I've been hearing that some people haven't been happy with Trend Micro's version of HijackThis (HJT). Many of you might be familiar with HJT. It's one of the most well known and most useful tools to help remove spyware and adware from Windows machines.
Last year, Merijn, the creator of HJT sold it to Trend Micro and stopped any development on his own. Since then Trend Micro has developed their own version of HJT. The heart of the complaints come from the "AnalyzeThis" reporting feature that Trend Micro placed inside of the new HJT.
I tried it out recently. I have no problem with the reporting feature. It's well labeled and it tells you it's going to report home. My only complaint would be that they don't tell you what it does. They only use it for statistics on infections.
Is this labeled good enough for you?
In any case, if you need to use HJT, I feel it's fine to use either version. Below is an article that comes close to labeling Trend Micro's copy as spyware. You should decide for yourself.
Merijn, the creator of HijackThis™ recently sold the popular application used to remove malware to Trend Micro™. In addition to improvements like support for Windows Vista™, they’ve added a deceptively titled “AnalyzeThis” button. While the average user likely thinks the AnalyzeThis button provides helpful information for diagnosing their log, it’s main purpose is to send the HJT log data to Trend Micro. Unfortunately, unless you carefully read the Trend Micro End User License Agreement, you would probably never know that the AnalyzeThis button submits the data from your HijackThis log to Trend Micro for use by them and their partners.
Every now and then, Jack writes me a long letter telling me about all of the cool free programs he's been trying out. Sure, he gets into trouble now and then, but I think he has just as much fun fixing problems as he does trying out new stuff.
Last week he mentioned a system utility he's trying out called WinTabber. I checked it out at SiteAdvisor, and it's rated safe to try. As with any program, your mileage may vary.
Some info from Jack Alexander:
I'm still not finished playing with it (WinTabber) yet, but it does seem to be better than Stick. At this point it does seem to have some quirks, but that could just be my machine. Ever since I tried that TcSpy program, I've been having to do damage control. Tonight Firefox decided it was going to have a major problem and not load, so uninstalled it, ran the reg cleaner in ccleaner, reinstalled, and all is fine now. I have problems with Firefox at least once a week because of all of the risks i take trying programs. But with Erunt and System Restore and a few other tricks it's hard to actually crash XP.
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Quote from the website
Do you get frustrated trying to find the right window on your desktop, or with alt-tab but they all look the same?
WinTabber may be the answer ....
WinTabber can add tabs to many windows. A tabbed browser ,tabbed putty , tabbed terminal or tabbed shell, tabbed anything. Multi tab your windows in seconds. A terminal or shell with tabs work faster and efficiently! Having multiple windows as tabs will give a better overview of your windows than before. Also having multiple ssh sessions by the click of a tab works faster and efficiently.
Knytt Stories - from Nifflas, the maker of Within a Deep Forest and Knytt
A lot of people should have already tried these games at least once in their time. I casually go by Nifflas's site every once in a while to see whats happening. To my surprise I found out that he was releasing a sequel to Kyntt!
You are Juni and you're mission is to stop an evil machine that has sucked the life out of your world.
This one (Knytt Stories), is much harder and you can download even more levels once you have finished the first one. He had also included an editor so you can be creative and create your own worlds. It has become such a quality game that gonintendo.com have even mentioned it. I don't know many freeware games that get mentioned there.
Anyway, instead of reading this go and download it now and find out why it's so good.
While you're there, don't forget to try out the others mentioned as well :)
In Knytt Stories, each level is its own little adventure. One level is included with the game, where you have to stop a machine that draws the life out of the planet. An official expansion pack is also featured at the website with four original levels.
Old Newsletter
I like to look back and see what I was thinking about. Here's another letter from the wayback machine.
Gary at Internet Fixes continues to amaze me with hundreds and thousands of tips for your PC. Whatever your operating system, or how you use it, a visit to Gary's site will soon have you saying "So that's how you do this!".
1. I have two user accounts, both administrative. I would like to close out one of them but cannot figure out how to move all the files from "owner" to "new". Would you be able to explain how to do this, if so, I would really appreciate your help.
2. After transferring files from one Hard Drive to another I can not open some files. I keep getting an error Access Denied. How Do I Take Ownership Of A Folder Or File?
3. In past versions of Windows I remember being able to use my Dial Up Modem to dial out as I would a normal phone. I can not find the Phone Dialer in Windows XP?
4. Every time I open My Network Places I wait and wait for the Network Connections to show up in Windows XP. Is there anything I can do to speed things up?
Here's a good place to upload files to let someone else check them for bugs.
Quote from the website
VirusTotal is a service that analyzes suspicious files and facilitates the quick detection of viruses, worms, trojans, and all kinds of malware detected by antivirus engines.
This website gives people something they may not know that they need. A way to view documents online even if they don't have the software that is normally required to view the document.
The main use of the site is to allow you an easy way to search for documents online.
Here's an example of a Word Document that's hosted at my web host, PBwiki.com. There's no need to download it and open it in MS Word. It's all there to see.
Docufarm also has IE and Firefox addons. According to LifeHacker, the addons let you preview any document link you click on while surfing. That could be very handy.
Since I'm always posting stuff on web pages, I keep an eye out for safe secure ways that let people contact me. I found this service in the CoolSitesNewsletter.
I've tried it out and I give it a big thumbs up. This would be a good tool for posting contact info at blogs and forums.
COOLSITES is a list of safe, fun, useful, informative and just plain cool websites and programs that are FREE, FREE and FREE. All of the programs and websites I list are free. If I list anything that is so good but isn't free I will list the price with it.
You need a free 2.8 GB Gmail account to access many of the cool features at Google. After more than two years in beta testing Gmail is open to the public. Just go to http://gmail.com and sign up for an account.
I think Gmail works best in the awesome Firefox browser. It's free, easy to use, and it's way more secure than Internet Explorer. My favorite thing to do is to customize Firefox so that it does much more than IE ever could. You can select new button controls for your toolbars, install extensions to add new features, or change the look of your browser with themes - the way Firefox looks and works is under your control.
Wow! Over 800 people and still growing! I invite all of you to record your locations on this map. You can include as little or as much information as you wish. I think you'll enjoy seeing yourself there.
Here's a small look at my frapper map.
Write your own review
I get many of the reviews in the newsletter from the readers. You don't have to be a genius or computer guru. Just answer a few questions and send me a review. I'll probably put you in the newsletter.
What do you have to say?
Just tell me what article you are talking about and leave me your comment.
Quote from the website
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