If you are interested in the free antivirus program from Avira called AntiVir, be sure you get it from Avira. Joe ran across a number of Google sponsored ads that claimed to offer AntiVir, but were not from Avira. These scam websites ask for personal information, the real Avira sites do not. Avira is at avira.com or free-av.com.

Microsoft is having a sale on Windows 7, if you pre-order it. Alfred suspects this is a marketing gimmick. Next week we'll discuss the pricing of Windows 7 with someone from Microsoft.

China delayed the requirement for Internet filtering on new computers. Worldwide, one out of every seven comptuers sold was sold in China.

Firefox version 3.5 was just released. Joes first impression was that it was much faster. But, there is a new locator feature that he doesn't like at all. If you opt in on a computer with WiFi, Firefox detects some local WiFi networks and marries this information to your IP address to learn exactly where you are.

Joe reviewed the beta of the new, free Microsoft Securit Essentials, their upcoming antivirus program. It is easy to install, runs fast, has a small footprint, but isn't ready for prime time. For one thing, it doesn't integrate with email programs. Also, logging is poor and it requires Windows Update to be in full automatic mode. Joe, like many people, only has Windows warn about new available patches.

Joe discussed TOR, The Onion Router (torproject.org). It is free, open source and offers anonymous online web surfing, but he felt it was too hard to configure. A commercial product called Masksurf from Thanksoft puts a simple, easy front end on TOR. Joe's first look was positive.

Microsoft is shutting down Money and Soapbox. Listener phone calls.

A caller had their antivirus program find malware, remove it, only to have the malicious software re-appear. Michael suggested running anti-malware software from The Ultimate Boot CD for Windows. This treats the C disk as a data disk and doesn't let the malicious software defend itself from removal. See The Best Way to Remove Viruses, Spyware and other Malware (Part 1) and How to Remove Malware (part 2): Booting from a CD.

Next week Brian Johnson of Microsoft to discuss running Windows XP under Windows 7.

 

The beta of a new free Microsoft antivirus product sold out. You can still buy Windows XP on new computers for another two years. Some people don't like netbooks. Joe and Alfred reported from a trade show. Alfred's favorite toy was a pair of night vision goggles called eyeclops. 4TB hard disks are coming. Olivia liked two books: Creating a website - the missing manual (2nd edition) and Sexy Web Design which she felt was good for web developers to give to their clients. Listener phone calls.

 

More patches from Apple, this time for Java. Finally, after many months, Java users on Macs are as safe as Java users on Windows and Linux. Soon the Chinese government will require software on new personal computers that filters out offensive websites. At the moment, pornography is the only thing considered offensive. Symantec and McAfee paid a huge fine for automatically renewing their software without giving customers a simple way to not rent the software for another year. Listener phone calls

 

Yesterday was patch Tuesday with critical bugs fixed in both the Windows and Mac versions of Word and Excel. Friday the 12th is the end of analog TV broadcasts, many people are still not prepared. Alfred said there is not much difference between converter boxes and he explained about new LED TVs. Microsoft imposes limits on hardware used in netbooks and nettops that run Windows. Rants on computing devices that don't let the user replace the battery. Alfred told about a TV set that transmits data - it's three years out.

Listener phone calls included the topic of opening Internet Explorer in full screen mode in Windows XP. For more see Reset Internet Explorer's window size in Windows XP.

 

Our thanks to those who supported the show during the recent fund raising drive. The return policy at Circuit City is not the best. Adobe will release bug fixes only once every three months. Windows 7 will ship in October. Our guest was David Perry of Trend Micro and the topic was malware. There is new malware infecting Apache web servers.