Avira Personal Edition Classic

EVERY computer needs to have at least one good antivirus program. One decent option is Avira Personal Edition Classic (Avira) – a free antivirus application that is free for personal use.

It is a comprehensive and easy-to-use application that is designed to protect home users from threats like viruses, malware, adware and spyware.

It does most of the common antivirus tasks such as disk scanning, automatic virus definition scanning and rootkit removal.

Avira has a nice tabbed interface that keeps everything neat and in working order.

With the free personal edition, you get the basic computer scanning, virus quarantine features and update scheduler that you expect to get from any antivirus program.

We like how Avira constantly scans our computer for malicious programs while keeping a vigilant eye out for any suspicious activity conducted by programs in the system.

There is even scheduler function, which can be set to scan the computer at regular time intervals.

Avira also frequently updates its virus signatures to ensure up-to-date protection each time you log on. We also liked how Avira does not hog resources when it conducts real-time scanning of files.

Just in case if you do permit certain programs to conduct actions like accessing the Internet, you can set Avira to make exceptions.

In the event of a virus attack, Avira will give you the option to delete, block, repair or quarantine suspected files and programs.

The sole drawback to using Avira is the constant daily reminders to upgrade to the professional premium edition.

Still, the imbedded advertisement is a small price to pay for a great antivirus software if you are on a tight budget.

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www.free-av.com

Kruptos 2

By CHONG JINN XIUNG (Free apps for the security conscious, In.Tech, The Star 07 June 2007)

IF YOU own notebook or thumbdrive, chances are you are likely to be worried over the security of sensitive data stored on your devices.

With so many opportunities for a notebook to be stolen or a thumbdrive being misplaced, you are likely to need some form of protection.

File encryption is not an uncommon practice for mobile users with some notebooks possessing their own built-in encryption software.

Kruptos 2 is an easy-to-install application that helps encrypt your documents and files. The application is small (only 2.9MB) enough to fit on any thumbdrive, and can easily be installed on any desktop or notebook.

The application makes use of a Windows Explorer plug-in which allows you to encrypt/decrypt and shred on a standard Windows Explorer interface.

SECURE DATA: You can conduct projects on Kruptos 2 and encrypt multiple files or folders.

A simple right-click brings up the Kruptos option, allowing you to encrypt or decrypt files on the spot.

Sometimes, all it takes for an intruder to steal an important file is to look out for the relevant filename. Kruptos 2 is able to disguise filenames when files are encrypted while revealing the original any time you wish to view it.

The program has many customisable options to suit your needs, such as being able to automatically open a Word file, make some changes to the document and re-encrypt the file once you close it.

You can also produce self-extracting encrypted files (.exes) that contain encrypted files and software necessary to decompress the contents.

To decompress the contents of a self-extracting file, all you need is a password to unlock the file.

Just hitting the delete button and sending sensitive files to the recycling bin does not mean your data is completely destroyed. Someone can still go through the bin and recover your discarded information.

Kruptos 2 removes that risk by "shredding" them and removing all traces from your drive. Shredded files are destroyed to the point that they cannot be recovered by common undelete tools, the developers claim.

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www.kruptos2.co.uk

Access Manager

By CHONG JINN XIUNG (Free apps for the security conscious, In.Tech, The Star 07 June 2007)

IF YOU have one too many passwords that you need to keep hidden, but find that writing it on a piece of paper and keeping it under your pillow less than ideal, Access Manager can help do the remembering for you.

Access Manager is a software solution that keeps all your passwords in one list. In order to access all the passwords kept inside the application, users are required to enter a "Master Password."

Once you gain access, you can view and edit your passwords. Additionally, you can drag and drop passwords into webpages or other applications that require them.

Passwords are neatly arranged by username, passwords and passphrases. On the password window, you can choose a selected password to view and edit the information.

If you are worried that your passwords are too predictable, Access Manager can generate a random password and passphrase for you. However, most randomly generated passwords consist of long strings of letters and numbers.

If you are truly paranoid, you can even select an expiry date for your passwords and change them at regular time intervals – perfect for keeping passwords fresh and make it more difficult for hackers to crack.

In the event your hard disk should bite the dust, Access Manager has a feature that makes backup copies of your password database.

Backups can be made simultaneously to two separate locations. Even with backups you will still need to use your Master Password to unlock the database.

Access Manager can be copied over to any USB thumbdrive, memory card or removable hard disk to keep a completely portable, independent password management system.

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www.accessmanager.co.uk

One egg, many baskets

Most PC users would probably agree that the data on their computers is more valuable than the hardware itself.

You can better preserve your data by simultaneously keeping at least two copies your backups on different forms of media (and in different locations if you're paranoid).

For example, you could back up your data on both a portable hard drive and a collection of DVD-Rs.

That way, should one form of backup fail, either through an accident or device failure, you can fall back an the other.

Shortcut to hibernate

To quickly put your PC into hibernation mode, you can create a shortcut icon on the desktop.
Right click on the desktop, select new and then shortcut. In the text box type "rundll32.exe PowrProf.dlI SetSuspendState."

Click the next button and type in the name for this shortcut icon and then click the finish button.
Don't forget to change the generic icon image to reflect the shortcut's function. Right click on the icon, choose Property and click the Change Icon button. Choose the icon that you like and press save.

If the shortcut doesn't work, you probably need to enable the PC's hibernation function. To do so, go to the Control Panel. Find and double click on Power options.

Click on the hibernate tab, tick the Enable Hibernate checkbox and click the apply button.

Create a startup disk

IN WINDOWS XP, you can easily create a bootable floppy disk.

Just place a blank disk in the drive, right-click the floppy disk drive icon in My Computer, and then click Format on the shortcut menu.

In the "Format options" section, check the box next to "Create an MS-DOS startup disk," and then click Start.

In a few minutes, you will have a bootable startup disk.

Go on, scratch the creativity itch

Scratch is a creativity tool from the MIT Media lab that firms abstract programming concepts like recursion into snap-together puzzle pieces.

It is like a multimedia sandbox, where children eight and tip are welcomed as media producers, following the same philosophical blueprint that inspired software projects like Logo and Squeak.

Since it was introduced, demand for Scratch, which is available as a 36MB download, has swamped the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's servers.

The demand is helped by the price: Free with registration. The four years of development costs were covered by Intel and the National Science Foundation.

Scratch's drag-and-drop programming technique demands experimentation and the software's programmable objects, called sprites, can take on the form of your pet (log in a maze, or haiku words that self-narrate when clicked.

There is already an array of projects on the Scratch site that can be downloaded, modified and reposted, demonstrating that Scratch is as much about social networking as programming.

Future versions are in the works for mobile phones and portable computers, while the current download works fine on Macintosh OS X and Windows Vista, giving a free digital toolkit for anyone with a creative itch to scratch. - New York Times Special Features

For more information, logon http://scratch.mit.edu

Make Vista Look Good

Is the graphics card in your PC Vista ready? Microsoft Windows Vista operating system draws heavily on the graphics subsystem in a computer. Without an adequate graphics card, you won’t get the some of the fanciest new features of the interface. Your graphics card should have at least 64MB of the dedicated memory – 128 MB is better. Any graphic card made over the past couple of years with enough memory should run Vista just fine.