Scenario One: A PC with limited capabilites (low RAM, older system)
Solution: Panda Cloud Antivirus
It’s low resource usage and simple interface makes it a great fit for aging systems, netbooks or systems with smaller amounts of memory. It’s a relatively effective defender and fairly decent at cleaning up infections. It’s license doesn’t apply to corporate usage though (you may want to go with Microsoft’s Security Essentials).

Scenario Two: A clean, newer PC that needs effective web protection
Solution: Comodo Internet Security
A bit of a drag on system resources like most security suites, but not debilitating. It’s effective at keeping out malware, free for personal or business use and it doesn’t require too much tweaking on the firewall side. It can be a bit daunting for novices though and its cleanup capabilities are not stellar if your system is already infected.

Microsoft’s boards are flooded with complaints about the issue.

There is a little utility that was coded for older versions of Windows and works perfectly for Windows 7 too. It sits in the Windows system tray and automatically locks the point while you’re typing. I was a bit skeptical, but in my testing it has been flawless. Download it from Google.

The Wired article is disturbing for those of you who are members. For the rest of us, it’s merely confirmation.

It can even format for you. You just voice your punctuation marks, like “comma” or “period”, and it sticks them in. If you say, “new paragraph”, it formats it for you. It’s pretty impressive and it’s accuracy is reminiscent of their PC application.

So, why would you want this? Three obvious scenarios:

• You’re a bad iPhone typist.
• You’re in motion and typing isn’t an option.
• You’ve got a lot of text to write and little time.

After a week of testing, we’ve started using Dragon for more than 50% of our composition. It’s fast, surprisingly accurate and simple to work with. Occasionally, it would lose its server connection and our dictation would be lost. That’s the apps one flaw: you can’t dictate offline — it needs that server link to do the translation.

We cannot recommend this app enough. Try it for yourself. As the cliche goes, “you can’t beat free.”

For those on a tight budget or those who run unprotected systems, this successor to Microsoft Live One Care  is as an obvious consideration for antivirus and antispyware. But does it actually work?

So far, the answer is yes.

The system requirements are pretty easy to meet. You need to be running Windows XP 32-bit, Vista or Windows 7 and you need 1GB of RAM. So, if your PC is from the last five years, Security Essentials is likely to run. Obviously, you’ll need to check your system first.

First, some great news. The download was ridiculously fast, the installation procedure was extremely simple and the definitions updated more quickly than Antivir. The interface is sparse, which threw me for a loop. You don’t normally see this kind of “stripped-down” software in the security world, where bloated code and feature touting reign.

One install caveat: you need to submit to Microsoft’s Genuine Advantage validation during the install. Not a serious concern for most, but still a bit “Big Brothery” for our tastes.

Memory usage fluctuated, but averaged around 65MB. The initial scan barely affected system performance; I let it run while I continued working on other tasks.  The time to complete the scan was very good too (about 2/3 of the time of the other major freeware AV vendors). Realtime protection caused minimal delays and were quite livable. We wish that Microsoft would offer an option on the system tray icon to temporarily disable it, but it can be done from within the program settings.

My big question? Is this software actually doing anything to protect my system? It’s way too early to expect accurate results from our real-world usage, but AV-Comparatives recently rated it as one of the best for protection and a low number of false positives. Of the five infected systems we’ve thrown it on, all have cleaned up nicely.

Conclusion: I’ve run without antivirus software for years and I just may keep this one. It’s that seamless.

It was designed to do this, but when your scripts don’t run it’s not a friendly design. Depending on how you join your domain, this may not be an issue.

If it is, you can enable a registry settings that allows the logon script to run regardless.

Use at your own risk. This is not supported by Microsoft.

Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System and add a DWORD 32-bit key for EnableLinkedConnections and set its value to 1.

You’ll need to reboot afterwards, obviously.

Some quick ideas:

1. Get a new hard drive first. This may sound a bit radical, but it has a number of advantages. You start with a clean slate, your content is guaranteed to be preserved on your old drive, you get a drive with less mileage on it and you can choose a faster, larger drive.
2. Run backups before anything. Things happen. It’s best to try to backup what you can before making any changes. A large, external drive is the best option for this. If you haven’t got one, then Tip #1 above is even more critical.
3. Know your applications. You’ll need to reinstall every application (except for the ones that are bundles with Windows 7). If you’re missing key discs or your software is outdated, you may need to resolve this issue first. Again, with Tip #1 is helpful here – if you forget an app, you can go back to the old drive in an emergency.
4. Check your hardware. Not every device has a Windows 7 driver. In general, native support for devices has been excellent, but it’s worth checking.
5. Run the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor. This tool is useful if you have concerns about whether your PC is suited for the upgrade. The results aren’t perfect, but they are insightful.

Still with the idea? Microsoft has a good walkthrough on how to get Windows 7 installed. Make sure that you document the steps that will require your PC to be unable to access the web (print out the steps if needed).

See the Microsoft tutorial.

The best way to deal with these threats is to prevent them. Here are some quick fixes:

1. Stop using Internet Explorer — even version 8. Load up Firefox, Chrome or Safari and use that as your primary browser. You’re far less likely to run into issues. It’s been said many times, but it’s true.

2. Free software often has a price. You’re courting disaster with every poker and online game you install. Be very careful this. Kids are frequent targets too. If you’re not sure, just Google it and add the keyword “spyware.” See if anyone else is losing their mind about it.

2. Bolster your filtering. Suites such as Kaspersky Internet Security are more effective than old, basic antivirus programs. Microsoft’s new Security Essentials is a good choice on the free side. Avira’s Antivir is a great free antivirus program, but you’ll end up with malware if you hit the wrong site…it’s spyware filtering is not very good.

3. Make sure you’re up to date. While not a sure thing, Microsoft’s updates are often related to security issues with web browsing. Run your updates if you don’t have automatic updating turned on. Obviously, this requires a bit more thought for corporate users.

4. Stop using the Internet so much. Phonebooks and encyclopedias are virus-free. It sounds radical and we’re  kidding…sort of…but it’s guaranteed to keep your system safer.

If you do get hit (or preferable before you’re infected), install the free program Malwarebytes and use that to scan your systems. It’s detection and cleanup tools are easy to use and quite effective.

The lawsuit is actually pretty simple. A Canadian company, i4i, patented a customized version of XML. Starting with Office 2007, Word documents started to natively use XML (that’s why the newer files are .docx versus .doc).

As i4i saw it, the XML formatting that Microsoft was using was not a public domain standard. It brought an injunction in Texas that ultimately put Microsoft on their heels: no sales until the case was resolved.

As far as the public is concerned, Microsoft Office and its Word program aren’t going anywhere. The chances of this having any affect on the average user are slim. Office 2010 is about six to eight months away and since it’s the easiest answer, Microsoft will either have to either pay up or persevere in the courts in the short-term.

So, the sky isn’t falling. And even if it did, OpenOffice is a heck of program. At least until someone sues them.

UPDATE 12.24.09
Microsoft lost, believe it or not. Word isn’t going anywhere though. The ruling was in i4i’s favor. Microsoft is being forced to exclude a portion of the code from Word 2003 and 2007 (a patch was already issued a while ago). The end result? If you’re not a stockholder, you won’t likely be affected.

It’s pretty early to make predictions, but as we’ve seen with the Chrome browser and Google Apps, Google’s projects grab business users attention (even though the majority of the applications aren’t suitable for everyday business use).

Cloud Computing in general offers users the idea of simplified systems and web-based collaboration. It’s a new century flavor of the old mainframe server and terminal concept  Of course, Google’s model is far more sophisticated for Chrome, but the idea is still centralization. The only problem with this is bandwidth. Wireless — Wifi and especially 3G — doesn’t allow for the real-time throughput that would be necessary for live applications. And, ironically, mobile users are becoming the ones who need the apps the most.

Our guess is that Windows 7 will retain its marketplace, Google will grab its niche, as it did with Android phones, and Apple’s Snow Leopard will just hum along.