The PC Informant » Software

Sumatra, a very fast PDF reader

Vic Laurie — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 10:58:12 +0000

For various reasons, including security, I prefer not to use Adobe Reader for opening PDF files. I have been using Foxit but the open source application called Sumatra is getting good reviews. I mentioned Sumatra before but it has a new release. Lifehacker as well as gHacks like Sumatra. It has a small footprint and is very fast. However, you cannot copy and paste from a document opened in Sumatra. This feature is available in Foxit.

Free Microsoft programs

Vic Laurie — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 10:21:57 +0000

Microsoft may charge a lot for Windows but it also has quite a lot of free software. At TechRadar Aditya Chandrasekhar has put together a list of 24 applications from Microsoft that he thinks are the best. (Actually, not all the applications on the list are from Microsoft.)

To take a look at what’s available from Microsoft in general, go the Microsoft Download Center.

Freeware lists

Vic Laurie — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:25:20 +0000

There are a lot of lists of freeware on the Internet but many are not all that useful (or reliable). I’ve mentioned TechSupportAlert numerous times and it’s hard to beat the lists compiled and evaluated there. “Gizmo” Richards and his staff put in a lot of effort to come up with choices for the best application in a variety of categories.

A different approach is used at PC PitStop. Instead of editorial assessment, it uses popularity with its visitors as as a criterion. Popularity is defined by what’s installed on computers. The latest list has come out. There are a lot of good programs on the list but some choices are a little surprising. As I said about an earlier list, I wouldn’t have guessed that so many people had Real Player (23%). Maybe they have it but never use it.

Paint.NET updated

Vic Laurie — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:04:48 +0000

I have mentioned the excellent free photo and image editing software Paint.NET before. It has now been updated to version 3.5. A review at MaximumPC says:

Looking for an alternative to Photoshop and GIMP? You’re in luck – there’s a new version of Paint.NET available, and it’s a pretty significant upgrade over previous versions.

Version 3.5 sports a refreshed UI with a bunch of new icons, and if you’re running Windows 7 or Vista, the developers say it’s been enhanced for Aero and “glass.”

Paint.NET has learned a few tricks with the newest release, including Surface Blur, Dents (Distort), and Crystallize (Distort). Russian translation has been tossed into the mix, and the whole shebang promises to be much snappier thanks to extensive optimizations to performance and memory usage.

Can’t anybody play this here game?

Vic Laurie — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 10:47:11 +0000

I was reminded of the above famous quote by Casey Stengel about the hapless New York Mets baseball team he was managing when I saw this post at InformationWeek, 9 In 10 Web Apps Have Serious Flaws. Can’t anybody out there write safe applications?

Firefox is five years old

Vic Laurie — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:39:59 +0000

A perfect example of how fast technology moves is the fact that it is only five years since the Firefox browser came on the scene. Firefox 1.0 was released on November 9, 2004. I am so used to having Firefox that it seems much longer ago that I first used Firefox. Our thanks and congratulations should go to the Mozilla group for rescuing us from the stodgy grip of Internet Explorer and prodding Microsoft into actively developing IE again. Ars Technica comments:

Indeed, Firefox has become a bright symbol of technological freedom and the poster child of open source success. Mozilla’s efforts have helped to raise awareness about the importance of vendor-neutral Web standards and the power of collaboration and community-driven development. Mozilla’s philosophical values became the cement with which the architects of the open Web built our brave new Internet.

Firefox update coming

Vic Laurie — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:19:14 +0000

Another Firefox update, version 3.55, is coming sometime today. If you have enabled automatic notification of updates, you should receive a notification soon. Otherwise, open the “Help” menu in Firefox and click “Check for Updates”. As of this writing (11:15 EST) the update is not yet available at Mozilla but gHacks is providing a download site.

Can whitelisting help combat the malware epidemic?

Vic Laurie — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 10:50:21 +0000

Malware on the Internet is a bad situation and any good news on that front is welcome. So it is encouraging to see that security expert Roger Grimes says that whitelisting may be an effective defense. Writing at InfoWorld, Grimes reviews five whitelisting applications and says that whitelisting may be the new best defense against modern malware. He begins his reviews:

Whitelisting security has always taken a backseat to blacklisting approaches. After all, when there is far more good software running on computers and networks than bad software, it’s just easier to block the bad than to approve all the good. But that was then, and this is now.

In 2009, the computer security defense world quietly marked a momentous threshold that should have us all looking anew at the value of whitelisting. Last year, the number of unique malicious programs and variants that were created outstripped all the legitimate software published in the world, straining the accuracy of anti-virus solutions like never before. It’s a disturbing fact that suggests whitelisting is now more suitable as a primary security defense than traditional anti-virus scanners, which are really nothing more than blacklisting programs.

Now for some good news: Just as whitelisting may be finding a receptive audience, a number of whitelisting solutions are proving to be mature, capable, and manageable enough to provide significant protection while still giving trustworthy users room to breathe. Nor are today’s whitelisting programs limited to locking down desktops to prevent malware executions — they’re also useful for software configuration and licensing compliance and regulatory auditing.

Grimes particularly likes Bit9 Parity Suite. At the moment, whitelisting suites are aimed at businesses and large users but whitelisting might soon be part of the home PC anti-malware arsenal. In fact, Windows 7 Enterprise and Ultimate have a limited type of whitelisting called AppLocker. Perhaps Microsoft will see the light and make something for the home version or perhaps one of the security vendors will.

List of best products of 2009

Vic Laurie — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 11:11:55 +0000

I don’t always agree with the selections but PC World has compiled a list of what the editors consider the best products of 2009. It is described:

PC World looked at many outstanding hardware, software, sites, and services this year, evaluating each one on its design, functionality, performance, and impact. Here is the cream of the crop, the 100 best of 2009. (Note that we chose not to rate products specifically on their price or value, focusing instead on their overall quality.)

There is also a list where the selections are ranked and another listing by category.

Keeping software patched

Vic Laurie — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 10:20:26 +0000

One of the biggest security problems with a PC is keeping current with all the software patches. Ordinary home PC users simply cannot keep up with the never-ending flow of updates without help. You can use Microsoft update for Windows, Office, and other Microsoft products but what about all that other software that we all have? I have posted about Secunia Personal Software Inspector before as well as Update Notifier.

Now here’s a third way to check your patches; it’s Update Checker from File Hippo and was the choice of readers in a recent Lifehacker survey.

All three applications mentioned are freeware.