Software Guide

[nemafakei]

Oh, yeah. Search didn't pick it up because it was spelt with two k's.

[Andrew]

Ok, I fixed that now. Thanks!

[Andrew]

AVG bought out Ewido antispyware, and is now releasing it under the AVG brand.

http://www.grisoft.com/doc/36704/lng/us/tpl/tpl01 <-announcement October 2nd

Has anyone tried it out? Free 30 day fully featured product, then after 30 days some features are disabled.

Hopefully it becomes as useful as AVG antivirus is.

Only antispyware software I use is spywareblaster (which supposedly keeps spyware from getting on computer in first place) and I guess ccleaner would delete some spyware.

Any new/better software for spyware? Mostly wondering for other peoples computers that would have a worse time with spyware than me. Any recomendations? I havn't used Ad-Aware in a while. I used spybot for a day to look and see if any spyware on computer (to see if spywareblaster/firefox/ccleaner missed any) and it found maybe 1 thing which was probably a cookie.

[erjin999]

I used AVG/Ewido recently (last week?) as the trial and was extremly surprised to find it found a good few infections of which I was unaware. Nod32 did know of them (well it knew of 1 out of 3  :P) and so I would recommend it to anyone, except its not free anymore, but if you can spare the $$

[Andrew]

Ewido antispyware was free?

I'll have to check out avg antispyware. For fun ;)

EDIT:

Tried AVG antispyware, looks good, it found 8 bad cookies (60+ instances of them).

Might keep it and see if it slows computer down, and how I like it. Free for 30 days ;)

[Beonid]

Crypt4Free = Free encryption tool. Don't know how good it is.

[Andrew]

OpenOffice 2.0.4 has been released.

http://www.openoffice.org/

2.0.4 introduces the possibility of extensions. Hopefully this works out as well as extensions do for Firefox.

[nemafakei]

Hm. Is there a 2.0>2.0.4 patch available?

[Andrew]

Not that I know of :(

If you have access to high speed internet say at school (university campus), might be worth buying a USB stick, assuming you have a recent (~2001?) computer (that has USB ports). Then you can download from wherever and then transfer it to USB device, then onto your computer. They are pretty cheap nowadays.

[erjin999]

Crypt4Free = Free encryption tool. Don't know how good it is.

Axcrypt is one I had used at work temporarily. Forgot about that until beo posted that above...

It was ok, except it somehow stored the decription key in registry, or some similar problem which didnt work for me...Basically, I was probably too stupid to use it right  ;).

[gryphon]

except it somehow stored the decription key in registry

Seems like a really nice and safe feature to have in that type of software ....

[erjin999]

Like I said, I could have done it wrong. But it did seem the keyfile could be removed without stopping decryption :P

[Andrew]

I tried new developement release of GIMP (windows version) found at filehippo.com. Don't bother with it, I got errors and crashes left and right.

Using AVG antispyware, everytime I start my computer the resident shield is inactive, yet I tell it to be active. Anyone else noticing this being disabled after every reboot?

[Andrew]

According to filehippo.com

IE 7.0 RC1 (filehippo says it is release version) has been released. Wonder if installing it will screw up computer or cause IE to be slower or add more stuff to startup processes. I'd assume most people should upgrade even if they do not use IE (other than the odd time firefox doesn't render a page).

With firefox 2.0 being released in a week or so, I'm gonna enjoy all the comparison debates and flamewars.

Ew, according to filehippo it also installs outlook express. There better be an option to not install that. Would be nice if there was an "uninstall" option for IE and outlook in the add/remove page. Wouldn't want more antitrust lawsuits.

[erjin999]

Try imaging your harddrive so that when you do mess it up bny trying out funky new software, it is easy to put back.

[Andrew]

Less than 24 hours after IE 7 has been released, a security flaw has been found.

Of course this same security flaw was found in IE 6 in May 2006.

So much for it being "secure". They probably spent more money marketing IE 7 than developing it.

According to MS chat with developers

Q:  Now that IE7 is nearing completion, can you give any information on how regularly you plan to release future versions of IE?

A: We definitely plan to release on a regular basis. Exactly when the next release will be is difficult to predict adn we still have plenty of planning and work to do. You can be assured that it will not be 5 years until the next release of IE though :) we are plannign the next two versions now.

So this means that the competition is forcing microsoft to update their software. Good. I hope for 30% firefox, 30% IE, 30% Opera and 10% other browsers market share in 3 years. That way they are all kept up to date and choice is available to consumers.

Apparently IE 7 is being forced upon users November 1st.

If you do not want to update, MS has a toolkit to stop this link

Oddly, you need to verify windows (WGA) in order to not install their software.

[Andrew]

AVG 7.5 has been released (major update).

You need to manually download and install the update.

When installing select "Repair" option.

Restart of computer is required.

EDIT:

Hmm, someone at digg said it will autoupdate in a couple days.

New features:

    * Improved virus detection based on better heuristics and NTFS data streams scanning

    * Smaller installation and update files

    * Improved user interface

    * Windows Vista ready

    * and more

[erjin999]

Ewido antispyware was free?

It becomes freware after 30 days if not purchased.

[Andrew]

I added

Open Source Alternative website has many open source programs that can replace proprietary software.

Nice website. Showed some programs I never heard of before that look nice.

EDIT:

I think this will be shown as a "new post" thingy.

Openoffice 2.2 has been released. Lots of bugs fixed.

[Andrew]

Anyone use Hosts file to block connections with ad/spyware companies?

Apparently it stops any connection possible, and makes adblockers obsolete. It's been around a long time, I used it a couple times. Started using it again yesterday. Only problem is that a couple websites were slow connecting to but I havn't noticed it today.

It's so good you can use IE7 and browse the web without getting ads. :P

Definitely worth trying. Just remember to backup your original host file. And to read everything about the program in case you notice computer going slower or something. Some people say to put a "  0  " instead of the 127.0.0.1 in the host file it shrinks the size and makes it easier to run. I did that and it made the file 50kb smaller (use wordpad to replace 127.0.0.1, notepad froze on me), not worse than using 127.0.0.1 so far.

Foxit reader has been updated several times. I think help->check for updates from the program will get latest version.

K-Lite Mega Codec Pack has been updated several times (regularly updated).

[erjin999]

I download the K-Lite media pack on occassion, really when I need to reinstall it or do a fresh install.

Foxit reader, can you now get rid of the small ad ? Not that I mind but you couldnt do that before.

As for HOSTS file, we use it in emperor to let us play on servers other then the original hard-wired ones. You can do some funny stuff, like redirect www.google.com to www.msn.com and stuff (although you may need to use MSN's IP not URL).

Spybot S&D uses it in the exact way you just described, but adding hundreds, if not thousands, of URLs and making them point to 127.0.0.1.

As for making them point to 0, I might try that. Sounds like a good idea. :)

[Andrew]

Yep, you can get rid of the foxit ad. Somewhat confusing to do, but once you do it you shouldn't see it again even after updating. I'm sure there is a registry hack that does it simpler, but I havn't heard of one lately.

What I do is

1. open any pdf

2. uncheck "advertisment" in "view" menu

3. Umm, I dunno, I've tried finding I sure way of getting rid of it but it seems to be random. Apparently it's not supposed to happen unless you get a paid version but it is possible without paying.

I repeatedly do steps 1 and 2, then I go to file->close, then file exit. And then repeat step 1, 2, and mix it up with all the different ways to close the pdf/program. Eventually the ad goes away and stays away.

I just did->foxit icon below top left foxit icon->close (ctrlF$, then top left foxit icon->close altF4 and it got rid of ad for good.

But now if I enable ad again and try same thing the ad doesn't go away. Actually it does again after trying 3 more times.

Sorry no simple answer, but after 1 minute of testing eventually you can get the ad to go away for good.

So best possible quick way to get rid of it:

1. open any pdf

2. uncheck "advertisment" in "view" menu

3. press ctrl F4, then alt F4.

4. open pdf again and see if advertisement still showing. If so do steps 1-4 again. Should go away after 5 tries or so.

[erjin999]

Computer programs/women, logical eh ?

Ill give it a try at some point (when I next open a PDF and remember).

[Andrew]

If you want an even simpler pdf viewer I found one. The opensource Sumatra PDF which is developed by a single person is even more lightweight than foxit pdf. Less than a year old.

A single 900kb file (a text preferences file is aso created, which I think means it does not rely on stupid win registry). I'll give it some more time to develop to see if it is a possible foxit replacement/complement.

I'd suggest the zip file to test it out. I havn't tried the installer.

[Andrew]

Openoffice 2.2.1 has been released

changelog, only a bugfix release.

Klite mega codec pack is no more. Apple complained about quicktime alternative. It is still being developed by others, but wont be hosted at codecguide.com or put into their codec packs. I guess now all you can do is install the normal codec pack and real alternative separately. Havn't tried them yet, but I'd recommend the standard codec pack. Or do what I'm doing and waiting a week or more for newer updates before switching.