PC Pitstop recommends WinPatrol PLUS

        

For many years I’ve been a big fan of PC Pitstop.  They’ve been helping optimize and diagnose PC’s since 2000.  Prior to that I had the pleasure to work with CEO Rob Cheng while he served as VP at Gateway.

I’m pleased announce we’ll be working together with PC Pitstop to continue our mutual tradition of helping users and their sluggish PC’s.  WinPatrol users will now have direct access to years of research by the PC Pitstop team.  If we can’t find the information you’re looking for, we’ll direct you to PC Pitstops database of information and resources.

PC Pitstop recommends WinPatrol as a way “get control over your running programs”.  Click here to explore what PC Pitstop has to offer.

 

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Tagged by Most Annoying Spam Yet

I’ve always been a little leery of Social Network sites. As an experiment, I did join LinkedIn and it doesn’t suck but I’m not a big fan of MySpace or Facebook. I especially don’t like sites who encourage users to enter the Email addresses of their friends and family.

The Email I received below is by far one of the most annoying I’ve received in a long time. I don’t know Kathie B and I was almost tempted to click on “No” just to show my disgust. Of course by doing so Tagged would now have a confirmation that my Email address was active. This same approach is sure to be copied by online phishers trying to get additional information.

I wandered over to Tagged.com to see what it was all about.

“Tagged.com was launched in 2004, and is an explosively growing social-networking portal developed specifically for teens aged 13 through 19. Emerging as the premier brand in the lucrative teen demographic, Tagged.com is rapidly becoming the number one teen site on the web.”

Tagged claims 30 million registered users and they also acknowledge that 63% are 18 or older. Site Advisor hasn’t flagged this site yet even though its members don’t have a lot of good things to say.

I was able to trace Kathie B’s Email address to a WinPatrol customer from 2004 who apparently had support@WinPatrol.com in her address book. Just how all the names from her address book were obtained by Tagged.com is a mystery for now. I do thank Kathie for giving me something to write about and will update y’all if we find out more.

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Another Flakey Windows Update

Everyone who reads my Blog knows how much I hate AutoUpdate programs including the automatic updates for Windows. In most cases, the risk of any update far exceeds the benefits. When there are exceptions I will mention them here.

This weeks update caused a couple problems so far this week. First reported was a conflict with Sunbelts Ninja Email Security. Sunbelt’s crack development team was quick to provide a fix for their users.

Now we have word of “sluggish” applications which use .Net Managed Applications. More information can be found on Heath Stewart’s Blog.

What I regularly recommend is that users set the Windows Update option so that it only downloads updates and doesn’t install them. I suggest waiting 7–10 days before installing any updates. Usually, the only exception is when it’s a security fix for a zero-day threat that is known to be widely deployed by the bad guys. If you do have problems with a security update you can contact Microsoft for free at 1–866–PC-Safety.

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Dell Wants Me to Plant A Tree

I was looking at new laptops on the Dell website today and noticed something interesting. Perhaps Al Gore and the Live Earth Concerts are having an impact. When you select Customize you’re taken through many pages of options including the two below.

It will be interesting to see how long Dell continues this effort. I really hope they eventually publish the results of this promotion.

And guess what? No purchase necessary!

"Dell now makes it easy to help protect the Earth’s climate
by offering anyone in the U.S. and Europe the opportunity to
offset the CO2 emissions related to the use of an extended
selection of IT products. Participants can also help offset
the total one-year carbon impact of the average citizen.
Click here to make a donation and plant a tree today. "

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Do I need Apple Mobile Device Service?

As often as possible, I like to review the list of programs that our WinPatrol members are asking for PLUS Info on. This gives me a good idea of what programs have suddenly been appearing on a users system often without their knowledge.

Most of this year the number one PLUS Info request has been about “GoogleToolbarNotifier.exe”. This little program pops up now and then especially since so many new machines are coming with the Google Toolbar pre-installed. Click here for our PLUS Info

This week a new Windows “service” has suddenly appeared in our top ten. When users upgrade to iTunes 7.3, it comes with a new Automatic Service just in case you’re the proud owner of an iPhone. The file is named “AppleMobileDeviceService.exe” and can be found in your list of Services either using WinPatrol or Services.msc which comes with Windows. Apple says, it “Provides the interface to Apple mobile devices.”

It only takes up 3,640K of memory when at rest but if you don’t have an iPhone you really don’t need it. You can stop it with WinPatrol and set it to Manual startup. You’ll also find it under the list of programs in the Add/Remove Control Panel applet so it can be removed completely from there.

To add insult to injury, Apple also just tried to change my default MP3 player to iTunes

Give me a break Apple. This is yet another example of companies who think they can just take over your whole machine. I’m obviously biased but you can protect yourself by downloading WinPatrol for free. If you’re not sure a program can be removed, upgrade to WinPatrol PLUS.

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Happy B-Day USA, Good and Bad

It’s a holiday in the USA today but most of us will have been celebrating all week. Our own party for family and friends was last Friday night.

For my friends outside the USA, July 4^th is “Independence Day” when we celebrate the American colonies Declaration of Independence from the British Empire.

There’s some good and some bad this week.

The good news for me is, my nephew John is home on a two week leave from his post in Iraq with the 10th Mountain Division based out of Watertown NY.

The bad news is an onslaught of malware spam disguised as holiday greetings is collecting in all our Email in-boxes. Many appear to come from reputable greeting card companies like Hallmark.com or BlueMountain.com.

The topics are wide ranging and here’s an example of what I received just this morning.

Independence Day At The Park from postcardsfrom(dot)com.
Independence Day Celebration from funnypostcards(dot).com.
July 4^th Fireworks Show from vintagepostcards(dot).com
God Bless America from hallmark.com
Your Nations Birthday from FunnyPostcards(dot).com
July 4^th Family Day from Postcards(dot)org
Celebrate your Independence from riversongs(dot).com
Fireworks on The 4^th from BlueMountain.com
4th of July Celebration from egreetings.com

Take my advice and Delete, Delete, Delete!

The USA is really a nation made up of people from every other country in the world so you all should take the day off too.
Thank you Great Britain for a great start and y’all have a great week!

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WinPatrol Chinese and More

Thanks again to the wonderful friends of Scotty who take the time to provide us with localized language pack files for WinPatrol.

Today I’m excited to announce the release the Chinese version of WinPatrol 2007.

I’m also happy to announce the premier of our Finnish version of WinPatrol. These and 15 other localized versions are available at http://www.winpatrol.com/download.html.

If you don’t see your language and would like to help, all you need to know can be found at http://www.winpatrol.com/localize.html.

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