Monthly Archives: October 2004

Panda Titanium 4 and ZoneAlarm

Lately Norton Antivirus (AV) has been getting very bloated so I’ve been testing the waters with a new antivirus program called Panda. I have some mixed feelings about the product, which I believe is developed in Spain.

Pros
Updates virus definitions often
Seems to catch a lot more email viruses than Norton’s

Cons
No apparent way to schedule a system scan
Seems to conflict with ZoneAlarm — I often cannot open certain Explorer windows when I have both programs running

That last con item really bugs me since I’ve learned to trust having my ZA running at all times. I going to reinstall ZA to see if it makes a difference. If not, I would have a difficult time recommending Panda.

My Top 6 Free Software Utilities

Here is a list of my top 6 free utilities. A must have for every computer user.

1. ZoneAlarm – This is a great free software firewall that checks if any application is making strange outgoing connections. You need to be a little computer savvy to know when to allow and when to deny connections, though. Still the best in it’s class.

2. Ad-Aware and Spybot – The two best free spyware cleaners on the market. Get both if you like since there currently is no cleaning software that catches 100% of spyware.

3. EditPad – A cool general purpose text editor that is light years ahead of NotePad. You can open multiple windows, wordwrap, autoindent, etc. The Lite version is free.

4. PowerToys for XP – A host of cool utilities such as Command Prompt Here for dropping into the correct DOS directory and TweakUI which allows you to make adjustments to your Windows environment. The best feature of TweakUI is the Paranoia tab that allows you to clear out your history buffers.

5. Screen Hunter – An excellent screen capture utility from the fine folks at Wisdom-Soft.

6. Trend Micro’s House Call – Fast becoming my virus checking program of choice. Online scanner is useful for checking systems where you feel the local Norton or McAfee has been compromised.