Here you go, the links we talked about this morning on the call in show.  Try them out, enjoy them and let me know what you think.

Have a great day!

Security Essentials
http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/
Get high-quality, hassle-free antivirus protection for your home or small business PC now. It’s from Microsoft and works great per all f the test parameters.

Slim Computer
http://www.slimcomputer.com/
Tired of Getting Resource-Draining Promotions on a New PC? The solution is innovative software with community-sourced feedback to remove & disable unneeded software. Optimize your system with push- button controls that let you disable services, remove links & uninstall the software you never asked for.

Secunia – PSI
http://secunia.com/vulnerability_scanning/personal/
Keep all of your software updated. This is just like Windows Update but for most all of your other applications.  Whether you have a new or old computer I highly recommend you install it.  Make sure you download the PSI version (Personal Security Inspector).

Speccy
http://www.piriform.com/speccy
Speccy is an advanced System Information tool for your PC. Need to find out what’s inside your computer? No problem! Speccy will give you all the information you need. Once you run it you can save the report, print it or just run it again the next time you need to know what type of hardware and OS you have running.

Ninite Easy PC Setup – Silent Unattended Install Multiple Programs At Once
http://ninite.com/
Ninite – you never have to install same old apps individually, again on your next computer.

1. Pick your favorite software.
2. Click "Get Installer".
3. Run it.
4. You’re done!

ZamZar
http://zamzar.com/
Convert a large number of file types to another type. For instance, enter a YouTube video on ZamZar and have it converted to .MP3. One of Ron’s favorites is to convert a PDF file to Word format so that it can be edited…free.

Archive.org/The Wayback Machine
http://www.archive.org/
The Internet Archive, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, is building a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form. Like a paper library, they provide free access to researchers, historians, scholars, and the general public.  Plus you can go back in time and look at many websites from years ago.

1 Sale A Day
http://1saleaday.com/
Get good prices on wireless, watches, family jewelry products at deep discounts and of course, “The Deal of the Day”.  They change everyday at midnight (or really close to it) which is when the old sales go off and the new ones come on.

Mentioned by a caller (Ron has never tested this or tried it…yet):
DSL
http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/
DSL was originally developed as an experiment to see how many usable desktop applications can fit inside a 50MB live CD. It was at first just a personal tool/toy. But over time Damn Small Linux grew into a community project with hundreds of development hours put into refinements including a fully automated remote and local application installation system and a very versatile backup and restore system which may be used with any writable media including a hard drive, a floppy drive, or a USB device.

Talk to you next time.

Tags: antivirus protection, applications, apps, business pc, day security, favorite software, free, hassle, innovative software, next computer, old computer, psi version, push button, secunia, security essentials, system information tool, test parameters, try this, vulnerability

Years ago I started a column about sites mentioned in the column from the previous year. It usually runs the first couple of columns in the New Year. By-the-way, as hard as it is for me to believe, today starts my tenth year writing, “Double Click.” Thanks to all of you readers who read it and write me each week! The year in review column was a lark on my part; however, I found that many of you enjoyed it, so here it is for 2010. Have fun remembering, discovering, or rediscovering all the info! If you prefer to click on links and not type all of these, visit the DoubleClicks.info site and click away.

If the site addresses are too long to type I have shortened them with, “bit.ly” which is mentioned below. All of these sites should be free (or have a free version) unless marked “nf”.

Without further ado…here they are in their order of appearance with short descriptions of each.

• Predator (bit.ly/7DicnY) provides notebook security with a thumb drive.
• Portable Apps (portableapps.com) runs full programs from your thumb drive. A minimum of a 1 GB drive is needed but the larger the better.
• Secunia-PSI (bit.ly/bx3f5u) works like Windows Update, but updates ALL of your other programs.
• SuncToy (bit.ly/hf5GRq) a neat, accurate and easy to use file backup utility from Microsoft.
• Data Crow (datacrow.net) media database for CDs, DVDs, Blu-rays, books, etc.
• Smart Defrag (iobit.com/iobitsmartdefrag.html) better hard drive defrag program.
• Facebook (facebook.com/DoubleClicks).
• MouseRugs (mouserug.com) interesting little rugs for your mouse.
• Surf Faster & Smarter-IE8 (bit.ly/bJRmBo) my first article for Microsoft.
• Scrabble (bit.ly/965cg3).
• SnagIt (techsmith.com) advanced screenshot application, nf.
• Dropbox (bit.ly/aszzao) automated online file storage.
• Canyon Defense game (bit.ly/cQoWtu).
• Dogfight game (bit.ly/agxQ35).
• Double Wires game (bit.ly/cy0uEj).
• Bit.ly is a free link shortener used a lot by me.
• Country code top-level domain list (bit.ly/a7Vmpo).
• Pixel Toolbox (bit.ly/akeyHA) an app to make your own icons.
• Official US Time (bit.ly/hzMXcv).
• Invisible Hand (getinvisiblehand.com) a Firefox browser add-on to find an item at the cheapest price.
• Mozilla add-ons (addons.mozilla.org) most all Firefox browser add-ons. Search, find and install them from here.
• Soluto (soluto.com) a program that speeds up your computer’s boot time by suggesting programs you don’t need to run when it starts.

Next week we will visit part 2 of last year’s links.

Tags: backup utility, data crow, defrag, Double Click, free version, gb drive, media database, microsoft data, notebook security, predator, previous year, PSI, secunia, thumb drive, windows update, year in review

I got an email from a reader in Mt. Crawford over a month ago asking an excellent question.  They wanted to know if there was a way to keep all of their programs up to date, keeping the latest version always on their system.

In talking back and forth with them we came to the conclusion that there should be something on the market that was similar to “Windows Update”.  WU comes with all versions of Microsoft windows as all of my readers should know.  It allows you to check and see if there are any new versions of your MS products that need updating.  If there are, it allows you to update them so that you can stay ahead of the curve.

After a little Googling and searching I found a program called Secunia-PSI.  I have no idea what “Secunia” means but PSI is for “Personal Software Inspector”.  This program does almost everything the reader wanted.  I have been testing it for a little over a month and it seems to work very well.

You can go to secunia.com to read about and download the personal edition of the application.  There are actually three different versions of Secunia.  They are OSI (Online), PSI (Personal) and CSI (Corporate).  I tried the OSI and it was adequate but does not look for as many programs as the PSI and CSI versions.  The CSI version is really for the corporate environment and home users do not need it.  All three are here: bit.ly/bx3f5u.

All versions are free but I recommend downloading/installing the PSI version which seems to  be very thorough.  You will find it in the middle of the three on the page recommended above.

The default setting for Secunia runs in the background all the time checking your computer’s software for updates.  I leave it like that on my desktop since I have loads of memory. However, for my netbook I just run it once a week or so.

I pride myself in always keeping all of my software up to date, so let’s take a look at how my three computers faired after being scanned by Secunia.

My netbook scored 100% as all of my software was up-to-date, yeah!

My notebook didn’t do as well.  There were four applications that weren’t up to standards.  But I still did better than 15% of users in Virginia; Secunia gives you this info if you register the product.  (free)

Now my pride and joy, my desktop computer…oops, I had 11 applications that were not where they should be.  I spent about an hour uninstalling some old versions which Secunia advised me to do, before I updated them.  I also downloaded some of the new versions from the links provided by Secunia.  And I learned a valuable lesson, as the bible says, “Pride goes before destruction.”

Now, let’s look at  a couple of drawbacks.  It indicated that all three browsers on my system were insecure and needed updates.  They are MSIE, Firefox and Google Chrome.  Come on, give me a break!  They were all updated and as secure as possible.  I guess it wanted me to uninstall all three of them. Of course, then my surfing the net time would be cut down considerably.  I decided to ignore those threats.  You can always make rules to ignore certain warnings.

Tags: application, browsers, desktop, netbook, notebook, PSI, Ron Doyle, secunia, software, update