Utilities within XP

[Guest]

Hi,

I'm starting a dissertation with the intention of writing some system
utilities for XP. As part of my research I was wondering if anyone had any
thoughts on what sort of utilities would be useful that Microsoft do not
currently cover.

 

[Yves Leclerc]

Anti-virus in not included with XP

Anti-spyware controls also.

 

[David Elders]

In-line:

Anti-virus in not included with XP

Yet - bear in mind MS bought an AV firm not too long ago...

Anti-spyware controls also.

New IE pop-up blocker works as well as any of the 3rd party ones I've used.
Given their movements into the anti-spam side of things, I wouldn't be
surprised if something appears on both fronts sometime...

 

[Yves Leclerc]

Yes, but it did not make it into Service Pack 2. It may not even appear in
XP (although it might in XP Reloaded or Longhorn?)

In-line:

Anti-virus in not included with XP

Yet - bear in mind MS bought an AV firm not too long ago...

Anti-spyware controls also.

New IE pop-up blocker works as well as any of the 3rd party ones I've
used.
Given their movements into the anti-spam side of things, I wouldn't be
surprised if something appears on both fronts sometime...

 

[Don Taylor]

I'm starting a dissertation with the intention of writing some system
utilities for XP. As part of my research I was wondering if anyone had any
thoughts on what sort of utilities would be useful that Microsoft do not
currently cover.

Something to diagnose and fix networking problems.
It is easy for users to not realize mistakes or security holes.

A nice test case for you to be able to evaluate your results:
Take a generic Linux box with no networking set up.
Take a generic XP box with no networking set up.
Make a serious effort to have the XP box provide ICS to the Linux box.
Then see if your diagnose and fix software can solve the problem.
You should be able to come up with something almost as simple as
the Networking Wizard that looks at all the mistakes the user has
made, points out what is wrong, fixes it, and the network runs.

Something to diagnose and fix SP2 related problems.
There have been a handful of very specific and repeated reported problems.

A nice test case for you to be able to evaluate your results.
see if your tool can fix "The Windows Explorer" problem lots have reported.
Or even to report when it is and when it isn't "all viruses and spyware."
It should be fairly easy to write a little utility that will scan the
system, find and fix the problems.

If you can do either of those I think you will deserve a cake.
And neither of them is real rocket science.

 

[Peter]

Something similar to Registry Mechanic that is designed specifically for XP
SP2??