Windows Tips and Tricks

If, like me, you are wondering what are all these Microsoft activities with the term “Live” tacked on, read this article by Mary Jo Foley. She writes a regular column called “Microsoft Watch” and recently she discussed the proliferation of the term “Live”:

Last summer, the Redmondians began using Live to describe its growing collection of rebranded MSN properties, such as Windows Live Mail (Hotmail), Windows Live Search (MSN Search), Windows Live Messenger (MSN Messenger) and Windows Live.com (Start.com).

Microsoft suddenly started throwing “Live” into all kinds of things. Windows OneCare, its security subscription service due this June, was rechristened Windows OneCare Live. Its new services-oriented research lab: Windows Live Labs. Office Live, a set of service add-ons to Microsoft Office, is due to go to beta any day now. Company officials have mentioned “Visual Studio Live” (a k a “Tuscany”) and CRM Live.

As Foley cogently notes

It seems like Microsoft, its partners and its customers could benefit from some kind of clearly articulated policy as to what will and won’t be considered a Live property. How about starting with a definition of Live consisting of ten words or less?

PC Magazine has a feature article by Cade Metz called “The Sorry State of Security” with the theme that stupidity is the real security problem. First, they cite the user

No matter how many times we suffer the consequences of online attacks—system slowdowns, instability, loss of connectivity, even costly identity theft—we always get burned again. Expert advice, warnings, and even new security programs ultimately do no good. After more than ten years of this recurring nightmare, we’ve come to the conclusion that there’s only one possible explanation: Stupidity.

Whose stupidity? Yours, for a start. That’s right: You. Joe Computer User. A decade of working and playing on the Internet and you still surf without proper protection.

The article then goes on to point at software companies and others in the industry

But the end user is only part of the problem. Though many have worked to improve the situation, the world’s hardware and software vendors bear just as much of the blame. After all, users wouldn’t have to worry about security software if PC manufacturers and ISPs made it an integral part of every machine. And malware wouldn’t be nearly as prevalent—or as destructive—if developers weren’t so cavalier about the gaping security holes weakening their operating systems and applications.

I congratulate PC Magazine for having the professional courage to publish this article. It isn’t flattering to anybody. Although thoughtful observers have long been aware of the truths expressed, it still took courage for a major publication to state the blunt facts. They risk offending some of their major advertisers and the politically correct crowd is always ready to howl about intellectual elitism whenever anybody suggests that a lot of “the people” are stupid.

I used to experience hard drive failure rather frquently. And I am talking about brand-name computers like Dell, IBM, and Toshiba. I haven’t had a hard drive go bad for a few years now so maybe they have become more reliable. Nonetheless, hard drives can go bad and when they do, it can mean the loss of a lot of data. This is one reason why regular backups are so important. Sometimes the hard drive warns you before it dies by making strange sounds. Hitachi has a very interesting site where you can listen to some of the warning sounds. Although this is a site aimed at owners of Hitachi drives, the sounds could come from any make of drive. Acquaint yourself with these sounds and be prepared to replace a hard drive if you hear them. You could save yourself a lot of trouble.

Found in Dan Butler’s TNPC newsletter,

Larry Seltzer writes frequently about Internet security and in an eWeek article he proposes better controls over how email is sent from computers. He notes that this will cost but says

We might go on forever keeping spam and malware at these levels, but I think we can do a lot better, and all efforts to make big dents in these problems begin with authentication of e-mail. Wouldn’t you pay something more to have a safer Internet?

I find the responses of his readers to be pretty discouraging. Most of them seem mindlessly fixated on opposing the idea of increased cost without ever considering how much spam and phishing is already costing us all. One even accuses Seltzer of being an elitist who wants to keep the poor off the Internet. Seltzer’s particular proposal (it involves blocking port 25) is not the only possibility for controlling spam and phishing but something has to be done. As I have previously said, the fact that there is basically no added cost for email service, no matter how many messages are sent, has certainly led to abuses.

Windows has a feature that allows use of the keyboard to open menu items. This is often more convenient than having to switch your hand to the mouse. Each menu item can have an underlined letter in its name. Examples are the File and Edit menus. When the underlined letter is pressed together with the Alt key, the menu opens. Thus, Alt+f will open the file menu of the active window. Prior to Windows XP, the underlining was permanent but in Windows XP it can be toggled on and off with the Alt key. If you prefer to have the underlining always present, right-click an open spot on the Desktop and choose “Properties” from the context menu. Click the “Appearance” tab and then the button named “Effects”. Then uncheck “Hide Underlined Letters for Keyboard Navigation Until I Press The Alt Key.” Click “OK” and then “OK” again.

Don’t believe any of the studies of the relative merits of Microsoft vs. non-Microsoft products until you study the metrics carefully. It’s strange how often many so-called studies are (deliberately?) biased in favor of Microsoft. For example, consider a recent study of the relative security of Linux by a “government security group”. On the surface, the study seems to show that Linux has more security issues than Windows. But Desktop Pipeline editor David DeJean says

The “government security group” turned out to be US-CERT — United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team — an often-quoted organization that you’d like to feel like you could trust. But when you went to look at the source material on the CERT Web site it was instantly obvious that these guys either (a) were actually on Microsoft’s payroll, or (b) shouldn’t be working with numbers higher than 9 without adult supervision.

Microsoft has announced a subscription service for computer security and backup that is called Windows OneCare Live. The pricing policy is described

Microsoft® Windows OneCare Live will be available in June from retailers and via the Web for an annual subscription of $49.95 MSRP for up to three personal computers. To thank its valuable beta customers and offer an easy transition to the paid service, Microsoft also announced today a promotional deal offering the first year of Windows OneCare Live service for $19.95 to beta customers who become subscribers between April 1 and April 30, 2006.

Ed Bott has been beta testing OneCare Live and has some favorable comments. But he also asks Is security software a protection racket?. Among his comments

A few things bother me about this announcement, however.

For starters, why isn’t there a free antivirus component? Microsoft lists virus protection as one of the three “security essentials” in the Windows XP Security Center. Everything else in the OneCare Live package has a free equivalent, so why not this piece?

And how am I supposed to make an informed purchase decision based on effectiveness? With OneCare Live, as with virtually all its competitors, the only comparisons are based on features, eye candy, and reputation.

Microsoft has always looked at is software as something that was rented by the user and the company’s new series of “Live” products is taking us down the road to their preferred way of marketing, the yearly subscription model. You can bet that the total cost of using Microsoft programs isn’t going to get cheaper.

What’s also interesting is the reaction of a big participant in the security business, Symantec. Did they lower their prices for anti-virus software in the face of this competition from Microsoft? Hardly. Instead already last fall they had raised the cost of renewing their anti-virus definitions and decided that the subscription model was good for them too. The Desktop Pipeline had an article with the headline “Symantec Ratchets Up Renewal Prices Of Security Products”. It noted

Symantec this week quietly raised the price of annual renewals for its consumer and small business line of security products by as much as 33 percent, saying that it was part of a long-considered move toward a subscription-based business model, and not a reaction to Microsoft’s recent entry into the security space.

Every year hardware components not only improve in performance but also often become cheaper. Contrast that to software.

Bill Gates is making predictions again. This time he is predicting the end of passwords. But then a couple of years ago he predicted the end of spam. We know how that turned out. Maybe he’s right but I think he ought to pay attention to the observation of Yogi Berra or Mark Twain or John Maynard Keynes or whoever really first said

Making predictions is hard, especially about the future.

Microsoft has had a free anti-spyware program in beta form for some time now. The program has now been revised and renamed “Defender”. Scot Finnie has a review. It’s still in a beta stage but Finnie says that it is a significant upgrade. Note: It requires Windows XP SP2.

After the trouble that companies like Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo are having with the Chinese government’s efforts to control and censor the Internet, the State Department has formed a task force to look into the problem. Internet Week has a report on this. Since individual companies are not in a good position to deal with authoritarian or theocratic governments, it was inevitable that something at the governmental level was necessary. The report says

Over the coming weeks and months, the task force is expected to make recommendations to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on policy and diplomatic initiatives to “maximize access to the Internet and help minimize government efforts to block information,” Shiner said.

Just what action the government might take isn’t clear. The Chinese have a long and proud history. They are on the verge of becoming a super power (as they have been before). You can’t just say to them, “You’re being bad, stop that censorship” and we’re not about to threaten to cut back on trade. The only alternative is subtle diplomatic pressure that includes European participation and that doesn’t completely tick the Chinese off. Unfortunately, “subtle diplomacy” is presently an oxymoron in Washington. I wish this task force the best but I am not optimistic. The fact that Congress is sticking its oar in will not help, either.

Iran is another country that is mentioned as being on the task force’s list of countries. We have more chance of getting Jacques Chirac to endorse Napa Valley burgundy than we do of getting anywhere with the present government of Iran.