. And SpywareBlaster is the most powerful protection program available.

Prevent the installation of ActiveX-based spyware, adware, browser hijackers, dialers, and other potentially unwanted pests. Block spyware/tracking cookies in Internet Explorer and Mozilla/Firefox. Restrict the actions of potentially dangerous sites in Internet Explorer.

SpywareBlaster can help keep your system spyware-free and secure, without interfering with the "good side" of the web.

And unlike other programs, SpywareBlaster does not have to remain running in the background.

SpywareBlaster is freeware for personal and educational use. What groups qualify for free use?

If you haven't had spyware bite you yet, be prepared: it will happen. There are so many variations of spyware, trojans, worms, etc., floating around on the Internet, and they're all multiplying like rabbits. This stuff can cause problems that are obvious to you, but in many cases, the effects are unseen at first. You've probably used programs such as Spybot - Search & Destroy and Ad-Aware to clean out this junk in the past. A new program called a2 (a-squared) will also help you get rid of the baddies.

The software is useful in identifying and removing the previously mentioned problems. You can have it search in specific folders, or the entire drive. When the scan starts, it runs a process memory scan to see if there is any garbage in all of your running programs and services. An integrated update component helps you to stay ahead of the game. The program seemed to do very well at finding and eradicating known problems. While this free version does not include the background guard and analysis tools of its big brother, it's still a worthy tool. If spyware seems to bite you on a regular basis, bite back with a2.

X-Setup Pro 6.5 Final now available

07.02.2004 | In the final version of X-Setup Pro 6.5 some bugs have been fixed and due to the foundation of

XQDC Ltd. the internal Appname has been changed from dcXSP to xqdcXSP.

With multiple new plug-ins, especially for Office 2003, X-Setup Pro now supports more then 1.600 settings. Further plug-ins can be downloaded by the integrated automatic update.

Feel free to

download X-Setup Pro 6.5 for free.

X-Setup Pro gives assistance to virtual paranoia

02.03.2004 | With revised plug-ins concerning security, user data, hijacking and error reporting, a new plug-in category named Virtual Paranoia has been created in X-Setup Pro.

Virtual Paranoia is made for all those who ever wanted to control what was going on in the background of their computers.

Error reporting can finally be completely eliminated. The new plug-ins also allow you to control automatic Windows updates or other applications. Imagine, your browser does not not show the regular start-website even though this page has been set correctly in the browser settings. It is now possible to check if the browser has been effected by a hijacking-application. By using the Virtual Paranoia plugins, you can now simply delete those applications from the registry. You will also be able to see all programs that have been loaded in the background since system start.

X-Setup Pro will be your leaguer in the battle against virtual paranoia

Depending on how the files were lost, it may be hard to recover them. This data recovery program recovers lost files and finds partitions automatically, even when the boot sector or FAT of a 9.x, Me, or 2000 machine has become damaged or erased. Even when a file's header entry is no longer available, PC Inspector File Recovery can recover the file. The program lets you save recovered files on network drives. It recovers files with the original time and date stamp, so maybe it'll be like nothing ever happened.

Note: This program will also work on with NTFS filesystems--the kind used on NT, 2000, and XP. However, PC Inspector File Recovery will not be able to find partitions when the boot sector on a system running NT, 2000, or XP is damaged.

Our test results:
In our tests, PC Inspector recovered 6 files that we had purposely deleted and overwritten 32 times. This is an amazing piece of freeware and deserves a spot on your machine. Better grab your copy quick before the author realizes that folks would pay for this type of security.

We put PC Inspector File Recovery through a rigorous test. We opened a bunch of applications, some were graphics intensive hoping to throw PC Inspector File Recovery off the sent and rob it of resources. The program wasn't fooled at all and kept on chugging and churning until the 6 files had been recovered. Rarely do we find a piece of freeware with this much gumption and solidity of purpose. Like we have always said, most freeware is worth every penny you pay for it, this freeware program, however, is the exception rather than the rule.

If PC Inspector File Recovery, determines that it can not recover a file in quick mode, it will advise you that some files may be recoverable in advanced mode. It was at this point we figured, yup, another freeware item with limitations. Tweren't so! PC Inspector File Recovery did its thingy, of course it took allot longer, but it did recover the 6 files we were sure were irrecoverable. Kudos to the author for this gem!

If you use PC Inspector File Recovery in advanced mode, you may have to spend a few hours with your family, not such a bad thing, as it will take that long for the recovery to complete.

Free Spam Filter for Experienced Users
When it comes to effectiveness, POPFile beats the pants off every other spam filter I've tried. But this effectiveness takes a little time to develop. POPFile is a statistical filter so it has to be trained to recognize your spam from your normal mail. It takes a week or so before it starts becoming accurate and best results may take a month or more. POPFile works as a proxy mail server so that means that it can be used with any POP email client. Setup is reasonably straightforward for experienced users but beginners should stick with Mailwasher.
http://popfile.sourceforge.net/old_index.html

Free Spam Filter for the Average User
Mailwasher is for most folk, the easiest way of dealing with Spam. It's a free email preview utility that allows you to check your email on your mail server before you download it to your PC. The advantage of this approach is that you can kill unwanted messages including spam, viruses and large attachments before they get anywhere near your computer. But Mailwasher does more. It automatically flags for you any messages containing viruses and possible spam which makes for quick and easy identification. It also will send a message back to the spam mail sender saying that their message could not be delivered. Hopefully this will encourage some spammers to take your name off their mailing list. The free version only handles only one POP email account but that's sufficient for most users. ( 1.35MB)
http://www.mailwasher.net

McAfee Stinger

Need extra help in detecting and removing viruses? Stinger is not a substitute for full antivirus protection, but it helps you deal with an infected system. The stand-alone utility uses a next-generation scan engine. The program includes process scanning, digitally signed DAT files, and scan performance optimizations.
Author: Network Associates
Download from PcWorld
Version: 1.8.6
Price: Free | (s):Windows 9.x, Windows Me, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows NT

There is more to security than attempting to keep someone from getting to your data. Most people believe that once a file is deleted, it is gone from the system. Taint so lads and lassies. The files are still there waiting to betray you. When a file is deleted, even from the recycle bin they are truncated with the symbol "?". Most any file undelete software can recover those files. Yep, you guessed it, we have some freeware which will not only show you what is on your system for deleted files but a way to make sure that those files can not come back to haunt you at a later date. Or, suppose you accidentally deleted a file but now discover that you need it. Disk Investigator affords you that opportunity. Take a look at:

Disk Investigator - Disk Investigator helps you to discover all that is hidden on your computer hard disk. It can also help you to recover lost data. Display the true drive contents by bypassing the operating system and directly reading the raw drive sectors. View and search raw directories, files, clusters, and system sectors. Verify the effectiveness of file and disk wiping programs. Undelete previously deleted files. Click here to see screen shots. Then Click here to download. Click here to download the udated version as of 6/29/2005. Combined with Clean Disk Security (Below) get rid of those files, permanently.

DELETE DOCTOR
Delete files that are difficult to delete, such as some files left by viruses and trojans, or files with corrupted file names. This program can also delete files like the "index.dat" files, which store Internet history, by scheduling them for deletion upon system restart. Select a file to delete from the built-in file browser or drag a file to the application's icon or window from Window's Explorer. DOWNLOAD Delete Doctor (150 kb executable for Win95/98/ME/2000/NT/XP)

Clean Disk Security - This program gives you secure file deletion, making sure that deleted files cannot be undeleted again. Deleting a file normally just removes the file's directory entry, but the data itself remains on the disk. This program completely eliminates the contents of deleted files. The highly acclaimed Gutmann disk cleaning method is now available as an option. This program can also clean the Window's swap file, and can optionally clean unneeded temporary files from your hard disk, such as your Internet browser cache, files in your system's Recycle Bin, and can clear the "recent files" list. Comes with a direct disk viewer for discovering exactly what is on your hard disk. Click here for the screen shots, then click here or click here for the download

FileAlyzer - http://security.kolla.de/index.php?lang=en&page=tools/tools
This program displays files as hex, ASCII and in a safe viewer if the file type is supported. This is useful for looking at HTML files without activating hostile scripts and rogue ActiveX controls.

Ranish Partition Manager - http://www.ranish.com/part/
This program is absolutely indispensable if you want to partition your hard drive and boot multiple operating systems from independent partitions. I have purchased many partition utilities, including Partition Magic, and this is better than all of them. Supports hard drive up to 137GB. - Yeah I know it ain't security, but tell me you don't need a partition manager.

Update on Microsoft AntiSpyware

The big news this week is that Microsoft has announced that AntiSpyware will be available free of charge. Mr. Gates chose his presentation at the RSA security conference to make the announcement. See the CNET news report for further details. Microsoft’s AntiSpyware technology was recently acquired from Giant Software when Mr. Softie bought out the small security firm.

Secondly, despite the increasing market presence of Firefox, Redmond has announced that the next version of Internet Explorer, IE 7, will only be available for XP users. See the Microsoft vs. Firefox update

Spybot Search & Destroy - http://security.kolla.de/
This program is absolutely essential to assure that your system is free of spyware and adware. This one is our personal favorite.

Spybot Search and Destroy. is our pick because Spybot not only identifies and removes those hidden apps, "it also spots Trojan horses, dialers (apps that use ActiveX to dial expensive 976 telephone numbers), security leaks within Microsoft's Internet Explorer, and other malicious behavior on your PC"--all for free. Folks, if this is the only freeware you ever download, it is well worth it. This is a must have for any Internet junkie.

For a concise video explanation of how SS&D works, see this Lockergnome video.

What is Spyware?
Spyware is ANY SOFTWARE which employs a user's Internet connection in the background (the so-called "backchannel") without their knowledge or explicit permission. Silent background use of an Internet "backchannel" connection MUST BE PRECEDED by a complete and truthful disclosure of proposed backchannel usage, followed by the receipt of explicit, informed, consent for such use. ANY SOFTWARE communicating across the Internet absent these elements is guilty of information theft and is properly and rightfully termed: Spyware.

Very few of us have a warm place in our hearts for browser windows that pop up in front of the screen without permission. The free Pop-Up Stopper prevents them (and pop-under windows) from displaying. You can have sounds notify you when a pop-up has been blocked. The program also allows you to briefly disable the blocking by double-clicking the system tray icon or by pressing Shift or Ctrl when following a new link.

This version features a new ad-blocking technology, an improved interface, and more sound and visual options to play when an ad is blocked.

Version: 3.1.1012 | Price: Free | Authors Website Panicware |
[ Download ]
| Operating System(s):Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows Me, Windows 98

A must have for SS&D or any spyware eradicator
CoolWWWSearch.SmartKiller MiniRemoval

{Hijacker ejection} CoolWWWSearch.SmartKiller (v1 and v2) is a new, real ugly variant of CoolWWWSearch. When running, it will close every browser window you use to visit a large list of anti-spyware-sites, and even will close Spybot-S&D and some other anti-spyware applications as well. So if your copy of Spybot-S&D (or the anti-spyware application of your choice) closes a few seconds after starting, or your browser closes whenever you try to visit an anti-spyware site, try this CWS.SmartKiller removal utility.

{Backup} Cobian Backup is a multi-threaded program for backing up files and directories from their original location to other directories/drives in the same computer or another computer in a network. You can also back up to a FTP server. There are two versions available: application and service. Service is for Win2K, NT, and XP only. The program uses few resources and can run in the background, checking the backup schedule and executing backups when necessary, which can be on a daily, weekly, monthly, timer, or manual basis. The program creates a log file that can be automatically e-mailed. Those wanting the program in other languages than English can download language support files.

SPAM Eradicators
What does SPAM stand for?
There is some debate about the source of the term, but the generally accepted version is that it comes from the Monty Python song, "Spam spam spam spam, spam spam spam spam, lovely spam, wonderful spam…" Like the song, spam is an endless repetition of worthless text. Another school of thought maintains that it comes from the computer group lab at the University of Southern California who gave it the name because it has many of the same characteristics as the lunchmeat Spam:

AntiVir® Personal Edition - Our personal favorite:
This easy-to-use freeware antivirus utility detects over 80,000 viruses and includes a resident monitor and desktop program. Scans for DOS, Windows, macros and Java viruses. Available in German and English. (For Windows). In a side by side test with two machines running Windows XP SP2 we tested AntiVir and Norton 2004 Security. By spoofing MyDoom@NN we discovered that they both detected and cleaned the virus spoof. In a long term test, AntiVir proved equal to Norton in all areas of detection and cleaning. Give it a try, we think you'll be pleasantly surprised....we were.

You'll be amazed how thoroughly AntiVir protects...we were:

* detects and removes more than 80,000 viruses
* always among the winners of comparison test featured in computer journals
* the resident Virus Guard serves to monitor file movements automatically,
e.g. downloading of data from the internet
* scanning and repair of macro viruses
* protection against previously unknown macro viruses
* safeguard against cost generating dial-up program
* protection against trojaner, worms, backdoors, jokes and other harmful programs
* easy operation
* Internet-Update Wizard for easy updating
* Protection against previously unknown boot record viruses and master boot record viruses
* Quality "Made in Germany"
* Learn more and download it here: http://www.free-av.com/ or [Download Now]

avast! Home Edition is a complete anti-virus package that is free for registered home non-commercial users. It contains an on-demand scanner with two interfaces (Simple for novices, and Advanced for experienced users), an on-access scanner with Standard Shield (which protects against execution and opening malware programs) and an embedded e-mail scanner, which scans incoming and outgoing e-mail messages. avast! Home integrates with the Windows Explorer right-click menu, and also includes a special screen saver that is able to scan your system while your computer is not in use. Updates are incremental, and frequently made available for manual or scheduled download. You'll download a 90-days demo; if you would like to continue free usage beyond that time, you'll need to register from the home page to obtain a free activation key by e- mail.

AVG Anti-Virus
Provides excellent protection against computer ~ AVG is our favorite Pick. Give it a try
viruses. More info & Download @ Site

MicroWorld provides free utilities to help you check your system for viruses. MicroWorld develops real time antivirus and content security solutions for all its users requiring Internet Security at home, office or the Corporate level. These software's which are commercially available to protect you, not just from the virus or worms but from almost all the potential e-threats that can endanger your system's security.

A. Scans and provides reports of your system hardisk for any malicious contents. You can select the drive which you want to scan.

C. Inform users of any background illegal sniffers or tools like spywares, adware, keylogger etc. running in memory.

D. The Utility can be added to the start up ensuring that the system is scanned and cleaned everytime it boots. E. All the disinfections are reported in the form of a log file. F. The utility is regularly updated on our servers ensuring that it can fight the nastiest attacks.

Please click on any one of the links below to download the Free Antivirus Toolkit Utility. This utility is updated with the latest virus signature databases, once a week. (Download size = 3.5 MB - 4 MB)

" [SetBrowser is] a very simple program that lets you set the default web browser in Windows. Select the browser you want, and the program will modify the required registry settings. Can now also automatically locate the browser. A valuable tool for anybody who uses more than one web browser on their system (e.g. if you switch between Netscape Navigator / Communicator, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Opera and others). Warning: Since most web browsers have the ability to make themselves default (and automatically set all the proper registry settings), only use SetBrowser in situations where browsers don't recognize the current settings. 'Forcing' the default browser, as SetBrowser does, is really a last resort. "

Browser Hijacking, Spyware, Homepage thieves, oh my!
We have been getting a ton of email from loyal readers who have had their web browsers taken over by porn sites and other nasties. There are fixes for this of course and on our browser pages we chronicle some of them. The best defense is a good offense so why not halt an attacker before the damage is done? Browser Hijack Blaster is your secret weapon. Give it a try. Its on this page so it has to be free.

Browser Hijack Blaster has been discontinued. In place of it get SpywareGuard

SpywareGuard 2.2

A real-time protection solution against spyware!

SpywareGuard provides a real-time protection solution against spyware that is a great addition to SpywareBlaster's

protection method.

An anti-virus program scans files before you open them and prevents execution if a virus is detected - SpywareGuard does the same thing, but for spyware! And you can easily have an anti-virus program running alongside SpywareGuard.

SpywareGuard now also features Download Protection and Browser Hijacking Protection!

Features Listing:

* Fast Real-Time Scanning engine - catch and block spyware before it is executed (EXE and CAB files supported) with signature-based scanning for known spyware and heuristic/generic detection capabilities to catch new/mutated spyware
* Download Protection - prevent spyware from being download in Internet Explorer
* Browser Hijacking Protection - stop browser hijacking activity in real-time
* SG LiveUpdate - provides an easy updating solution
* Small size - with a small size and small definition sizes, download and updates are quick
* Report Capabilities - keep a detailed log of all spyware detected
* Spyware files are blocked before being opened or run - they are not simply shut down after they are loaded in memory (and after they have performed their tasks)
* It's a free download

PhishGuard 1.1^Not
Reviewed
anti-scam tool

PhishGuard is a software/service that helps you detect and block phishing or spoofing attempts, usually designed to lure you into providing personal or credit card information to fake online sites. The program integrates into Internet Explorer and warns you whenever you visit a site that is known to be a scam. It uses an online community database that you can easily submit suspicious links or emails to, by using a simple drop icon on your desktop. We tested the software with three random phishing scams from our mailbox and it detected and intercepted all three. The submission of suspicious items did not work for us though.
Requires free registration. Only works with sites opened in IE

License: Freeware
Price: Free
Windows: 98/ME/NT/2000/XP
File size: 3011 kb
Downl.Time: ~10 min. or less
Author: Website
[Download It]

Password Scrambler
Passwords are a pain. they are hard to remember and using the same passord to open many different password protected sites or applications is, well, just plain wrong. Try this little progy:

Password Scrambler allows you to remember a single password for all your Web site logins, yet use a different one for each site. It does this by scrambling the master password based on the Web site address. For example if you always use the password SESAME for most of your logins, it would convert SESAME to yuhjkljuiuYRgPO, which is a lot more secure and unique to the site. The next time you come back to the site, just enter your master password and it will automatically recall the unique password it previously generated for the site. Every site gets a unique, secure, hard-to-guess password, while you only remember one. The program integrates as a button into the IE toolbar and can automatically fill your password or copy it to the clipboard. Nice program, unfortunately with one disadvantage - you cannot get a list of all your scrambled passwords if you should ever need it.

This free firewall received tops ratings for its stopping unwanted outbound connections.

Outpost Firewall is a personal firewall for Windows. Outpost Firewall gives peace of mind about any threats from cookies, banner ads, e-mail viruses, spyware, crackers, adware, and virtually any other Internet danger. Outpost starts protecting against all kinds of internal and external attacks as soon as it's installed. It has an open architecture and support for plug-ins, so its capabilities can easily be extended. Outpost protects your system from worm and virus attacks that arrive by e-mail. You can filter e-mail based upon its content, and Outpost will prevent dangerous attachments from executing. Outpost performs Web filtering, allowing you to exercise control over the content that is allowed to reach your computer. There is a privacy guard feature, as well as a plug-in that will block banner advertisements from your Web pages. Users can get free updates to Outpost automatically, using the program's built-in update utility. With its open architecture and support for third-party plug-ins, Outpost's functionality can be expanded to detect and protect computers from new threats that may develop. Current plug-ins include modules that provide full privacy protection against all kinds of active elements in e-mail and on the Web, blocking of banner advertisements and pop-up windows, protection of e-mail from dangerous attachments and worms, content filtering for parental control, and detection and protection from port scanning and intrusion.

Subseven: Firewall
This is a Trojan blocker and fake server for Internet security. It has many features, including chatting to the client. You can even preprogram the ports to stop other Trojans such as T3000.

FREE for personal use, Sygate Personal Firewall 5.x provides best of breed security in a user friendly interface, protecting your PC from hackers, trojans and DoS attacks. New features include full-ICS support, protocol driver level protection, enhanced logging, and more. Sygate Personal Firewall is the first FREE personal firewall to offer protection from malicious code intrusions, keeping the information on your PC safe and private. Sygate Personal Firewall is FREE for personal use and business licenses are $19.95. For multiple seat licenses or advanced users, our Award-winning Sygate Personal Firewall PRO is strongly recommended.

Tiny Personal Firewall (TPF) is a powerful and free utility designed to protect home cable and DSL connections. TPF provides multi-layer security protection in controlling which applications are allowed to transmit and receive data, MD5 Signature Support to ensure that Trojan horse applications cannot communicate, stateful filtering based on SRC/DST IP address, port and application to determine if incoming packets were requested, remote access to logs and statistics, and intrusion detection. This build corrects TDI errors.

ZoneAlarm is designed to protect your ISP, DSL or cable-connected PC from hackers. This program includes four interlocking security services: a firewall, an Application Control, an Internet Lock, and Zones. The firewall controls the door to your computer and allows only traffic that you understand and initiate. The Application Control allows you to decide which applications can and cannot use the Internet. The Internet Lock blocks Internet traffic while your computer is unattended or while you are not using the Internet, and it can be activated automatically with your computer's screensaver or after a set period of inactivity. Zones monitor all activity on your computer and alert you when a new application attempts to access the Internet.

To get your own copy and to learn more about Zone Alarm, see the vendors website below which will have a link to their free and their Pro versions of the software.
Vendor: ZoneLabs

Regrettably, but understandably, Zone Labs makes you go through a flurry of pages to get to the free version. You can get to more easily by clicking below:

ZoneAlarm is free for individual and not-for-profit charitable entity use (excluding governmental entities and educational institutions).

- for more information or

Free Software Suites
GNUWin II is a free software compilation for Windows. This huge suite features dozens of programs including free alternatives to many expensive commercial products. There is Abi Word as an alternative for MS Word, OpenOffice for MS Office XP, The Gimp for Adobe Photoshop, Gzip for WinZIP are dozens more. Taken collectively this suite provides more than enough software to completely set up a PC without spending a cent on applications or utilities. The suite is available or CD or you download the
CD image and cut your own.
http://gnuwin.epfl.ch/en/index.html

Like MSIE but wish that it had a little more of the functionality of Netscape 7.1? Well, you could wait until the Windows XP SP2 comes out which will have a new variation of MSIE (but you will need to have Windows XP. The Service Pack 2 browser plugin is not going to be a stand alone option for earlier versions of Windows) or, why not hop on over to MyIE2 and grab a copy. MyIE2 is everything that MSIE 6.0 should have been but isn't. It is not a separate entity but builds on the MSIE 6.0 engine to give you a more robust web surfing experience. NOTE: If you decide to download and install MyIE2 , and we recommend that you do, use the custom install and make certain that you do not load the plugin UCMore as it is full of trackware and spyware. If you do load it by accident you can uninstall it in control Panel's Add/Remove Programs option. Take MyIE2 for a spin, you may never want to go back to plain old MSIE 6.0 again.
Get MyIE2 here: http://www.myie2.com/html_en/home.htm

If you're having problems deleting a file, you might consider using WhoLockMe. The program has a handy Explorer extension, which shows which Windows process is locking the file. One click kills the process (a virus, Trojan, spyware, or in my case, a dialog box enhancer), after which you can delete the tenacious hanger-on.

When you copy data from a CD-ROM to your PC, of course they copy as read-only. This may not a problem at first, but if you want to work on those files, you've got a lot of manual retagging ahead of you--file by file by file. CROA allows you to remove the read-only flags from folders, subfolders, and files and get down to business. Once installed, it's easy to access from Window's context menu.

Website: David Crowell
[Download]
File Size:286KB
Price:Free
Operating System(s):Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows Me, Windows NT, Windows 9.x

Resource HackerTM is a freeware utility to view, modify, rename, add, delete and extract resources in 32bit Windows executables and resource files (*.res). It incorporates an internal resource script compiler and decompiler and works on Win95, Win98, WinME, WinNT, Win2000 and WinXP operating systems.

We type an enormous amount of information every day, and sometimes well into the night too. I have never been, what you might call a great speller. Without a spell check, I come off looking like the worlds dumbest man. Okay, that may be applicable but it definitely isn't very professional and lets face it, when you email me you don't want to try and figure out what the heck I'm talking about. All good word processors have a spell checker. But suppose that you don't want to open Word just to type a memo. This is where TinySpell comes in. It site in your system tray watching what you are typing. If it notes a mistake it will alert you with a beep and the icon will change color. Simply click on the icon and you have options to use a different word which is spelled correctly. Tiny Spell also monitors what you put into the clipboard and checks it automatically again beeping if a mistake is found. This is a must have for the spelling impaired.

This utility allows you to easily and quickly check the spelling of words in any Windows application. It monitors your typing on-the-fly and alerts you whenever it detects a misspelled word. It also checks the spelling of every word you copy to the clipboard. The program comes with an American-English dictionary containing more than 110,000 words.

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Filehand Search v2.0
It always struck me as quite ironic that I can search the Internet faster than my own hard drive, and that the results of a Google search are always so much easier to understand, as opposed to a huge list of filenames that I need to sort through.

I first came across Filehand quite some time ago, and have been using it myself more or less on a daily basis.

The good news is that there's a new version of Filehand. The really good news is that it's now completely free!

Filehand Search 2.0 is a great tool for bringing the power of Internet-style searching to your own computer.

Using Filehand Search you can find information stored in your computer system with the same ease and speed that you find information on the Internet using search engine sites such as Google and Yahoo!.

If you've tried other programs to find files on your computer, you were probably disappointed by the performance, lack of flexibility, and complicated interfaces. Worse still, many of them consume all of the processor and memory resources of your computer, and can slow it down to a crawl. Not good.

Aside from filenames, the software can also search the contents of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, WordPerfect, PDF, HTML, and simple text files.

The new version can also handle Outlook items, including e-mail, contacts, notes, and appointments.

This is one of those applications that I guarantee you want on your system. Further details are available from the Filehand Web site.

Many have asked, "Hey Bo, is there a freeware version of a program which can capture visualizations of screen shots so that I can show my brother-in-law in Texas how to do stuff"? Most of these types of applications can cost anywhere from 145 dollars to as much as 250 dollars. Most folks do not have that much money to spend on screen captures, I know I don't. Free content doesn't pay me all that much.

This little known utility from, yes....Microsoft: Microsoft has a little known and often ignored utility called Windows Media Encoder 9 Series which will make high quality home movies of things that you do on your Windows system which is perfect for instruction sets. Go to this Microsoft Website to download your 9 MB + copy.

Windows Media Encoder 9 Series is a powerful tool for content producers who want to take advantage of the many innovations in Windows Media 9 Series including high-quality multichannel sound, high-definition video quality, new support for mixed-mode voice and music content, and more.

Anyone who knows us knows that we love Microsoft, we hate Microsoft, we love to hate Microsoft. When the Redmond team does things right, we also want to acknowledge that as well and in the Windows Media Encoder 9 Series the folks at Redmond got it right. Many have suggested that the only thing that Microsoft has on it's collective Geeky mind is profit or the bottom line. In most cases I would have to agree but often Microsoft builds excellent software programs and offers it free to it's consumer base. We have to wonder why Microsoft doesn't hype this part of the organization more. In our opinion it would go a long way in making Microsoft look a little more warm and fuzzy.

To make a screen-capture movie, launch Windows Media Encoder and, in the New Session dialog, click on Capture Screen and then OK. Choose the area you want to capture—a specific window, a region on the screen, or the entire screen. Choosing a region works best; if you choose to capture just a window, the software won't capture any other windows that appear as you work.

Avoid capturing the entire screen unless you have to. If you do, you should size the screen down, to 800 by 600 pixels or so, so your file size won't be too large. Not only does a large screen make for a large file, but it also takes a lot of computer processing to make the recording and run one or more programs at the same time. It helps to set your monitor to use fewer colors; both screen resolution and color depth can be adjusted by right-clicking on the desktop and choosing the Properties | Settings tab.

You'll need a microphone if your PC doesn't have one built in. (Most notebooks do.) To record audio, click on the Capture audio from the default audio device checkbox. If you choose to capture a window, open the program to capture before continuing. Click on Next.

What you see now depends on the choice you made. If you chose to capture a region, you must define it: Click on the selection button and drag over the area to capture. To see the border as you work, click on the Flash border during capture checkbox.

If you're capturing a window, choose the program window you want from the drop-down list of windows, click on Next, and type a filename and location for the captured file. Click on Next and select a quality setting. A high-quality video will result in a large file, a low-quality video a small file, and so on.

Click on Next again, and you can now type optional details about the movie. Then click on Next one more time. When you're ready, click on Finish to start the recording.

Now perform the task that you wish to demonstrate, while telling your viewer what you're doing. When you're done, click on the Windows Media Encoder link in the taskbar and click on the Stop button on its toolbar. Clicking on Windows Media Encoder on the taskbar will pause the recording—to continue, click on Start Encoding.

Now you can choose Close to end the recording session, or click on Play Output File to open Windows Media Player and review your movie. Before you exit Windows Media Encoder, click on Save to save the session settings for reuse later on, if desired.

To record another movie, click on the Properties button on the Windows Media Encoder toolbar, and click on the Output tab. In the File Name area type a new filename for this file, and then when ready, click on Start Encoding. If you don't provide a new filename, you'll overwrite your first recording.

You can play your new movie in Windows Media Player (or other programs that support the WMV format), write it to a CD, e-mail it, or upload it to the Web. If you want, you can edit it in Windows Movie Maker.

"FastStone Image Viewer 2.20 is an image browser, viewer, converter and editor with an easy to use interface and a nice array of features that include resizing, renaming, cropping, color adjustments and more. It also includes an intuitive full-screen mode that provides quick access to EXIF information and thumbnail browser via hidden toolbars that emerge when you touch the edge of your screen with the mouse. Other features include a high quality magnifier and built-in slideshow with 150+ transitional effects, as well as lossless JPEG transitions, drop shadow effects, image frames, scanner support, histogram and much more. It supports all major graphic formats including BMP, JPEG, JPEG 2000, GIF, PNG, PCX, TIFF, WMF, ICO and TGA. "

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Advanced Windows Care	CROA - Remove Read only Attribs in mass	7-Zip	Filehand Search v2.0
Optimizer XP is new generation of PC Tweak	Resource HackerTM	Scan2PDF	TinySpell
WhoLockMe Explorer Extension v1.04 Beta	HDClone Free Edition Clone your hard drive onto a newer one for free	DriveImage XML - Image and Backup logical Drives and Partitions	Remap/Disable Extra Keyboard Buttons

X-Setup Pro 6.5 Final now available

X-Setup Pro gives assistance to virtual paranoia

This free firewall received tops ratings for its stopping unwanted outbound connections.

I do not allow organizations to use my name or to contact me to make solicitations other than as permitted in my Junkbusters Declaration.

Version Dec 7 Copyright © 2001 Larry Blaisdell