LangaList, September 25, 2006

More Cool Free Tools

In last issue's "Very Nice Free Software" ( http://langa.com/newsletters/2006/2006-09-21.htm#2 ) we discussed some software available from Microsoft Research. In that issue, I said "Microsoft Research explores new technologies and applications. Some of them don't pan out and thus never see the light of day. Others get built into working demos or lightweight tools for further experimentation." I mentioned "Continuous Flash," and some of you who took a look were disappointed that it wasn't a full-blown application. My description could have been clearer; I apologize. Continuous Flash is one of those working demos; not a ready-to use tool. That's the thing with an R&D site: you never know quite what you'll find, or how useful it will be. But as we said, it's at least interesting, and worth a look.

Moving forward, let me now tell you about a new tool that's full blown; not a technology demo; and not experimental. Rather, it's immediately useful, and free!

It's "ewido," a free anti-spyware tool from Grisoft, the folks who make the popular AVG antivirus tool.

I've been running ewido (yes, it's spelled all in lower case) on a couple of machines here, and it seems quite good so far. Grisoft says it's "easy to use, has daily database updates, uses heuristics to detect unknown threats, and has an automatic Cleaning Engine."

Like the AVG antivirus tool, the home-use free version of ewido offers solid, basic functionality; and a $30 Pro version offers more: "Automatic online-updates, real-time monitoring of the entire system, self-protection at kernel layer guaranteeing gapless monitoring, and consent for commercial use."

Ewido is new enough that there's not a lot of information about it yet. One third-party review ( http://tinyurl.com/7sk6y ) says ewido is in "a small elite group of technically advanced anti-trojans. For a new product it is an impressive effort." It looks good to me, too.

If you're comfortable trying a relatively new product, you can download ewido from the same site that offers the free version of AVG: http://tinyurl.com/qrcox . Or, you can visit the ewido networks site: http://www.ewido.net/ . The latter site also offers a free tool to scan your PC for spyware, live and online.