WinPatrol USB Wristband

After the creation of a stand alone version of WinPatrol it became obvious that users wanted to have their own flash memory based tool kit. I also thought it would be cool to have a WinPatrol brand flash memory stick so I created the WinPatrol USB Wristband.

WinPatrol Flash USB Wristband

I couldn’t get one for myself without ordering a large batch so I’m making the wristbands available in the BillP Studios online store. Wristbands are currently available for $24.95 plus shipping until the supply runs out.

Included:

• 1 GB flash memory ( Copy your favorite photos and tunes )


• WinPatrolflash.exe ( WinPatrol portable)


• wpsetup.exe ( newest install for FREE WinPatrol )

Use your WinPatrol USB Wristband to copy your music, photos or even your data from one computer to another.

Click here to order

(PLUS code not included)

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Adobe Flash Player Vulnerability

A few of the most powerful web objects always have reports of regular vulnerabilities that can make it dangerous for even the most careful web surfer. Seems like at least once a month I hear about problems with JavaScript, Quicktime and now yet again, Adobe Flash.

As much I hate to recommend disabling such a powerful and useful component I have killed the version of Adobe Flash currently on my system. There are too many reports of infected sites to take any chances. Versions that appear to be affected include 9.0.115.0. and 9.0.124.0.

One of the new features of WinPatrol is the ability to disable ActiveX components that exhibit vulnerabilities. This feature is so important it’s included in the free and USB Flash version. If you have WinPatrol you can select Flash9(x).exe and click on Disable. You can always Enable again if you really need to but hopefully a new version of Flash will be released soon.

WinPatrol 2008

According to SecurityFocus…

“Continued investigation reveals that this issue is fairly widespread. Malicious code is being injected into other third-party domains (approximately 20,000 web pages), most likely through SQL-injection attacks. The code then redirects users to sites hosting malicious Flash files exploiting this issue.“

Note: This is a drastic step. You will not be able to view most YouTube videos and will see a number of broken image boxes. The good news, you'll also miss some advertising as well.

ZDNet: Adobe Flash zero-day exploit in the wild
ZDNet Update: Adobe Flash drive-by attacks redux

Update: According to Adobe...

"We've just gotten confirmation from Symantec that all versions of Flash Player
9.0.124.0 are not vulnerable to these exploits. Again, we strongly encourage everyone to download and install
the latest Flash Player update, 9.0.124.0. "

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Help Friends/Family with WinPatrol FLASH

Are you the one your friends and family call when they have computer problems? Are you interested in optimizing your friends and families systems?
If so, the new WinPatrol Flash Edition is a tool for you. You may have also been one of the many WinPatrol users who have asked for this feature over the years.

WinPatrol Flash Edition is a portable version of the main tabbed WinPatrol Explorer interface. WinPatrol Flash can run from a USB/Flash drive without having to install any WinPatrol files or settings on the system you’d like to fix or optimize.

WinPatrol FLASH Edition

The idea is WinPatrolFlash.exe will allow you to work on someone’s computer, even using your PLUS access, without installing anything new on their system.

• Remove Un-Wanted Auto Start crapware.
  
• Disable Un-Needed Automatic Services
  
• Remove Annoying Toolbars and BHO's
  
• Create Reports that provide a snapshot of potential problems
  
• Disable ActiveX Controls & MORE!
  

Click here to Visit WinPatrolFlash.com

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Death to the DVD Disc is Coming

No, I’m not joining those who have predicted that Sony’s Blu-ray has won over HD-DVD. What I’m suggesting is the optical disc format has reached it’s peak and will go the way of the cassette tape.

The battle between Blu-Ray and HD–DVD format hasn’t helped. Even with Warner Brothers exclusively backing the Blu-Ray Association, sales of movies on disc has been on the decline. This week at CES a lot of folks are calling Blu-Ray a winner even though the adult industry and Microsoft has backed HD-DVD.

Some have also said Microsoft wants both to fail because “They want confusion in the market until they perfect the digital downloads.” I say, “It worked!”. In fact today, Microsoft acknowledged it is backing off plans to promote HD-DVD exclusively in its xBox game console.

Advocates for both claim superior video and audio but they’re missing what consumers want. There’s a point where the average human can’t detect the differences in sound and appearance. If anything, the increases in clarity can show more flaws in productions. Why would I pay $20+ for disc when I can just download the movie to my PC or TiVo for $12 or less.

The future media is Solid State Memory or what’s commonly called Flash memory. I wrote about this a year ago, and I’ll stick by last years prediction.

Granted a Blu-ray DVD can hold 25 GB’s per layer it’s only a matter of time before we see an explosion in Flash(NAND) memory size. HD-DVD only holds 15 GB per layer. Yesterday at CES SanDisk introduced a new 12 GB microSDHD card. SanDisk calculates with 12 GB you can store a 24.5 hours of video along with 2,600 photos and 1,500 songs.

While the size and cost of flash memory isn’t there yet it’s coming. It’s not likely I can fit a Blu-ray disc into my Phone, GPS or video camera. No moving parts or lasers means my battery will last a lot longer watching a movie from flash memory. It’s also much easier and cheaper to build a flash memory slot into a new TV or other home appliance than it is a disc player.

My new OLPC XO laptop isn’t the first laptop to choose a flash drive in place of a mechanical hard drive and DVD and it won’t be the last. No moving parts, minimal power consumption, well over 100,000 write cycles, all means my next laptop will include a solid state drive instead of a legacy hard drive. I won’t miss trying to figure out if my DVD player supports +R – R, +RW or -RW.

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Auto Update Programs Running All the Time

One of the bonus features for WinPatrol PLUS users is they can quickly look up information on new programs that appear on their computers. Our PLUS knowledge base contains information on both malware and legitimate programs and is written so hopefully mere mortals can understand what a program is doing. Essentially, the “PLUS Info…” feature is a “What the heck is this program?” feature.

At least once a month I compile a list of the most commonly requested programs along with some free info on many of the more dangerous programs. I couldn’t help but notice that last month 4 of the top 15 are designed to just sit there and check for new versions.

The following popular programs were among the most often requested information by WinPatrol users. I’ve included some snippets of information along with links to PLUS Info examples.

GOOGLETOOLBARNOTIFIER.EXE
“Googletoolbarnotifier.exe and swg.dll install with recent versions of the Google Toolbar. According to Google, these files run in the background and prevent other search engines from setting themselves as the default search engine.”… More PLUS Info…

GETFLASH.EXE
“Getflash.exe is the update utility that installs with Adobe's popular Flash player. Adobe now owns Flash as they've purchased the entire Macromedia Product line.” More PLUS Info…

SPUPDSVC.EXE
“Spupdsvc.exe will appear in your Windows\System or System32 folder. It's the Windows Service Pack Installer update service also described as the Update RunOnce Service. As the name implies, this file should not need to be running all the time.". More PLUS Info…

ISUSPM.EXE
“InstallShield is a very popular program installer. Chances are good that you have lots of programs on your system that used that as the program installer. Isuspm.exe can be used to check for updates or additional product information.” More PLUS Info…

Most Common Alert April 2007

Obviously, this indicates to me that most people have no idea these resident programs are being added to automatically run. If you don’t use WinPatrol, you might want to run MSConfig which comes with Windows and take a peek at your list of Startup Programs.

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