Surfing safely ... a few free tools.

[Michelle Diane]

I've missed all the problems by running Linux. However as hard as I try I can't convince my wife to swap over so I have to keep her system protected.

One small tool I use and love is called "StartUpMonitor" and a small free program that effectively puts a couple of bouncers on the front door to your registry. Whenever a program tries to register itself it's barred and a small pop up appears. Something like this.

Program "I'm not a trojan, really I’m not.exe" wants to register itself to run at startup.

Allow----------YES---------NO.

It's also a good defence against self registering trojans that can really screw with your registry. You'd be surprised at what junk tries to sneak into your registry.

I get mine from here.
http://download.cnet.com/StartupMonitor ... 37539.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I've used this for a good 7-8 years now and never had any problems.

Please exercise caution with new programs especially those that affect registry entries. You should back up your registry before proceeding. Neither myself nor the forum owners/administrators/members can or will be held liable for any errors and or loss of data caused by using any software mentioned herein. The end user accepts full and sole liability for the installation and use of such software .