What's your modus operandi?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Susan Bugher
  • Start date Start date
MLC said:
martedì 23 maggio 2006 Susan Bugher ha scritto:

Thak you Susan, you'll be my second Google ;-D
Click to expand...

:) FWIW I'm *supersensitized* to name variations because I do so much
checking re the ACF pages - I use several searches to see if apps are
*already* listed. That's fairly simple - digging info out of the ng
archives is much harder.

Susan
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dunno what your definition of "trusted websites" is. Could you expand a
bit on that?

Susan
Click to expand...

ACF of course, Nils Sofer, Steve Burn, Mark Russinovich, Pablo VanMeer,
....they come immediately to mind.

Mike Sa
 
Great thread. I use just about all freeware, and like to think that I
have pretty high quality programs. The reason I think this is because
almost 100 percent of the freeware that I use comes from the
Pricelessware site.

Unlike many of you, I blindly and trustingly install any program
whatsoever that is listed at the Pricelessware site. No virus scans,
no checking for malware afterwards, etc... I simply download and
install and place my trust in the fact that if it has made it to
Pricelessware, it is good enough for me.

It is uplifting to not have to worry about things like a virus or
various forms of adware, spyware, etc... It is wonderful to be able
to have access to a site such as Pricelessware, where if it is listed
it must be good. You don't have to worry, you don't have to fret, no
problems, all is recommended and supposedly tested and checked out by
people that know what they are doing.

Alt
 
I'm currently playing with the free VMware Player at work, which allows
you to set up a virtual operating system that runs inside your existing
operating system. You can then install or test or otherwise live
dangerously to your heart's content without affecting your "real" PC.

http://www.vmware.com/products/player/

To create a virtual Windows XP system for the player, you'll need your
XP CD and these instructions (or one of the gazillions of other sets of
instructions you can find on the net with google):

http://johnbokma.com/mexit/2005/10/26/vmware-player-windows-xp.html

This seems like an ideal way to test software on your main PC without
any ill effects.

Google will also help you find a large number of pre-configured linux
and other OS configurations for the VMware player so that you can easily
and safely try out other operating systems without messing up your PC.

Peter
 
1) check out the software / author on reputible sites
2) install on a non-networked spare box
Click to expand...

love this suggestion but. . .
What OS are you talking about?
Is this workable for Windows XP users?
3) virus check
4) spyware chceck
5) phone home check

JMHO / YMMV
Click to expand...

Susan
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Ivan said:
Nothing special; my antivirus checks software while downloading, I
have System restore switched ON, I have firewall which tells me if
software wants to visit some site, always work (and install software)
as power user, so it can't mess up my system files (there are few
exceptions, but filemanager or archiver doesn't really have to need
admin rights for installation), using Total Uninstall for monitoring,
and most important, a bit of inteligence.

Most important thing is, as I see it, regular updating and NOT WORKING
as Administrators (or root) on computers. There is no need for that.
You can install about 95% of everything as Power user, and no messing
up system files.
Click to expand...

Thanks Ivan. Which OS does that advice apply to?

Susan
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Posted to alt.comp.freeware
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Pricelessware: http://www.pricelessware.org (not maintained)
 
Susan said:
Thanks Ivan. Which OS does that advice apply to?

Susan
Click to expand...

The reference to 'power user' seems to indicate XP or 2000 network.
I essentially do the same thing on a stand alone using XP home SP2
with Scotty on patrol along with Spyware Blaster, PopUpStopper, Kerio and secure settings.

I don't know what 'restore switched on' means, but I have it current just in case
I need to uninstall and/or return to a former civil install date. And I don't have Word set as
my text editor in IE. I do use it but don't allow it as my html editor.
Helen
 
Susan said:
Software is a "black box" - a door that's waiting to be opened. What's
the best way to find out what's behind the door? (Is it a lady or a tiger?)
Click to expand...
I think this subject might make a nice web page - a guide for newbies to
the wonderful world of Freeware - perhaps organized somewhat along these
lines:
Click to expand...

I forgot to ask an obvious question. Are there any existing web pages
that offer good advice? If some of the work has already been done we
could link to those pages.

Susan
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I don't know what 'restore switched on' means, but I have it current just in case
Click to expand...

I met a lot of people, stupid people IMHO, who think that they can
outsmart the computer, which noone can :o) and first thing they are
doing on clean installation is disabling System Restore which doesn't
take much system resources anymore as it did in Windows Me. They feel
"hackerish" when doing so. And then, one day, some driver update
messes up registry, and while they could fix it with restoring
computer, they end up reinstalling the whole OS.

Ivan.
 
love this suggestion but. . .
What OS are you talking about?
Is this workable for Windows XP users?


Susan
Click to expand...

This is the process I use for WinXP. On linux, there is little to worry
about, but I do install it on a test box...just in case.

--
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El Gee Www.mistergeek.com <><
Know Christ, Know Peace -- No Christ, No Peace
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Susan Bugher said:
Thanks Ivan. Which OS does that advice apply to?
Click to expand...


There's an item about power users in Mark's Sysinternals blog here
http://www.sysinternals.com/Blog/

"Placing Windows user accounts in the Power Users security group is a
common approach IT organizations take to get users into a least-privilege
environment while avoiding the many pains of truly running as a limited user.
The Power Users group is able to install software, manage power and
time-zone settings, and install ActiveX controls, actions that limited
Users are denied.

What many administrators fail to realize, however, is that this power comes
at the price of true limited-user security. Many articles, including this
Microsoft Knowledge Base article and this blog post by Microsoft security
specialist Jesper Johansen, point out that a user that belongs to the Power
Users group can easily elevate themselves to fully-privileged administrators,
but I was unable to find a detailed description of the elevation mechanisms
they refer to. I therefore decided to investigate.
...."
 
There's just one last thing I can think of, everything else having been
mentioned. That is to look for open source or gpl software in
preference to others. Ethicalinessin the writing of this type of
software is far more reliable than with apps written by a single
unknown person. I've not yet come across any bad news open source app.
I may yet, but so far its been a very good indicator of
trustworthiness.

NT

ps sorry bout context snip, will get this fixed soon
 
There's an item about power users in Mark's Sysinternals blog here
http://www.sysinternals.com/Blog/
Click to expand...

I've read it, it's very interesting... will try it at work, I have
some test machines that I can crash :o)

But my statement still stands: working as Power User is the best
tradeoff between elevated security and comfort. It's much better than
working as Administrator, and also better as working as User - you
can't overwrite core system files, therefore you can always boot into
at least safe mode and repair damage, and you can install software
without constant logging in as admin. And I am sorry to say, but as
far as freeware is concerned, some programs are just expecting full
read/write privileges on their folder (settings etc.), because they
don't use user profiles to store their settings. And when running in
User account, you have to change permissions on program installation
folder, and that's not very good thing to do :o)

Ivan.
 
Does that mean you have more than one license for XP?

Susan
Click to expand...

No, I have licenses for Win98, Win2K and WinXP. MOST things that are
safe on Win2k work on WinXP. If they are different, I take them to work
and test them on test boxes there...off the network.

--
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
El Gee Www.mistergeek.com <><
Know Christ, Know Peace -- No Christ, No Peace
Remove .yourhat to reply
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 
Susan said:
Software is a "black box" - a door that's waiting to be opened. What's
the best way to find out what's behind the door? (Is it a lady or a tiger?)
Click to expand...
Please climb on your soapboxes and offer your words of wisdom. Tidbits
of advice or essays on the whole process. . .
Click to expand...

My thanks to all contributors in this thread. :) :) :)

I'm still slogging away on some other ACF stuff but will try to get a
rough draft of a web page done *fairly* soon for further discussion.

Susan
--
Posted to alt.comp.freeware
Search alt.comp.freeware (or read it online):
http://www.google.com/advanced_group_search?q=+group:alt.comp.freeware
Pricelessware & ACF: http://www.pricelesswarehome.org
Pricelessware: http://www.pricelessware.org (not maintained)
 
Software is a "black box" - a door that's waiting to be opened. What's
the best way to find out what's behind the door? (Is it a lady or a tiger?)
Click to expand...

Well this is my MO for installing new software...

1. visit http://fileforum.betanews.com/ and check out user comments for
program. If it has adware/spyware, or is in some other way dangerous,
or too many users complain about it being crap, I don't install it.

2. on that site there is always link to program homepage, so I check it
out. If author uses frames, or if homepage looks generally ugly, I take
this into account. Also I check out info about author, from what country
he comes, etc..

3. if all looks good I download program, check setup file with
Kaspersky, Avast, Sophos.
http://www.avast.com/

4. turn of all unimportant running programs. Rrun InCtrl5/EasyClean
combo and save system state.

5. install and run program, go through settings, configure each one to
my liking.

6. reboot

7. run InCtrl5, record and save changes in file named after that program
with extension _install. Run EasyClean and do the same, then inspect
changes made by the program to my system using EasyClean interface.

8. run ad-aware and spybotSD and check out system for spyware.
http://www.lavasoft.de/
http://www.safer-networking.org/

9. check program memory usage with Process Explorer
http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/procexp.shtml

10. check if program pushed it's way into system startup with Autoruns
http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/autoruns.shtml

11. compare program with my existing program for that purpose.
The weaker program of the two has got to go. There can be only ONE! ;)

12. run InCtrl5, save system state.

13. uninstall program via normal windows add/remove programs applet.

14. reboot

15. run InCtrl5 and save uninstall info in file named after program with
extension _uninstall.

16. use ExamDiff to compare _install and _uninstall file.
http://www.prestosoft.com/ps.asp?page=edp_examdiff

17. if something didn't get uninstalled I delete it manually using
TotalCommadner (freeCommander is also good) for files, and RegExitX
for registry.
http://www.freecommander.com/
http://www.dcsoft.com/products/regeditx/

That's about it.
 
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