Spybot S&D (Search and Destroy)
Free, for Windows
www.safer-networking.org
Ad-Aware SE
Free, for Windows
www.lavasoft.de
Two great pieces of software for the price of one–and that is zero.
This unrelated duo of programs to find and remove booby traps spread across the Internet by ruthless advertisers and vicious hackers should be on all Internet-connected PCs.
A great number of the bugs these programs squash are not targeted by costly antivirus programs. They are not viruses that worm their way into a computer to cause harm, but rather tricks to do things like monitor your every Web move and create pop-up ads related to wherever you go.
These malicious bits of software also can take over your browser’s home page, load great numbers of unwanted programs on your machine and even keep track of every key you press and send the data back to the creator.
Ad-Aware SE is a free offering from Lavasoft Inc., the maker of probably the best-known commercial software aimed at keeping unwanted ads and tracking modules off corporate and consumer computers. In a great many cases it will ferret out all adware problems on a home computer by downloading fresh data showing the latest tricks being foisted. A simple interface makes scanning and cleaning a simple matter.
With comparable ease of use, Spybot S&D attacks even more vicious schemes designed to install monitoring software and gather data about what the user does.
Both adware and spyware can burrow deeply into Windows by making hidden changes to the system registry files, which will restore the infection on the next bootup even if erased. Other registry changes can disable key functions and cause serious system slowdowns.
Keep in mind that sometimes people acquire adware and spyware by downloading free software promising some service, like storing bookmarks, updating weather information and playing games. If you kill the spyware, some free software will no longer work, but you’ll get your privacy back.
BARTLEBY.COM
Free books worth far more than price
Speaking of free Web treasures, this is the 10th year that Bartleby.com has given visitors free books.
It started in 1994 with Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass” and now includes the full text of thousands of copyright-free fiction and non-fiction books, poems, hymns, encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauruses, plays, all of Shakespeare and other bits of mind candy.
MICROSOFT
Cracked Windows to get protection
Bill Gates announced before the world’s largest computer-security convention, called RSA, that by year’s end mighty Microsoft will start competing with makers of Norton, McAfee and other antivirus software with its own subscription service designed to protect people from Windows.
Meanwhile, a summer launch was set for Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0, a security-enhanced version of the current hack-plagued 6.0.
In related mayhem, the latest and near-bulletproof Netscape 8.0 browser was launched by America Online for those who can’t–or won’t–wait for Bill.
