April 24, 2008
Microsoft exec loses his cool on Vista upgrades
Scott Dunn was the first journalist to reveal on Apr. 3, 2008, that Vista Service Pack 1 allows its "upgrade edition" to be clean-installed just like its "full edition." This is a feature that hasn't changed in Vista since I described it back on Feb. 1, 2007. Read more »
Nine must-have freeware apps rise to the top
The "best freeware" lists published by Web sites and magazines frequently trumpet dozens of programs, but the results reflect the subjective opinions of just one or two testers. To find the best of the best, I compared roundups of "great" freeware conducted recently by four reputable publications to find the programs that were endorsed by at least three of the reviews. Read more »
Keep malvertisements from infecting your PC
Some of the Flash ads that crowd your browser are serving up more than just another annoying sales pitch. Windows Secrets readers suggest simple and free methods for protecting yourself against an onslaught of malware-toting advertisements. Read more »
A new twist on table manners
Mothers spend years teaching their children to keep their elbows off the table, chew their food with their mouths closed, and avoid slurping their drinks. Read more »
How Firefox 3 blocks bad sites better
With the release of Firefox 3 imminent, your ability to identify and block "bad" Web sites automatically is about to take a giant leap forward. A fascinating new feature in the browser adds near-real-time — and anonymous — checking to stop phishing and other malicious sites in their tracks. Read more »
Detect zombie PCs by sniffing your network
If one of the PCs on your network were infected with a botnet, how would you know? Identify the interloper by using the free Wireshark network monitor, which also helps you troubleshoot e-mail and other programs that fail to establish or maintain a network connection. Read more »
Finally, here comes XP Service Pack 3
On the heels of Vista Service Pack 1 comes the update that far more Windows users have been anticipating. Unfortunately, XP Service Pack 3 is an unremarkable update for everyone except network admins, who will appreciate the additional control over wired and wireless connections offered by SP3's Network Access Protection. Read more »
April 17, 2008
Two search engines help you find Windows info
How many times have you said to yourself, "I know I saw an article three or four months ago, but now I'm danged if I can find it"? Our site now makes it easier for you to locate the exact trick you're looking for in more than 6,000 articles that our contributors have written in the past few years — or on the entire Web. Read more »
Flash ads bearing malware plague popular sites
A Flash-based advertisement that appeared last week on the USA Today site downloaded malicious code to users' computers, generating erroneous warnings of a malware infestation and offering a phony solution. The Flash vulnerability is so widespread that such "malvertisements" may be present on thousands of sites, but there are measures you can take to reduce your exposure. Read more »
The U.S. election process, in a nutshell
For the first time in decades, voters of all stripes are actually paying attention. But just how does the whole U.S. political system work, anyway? Read more »
Three fast, thorough, easy-to-use disk cleaners
CCleaner, Cleanup Assistant, and DTweak Pro are powerful, ready-to-run tools that target junk files and more. Along with these best-of-breed, GUI-based disk-cleanup tools, I'll tell you about the most popular choices sent in by your fellow readers — and maybe by you! Read more »
The best — and worst — personal firewalls
If you chose the firewall on your PC based on reputation, you may be in for an unpleasant surprise. The Matousec Firewall Challenge answers the million-dollar question: "Is my firewall really protecting me?" Read more »
.NET Service Pack 1 creates a tax-season .MESS
An unannounced auto-deployment of Microsoft's .NET Service Pack 1 rocked the accounting industry by affecting key applications right before the U.S. tax deadline. This week, I'll help you control the damage by providing you with a primer on .NET patching. Read more »
April 10, 2008
Outages cast doubts on MS online services
With the recent public betas of Office Live Workspace and Microsoft Online Services, the Redmond company is ratcheting up its efforts to deliver the power of MS Office — or at least a portion of it — to the Internet. But Microsoft's ability to offer software as a service (SaaS) has come under fire due to server outages and bugs that have plagued the company's online services in the last several months. Read more »
Article on Vista upgrade trick rattles the cages
The lead story in Windows Secrets on Apr. 3 revealed that Vista Service Pack 1 allows the "upgrade edition" of the OS to be clean-installed, something that supposedly requires Vista's more-costly "full edition." The same trick was present in the original release of Vista, as I reported more than one year ago, but the fact that Microsoft executives have allowed the procedure to remain in SP1 sparked yet another round of thrills on the Web. Read more »
A new approach for handling telemarketers
Telemarketers. They have an uncanny knack of calling right when you don't want them to. Whether you're just sitting down to dinner, forced to interupt a relaxing shower, or deep in R.E.M., they generally find you at the most inconvenient moment — all so they can try to subscribe you to a magazine you've never heard of. Read more »
Beware disk cleaners that can make things worse
My search for the best disk-cleanup program has uncovered some that aren't worth the time and effort, let alone paying a registration fee. One of the utilities I tried even left more unnecessary files on my drive than were there before I ran the program! Read more »
Disabling AutoRun still leaves you open to attack
The worst kind of security bug is one that Microsoft probably won't be fixing any time soon. This week, I tell you about an annoying security problem in which Windows Vista fails to disable its AutoRun and AutoPlay features, even though you think you've got these two security risks under control. Read more »
Patches for IE should be top priority this week
Patches for IE should be our first priority this month, with several vulnerabilities that are ripe for malicious attacks facing us. There's still no sign of Windows XP SP3 in the near future, but Windows Server 2008 is receiving its first patches, and Vista SP1 is subject to a much-needed patch for an earlier patch that's proved troublesome. Read more »
April 3, 2008
It's official: upgrade hack included in Vista SP1
The new Service Pack 1 version of Windows Vista allows end users to purchase the "upgrade edition" and install it on any PC — with no need to purchase the more expensive "full edition." The same behavior was present when Vista was originally released, but the fact that the trick wasn't removed from SP1 suggests that Microsoft executives approved the back door as a way to make the price of Vista more appealing to sophisticated buyers. Read more »
VirtualBox is an impressive VM contender
My Mar. 27 lead story described Microsoft's Virtual PC and VMWare's VMWare Player as virtual-machine software that PC users should consider — but there's a great alternative to both. A few readers recommended VirtualBox, and my tests show that this open-source upstart includes the best features of both of its competitors. Read more »
Video shows top 10 ways to break your server
The staff of Scalent Systems labor ceaselessly to quell your common computing woes — again and again. Read more »
Use Vista's superior system font in XP
My last column explained how to make Vista's all-new application fonts (Calibri, Candara, Corbel, Cambria, Constantia, and Consolas) work for free on your Windows XP or 2000 computer. This week, permit me to show you how to install Vista's new system font, Segoe UI, on your Windows XP computer — yes, legally — and use it as your WinXP system font. Read more »
Powerful net monitoring: learn the whys and hows
This week, I'll cover some of the benefits of using advanced tools such as Wireshark and give you detailed answers to some of your questions from my previous columns. Wireshark can reveal the stream of attacks your PC faces every day, so you can focus on the priority events you need to deal with. Read more »
