Mozilla Firefox is an excellent browser. I recommended it in the speech for the reason that it is virtually immune to spyware.

Most spyware installs itself on your computer through Internet Explorer's proprietary Component Object Model interface. This allows web pages to run programs on your machine if you give them permission.

Unfortunately, while the COM interface has many legitimate uses, it's a huge security risk. The "spyware popup" described in the speech is actually a COM installation window, requesting permission to run the spyware setup program on your machine.

Since the COM interface is a proprietary Internet Explorer component, other browsers such as Mozilla Firefox do not suffer from the security vulnerabilities caused by it.


Spybot Search & Destroy is one half of the complete spyware-removal breakfast. It detects and removes several thousand known varieties of spyware, although it doesn't get all of them. One feature that is worth noting is the "Immunize" button, which modifies the Registry to prevent some of the spyware from installing itself.

Ad-aware is the other half you need to effectively remove all spyware from your machine. It catches the spyware that Spybot S&D misses, although it lacks an Immunize function.

AVG is my recommendation for a good antivirus program.

While Norton Antivirus is certainly a very good antivirus solution, they require a subscription fee from everyone to keep the virus definitions up to date. Without current virus definitions, you won't be protected against the new threats that come out daily.

By contrast, AVG Antivirus is totally free for home users. Grisoft, the company that makes AVG, makes its money by selling a corporate edition of its software. The corporate edition has several features that are critical to corporations, but that home users will never use... The ability to schedule virus checks across an entire network is one example of a feature not found in the home edition of AVG.



One thing I didn't have time to go over in the speech was programs that start when Windows starts. While most of the things you'll see here are benign -- registration reminders, program preloaders, etc. -- they do have a large impact on the speed of your computer, both while starting up and while running.

The best way to control which programs start with your computer is Startup Inspector for Windows. Run the program, click the Consult button while connected to the 'Net, and it'll tell you exactly what each item does, and whether you need it or not. To disable any of the programs, simply uncheck their checkboxes and hit the Apply button.

That's all for now, folks. Have a good one!

Clint Olson
Speech 101