Community Blogger Award

Jos from NoDirectOn (not: NoDirection) has awarded me with this marvellous Community Blogger Award.

The Community Blog Award celebrates people who reach out and makes the blogger community a better one. 

It also underlines the importance of a blogs readership community, one of the most rewarding parts about blogging. It’s the people that come back to comment, adding to the conversation, making you feel like someone is listening and interested.

There are many excellent bloggers that fulfil both of these categories and I pass this award on to the following:

Pete and Jennifer from Cyber Crime Slayers

Sue from Sueblimely Discovering Blogging and Tagging

Pearl from Interesting Observations

Kevin from Bloody Computer

Sarah from BlueJar

Congratulations to you all for and thank you for bringing so much to the world of blogging.

IOBit Smart Defrag - Updated Version

IOBit have recently released an upgraded version of their very popular Smart Defrag tool.  It has a new streamlined easy-to-use interface.

How many of you overlook Defragging your disk?   One of the main causes of slow performance or instability is disk fragmentation.

This program is perfect for all users no matter what level of experience you may have.

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This program eliminates that. Once installed, it will sit in your System Tray and you can select when to Defrag and Optimize your disk automatically.  You can also override this and use the Manual settings.

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It runs efficiently in the background with very little processor usage.

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IObit SmartDefrag is 100% FREE for personal, home and small business, and 100% safe from any spyware, adware and virus. IObit SmartDefrag is designed for Windows Vista, XP and 2000.

Simple to use
Install it and forget it. The intuitive interface makes IObit SmartDefrag the ideal utility even for complete dummies.

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Efficient Defragment.
No more long time waiting. IObit SmartDefrag has the fastest defragment engine in the world, especially designed for modern large hard drives.

Optimize File System
It isn’t just a simple defragment, it also streamlines your file system and makes your computer run at higher speeds with more stability.

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Always-on Working
IObit SmartDefrag works automatically and quietly in the background, constantly keeps your computer fragment-free.

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As you can see in the above image I ran this whilst writing this post  and it took less than 8 minutes for a comprehensive Defrag and Optimize.

I have mine scheduled to auto-defrag when the CPU load is 20% or less as well as a comprehensive defrag on Sundays. You can set up your own schedule which works around what you want quite easily.

You can get it and update it at no cost whatsoever.

Download it here

Any problems, try the Forum, FAQ or Contact Me.

© Free PC Security 2008

Browser Exploit Prevention

NoScript for Firefox.

Experts agree that Firefox is safer with the NoScript Firefox extension, which provides extra protection for Firefox, and other mozilla-based browsers.

This is a free open source addon makes Firefox which allows JavaScript and Java execution only for trusted domains of your choice and made even safer through preemptive whitelist-based JavaScript/Java/Plugins blocking.

You have the option to block Flash and other potentially harmful plugins.

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It offers many useful features which you have complete control over.

Browser based anti-XSS - Cross-Site Scripting vulnerabilities allow someone to insert their own malicious code from one site into another, which can lead to identity theft etc.

You have the ability to enable or disable Java/Javascript for Trusted Sitesusing either the NoScript status bar or the contextual menu.

There is an installation video that is well worth watching before considering deploying this tool.

Watch the video here.

Download NoScript here

http://noscript.net/faq covers general FAQ, installing, uninstalling, migrating, updates, troubleshooting, XSS, tips and tricks

LinkScanner Lite

When you start to install this utility, you have the option to use the full Pro version for 15 days, after this it will revert to the Lite version. 

Also on the installation window there is the option to participate in the Community Intelligence Network.  This is optional and is explained on the install window.

The installation adds a BHO (Browser Helper Object)which is necessary for the program to function.

After installation it is necessary to reboot your computer.

                                               
The Pro version gives you Websearch results inspection, On-demand url scanning, Always-on exploit blocking, Internet connectivity monitor and Real-time site risk analysis.  The Lite version will give you Websearch results inspection and On-demand url scanning. 

This program analyzes sites in real time to detect a wide range of online threats including malicious content, phishing, social engineering and targeted software exploits.

You have the Link Scanner Console which resides in the Taskbar, simply right click the icon and you can open the Console.

Enter a URL, checkmark the ‘Automatically advance to the page if it is Safe’ and scan.

Exploit Prevention Labs say that LinkScanner Lite and LinkScanner Pro scan individual pages in real time, knowing that malicious hackers can hop from site to site, temporarily infecting them.
LinkScanner integrates with Google, Yahoo and MSN to check the search results and can warn you of exploits, hacked pages, malicious sites and phishing/fraud scams.

Enter a search term into a search engine and the results displayed will have symbols beside them.

Hold your cursor over the icons and a description will appear, click the icon and you will be taken to a definition page giving further information about the site and the reason for the rating.

The simplest method to check any link is to right-click the link and select Quickscan with LinkScanner.  You will get a full report as to whether the site is safe or not.

NoScript and LinkScanner also bolster your Firewall defences.

Download LinkScanner Lite here

Comprehensive User Guide here

Secunia Personal Software Inspector (Beta)

Make your PC safer with this utility from Secunia, a company that tracks known vulnerabilities in software and operating systems.

This is one of the most useful and important free tools that you can have running on Windows XP SP2, Windows 2000 and Windows 2003. 

This tool examines all of the program files on your PC for information on specific software builds installed and can identify missing Windows patches and outdated, insecure applications on your PC. 

After examination, the data collected is sent to Secunia’s secure servers (https://psi.secunia.com/) and matched matched against their Signature Files which then determines the precise applications installed on your system.

Secunia state that they have more than 4,700 different programs in their File Signatures engine.

Once the scan is complete, which only takes a few minutes, Secunia PSI will categorize each program as “Up-To-Date”, “Insecure” or “End-of-Life”.

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The results table presents the name and version number of your installed application. Clicking on the file name or the green information button will take you to a summary page with further information.  If there is a blue button this will link directly to the file that will update or patch your software, if available.

On the summary page you will also receive a link to Secunia’s advisory about why your version is not safe, and explanations of the multiple versions of a program that you may see listed, as well as available updates and download locations.

Although Secunia PSI is not perfect, and it is still in Beta version, it is fairly useful at keeping your computer programs up-to-date, which also aids in your system security. 

Secunia’s privacy statement states that they store information about your software for up to 12 months, but it does not collect any personal data beyond version numbers.

Download Secunia PSI here.

Note: The free Secunia PSI is available for Private/Home Users ONLY

As with any program installation, Backup or create a Restore Point before making any changes.

AVG Anti-Spyware

AVG Anti-Spyware (previously ewido anti-spyware) can be used as a supplement for existing protection systems under Windows 2000 and XP to help protect you against the latest threats. That’s why AVG Anti-Spyware also works with all current anti-virus programs and firewalls. It protects you against spyware, adware and identity-theft.

 

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AVG Anti-Spyware offers a high protection level, with many useful features. After 30 days, some of the features get disabled, ie: Resident Shield,  but you’re still able to search for and remove malware, and update definitions manually.

 
 

 

 

Using AVG Anti-Spyware you can perform a complete system scan, a fast system scan, but also registry scans, memory scans and custom scans, and a shredder that offers Fast, Secure, and Paranoid levels of deletion.

The diagnostic tools are spread through different tabs, from running processes to start-up entries to connections. Analysis offers in-depth essential information not only on system processes but Internet connections, programs running from startup, browser plug-ins, and LSPs.

   

System requirements: Windows 2000/XP/2003

Download File Size: 11.84MB

Download your copy here 

There is also a pdf user manual available here