Joined
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788 Posts
Google released their Desktop Search tool on October 14:
http://desktop.google.com/
Pretty cool, and free, if you haven't used any of the numerous commercial software packages that do more, and you don't remember AltaVista Personal Search (1996-1997), which indexed far more file types (200+). You can Google the web for issues with, and some fixes for, Desktop Search.
Agnitum finally released Outpost Firewall Pro 2.5. There are a zillion firewalls, they're constantly being updated, and of course, there's always the Windows XP firewall, significantly improved with SP2, but still pretty lame. I really like Outpost Pro, even though you have to pay for it (skip the free version), but the cost is reasonable, especially if you have multiple computers and buy a family license, and annual update/support renewals are only 50% of the original purchase price. For serious users, I think that you will be astonished by all of the features in Outpost Pro (but read the manuals). Minor updates of Outpost Pro are comparable to major updates from other vendors. Normally, I prefer a clean install, but since I have a lot of custom rules, I went the upgrade route. It didn't install as painlessly as usual; I had to manually restart the installer after the first reboot (from the old version uninstall), and then I had to reboot a couple of times. It also blocked my proxy server without telling me (that's unusual for Outpost), thereby blocking much of my Internet access, but it has great logs so I was quickly able to track down the problem and change the rules for my proxy server. There are significant security improvements in 2.5; it is supposed to pass all known leak tests. There is far too much to list here, and much more than their change log mentions, you just have to try it (you can use the 30-day trial if you don't already have Outpost).
http://desktop.google.com/
Pretty cool, and free, if you haven't used any of the numerous commercial software packages that do more, and you don't remember AltaVista Personal Search (1996-1997), which indexed far more file types (200+). You can Google the web for issues with, and some fixes for, Desktop Search.
Agnitum finally released Outpost Firewall Pro 2.5. There are a zillion firewalls, they're constantly being updated, and of course, there's always the Windows XP firewall, significantly improved with SP2, but still pretty lame. I really like Outpost Pro, even though you have to pay for it (skip the free version), but the cost is reasonable, especially if you have multiple computers and buy a family license, and annual update/support renewals are only 50% of the original purchase price. For serious users, I think that you will be astonished by all of the features in Outpost Pro (but read the manuals). Minor updates of Outpost Pro are comparable to major updates from other vendors. Normally, I prefer a clean install, but since I have a lot of custom rules, I went the upgrade route. It didn't install as painlessly as usual; I had to manually restart the installer after the first reboot (from the old version uninstall), and then I had to reboot a couple of times. It also blocked my proxy server without telling me (that's unusual for Outpost), thereby blocking much of my Internet access, but it has great logs so I was quickly able to track down the problem and change the rules for my proxy server. There are significant security improvements in 2.5; it is supposed to pass all known leak tests. There is far too much to list here, and much more than their change log mentions, you just have to try it (you can use the 30-day trial if you don't already have Outpost).
