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vegas,
Glad you saw this in time...you pining for a good deal on a Home license was what prompted me to post this in the first place.

f0dder,
Thanks for the URL help....I sometimes forget to list stuff like that.

f0dder,
I can afford wasted screen space as I scaled that down from 1600x1200 and I wanted all that open space so I could see extra-long filenames. However, everything can be customized. The icons, columns, etc. are all customizable & there are hundreds of plugins available that add even more functionality.

Anyone who says Total Commander is ugly either hasn't bothered to customize the interfacer or is not aware that it is possible to customize the interface. People have been trying to get the author to change the default out-of-the-box look for years unsuccessfully.

Speaking for old MS-DOS curmudgeons everywhere I'll make this vague, sweeping generalization of a statement....If a program doesn't have keyboard shortcuts for at least all major functions then it has a crummy user interface.

Out of the box Total Commander does not look very attractive at all. However, it is very customizable and if you master its potential you will be able to perform file operations tens of times faster than any mouse jockey. It's brilliant.

Directory Opus is brilliant as well. I used the author's programs on the Amiga and he definitely knows what he is doing. I just think he's a little out of touch when it comes to product pricing and pricing of upgrades.

Here's a screenshot of Total Commander as I have it configured & I don't think it looks bad at all.

Oh, I wasn't being snippy...and I do apologize if I was coming off as such.

Just a boring Sunday afternoon over here & I was just making conversation. Didn't mean to turn on the kitchen light and get the cockroaches worked up into a frenzy.

Serves me right for replying to week-old threads.

Apologies.

TrueSoft is running a Christmas promotion right now.

They are selling personal licenses (1 computer) for $14.90 which is $5 off the normal price.

They are also selling the home licenses (4 computers) for $29.90 which is $20 off the normal price.

Don't see how it can be free if the rebate is $50 while the product costs $70.

Must be the new math.

mouser,
Forget NetCaptor! If you want to stay with an IE-based browser then that's cool. A lot of people prefer the way IE does things, but do yourself a favor...check out Maxthon. It beats Netcaptor on all fronts. Furthermore, Maxthon has plugins like Firefox does so if there's any lack of features out of the box chances are a plugin will take care of it.

And did I mention that unlike NetCaptor Maxthon is free?

Kerio & Tiny both get my recommendation, but they are very complex and not for the newbie. However, the rewards are great. They offer vast amounts of power and protection for those willing to master them.

F-Secure is very nice with an all-in-one solution, but some people complain that it is a little bloated & sluggish, though I didn't have that problem when I used it. They use Kaspersky as well as two other AV engines to cover the AV end of it so you'd definitely not be giving up anything by using their AV solution.

I would not recommend ZoneAlarm at all. Lots of people have no problems, but lots of people do have problems with their TrueVector engine.

I went the same way Mark did, but as Emeril would say I kicked it up a notch. I've got a Cisco router/firewall sitting here. Provides both inbound and outbound protection for my entire network. I keep a very tight reign on what is installed on any PC on my LAN so I don't require the hand-holding of some of these software firewalls.

mouser,
Used to be a bigger IE fanboy you'd never find. Nowadays though, I am a staunch Firefox supporter. You start out with a basic, very secure browser. Then with the addition of plugins you have the power to make the browser you want. If you want something small, fast and lean or if you want something expansive and full-featured with abilities other browsers cannot touch...either way Firefox can do it.

I use too many FireFox extensions to list them all, but I'll try to mention the best ones:

TabBrowser Extensions - the tab browsing extension that rules them all. Has everything all the others have and much, much more. Install this one and be amazed.

FlashGot - The best plugin to use with download managers. Period.

Download Statusbar - Sometimes a third-party download manager is not the right tool for the job & this prevents Firefox's built-in Downloads window from popping up all the time.

Findbar Basics - Turns on and off Find with Ctrl+F & some other things.

Flashblock - Keeps flash objects from auto-loading so you get to choose what loads and what doesn't.

Inline Autocomplete - Turns on auto-complete for the address bar so it works like IE's.

Minimize To Tray - Minimizes Firefox to the system tray.

OpenBook - Turns the Add Bookmark dialog into what it should have been from the start.

SearchPluginHacks -  Allows the uninstall of search plugins easily.

SuperDragAndGo - Gives you super drag-n-drop like in Maxthon.

Extended Statusbar - Turns the Firefox status bar into something much more informative.

IE Tabs - Changes the rendering engine for the tab you select to IE.

ContextSearch - Allows the context search function to use any installed search plugin.

FasterFox - Supercharges & fine-tunes your Firefox performance.

I never expected to win, but thanks for the generosity Mouser & Rar Labs. This is actually software I can see myself using a lot.

I purposely did not choose VmWare as I'd never really use it & I thought someone who'd get more use out of it than me should have a better chance of winning it with me keeping my beak out of the competition for it.

Carol, love your quote by Symantec. When they exclusively licensed AtGuard from WRQ they said the exact same thing. Before Symantec got their hands on it AtGuard was less than 3 MB in installer form and had a very small footprint when running. After Symantec got ahod of it they turned it into the lumbering behemoth that is Norton Internet Security.

I rarely praise & evangelize programs. Ad Muncher is one of the very few I think that is top notch & that I'll sound out and recommend. The author is top-notch & not only is his program better than other ad blockers he sells his for cheaper than all the others as well. I've just been waiting for a discount...which Mouser soundly secured for us all.

Carol,
You may have been (un)lucky enough to get a new variant of that trojan. Perhaps one that wasn't coded right & didn't deploy properly. That happens all the time.

As far as wireless security, you are going to be wanting to run some kind of WPA encryption over there at the very least. WPA2 if your equipment offers it. If your equipment only offers WEP encryption then you should think about replacing it as WEP is an easily compromised algorithm.

NOD32 is a very capable anti-virus program. The anti-spyware apps are great to run as well, but I see nothing for trojan detection. That's not as important if you are able stop everything at the front door. You may want to start shopping around for a new firewall program. Sygate's product has got some bugs & it's been discontinued by the company. You're at a dead end, programming-wise.

I'm going to resist pitching Ad Muncher to you again, but I will point out that lots of individuals use Java, JavaScript & ActiveX to deploy viruses and trojans across the internet. Usually they are hidden in pop-ups and banners and such. To your system, your firewall, your anti-spyware apps,and your anti-virus they all look like standard web traffic.

mouser,
I misunderstood your question. You are right. It's best not to just do a knee-jerk reaction of deleting the file. Running anti-trojan programs and research on a search engine are definitely the first steps towards education and eventual eradication.

Obviously what you do is clean the machine. Now whether that be by a specialized tool especially programmed to remove that trojan/virus or a more general purpose tool like Kaspersky or TDS3 is up to the individual.

A manual cleaning can sometimes be an option, but it can be a very involved complicated process with some of the nasties that are out and about.

Well, here's the first result I found...

http://www.auditmypc.com/process/k.asp

Gads, that's a lot of stuff...you're almost as bad as me. I keep my boxes full all the time, too, but I have never run into anybody who has even half as bad as me.

I'm currently running 3 hard drives totalling ~900 GB of space, a 3.5" floppy drive I refuse to get rid of, and no less than 3 CD/DVD type devices. I'd surely add more, but my drive bays are all full. And yes, I need every bit of storage space and all three optical drives...and my floppy drive.

You may want to consider bringing some of those ports around to the front of your case. Companies sell really nifty break-out type boxes these days that will match your case color & fit in a 3.5" or 5.25" bay that could bring not only those USB ports to the front of your case, but also firewire & sound card connections for headphones, microphone, and line-in. Some even incorporate fan controllers and tempurature read-outs.

Buying one of these might give you some free PCI slots to work with.

Gads! No more slots? What have you got over there taking up all your slots?

I'm running out of ideas that won't cost you money.

All I can think of now is to reinstall Windows, install the chipset drivers off the CD that came with your motherboard first before installing anything else. Then use the Promise driver off that same CD.

Lots of people really like Bisirc because it is small, fast, and free.
http://bersirc.free2code.net/index.php/home/

Icechat is a new client in alpha, but it has a pretty aggressive development cycle going right now.
http://bersirc.free2code.net/index.php/home/

Only thing I can think to add to this thread is that you are using the right tool for the job, Carol. Beyond Compare is widely considered the best program for this sort of work & it's the gold standard that all other programs of this ilk are compared to.

In this day and age with modern equipment IRQ sharing is nothing like it was in the old days. Your screenshot shows you using IRQs higher than 15 so you are using a motherboard capable of APIC.

If you bring up the properties for your promise controller in the device manager do you have any possible options that could be set?

Just doing what I can...there are more plugins available on Winamp's site such as:

This:
http://www.winamp.com/plugins/details.php?id=23981

This:
http://www.winamp.com/plu...ins/details.php?id=135991

And this:
http://www.winamp.com/plugins/details.php?id=94279

Usually always more than one way to take care of a Winamp need/problem.

Or this?

http://www.chronotron.com...?page=products#chronotron