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If you prefer you can read this issue online at http://techsupportalert.com/issues/al_current.htmIN THIS FREE ISSUE: 0. EDITORIAL: Security Product Review, Part 1 0.0 EDITORIALHow adequately can our computer security programs protect us against the latest generation of security threats? It's a question that I first raised in the Editorial in the May issue of this newsletter. I'm not going to cover the same ground again but if you missed that issue, you can read it online here: http://www.techsupportalert.com/issues/issue133.htm#Section_0 Since then I've been carefully testing a wide range of computer security products to see how well they address modern blended computer security threats. The
security tests I've been conducting are very different from
the usual signature scanning tests. I wasn't interested in how
many malware programs were being detected in a test sample and
the like. My interest was in some specific technical
characteristics of the programs being tested. The Let me explain. Many security products detect malware using signature files. It's an important technique for protecting your computer. That's why dozens of tests have been conducted and reported showing how well different security products detect malware signatures However, many modern security threats can attack and attempt to terminate or disable your security programs. It doesn't matter how well a security product detects malware signatures if that product can be easily terminated by a malware program. This is not a theoretical point; security product attacks are common. Worse still, most security programs can be easily terminated. Just how easily can be seen in the following termination test results for the major signature based scanners:
As you can see, many of the products could be terminated by the simplest possible method using Windows Task Manager. The same applies to termination using Diamond Computer System's Advanced Termination Program. Only one security program, NOD32, could resist termination by DarkSpy though NOD32 too could be easily brought down by deleting some of its key files using a forced reboot. This is not good news. But it gets worse. Ease of termination was only one of many technical characteristics I tested. I also looked at such things as whether the programs could detect polymorphic encrypted malware, process injection, changes in critical registry values, rootkits detection and much more. The results were bleak. Most products failed most tests. And as a final real world test, I looked at the protection provided by each program when I surfed on an unpatched PC to three drive-by web sites. Again, most products flunked miserably. Next month I'll have the full results up on my web site and will discuss them at length in the newsletter. I know it's not happy reading but don't get depressed, something quite positive will come out of this. By the time this series is completed, I'll have some specific recommendations for you on the best way to protect your computer against the latest generation of threats. These recommendations will be based on facts rather than vendor hype or commercial affiliation. Even now, two things are already clear to me. First, it's almost impossible to defend your PC from a modern malware program that is allowed to run on your PC with full admin privileges. The problem here is not with the security programs. The problem is with Windows. Second, it looks like virtualization techniques such as those used by VMWare, Sandboxie and the newcomer GreenBorder (see section 2.1 below) offer the best option for preventing infection. Here's my interim recommendation: If you are using Windows 2000 and later I strongly recommend you always surf using one of these virtualization products. It needn't cost you a cent either; SandBoxie is free and GreenBorder is free for the next 12 months. The situation for Windows 9x and ME users is tough. My current feeling is that the best option is either to upgrade to XP or switch to Linux. Check out item 3.6 in the newsletter for more details. http://www.vmware.com/ See you next month. Gizmo PS This month I'm giving away six free copies of the the top rated Anti virus NOD32 plus lots of Google GMail invites. For details, see below. Support Alert relies on paid subscriptions to survive. If you feel that you've benefited from reading this newsletter perhaps you would like to consider donating by subscribing to the premium "Supporters' Edition" of this newsletter. The Premium SE Edition contains almost twice the number of great tech sites, free utilities, tips and other content as the free edition. It's also ad-free. You'll also get immediate access to the archive of all past issues of the Premium Supporters' Edition of the newsletter where you can catch up on the hundreds of great utilities you missed in the free edition. The SE Edition is a great deal and at $10 per year it's a bargain. This month I'm giving away to new subscribers, six free copies of the the top rated Anti virus NOD32. NOD32 is a brilliant program for protecting your PC yet it only consumes a modest amount of your computing resources. That's why I use it on my key work computers. At $39 it's good value but it's even better value when you can get it for free. The six copies I'm giving away will be allocated at random but your chances of scoring one are actually quite good. So if you have been thinking of subscribing, now's the time. I'm also giving away invites to Google Gmail to new SE subscribers. Last month everyone who wanted one got one and I expect the same to happen this month. Just email me at editor@techsupportalert.com after subscribing to the Premium SE Edition and I'll send your invitation. Even if you don't win anything you'll still get my special report "Gizmo's Desert Island Utilities" which outlines the software I use myself, including many free product How to Subscribe to the Premium SE Edition 12 months subscription to the Supporters' Edition costs $10 which can be made by check or credit card using either ClickBank or PayPal or simply send cash. Use
the link below to subscribe now: 1.0 TOP TECH SITES AND RESOURCES
1.1 Three Ways to Avoid Missing Issues of This NewsletterMost missed issues are caused by email spam filters incorrectly sending the issues to your Spam or Bulk Mail folders. I do everything I can to prevent this but in the last analysis it's out of my control. If you've been missing issues, here are some things you can do to help: First, add "supportalert@techsupportalert.com" to your email Contacts or Allowed Senders list. Second, sign up from my free RSS service [1] that will notify you each time a new issue is published. Third,
read the newsletter online. Support Alert is published
mid-month every month so if you haven't received an issue by the
end of the month then you know you have missed an issue. You can
always find the current issue at this page [2]. From the same
page you can search all back issues as well, it's a page that's
well worth bookmarking. 1.2 Free Online Social Bookmarking System ShinesI've
used del.icio.us to store my bookmarks for over a year now
and have been quite happy with the service. Recently though,
I've been quietly impressed by the competing Diigo service,
currently in beta. It offers pretty well all of the advantages
of Del.icio.us but is easier to use and you can store bookmarks
locally as well as online. It can also simultaneously update
your bookmarks at del.icio.us and other online bookmarking
services as well. As a bonus, it allows you to store web pages,
either whole or in part, along with any annotations you wish to
make. Browser integration is seamless using a special Firefox
extension. I'm impressed. 1.3 Lots of Stock Photos for ZipThe
site claims two hundred and seventy thousand, which should
provide everything you could ever want except of course, the one
you really need ;>) Never give your real email address to sites
like these - unless you believe in free lunches. 1.4 How to Improve the Quality of Your Digital PrintsOne
of the keys to high quality digital image processing is to
have your monitor properly calibrated. At this site they explain
what's involved and give you a detailed guide how to do it.
You'll find lots of other digital tips on this site including a
good tutorial on color calibrating your printer. Thanks to
subscriber Tony Bennett for letting me know about this site.
1.5 A Really Simple Way to Send SMS RemindersThis
site offers a simple, no frills way of sending an SMS text
reminder to your cell phone immediately or at any nominated
future time. I liked the simple, clean interface and the no-
fuss way it automatically recognizes multiple date formats.
1.6 A New Way to Save Web PagesEver
been browsing at work and found a site you'd like to check
out when you get home? Toread is a free web service that
takes a snap of the web page and emails it to any address you
nominate. ** Additional Items in the Premium SE Edition ** 1.7
Discover How Your Web Site Performs
1.8
Free Tech Cheat Sheets
1.9 The Best Browser Popup Stopper Test SiteGot some great tech sites to suggest? Send them to: editor@techsupportalert.com ----------------- advertisement ------------------------
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2.1 New Virtualization Software Provides Excellent ProtectionThe more I learn about modern malware the more convinced I have become that the best strategy to avoid infection is to always surf in a virtual environment. Virtualization defeats just about any malware infection that manages to install itself while surfing: viruses, worms, spyware, trojans, and rootkits. Everything is eliminated as soon as you shut down the virtual environment. No, it's not a replacement for your other security software but it is a very potent addition. In past issues I've looked at various virtualization software products and recommended Sandboxie [1], a donationware product for Windows 2000 and later. It's still my top recommendation but as some readers have had problems with Sandboxie I've been looking for an alternative. Thanks to a tip from regular contributor Leib Moscovitz, I think I've found one. It's a commercial product called GreenBorder Pro that's currently being offered for free for 12 months. It works rather similarly to Sandboxie in that it allows you to launch your browser in a virtual environment. This virtual browser session appears in a green bordered window, hence the product name. The prominent green border is actually quite a useful feature as it clearly flags you are browsing in a protected environment, a feature missing from SandBoxie. Like Sandboxie, GreenBorder Pro can also run programs in a protected environment. You do this by right clicking on the program and selecting "Add GreenBorder protection" from the context menu. I tested GreenBorder by browsing to three drive-by download sites and additionally installing two malware products (IstBar and the InService Trojan) in the protected environment: I then "cleared and reset" GreenBorder from the right context menu and then did a "before and after" system snapshot comparison. No hostile running processes were found nor were there any new programs in the various Windows startup areas. I did find some hostile files left in the system prefetch folder but I judged these to be harmless. The most curious change was in the system registry where there were nearly 1000 new entries associated with GreenBorder. That's no worry in itself though I hope these don't further accumulate. If so you would end up with a very inflated registry, Overall GreenBorder performed as advertised. In many ways it reminded me of a slicker version of SandBoxie and that should be taken as high praise. Will it cause problems on some PCs? Quite possibly, so backup before installing. GreenBorder is
currently being offered with a free 12 months license but this
offer may soon end so download it now while you can. Shareware,
free promotional 12 months trial, Windows 2000 Pro SP4+ or
Windows XP SP1+, NTFS files system only, 10.3MB. 2.2 Get Vista "Guided Help" Functionality in XPRegular
contributor A.K. writes " Gizmo, IMHO the most useful
and unique feature of Vista is "Guided Help," a system that
either solves problems automatically or guides users to a
solution through a graphical interface wizard. Now, it appears,
some of that Guided Help functionality is available for XP [1].
For example I just downloaded a Guided Help exe file [2] that
covers the situation where XP fails to start correctly because
of a corrupted Registry or missing system file and have
installed it on a my flash drive for use when I next encounter
this situation." A.K. is quite right, Guided Help is a big step
forward in problem resolution and it's good to see that this
Vista technology is being applied to XP. The number of XP Guided
Help facilitated guides currently available is not huge but
still very useful - you can see a full list here [3]. Check them
out and add them to your tech toolkit. 2.3 More Vista Functionality for XPThe
new Aero Glass interface in Vista is certainly impressive
though you'll need a high end graphics card in order to get the
full impact. Subscriber Chris Price recently wrote in to tell me
about the Vista Transformation Pack, "... an integrated set of
utilities that will modify Windows XP to look and feel very much
like Windows Vista" without the need for fancy hardware.
According to the vendor "the pack changes most of the system
icons, skins and toolbars and also adds new enhancements to your
desktop such as a dock bar or a different system tray clock."
Now I'm not normally into the whole themes and appearance thing
but must admit I was quietly impressed by the Vista
Transformation Pack. It's got quite a few minor bugs but many
users will tolerate these for the invigorating effect on their
desktop. As ever, backup your system before installing.
Freeware, Windows XP, 14.1MB 2.4 Three New Rootkit DetectorsRootkits
are continuing to evolve but thankfully, so are rootkit
detectors. There are three new kids on the block. The first,
RootkitUncover, is from security company SoftWin, makers of the
well known BitDefender anti-virus program. It's only available
from the vendor's site [1] to beta testers but subscriber Jim
Powell has provided a download link from MajorGeeks [2]. I've
not had a chance to fully evaluate the product but can say that
it's very fast in operation and looks to be another useful tool
for your anti-rootkit arsenal. The same comments apply to GMER
[3], another new rootkit detector. More interesting in some ways
is a new product out of China called DarkSpy [4]. Like IceSword,
it's not a detector per se, but a set of tools to aid
detection. I liked it a lot; it's like IceSword Mark 2. Indeed
its ability to terminate any process or delete any file is quite
extraordinary. This one is strictly for experts as there is
scant documentation and like all advanced tools, it may create
problems on some PCs and trigger possible security warnings.
2.5 Top Commercial Download Accelerator Now FreeFlashGet
has always been an excellent download accelerator. It
performs well, has good browser integration, is reliable and
highly configurable. Now it has another attribute: it's free.
** Additional Items in the Premium SE Edition ** 2.6
Impressive Applications Suite for Zip
2.7
Open Source Password Manager Now Auto-fills Web
Forms
2.8 The Best Free Paint ProgramGot
some top utilities to suggest? Send them to 3.0 SECURITY PATCHES, SERVICE RELEASES AND UPDATES
3.1 Microsoft Security NewsSeveral times in the last few months I've started this section with the words "Another bad month for Microsoft." This month is no different. I'm not leveling all the blame on Microsoft for this. Yes, some of their past sins are catching up with them but the real problem is the increasing professionalisation of security attacks. There's serious money to be made in exploiting computer security flaws and there are some serious dudes out there pursuing that money. Strange isn't it? We can almost look back at the days of the amateur hacker with a kind of gentle fondness ;>) Microsoft's
Patch Tuesday on the 11th of June delivered seven
new security updates [1] five of which were rated as "critical."
Prominent among these was a fix for several serious flaws in
Excel, exploits for which have been circulating on the web for
months. The Excel patch covers eight different vulnerabilities,
the worst of which could allow an attacker to take complete
control of an affected PC. Two of the other critical updates
were also directed at Microsoft Office, one relating to the
processing of PNG and GIF images and the other the parsing of
long string values. The two other critical updates covered a
remote code flaw in Windows Server Service and a DHCP Client
Service buffer overflow problem. Full details can be found here
[1]. All Windows updates are distributed automatically by
Microsoft Update Service. It is extremely important that users
who do not have automatic updates enabled visit the Update
Service [2] now. 3.2 More Unpatched Excel Flaws - Warning from MicrosoftJust
24 hours after Microsoft released a fix for eight Excel
flaws it was discovered that two more serious flaws remained
unpatched including one rated by Secunia [1] as "highly
critical." This is a serious omission, as the flaws are well
documented and with demonstration code readily available.
According to Secunia, "The vulnerability is caused due to a
boundary error when handling overly long styles. This can be
exploited to cause a buffer overflow by tricking a user into
opening a specially crafted spreadsheet." The flaw affects
virtually all versions of Excel, including fully patched copies
from Excel 2000 onwards. In recognition of the serious nature
of the problem Microsoft had recommended that all users take
particular care not to open spreadsheets from untrusted sources.
3.3 Unpatched PowerPoint Flaw Being Used for 0-Day AttacksThis
one is serious folks. Secunia [1] has reported an
"extremely critical" flaw in Microsoft PowerPoint that can allow
an attacker to compromise a victim's PC. More exactly, the flaw
is in Windows but can be exploited through PowerPoint. All
versions of Windows are affected. The vulnerability can be
triggered by simply getting a user to open a specially crafted
PowerPoint file. As this exploit is currently in circulation
make sure you don't open any PowerPoint files or email
attachments unless you are totally sure of their
trustworthiness. And that includes all those PowerPoint-based
joke emails right? Don't believe me? Then here's what Microsoft
had to say "We recommend that customers exercise extreme caution
when they accept file transfers from both known and unknown
sources." [2] 3.4 Vista Could Initially be Less Secure Than XPOr
so claim Symantec [1]. Who's arguing? 3.5 Version 5 of SpySweeper ReleasedThe
more I use SpySweeper the more convinced I become that it's
the best anti-spyware product on the market. Perhaps more
accurately, I should describe it as the least imperfect in its
class ;>) Whatever, a new version, V5, has been released that
features an improved user interface, as well as better malware
detection and infection prevention. New features include a
keylogger shield, inbound email scanning, automatic quarantining
of malware and enhanced rootkit detection. Shareware, $29.95,
30 day trial, Windows 2000 and later, 10MB. 3.6 Is Ubuntu the Answer for Windows 98 Users?Microsoft
has now officially discontinued support for Windows
98. This means that no more security updates will be released
for the product. As a result Windows 98 machines will be
increasingly targeted by malware writers. I'm currently looking
at the best options for Windows 98 users and one of the most
attractive is to convert from Windows 98 to Ubuntu Linux or its
less machine intensive cousin, Xubuntu. I'm currently looking
for volunteers to undertake this conversion and write up their
experiences for other users. If you would like to participate
drop me an email. Let me know your current hardware and your
general level of experience - users at all levels are welcome.
I'm also looking for some experienced Ubuntu users to do a
little hand-holding. Again, just email me. This is an important
internet community project and your participation would be most
valued. 3.7 Microsoft Buys Winternals SoftwareI
suspect this is sad news but it may prove otherwise. Hey maybe
Microsoft will make the Winternals Administrator's Pack
available without charge. Dream on Gizmo, dream on.
The
Best Windows Backup Software The
Best Spyware Detector If
you use Ad-aware or SpyBot you will be surprised just how
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Adware, Spyware, Trojans and other malicious products. It's also
one of the few anti-spyware programs that can reliably detect
rootkits. Try the free evaluation copy of the new Version 5.0
and see for yourself. The
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end of sponsored links -------------------------- 4.0 OTHER USEFUL STUFF
4.1 Get the Best Disk Imaging Program CheaplySubscriber
Dennis Federwitz writes "Gizmo I just wanted to
mention that Acronis True Image is a lot cheaper than you stated
in the newsletter. At least the home edition is anyway. I
purchased it from Newegg.com last month, and I am sure glad I
did. The downloaded version is currently $49.99, but Newegg [1]
is running a promo on the Retail version for $19.99 plus $4.99
shipping." Thanks Dennis but I checked just before publishing
this issue and that special price has now gone, it's up to
$24.99. That's still a great price for a product of this
quality. 4.2 The Thinnest Thin ClientThis
one hides in wall-mount LAN box! 4.3 Free FireFox Language Translation ExtensionIsn't
it frustrating when you finally locate a web site with
exactly the information you have been looking for only to find
the page is in a foreign language. Yotam Elal, the webmaster of
concisefreeware.com has written an excellent Firefox extension
that will translate dozens of languages with the click of a
button. There are several extensions that offer similar
capabilities but Yotam's offers the widest choice of languages
and translation engines and also preserves the original web page
layout. The toolbar is a tad intrusive so I suggest you turn it
off from the Firefox View menu and rely on the right click
context menu instead. 4.4 Food for the Other Side of Your BrainAt
this site you can hear famous poets read their own works.
Amazingly they have a recording of Tennyson from 1890 reading
"Charge of the Light Brigade." My favorite was Wendy Cope's "Men
and Their Boring Arguments" ;>) Thanks to Andreas for the link.
4.5 Absolute Waste of Time DepartmentI
don't normally feature freeware games but when they come with
a glowing endorsement from a reliable contributor like A.K., I
take note. Here's what he says "the recently released Blackjack
International 1.1 is a lighthearted and very well-done freeware
game with excellent graphics and a very good set of options and
features ... For me, it's definitely a keeper." Freeware,
Windows 2000 and later plus Mac OS X, 4.2MB ** Additional Items in the Premium SE Edition ** 4.6
A Free File Sharing Service with Few Limits
4.7
Easy Way to Create Your Own Wiki
4.8 How to Unlock Your Nokia Cell Phone5.0 TIP OF THE MONTH
5.1 How to Share Bookmarks between BrowsersNOTE: Backup your Favorites and Bookmarks before trying any of the programs or services mentioned in this guide. I've been getting quite a few requests from readers asking how they can share bookmarks between different browsers installed on the same PC. A separate but related question is how to share bookmarks between different PCs Now most browsers including Firefox and Opera, offer an installation option of importing Internet Explorer bookmarks. That's simple enough. The real problem starts when you bookmark new sites in different browsers and you want these to be available in all browsers. There are several ways of doing this: The first is to use a free utility called BookmarkBridge [1] that can sync all bookmarks across all browsers installed on your PC. It automatically recognizes and handles most of the major browsers and will synchronize all bookmarks across all browsers with the click of a single button. It works pretty well but has a couple of problems. First the sync has to be performed manually. Second it won't handle all browsers. However if you just use IE, Firefox or one of the other supported browsers then it offers an excellent solution. A second option for Firefox users is to use the free PlainOldFavorites Firefox extension that allows you to access the Internet Explorer Favorites folder from Firefox and use it to store your bookmarks rather than the normal Firefox bookmarks file. It's a clever solution. It eliminates the need to synchronize because you only use one bookmarks folder and share it between browsers. It has other advantages too. The Favorites folder is accessible from many different places in Windows so having all your bookmarks in the Favorites folder gives you far greater accessibility to those bookmarks. PlainOldFavorites offers a pretty complete solution provided you only use IE and Firefox. It does nothing though for users of Opera and other browsers. Unfortunately I'm not aware of any free utility that runs on your PC that will automatically sync Opera V9 bookmarks with other browsers. I'm not aware either of an online bookmark syncing service that will do the job. There are however some online bookmark storage systems solutions that will allow you to share bookmarks between virtually any browser. Online bookmarking services allow you to keep all your bookmarks on a central server. Your bookmarks are then accessible from just about any computer and any browser. When you use an online bookmarking service you don't have to worry about syncing bookmarks between browsers as the same bookmarks are accessible from all browsers. The stored bookmarks can be easily searched and with some online services, you can also store web pages, not just links. These are real benefits but there are negatives too. Accessing and adding your bookmarks to a central server is slower than when you do it locally. Additionally, you may not have access to your bookmarks if you are off-line. Finally some folks don't like the idea of storing their private bookmarks on somebody else's computer. On balance though, I feel online bookmarking is the way to go. For most folks bookmarks are one of their most valuable resources and they want to be able to access them from any PC they happen to be using. Del.icio.us is one of the best known examples of online bookmarking services. It's free, easy to use incredibly popular, has lots of third party tools and browser plugins and supports tags. It's also a social bookmarking site so you can share your bookmarks with others if you so wish and indeed, share and search theirs. It's the service I use together with the free del.icio.us Firefox extension [4] that allows me to add bookmarks to the central server directly from Firefox. There are similar add-ins for Internet Explorer [5] and Opera [6]. I also use another Firefox extension called Foxylicious [7] that creates a local copy of my del.icio.us bookmarks in the Firefox bookmarks folder. The online and offline versions are automatically synced when I startup Firefox. I find having the synced online and offline copies extremely useful and a great backup. There are some excellent alternatives to del.icio.us including www.furl.net, www.spurl.net, www.mybookmarks.com, www.linkagogo.com, www.google.com/bookmarks, bookmarks.yahoo.com, the excellent www.diigo.com and many others. You can see a more complete list here [8] If you are new to online bookmarking and social bookmarking in particular, I'd start with del.icio.us. There are add-ins available for all the major browsers and it's got the greatest support and momentum. If you want to be a bit more adventurous try www.diigo.com. I've been using it lately and have been quite impressed. Whatever online social bookmarking system you choose to use, do be warned, you may find it addictive ;>) [1] http://bookmarkbridge.sourceforge.net/ Freeware, all 6.0 FREEBIE OF THE MONTH
6.1 The Best Free Program LauncherIn issue #132 I gave a glowing review of Find&Run Robot, a program launcher that allows you to locate and run an application by simply typing its name into a query box. This prompted subscribers James Oldfield, Devan Bennett and others to write to tell me about another similar utility called Launchy. I'd actually tried Launchy a while back but it was an early version and it didn't work on my PC. Prompted by the subscriber letters I tried that latest version and was impressed. So impressed that I now think it's the best in its class. Launchy solves the fundamental weakness shared by most application launchers; intrusiveness. Unlike other products that use launch bars or tray icons, Launchy is invisible until you hit a special hotkey combination. By default this is Alt- Space. Hitting the hot key combination brings up a small window into which you type the name of the application you are looking for. You rarely even have to type the full name; mostly all you need do is just type a couple of letters. Launchy instantly displays on a find-as-you-type basis, any program that matches the letters you typed in. Its power lies in the fact that it's lightning fast. When I type the letter "E" I instantly see all programs whose name contains the letter E. There are quite a few as you can imagine. If I then type in the second letter "X" the list shortens immediately to only those programs that contain "EX". By the time I type in the "C" the list is down to one program, Excel itself. Hitting Enter then launches the program and at the same time the Launchy window disappears. The whole thing takes less than 2 seconds. By default Launchy only searches files in your Start Menu folders. You can however, configure it to handle any file types and search any folders. So Launchy could be used to launch web link shortcuts or even your MP3 files. Configuration is easy; just right click on the Launchy Window. What I've described probably sounds quite similar to Find&Run Robot, my previous favorite launcher. Launchy however is Open Source, faster, less conspicuous and more attractive. As my son used to say when he was three years old "Hey Dad, this is funner." http://www.launchy.net/ Free Open Source, Windows 2000 and later, 841KB. ** Bonus Freebie in the Premium SE Edition ** 6.2 The Best Free Desktop Search ProgramDesktop search has transformed the way we use our computers. Gone are the days of carefully filing everything away in hierarchically arranged folders. Today, with desktop search you can quickly find anything on your computer, regardless where it is located. This is particularly true of email. I have over 10,000 emails stored in my PC, all located in a single folder, yet with my desktop search program I can find an individual email in seconds. That's why email search has become the single most important application for desktop search. Indeed the ability to quickly locate email is THE most important attribute of a desktop search program. Sure, it's nice to find program files, images, mp3s and contacts on your PC quickly but all this is for naught if you can't find a wanted email quickly. I've tried all the major free desktop search programs and while they are uniformly excellent in searching, I found big differences in the way email search results were presented. It's all a question of format. Some formats facilitate the task of quickly scanning your eye over the results list while others made it hard. In the end I rejected all the free desktop search program and settled instead on a commercial desktop search utility. I didn't shell out $99 for this lightly. I did it because it gave me what I wanted without a lot of features that I didn't want. The great news is that $99 program is now available for free. At $99 it was a bargain, as a free product, it's a no-brainer.
Stop missing out on all this extra information! Subscribe now to the premium "SE" Edition of this newsletter and immediately receive the current issue containing nearly double the information contained in this free edition. Get twice as many great web sites, get twice as many top utilities and great freebies. It's also ad-free. You'll also get immediate access to the archive of all past issues of the Premium Supporters' Edition of the newsletter where you can catch up on the hundreds of great utilities you missed in the free edition. The SE Edition is a great deal and at $10 per year it's a bargain. Use
this link to subscribe online now: This month I'm giving away to new subscribers, six free copies of the the top rated Anti virus NOD32. NOD32 is a brilliant program for protecting your PC yet it only consumes a modest amount of your computing resources. That's why I use it on my key work computers. At $39 it's good value but it's even better value when you can get it for free. The six copies I'm giving away will be allocated at random but your chances of scoring one are actually quite good. So if you have been thinking of subscribing, now's the time. I'm also giving away invites to Google Gmail to new SE subscribers. Last month everyone who wanted one got one and I expect the same to happen this month. Just email me at editor@techsupportalert.com after subscribing to the Premium SE Edition and I'll send your invitation. Even if you don't win anything you'll still get my special report "Gizmo's Desert Island Utilities" which outlines the software I use myself, including many free product Use
the link below to subscribe now: 7.0 MANAGE YOUR SUBSCRIPTIONSupport Alert is a free newsletter. If you liked this issue why not email it to a friend. Anyone can subscribe by signing up online at Back Issues If you no longer wish to receive this newsletter just go to To change your delivery email address go to For lots more free IT newsletters see Thanks to subscriber Neal Dwire for proofreading this issue. You can contact this newsletter by snail mail at: Support Alert is a registered online serial publication ISSN 1448-7020. Content of this newsletter is (c) Copyright TechSupportAlert.com, 2006 See you next issue Gizmo |
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