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Archives: Software

A very broad category that covers programs and utilities that aren't a part of Windows itself.

Final version of SyncToy released

I've been using the beta version of SyncToy for a few weeks. The final version is now released. This white paper explains how it works: SyncToy is a free PowerToy for Microsoft Windows XP that provides an easy to use, highly customizable program to help copy, move, and synchronize different...

Windows Desktop Search glitch

The more I use it, the more I like Windows Desktop Search, which is included with the MSN Search Toolbar. I especially like that you can use command line operators to create custom search requests, and you can save searches as Internet shortcuts. I've found a few glitches, including one that's very...

More details about RSS in Longhorn

Microsoft has a new home page for RSS in Longhorn. Here's a reasonably simplified explanation of RSS Support in Longhorn. The specification itself is here. This license information appears at the bottom of the specification page: Microsoft’s copyrights in this specification are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License (version 2.5)....

More on Microsoft and RSS

Joe Wilcox at Microsoft Monitor has a series of three posts on Microsoft’s RSS Platform. (Part 2 is here and Part 3 is here.) They're well worth reading, with some interesting insights and a nice historical overview. It's too bad the first post in the series starts with a big mistake: Microsoft...

Wow! Microsoft releases new RSS standards under a Creative Commons license

I'm listening to the live stream of Dean Hachamovitch's keynote at Gnomedex, where Larry Lessig just gave a public thank you to Microsoft for its decision to make its new list extension to the RSS standard available under a Creative Commons license. For those who don't remember, Lessig was the...

Bluffing for startup money

A CNET News article from last week, High-stakes start-ups, paints an unusual picture of one of my favorite software companies: Sitting at his desk in a small, stuffy office in a gritty corner of San Francisco's South of Market district, [Brad] Meador is nonchalant about the win. It's just another...

MSN replies on tabbed browsing

Denise Ho, a Microsoft product manager working on the MSN Search Toolbar, has this update on tabs: Our goal in delivering this feature was to give IE users a tabbed browsing solution to enhance overall online search and browse experiences prior to the official release of IE7 without them having...

Anyone know how to make your own tiny/short URLs?

One of the most frustrating aspects of writing a computer book is providing pointers to useful information on the Web. We have a lot of URLs in this book, and most are long and random - expecting the reader to type in one of these URLs from the printed edition isn't...

Tip of the day: Get the ultimate list of Microsoft keyboard shortcuts

You say you hate to take your hands off the keyboard to click the mouse? Then you'll love this master list of keyboard shortcuts covering a long, long list of Microsoft products, including Internet Explorer 6 and nearly every program in the Office 2000, Office XP, and Office 2003 families. If you use...

Today's clinic in bad journalism

Here's why I don't trust or recommend BetaNews. Nate Mook of BetaNews writes an outrageously bad lede to a story on the Google toolbar this morning: In a marketing tactic used primarily by spyware and adware companies, Google has begun bundling its Google Toolbar and Desktop Search software with the popular WinZip archive utility....

MSN toolbar adds tabs to IE6

I just installed the new MSN Search Toolbar, which includes an updated version of the Windows Desktop Search utility and adds tabbed browsing capabilities to Internet Explorer 6. First reactions: The search tool absolutely rocks, and the degree to which you can customize it is very, very impressive. For now,...

Earth to PC World

Spotted in my news reader within seconds of one another: First, this Opera press release, by way of Neowin: Opera once again wins PC World's World Class Award for best Web browser Opera Software today announced that for the second year running it has received PC World's World Class 2005...

Tip of the day: Get your downloaded programs organized

If you're like most people, you store downloaded programs in a variety of locations-on the desktop, in the My Documents folder, or wherever the Save As dialog box happens to be pointing when you download a file. I recommend that you look for these downloaded program files on your hard...

Press release or review?

I'm not the only one who's noticed the mainstream press falling over each other to declare their unbridled love for Tiger. At Columbia Journalism Review's CJR Daily, Brian Montopoli asks Which of These Things Is Not Like The Other? It's Friday, so let's play a game. It's called "Press Release...

Walt Mossberg reviews Tiger

Just finished reading Walt's review of Apple's new OS upgrade in the Wall Street Journal. It's filled with cool features, according to Walt, who says it's "the best and most advanced personal computer operating system on the market, despite a few drawbacks. It leaves Windows XP in the dust." A...

Trend Micro flubs an update

Last Friday my main computer started exhibiting some odd behavior. The case fan was running full tilt all day long, and response from other applications was slow. When I looked at Task Manager, I saw that the System process was pegging out at 99 percent and making it impossible for...

Windows desktop search tools compared

Over at Ars Technica, Adam Baratz does a fine job of reviewing five free Windows desktop search tools. Skip over the first few grafs of the long-winded introduction and you'll get to this clear summary of the review criteria: The real novelty of desktop search apps can be found in...

Favorite software list updated

I've updated my Favorite Software list. These are programs I have installed on the computer I use every day. I trust and recommend every program on this list. Since I last updated the list, I've added several programs and deleted just a handful. Gone are Napster, Hello (from Picasa), and Snapstream BeyondTV....

How this blogger does it

Phil Rodemann has some kind words and a question: How do bloggers do it? What tools should a committed blogger use? If you are committed to drawing traffic, what helps keep the workload to a manageable level? I have two tools that make my life easier. One is NewsGator Outlook Edition,...

Microsoft buys Groove

I was surprised to see this press release: Microsoft will make its growing business and technology bonds with Groove Networks permanent today as it announces plans to acquire the Beverly, Mass.-based provider of collaboration software for ad-hoc workgroups. The acquisition will add Groove's products to the lineup of Microsoft Office...

Photo album software recommendations?

I need some recommendations. I have a retired friend who is about as non-technical as a person can get. He loves his digital camera, though, and he’s a social animal. Every time he goes to a party or on a trip with his many friends he snaps a lot of photos. For...

Comment spam under control

Since this blog opened for business in December 2002, y’all have left 700 or so comments. But the number of comments that haven’t been posted is more interesting. For several months last fall, I stopped accepting any new comments, while I figured out the best way to cope with comment spammers. I settled...

More on Virus Hunter and BitDefender

Recently I reported on iDownload’com’s Virus Hunter, which bears a strong resemblance to the highly regarded BitDefender. (See “iDownload: A case history in unethical marketing” for more details.) I wrote to BitDefender and asked them to explain the relationship. Today, I received this reply from a spokesperson for BitDefender: iDownload is...

iDownload: A case history in unethical marketing

Earlier today, I wrote about the efforts of a company called iDownload to suppress apparently accurate descriptions of their product by several anti-spyware activists. Since that time, I have done more research on the company, and I can report exclusively that they have used the trademark of a widely respected security...

ClearContext e-mail survey

I have previously written about an Outlook add-in called ClearContext, which use to keep my Inbox organized and recommend whole-heartedly. The folks at ClearContext are currently running an e-mail survey to help them plan their next version. Fill out the survey and you get a $5 coupon on their software plus...

Copernic Desktop Search gets an update

I’ve recommended the free Copernic Desktop Search over X1 and other contenders. Copernic just released a new Copernic Desktop Search v1.5 Beta. I’ve installed it and it appears to work well. As with any software that includes the word “beta” in its description, you should exercise greater-than-usual caution. But so...

The security software industry wants you to be afraid

I’ve been writing a lot about the flaws in the commercial security software business lately. Today, Joe Wilcox at Microsoft Monitor inadvertently provided an excellent illustration of why this industry is so fundamentally flawed. Joe had an experience with a Symantec software package today that make him think Symantec is doing a...

A closer look at MSN Desktop Search

Hmmm. I may have to take a closer look at MSN Desktop Search based on Michael Sippey’s updated review: A couple of months back I posted a shoot-from-the-hip review of MSN's Desktop Search beta. I'm here to recant. Eat my words. Take it all back. Because I now love the...

RSS shootout at DEMO

DEMO’s ringmaster, Chris Shipley, likes to organize related products into clusters of two or three. That makes it easy for people who are interested in a particular technology or type of product to arrange their schedules. It also turns some sessions into mini-shootouts. That’s what happened yesterday when Pluck and Onfolio...

More stuff I saw at DEMO

Here are a few interesting products I saw yesterday at DEMO. Cloudmark (formerly SpamNet) showed off a browser add-on called SafetyBar for Internet Explorer. It’s a logical extension of their SafetyBar for Outlook and Outlook Express, which uses a community-based filtering system to very effectively block spam and viruses. The idea behind the SafetyBar...

More thoughts on DEMO

Dwight Silverman of the Houston Chronicle has resurrected his blog at the Houston Chronicle. That’s good news! (Dwight, where’s the RSS feed?) In one of his first posts, he points out that I was at Demo yesterday but not updating as frequently as he wishes I would have. I plead not guilty by reason of strategy....

A new Media Center contender?

Wired News has a solid story on the DEMO conference: Six Minutes to Stand Out. Reporter Daniel Terdiman singled out one company that also impressed me with its six-minute presentation: …cable TV companies may find themselves threatened by Mediabolic, whose network media player is designed to give TV viewers a previously unavailable...

Demo details

Jason, Marc, and the rest of the Weblogs,Inc. team are Blogging DEMO. I spent half of Monday at the show and will spend all of Tuesday. It’s an eclectic mix of products, most of them still under development and some of which might never see the light of day. But...

Goodbye, X1. Hello (again), Copernic!

For the past four months, I’ve been evaluating two desktop search programs: X1 and Copernic Desktop Search. I’ve given each one a fair test, and the contest is over. Copernic wins. Both programs do a thoroughly acceptable job of very quickly locating the exact message, file, picture, or contact that...

Browser speed test: much ado about nothing

Slashdot posted a link to this big browser speed comparison, and now I’m seeing all sorts of people discussing it. My reaction? Ho-hum. The author starts his piece by saying, “There is a speed war on the web.” I don’t think so. Do you really care that Opera 7.54 can load...

Trend Micro fails the spyware test

A little over a year ago, I evaluated five antivirus programs and decided to switch from Norton AntiVirus to Trend Micro’s PC-cillin. Since then I’ve been happy with its performance. It updates itself regularly, identifies and quarantines those virus-infected attachments that make it past my e-mail gateway, and is generally unobtrusive....

Mac OS X on a PC?

Kent Pribbernow is trying to stir up trouble at Digital Media Thoughts: In a recent interview with Forbes Magazine, Steve Jobs makes the surprising claim that three of the top PC makers are asking him to license OSX for use on their PCs. Hmmm. That might have been a smart...

Protecting kids from Kazaa

In the comments to an earlier post, Ken asks: Is there a way, e.g., a setting from within Internet Explorer, or perhaps his antivirus program (Norton, I think), to prevent his teenage daugher (the real culprit here) from downloading this especially malicious crudware in the first place?    Sure there is,...

Using Norton AV? Get this fix

Earlier this week, Symantec published technical details of a security flaw that affects many of its consumer and enterprise products. (Read Symantec UPX Parsing Engine Heap Overflow for the gory details.) If you use Norton AntiVirus 2003 or 2005, you’re OK. If you use Norton AntiVirus 2004 or Norton Internet Security...

Kazaa mess hits the mainstream

An Associated Press reporter picks up the Kazaa story I wrote about last week. For the most part, the details in the short AP story are the same as those I wrote about, although I hadn’t heard this one before: Mary Still, a lawyer representing Sharman, said in an interview that...

Anyone out there using Prevx?

I ran across Prevx while researching software to protect Windows users from viruses, adware, and spyware. It promises to “prevent attacks on your computer that other security products don’t even see.” I plan to test it, of course, but am curious whether anyone out there has personal experience they’d like to share....

Which Windows e-mail program is best?

In yesterday’s Washington Post, Rob Pegoraro has a review of several e-mail programs that left me scratching my head. Let me see if I can give you the short version. Here’s the intro: One of the two most widely used programs in this category, Microsoft's Outlook Express, has not had a meaningful update...

Why I hate Kazaa (and why you should too)

Ooooooh, I love this! Australia’s apcmag.com has been diligently following Kazaagate, a civil trial now going on in Sydney’s Federal Court. Today, reporter Garth Montgomery reports on a whopper of a confidential document that Kazaa's owners tried to suppress: It’s a philosophical rant from [Sharman CTO Philip] Morle, which is printed...

The history of the Windows PowerToys

Raymond Chen wrote the original Tweak UI for Windows 95. In a post on his most excellent blog, The Old New Thing, he tells the history of the Windows PowerToys. It’s fun reading, especially given that this is the 10th anniversary of Windows 95. But I’m linking to it here...

Cover your tracks in Firefox

For at least the last five years, I’ve recommended a program called PurgeIE as a way to clean up traces that Internet Explorer leaves behind. Recently, I heard from Jim Lawler, the program’s developer, that he’s released a Firefox-compatible alternative called PurgeFox. I’ve put the program through its paces over the past month or so...

Organize your photos with Picasa

If you have a digital camera, Picasa is worth a try. I used the software before Google bought the company and fell in love with its slick, simple interface. My favorite feature is the timeline view, which lets you scroll through your photo collection by the date the pictures were taken, ignoring folders...

As long as we're covering flame wars

You want to read a rant? A really great rant? Steve Gilliard is your man. Compared to Steve, Lewis Black is Mr. Rogers. Steve is angry at Mac fanatics who insist that replacing your Windows PC with a Mac will solve all your problems. I've put the excerpt from Steve's...

The Firefox flame war is on

I predicted Peter Torr would start a flame war with his Firefox post, and sure enough... To his credit, he's addressed most of the criticisms directly in this follow-up post, entitled, I love Slashdot. My favorite part: You're spreading FUD Well, yes, I suppose I am. People should fear code...

How can you trust Firefox?

Microsoft's Peter Torr invites a flame war with his essay, How can I trust Firefox? He walks through the installation and configuration process with Firefox and determines that it reinforces some particularly bad habits for users. He concludes: I actually think Firefox is a nice browser. It seems to render...

Fighting comment spam

I allow comments on this Web site. In fact, I encourage them. In the past, I've had to shut down comments for fairly long periods of time because of "comment spam," automated attacks that fill the comments section with plugs for whatever sleazy product you can imagine. The comments are...

Firefox stops blocking popups

A VC writes: One of the main attractions of Firefox is the lack of spyware and associated stuff like popups that you get when you switch. Well at least for me, that's over.I got about four or five Firefox popups last week. The one shown above was courtesy of Panasonic....

Finnie on Firefox

Scot Finnie writes a characteristically exhaustive review of Firefox. In general, he gives it a big thumbs-up, as I do. But he misses a few points - or more accurately, he's missing a few extensions. Scot says, "You can't change the order of Firefox's tabs. They appear in the order...

The Great Software List

Zaine Ridling has posted a couple of interesting comments here recently. I followed the link on his name to The Great Software List and was astounded. This page is provided so that you don't have to spend weeks finding the perfect program. You can come here and confidently download software...

Which Windows utilities should you run?

In the comments on another post, longtime reader Ken asks a great question: ...I would love to get your thoughts on so-called "performance software" generally, such as utility suites (e.g. Systemworks, SystemSuite, System Mechanic, and the like), defraggers (such as Diskeeper and PerfectDisk), memory managers (e.g. Memokit, Cacheman), etc. --...

Shoebox or file cabinet?

Old joke: The world is divided into two kinds of people, those who divide the world into two groups and those who don't. Heh. Actually, I think the world is divided into people who file stuff neatly and those who throw everything into a shoebox. I've historically fallen into the...

Firefox momentum

Paul Thurrott writes about Firefox: The browser wars are back, and this time it's personal: Upstart Web browser maker Mozilla Foundation now expects its surging Firefox browser to command 10 percent of the Web browser market by the end of 2005. "I think we'll get to 10 percent over the...

Software: the 7-day rule

Jeff Sandquist - Microsoft Evangelist has a great rule when it comes to new software: I love to try out new software all the time, in fact its sort of an obsession. I'm always on the prowl for cool new applications. After seven days of use though if I'm not...

Google = Spyware? I think not...

Wes Felter has an odd comment about Google's latest: Google Desktop Search somehow intercepts regular Google searches so it can splice in local search results. I've heard of spyware that splices ads into result pages from major search engines; it may use the same technique. I wonder why Windows or...

Desktop search alternatives

OK, I tried Google Desktop Search. I like its simplicity, and the way it brings up e-mail and files in the familiar Google window. Then I installed Copernic Desktop Search. Whoa. This is good! After 30 minutes working with it I'm really impressed with its power, and I think Google...

.NET Framework SP1

Charles writes: "After downloading and installing SP2 the first upated listed in the Windows Update was a critical update - .NET Framework 1.1 Service Pack 1. In a SP2 chat converstaion today I was told it was OK to install on top of the SP2 Update. Is this also your...

Norton AntiVirus for five bucks?

Got an old copy of Norton AntiVirus? Looking for an upgrade to Norton AntiVirus 2003 Professional? How does $4.99 sound? True, you'll have to shell out $65 to order this package, but you can then get a $30 rebate from Symantec for upgrading, plus another $30 upgrade from Amazon.com. (If...

Another spam fighter gets swallowed up

If you're keeping an eye on the market for spam-fighting software, you're probably as distressed as I am to find that Network Associates has acquired Deersoft, makers of SpamAssassin Pro . This is a follow-up to their purchase last year of SpamKiller. Unfortunately, Network Associates has a less-than-stellar track record...