Typing Up Loose Ends

Last week’s column ended with methods to ignore low threat intruders, rather than delete them and risk damaging your computer. We learned how to ensure that Ad-watch opens each time we reboot so that the intruders will have a more difficult time invading our computers.

Still, we’re left with cookies that pop-up advertisements while we’re surfing, Windows registry entries that direct emails enticing us to click potentially dangerous attachments or web sites, and possibly more.

The accumulation of registry entries slows your computer. The registry becomes larger and fragmented.

I’ll introduce a few new tools to mitigate some of these irritants.

A product called Pop-Up Washer by Webroot Software stops the display of extra windows opening up when you open a web site. Usually these pop-ups are enticements for pornography, ‘miraculous’ health products, easy mortgages, online ‘pharmacies’ and the like. Surfers might be fooled into thinking the sites have credibility because they open along with ABC News or MSN.

Pop-Up Washer is priced at $29.95. It’s probably cheaper at larger stores and online sellers of software. I find it very effective.

You can find Webroot Software at http://www.webroot.com/wb/index.php .

I’m sure their other products are also effective. But their Spyware remover doesn’t have the support forum that Ad-ware does. In my column next week I’ll introduce using the support forum for intruders whose threat is rated medium or high, rather than low.

The first time you open Pop-Up Washer you’ll see the following:

Most importantly, make sure the checkbox to the left of ‘Run on Windows Start-Up’ is checked. All the choices are checked by default, and I’ve chosen to leave them that way. I left ‘Disable Messenger Service’ checked. Messenger Services are notorious sources of Malware and vicious scripts. They’re also world class time wasters.

As always, the protection comes at a price. Pop-Up Washer uses up CPU cycles and other resources as it constantly watches Windows, waiting for pop-up windows to suppress.

Next you want an application to examine your registry, fix errors and delete some dangerous entries. The program I’m going to recommend is not the most thorough, but the safest. I’ve never caught it deleting or ‘fixing’ a registry entry that caused a program not to run. Or worse yet, caused Windows not to run.

In a future column, I’ll probably suggest another program. I’m testing it out now.

In a previous column on Norton AntiVirus, I mentioned that I bought it as part of a larger package called Norton SystemWorks. It has some features I consider wasteful and ineffective. It’s known as a resource hog. It’ll slow your computer down. So I suggest for the present you buy the SystemWorks package but use only two features of it – Norton AntiVirus and OneButtonCheckUp.

You can read about and buy SystemWorks at its manufacturer’s website: http://www.symantec.com/index.htm

As usual, SystemWorks can be found at a lower price elsewhere.

As I discussed configuring Norton AntiVirus in an earlier column, today I’ll show you how to configure OneButtonCheckup.

(Rather than have me discuss all of the program’s features, please read them on Symantec’s website or in SystemWorks’ help.)

Open SystemWorks. Click One Button Checkup.

Click Scheduling.

I left the default schedule name. If you want a different name, click New. Now, click edit to confirm or change the schedule.

This is my schedule. I recommend you run One Button Checkup daily, but it’s up to you.

Click Ok twice, and run One Button Checkup.

I mentioned in my column on Norton AntiVirus that there was one danger to OneButton Checkup. That’s in the Web Cleanup Scan. Unfortunately, like many programs that clean up files that accumulate during surfing, Web Cleanup Scan also deletes cookies.

While some cookies are malicious, we’re counting on Ad-aware to find those that are Malware, and Ad-watch to prevent them from getting through in the first place.

Many sites, for example ToThePoint, forums and many more require registration. They place a cookie in your cookie folder so you don’t have to sign in each time you open their site. When the cookie is erased, you have to sign in. If you don’t remember your password, you have to request it. It can be a real irritant. So I do the following.

When the scan is finished, I click view details on the Web Cleanup Scan if it finds any errors.

And then uncheck the checkbox next to ‘Miscellaneous Problems’.

Then I click Begin Fix if there are other problems, or Close if there aren’t.

Once again I’ve run out of space and time. See you next week.

Dennis Turner