Microsoft Anti-Spyware

I continue to be impressed with Microsoft's Anti-Spyware. Since installing, I have not had a single instance of spyware getting onto my computer (verified by running Search and Destroy as well). I am thinking that I may just uninstall Spyware Blaster and Search and Destroy as there doesn't seem to be much need for them now. You can learn more about this program and download it at Microsoft's Anti-Spyware site . It's free to try through the end of December - after that, I'm not sure what Microsoft plans to do with it - whether it will remain free or whether there will be a charge associated. I believe it is Microsoft's intention to include it in Vista, so hopefully it will remain free. (*Update - Windows AntiSpyware (Beta 2) and the final release version will each be available at no additional charge for currently licensed Windows customers. Customers will be required to validate that their version of Windows is genuine.) A further note - Windows AntiSpyware (Beta) supports Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server™ 2003.

If you are interested in joining or just looking at forums related to MS's Anti-Spyware, you can do so here .

Handy tool to test your computer memory

Well, it looks like I solved my computer woes. I went searching on the Net for Memory Testing Tools since the ol' computer was crashing at random. Found in a tech forum a link to http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp . Easy to follow instructions and the test results were simple to interpret. Discovered that one of my RAM chips was bad, so I'm now off to get a new one. Add this little program to your troubleshooting arsenal - saved me a whole lot of trouble and expense in getting this machine diagnosed.

Computer woes

Haven't been posting for a bit, as I've been suffering with the mysterious computer woes. Stupid thing just tosses up a black screen and reboots when it feels like it. I'm half suspecting some Firefox extension or theme I might have downloaded, so uninstalled most of them today (Firefox now loads a lot faster! :). Not sure if a bad piece of code could wreck so much havoc - we shall see. After about 10 sudden reboots the other day, my computer didn't like the copies of the registry so started hauling up old ones - now that's fun. Suddenly your desktop background is gone - your fonts look a bit strange - settings are lost in some programs - all quite strange.

Thought I had my stuff safe on an external HD and then when I plugged it back in today, discovered my computer wouldn't recognize, so I rebooted and chkdsk popped up checking the drive - found a bunch of corrupted stuff - fixed it and I'm back to normal (ha! - what's normal?). No idea how stuff got corrupted on there.

And then this afternoon I picked up the mail and standing at the table tilted my neck forward to look at the paper and that damn thing seized - thought I was gonna pass out - boy - talk about some pain. whew. Guess the ol' RA is gonna destroy my neck now. When you're on a roll, you're on a roll!

At least I have my wife's laptop to fall back on which is a good thing :)