AntiSpyware the Microsoft way

It's probably a good thing that most of the applications designed to find and remove spyware from computers are distributed as freeware. Microsoft has entered the market after purchasing an anti-spyware application from the Giant Company.

It makes a great deal of sense for an application such as this to be closely bound to the operating system. The same argument can be made for anti-virus applications (and I'm still wondering why Microsoft isn't in that market space). These are functions that should be performed at the operating system level.

Less than a month after acquiring the Giant Company, Microsoft made the first beta of its AntiSpyware application available freely on the company's website. The beta will expire on July 31, 2005, and the final release version will probably enforce Microsoft's "Genuine Windows" program: The installer will validate your copy of Windows to be sure that it is valid. For the beta, that procedure is recommended but not required. And if you have an older operating system, you'll want to know that AntiSpyware supports only Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003.

I know the copy of Windows running on my machine is valid, so I allowed Microsoft to check it. The process is easy enough, but it requires Internet Explorer and downloads an ActiveX component. Because Windows will warn you about the software, the Microsoft website explains carefully that you should allow the software to be installed because it is safe. I wonder how long it will take somebody to spoof that re-assuring tone on their rogue site.

My copy of Windows checked out, so now it's time to get started and run the installation file. Instead of running the file from Microsoft's website (or anyone's website) I always download installation programs and run them from my machine. I have two reasons for doing this: First, I usually want to install the software on more than one machine and it's both easier and faster to copy the file from one machine to another than it is to download it twice. Second, if the entire installation file is on my computer, I'm assured that a sudden loss of connectivity (rare, but possible) won't cause a problem.

Among the terms and conditions on the end-user license agreement are these, warning that the application will stop running at the end of July and will need to be replaced before then and noting that beta software may or may not be similar to the final release version. Microsoft is still discussing whether to charge for the final version, to release it for free and charge for updates, or to just make it an included application.

If you already have another application that watches for spyware (such as Spybot Search and Destroy) that application may notice what AntiSpyware is doing and ask you to permit the change. You will want to approve the changes.

After AntiSpyware is installed, you'll see a small graphic that shows you how to set up the application.

As soon as AntiSpyware is installed, you'll have an opportunity to scan your machine. This is a good thing to do and, instead of using the default "quick scan", I'd recommend that you choose a full system scan and leave all 3 of the additional boxes checked.

During the process, you'll get a warning from your firewall, if you have one that monitors outbound connections. In this case, you see ZoneAlarm asking whether AntiSpyware should be permitted to access the Internet.

When the process is complete, AntiSpyware will display a summary of its results. I had expected a clean slate, but despite my cautions, one slightly nasty application had been installed. In checking anti-spy sties, I found that SearchSquire doesn't pose any particularly serious threats – at least not now – but it's still something that I would prefer not to have on my computer.

The blue panel at the left shows AntiSpyware's summary of the threat. The description is perhaps a bit overblown, but when you're dealing with an application that has been installed on your computer without your permission, caution is recommended.

AntiSpyware recommended removing the offending application (and even showed me where it was located.

Needless to say, I gave the program permission to remove SearchSquire.

During the removal process, you're given the opportunity to establish a restore point in the event that AntiSpyware accidentally removes something useful.

The application has the option of reporting what it has done to SpyNet, a voluntary worldwide community of Windows AntiSpyware users. Microsoft says this group "plays a key role in determining which suspicious programs are classified as spyware. Any user can choose to join SpyNet and report potential spyware to Microsoft. Users participating in the global SpyNet network help to discover new threats quickly so everyone is better protected. Signatures are created for programs that are identified as spyware and made available to all users."

If you choose to allow the report to SpyNet, the first attempt will generate an alert from your firewall, if you're using a firewall such as ZoneAlarm that watches outbound traffic.

AntiSpyware will start each time you start Windows and will occupy a small space in the Tray. You can set the application to do a quick scan or a deep scan on whatever schedule you like.

The perils of beta

We're dealing with beta software, but it's beta only because Microsoft acquired the company that had released the application and was selling it. The application is available to anyone who wants to download it. Before you do, consider:

• Microsoft Anti-Spyware seems to work flawlessly on one computer, but has created a problem with a dictionary that I start on another machine. Every time the computer starts, MSAS tells me that it's found an unidentified program and asks if I should allow it to run. There appears to be no way for me to tell MSAS that I always want this application to run.
• Sometimes after I've installed or updated an application, MSAS shows me a literal flurry of advisory messages that fly up from the lower right corner of the screen, each new message covering the previous messages and none staying on the screen long enough to be read.
• I have seen reports by some testers that other applications began exhibiting new behavior after they installed MSAS. The programs still generally worked, but not always as expected.
• The application seems to want to let me know about everything it does. As a result, the system start-up sometimes generates half a dozen or more messages, most of which don't stay on the screen long enough to read. This, more than anything else, is what convinced me to remove the application until it's gone through some usability testing.

These are all problems that were present in the application when it was owned by the Giant Company. Now that Microsoft (a real giant of a company) owns it, the standards and expectations will be higher. Microsoft has some work to do.

Technology corner rating for MICROSOFT ANTI-SPYWARE

FIVE CATS: For beta software, 5 is a semi-respectable rating, but if you're uncomfortable working with an untested application and you don't want to face a flurry of pop-up warnings every day, wait until this application comes out of beta.

How the Technology Corner rating system works.

WinSpeedUp speeds computers by killing them

WinSpeedUp is a utility program that promises to examine your computer to identify problems that can cause the machine to run slowly. While I found that the program does help, it also caused serious problems by killing several applications that I want to run – and it did so without warning.

If you use this application, be certain that you use not only its safety features, but that you also create a system restore point and have a current, complete, verified backup handy.

WinSpeedUp has a "wizard" function that suggested, among other things, too many applications start with Windows.

It's true that I do start a lot of applications. Among them: Palm synchronizer software, Super Ad Blocker (testing for future review), Smart Type Assistant, AVG Antivirus, WinBatch PopMenu, POP Peeper, SiteC, ZoneAlarm, Intellitype, GAIM, J2 fax reader, SpyBot Search and Destroy, WinMySQL Administrator, GoToMyPC, and K9 show up in the Tray. There are other applications that run in the background but don't appear in the Tray.

The first thing I noticed after the wizard finished its work was that the machine did indeed start faster. A lot faster. The second thing I noticed was that the Tray was nearly empty. WinSpeedUp had removed GoToMyPC, Zone Alarm, POP Peeper, GAIM, Palm synchronizer software, AVG Antivirus, Super Ad Blocker, Smart Type Assistant ... and more. Essentially all of the applications I need to have running.

During the removal process, Spybot Search and Destroy had warned me several times about changes WinSpeedUp was trying to make. I recognized many of the applications that were being deleted from StartUp as ones I wanted to run, so I had denied the changes, but WinSpeedUp managed to make them.

Trying to recover

Before allowing the program to make any changes, I ran it's own "restore point" application, so I used WinSpeedUp's restore process. The applications I wanted didn't return. No problem. There's always the Windows System Restore. I used System Restore from Windows, but that didn't restore the files to the StartUp folders. Why? I don't know. That left Retrospect Backup. I restored the StartUp folders and the applications that were supposed to start with Windows again started with Windows.

But something I did during the previous restoration attempts had broken Firefox. The program wouldn't even start; all I got was a "this program must close" dialog. I removed Firefox and re-installed it. Same problem. Finally I located the Firefox settings folder in my user account, deleted it, uninstalled Firefox, and reinstalled Firefox. That fixed the problem.

WinSpeedUp appears to have several useful features, but I've been unwilling to try any of them because of my experience with its primary function. I hope the developers continue to work with WinSpeedUp and incorporate some safety features that give the user additional control.

Technology corner rating for WinSpeedUp

THREE CATS: This is an application that has some promise, but the developers need to concentrate on making it safer to use. There's a good reason that power tools (circular saws, for example) have safety shields. That's what WinSpeedUp needs.

How the Technology Corner rating system works.

Manual speed-up tricks

Until WinSpeedUp becomes a little less dangerous, I can't really recommend it. But I can suggest a few way to speed up your computer without killing it.

• Turn off the menu-fade option. Under XP, menus can fade in and fade out. This is a cool effect, but it's also creates long delays. If you click the start menu and wait ... and wait ... and wait ... for the cool fade-in effect, try turning it off. Here's how: Right-click any blank space on the desktop and choose Properties, then the Appearance tab, and the Effects button. Turn off the transitions (top item) and the shadows under menus option. If you have a particularly slow machine, you should also turn off the ability to show window contents while dragging. If you're someone who works with graphics a lot, you'll want to leave this on. But if you're someone who works with graphics a lot, you probably don't have a slow machine. The difference this makes is more perceptual than actual. The menu display delay is less than 5 seconds, even for a heavily burdened machine, but 5 seconds waiting for a menu to appear seems much longer.
• Take a look at your StartUp folders and move application shortcuts that you don't need to have running at all times out of the StartUp folder. I created a folder called "StartUp Optional" and placed the applications I don't need at all times to that folder.
• Choose Run from the Start Menu, type MSCONFIG, and press Enter (or choose OK). Warning! This is an area where you can do extreme damage to the operating system. If you're not sure what something is, leave it alone! Stay out of all of the tabs except for StartUp. It's here that you can enable or disable applications that run when Windows starts. If you're not sure what something is, leave it alone! De-select applications that you don't need.
  
  The "command" section will show you where the application is stored on the disk and will give you some idea what it does. The "location" column tells you how Windows starts the application. All of the applications shown here are started by the Registry. While this is safer than directly editing the Registry, things can go wrong and it's a good idea to have a full backup before you tinker with the settings. (It's also good to know about the "last known good" boot option and the Recovery Console.
• Defragment your disk drive and add more storage if the drive is more than 85% full. Don't use the Windows defragmenter. It takes forever, gets confused and has to stop, and doesn't work all that well, anyway. Executive Software's DiskKeeper is a good choice and it's reasonably priced.
  I've made a practice of keeping all data on drive D and that has created an imbalance on a computer with two 120GB Seagate SATA drives. Drive C had more than 60GB free and drive D was down to 6GB because it's the drive with all of my Itunes music and all of the digital photos. While I can see the need for a third large drive, I wanted to avoid that now. I copied the Itunes directory to drive C and ran DiskKeeper on both drives.

IBMicroApple: Could it have been?

I was thinking the other day and that’s always a bad way to start the day. Thinking is dangerous, after all. It’s frowned on in some circles, but I still do it occasionally. I try not to think too much – just socially, you understand. It’s a hard habit to give up entirely.

I was thinking about IBM, Microsoft, and Apple

In the 1984 Super Bowl, Apple ran the ad that everyone still remembers 21 years later. The assumption was that it was an anti-IBM ad, but Apple has always denied that. Apple actually has more in common with the old (bad?) IBM than Microsoft does. IBM in the old (bad?) days sold proprietary software that ran on its proprietary hardware.

Today’s Apple is a bit more open than it used to be. The company now uses mostly standard components for its computers, but on the software side everything is proprietary. I think a good case could be made showing parallels between Apple and IBM.

IBM, in an early nod to an open-source community that hadn’t yet started to call itself that, made the PC architecture available to anyone who wanted it. Apple insisted on selling only machines and components that it controlled. Microsoft was part of IBM’s open-source experiment from the beginning and made an operating system with hooks that allowed anyone to write applications for it.

Thinking about that made my head hurt, so I tried thinking about something else.

The something else turned out to be Apple and Microsoft, which differs slightly from thinking about IBM, Microsoft, and Apple. Apple once had an opportunity to buy Compaq. Western Union also once had an opportunity to purchase an invention by a guy named Alexander Graham Bell.

Why would Apple want to have anything to do with Compaq? What if the Apple had acquired Compaq? I felt another mental pain coming on, but decided to continue.

At the time, Compaq was challenging IBM as a hardware manufacturer. Combining Apple and IBM would have made Apple a huge player. Apple is today the largest computer manufacturer in the world (in units sold) because Apple is the only company that makes Apple computers. What if Apple also made PCs?

By now I was sure that this was making my head hurt, so I tried thinking about something else.

The something else turned out to be Apple and Microsoft (without IBM this time) – and why people seem to think that these companies are (and should be) natural enemies.

Microsoft is a software company; oh, they have their name put on mice (some prefer “mouses” for the plural of the computer variety) and keyboards, but their primary product is software: Operating systems, office productivity applications, and programming languages. You won’t find a computer, an MP3 player, or a video screen with the name Microsoft on it.

Apple, on the other hand, is a hardware company. They have an operating system, but most of OS X is BSD Unix. Apple added a little piece that sits on top of Unix and provides a graphical user interface, but Apple’s core strength is manufacturing desktop computers, notebook computers, media players, monitors, servers, and such.

Based on this analysis, I concluded that Apple and Microsoft should be friends.

And that REALLY made my head hurt!

So I went out for a beer.

Nerdly News

Erosion slows, but Internet Explorer drops below 90%

Erosion is slow but steady. The number of downloads of Mozilla's Firefox browser has dropped, but the erosion continues and Internet Explorer has less than 90% of the market for the first time in 3 years.

Firefox had been gaining about 1% market share per month, but WebSiteStory says that dropped to 0.75% in February. Firefox has 5.7% of the market. IE has 89.9%.

Mozilla released version 1.0.1 last week, which patched some security problems. Other problems have already been announced and Mozilla is working on them. As I said last week, no browser is 100% secure. The best anyone -- Microsoft or Mozilla -- can do is respond to security problems and fix them.

Have a smart phone? Expect a virus.

Twenty years ago, when personal computers were new, nobody expected them to suffer attacks from viruses, worms, and such. Microsoft can be forgiven for not thinking about security first in 1982. But the manufacturers of mobile phones and PDA have no such excuse, yet they're largely ignoring the threat.

A recent IBM Global Business Security Index Report predicts a surge in viruses targeting mobiles and PDAs this year. Just ask Paris Hilton.

A virus called Cabir spreads to mobile phones via Bluetooth and then drains the phone's batteries. Fifteen varieties have shown up since last August.

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