Tinys World of Technology BS

Some Lagniappe for You
By Tiny Ruisch

la·gniappe (lnyp, ln-yp)
n. Chiefly Southern Louisiana & Mississippi
1. A small gift presented by a store owner to a customer with the customer’s purchase.
2. An extra or unexpected gift or benefit.  Also called regionally boot.

If you find it hard to remember to check for software updates, you’ll like using the Secunia Personal Software Inspector (PSI).  The Secunia PSI is a free security tool that is designed to detect vulnerable and out dated programs and plug-ins which could expose your PC to attacks.  I’ve been using this program for several years and have found it to be reliable and fairly easy to use.

Attacks exploiting vulnerable programs and plug-ins are rarely blocked by traditional anti-virus and they are therefore increasingly “popular” among criminals.  The only solution to block these kind of attacks is to apply security updates, commonly referred to as patches.  Patches are offered free of charge by most software vendors.  Finding all these patches is a tedious and time consuming task.  Secunia PSI automates this and alerts you when your programs and plug-ins require updating to stay secure.

To use Secunia PSI, you must be using Windows 7, Windows Vista SP 1 or later or Windows XP SP 3.  Both 32 and 64 bit operating systems are supported.  Administrative privileges, internet connectivity and Microsoft Internet Explorer are required to install and run the program.  There are no additional hardware requirements.  If your computer runs any of the above mentioned Operating Systems, then Secunia PSI should work.

There are three screens in the Secunia program.  The main screen is the called the dashboard.  The dashboard shows information about your system.  The quick summary block in the upper left portion of the screen shows information about the program and your system.  The attached screen shot of my computer shows that my last scan was on June 29 and that I have no unsecured or end of life programs on my computer.  You can also see that I have never registered with Secunia.  This is an Internet Explorer window.  You might notice that there is only one advertisement on the screen.

The second screen shot is of the Scan Results is simply a list of the programs monitored by Secunia.  All of the programs on my computer are up to date with the latest patches.  After a scan, if there are any programs that need to be updated, double clicking on the program name opens a new window with detailed information on the program, links to various help sites and to the program vendors home page if there is on.  If a program has an available update, you can highlight the program name and click the “install solution” button.  It is so much easier than checking each program individually.

The final screen shows the scanning process of the program.  There are only two buttons: “Start Scan” and “Stop Scan”.  The scanning time depends on how fast your computer processor is. On my desktop that has lots of programs and large hard drives, it usually takes about 20 minutes.  On my wife’s old XP, it usually takes more than an hour.

The program defaults to automatically load and run when windows starts.  This can easily be changed in the configuration menu under settings.  There are many other settings you may want to change.  The only other one I use is the “Ignore Rules” section.  Here you can set up a rule to keep Secunia PSI from scanning a particular program.  For instance, I have a couple of old Windows 98 programs that I still use.  I’m pretty sure that there will never be another update for them.  I just have Secunia ignore them and scan everything else.

Of course, this program sells for my favorite price: Free for Home Users.  You can find more information and download it at this link: Secunia PSI Information and Download.  Give it a try. It will only cost some of your time.

If you like the program, just tell everyone that you’ve got a SWLAPCUG extra, bonus perk: a little lagniappe.

Some Lagniappe for You
By Tiny Ruisch

la·gniappe (lnyp, ln-yp)
n. Chiefly Southern Louisiana & Mississippi
1. A small gift presented by a storeowner to a customer with the customer’s purchase.
2. An extra or unexpected gift or benefit. Also called regionally boot.

I’d like to tell you about a really efficient utility program that I’ve been using for several years now.  FileMenu Tools lets you customize the right click menu of Windows Explorer.  The program adds utilities to perform operations on files and folders and adds customized commands that let you run external applications, copy or move to a specific folder or delete specific file types.

With the built in commands you can:
Run With Parameters – Runs a program with parameters that you input in a dialog box.
Command Line From Here – Opens a command line window.
Copy/Move – No need to cut and paste. You can also use filters in your file selection.
Duplicate Files – Make a copy in the same folder.
Pack to Folder – Moves all the selected elements to new sub-folder in the current folder.
Copy Path/Name/Content – Copies the selected item(s) to the clipboard.
Attributes – You can view and change them without opening a properties dialog box.
Find and Replace – Lets you find or replace a text for all the files in a selected folder.
Advanced Rename – With lots of options.
Change Icon – Quickly and easily change folder options.
Advanced Delete – lets you delete specific file types in a folder.
Synchronize Two Folders – Lets you synchronize two folders quickly and easily.
Shred Files – Overwrites several times so it is impossible to recover the file in the future.
Send to Mail Recipient – Lets you send an e-mail with selected elements as attachments.

These are about half of the FileMenu commands you can select from.  In the configuration menu, a simple check will turn off the commands you don’t want to appear when you right click.  If you can’t find the FileMenu function you need, you can add a customized command to run external applications, copy/move to a specific folder or delete specific file types.

FileMenu Tools lets you configure the “Send to” submenu.  You can add new items, change the properties of the existing items or delete them. You also can disable existing “Send to” items in order to hide them from the menu.

FileMenu Tools will also let you enable/disable the commands which are added to the context menu of the Windows Explorer by other programs.  This is the only function that is not one hundred percent reliable.  When it works, it works well, but it doesn‘t catch all of the programs that add to your right click.

Download FileMenu Tools.  Give this program a test.  I’m pretty sure that you’ll like it.  FileMenu Tools is a 7.6 MB download and runs on all Windows platforms.  Did I mention the price?  This program is freeware and costs nothing.  While you’re on the Lopesoft website, you can also download and try LopeEdit Lite.  If you do, you’ll probably never use Windows Notepad again.

If you like the program, just tell everyone that you’ve got a SWLACUG extra, bonus perk; a little lagniappe.

Some Lagniappe for You
By Tiny Ruisch

la·gniappe (lnyp, ln-yp)
n. Chiefly Southern Louisiana & Mississippi
1. A small gift presented by a store owner to a customer with the customer’s purchase.
2. An extra or unexpected gift or benefit. Also called regionally boot.

Lately, so many people have asked me about passwords. I thought I’d take a few minutes and tell you about the Password Program that I use every day when I’m computing.  I did a Google Search for “password manager“ and got 5,260,000 results.  I‘ve carefully researched all of them except for the last four million or so.

I use a lot of passwords in my daily computing.  As of this writing, I’ve got 63 e-mail addresses.  I have eighteen passwords that I use to manage them.  I frequent 7 different forums, each with separate password.  Then there are my gaming site passwords.  Five right now.  Did I forget to mention my military and medical passwords?  Eight of them.  Then there is on line shopping passwords and the most important one of all – the one that logs me into the SWLAPCUG web site.  I’ve got more than 50 passwords that I use fairly frequently.

The first week of every month, I change the passwords for websites that keep important data.  It seems that some company or government office is always being compromised and losing important data.  For most web sites, I use hard to break passwords.  Want to see one of my sample passwords? qyF+,CMqaF;+@x!,SdqyF+,CMqaF;+@x!,Sd is a password that used to open my web site for editing.

The program I use to manage all of those passwords is KeePass Password Safe.  It is a really easy to use utility that helps you to keep track of all your passwords while keeping them safe.  It lets you store all of your passwords in a lightweight, simple to use database that is encrypted so that only you can access it.  You only have to remember one master password.

KeePass Password Safe stores all of your passwords in groups.  That makes it extremely easy to quickly find the one you want.  The program does more than just store the passwords; it also lets you easily copy them onto a Web page or an application.  You can drag and drop them, copy them to the clipboard, or copy them using a hot key.

One of the best features of KeePass is the random password generator which creates passwords with characteristics that you specify.  That way you can tailor your passwords as needed.  For example, some websites won’t let you create a password with underlines while others might require a specific password length.  KeePass makes it easy to create any password.

The program also includes support for TAN (Transactional Access Numbers) passwords and allows you to create TAN lists which automatically expire a password once it has been used.  Other features include auto-lock, database search, import/export.  There are many more features.

Of Course, KeePass also fits in with one of my most demanding prerequisites.  The cost is Zero!  KeePass is open source, which means that there have been a lot of plug-ins developed.  You can read more about the program on the KeePass Password Safe Home Page.  Give it a try.  I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

If you like the program, just tell everyone that you’ve got a SWLAPCUG extra, a bonus perk; a little lagniappe.