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scrubbing downloaded utilities

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momonan:
 In another post, CarolHaynes gave a list of tasks she performs to "scrub" a downloaded utility before installing it.  This is what she said:

Read user reviews - if there aren't any I am already suspicious
Do a google search on the app name + Review
Do a google search on app name + Spyware/AdWare/Malware etc.
Download the software and virus scan
Unpack the archive/installer and virus scan again
Use SpySweeper to check the unpacked folder contents
Set a system restore point
Install app but don't run it
Run virus & spyware check on installation folder, memory and registry

Only if it is still clean do I run the app.

If it unexpectedly asks to connect to the internet I check to see if there as automatic update and switch it off. If it still wants to connect to the internet for no good reason than I block it. Anything odd starts to happen it is uninstalled and the system restore point applied.  Am I paranoid? Probably - but it takes a hell of a lot of hours to sort out a screwed up system ....
--- End quote ---

Since I recently had huge trouble that I suspect was caused by something I downloaded, I would love to hear more detail about what you do, CarolHaynes, in more detail, and it would be great to hear techniques others use, as well.  Do any of you have anything that absolutely positively workd every time?  If so, could you explain it in a way the rest of us could duplicate?

Veign:
I run all applications through Virtual PC from Microsoft.  No worries about viruses and if my system gets screwed up I just delete the Virtual PC file and restore my clean install VPC file.

Testing software on various OS's has never been easier - I run WinXP Pro on my development system and can load Win98, Win2K and Vista Beta all running at the same time.  What I have is VPC files for OS's at different points: clean installs, SP's applied, and some that are just run and never cleaned...

This has been a life saver for me and save me countless hours of testing and restoring OS's for testing software (all OS's have their own, single file that can be restored in seconds).

Download the 45-day trial and see what you think (especially if you are a developer)

zridling:
Okay Veign, that's really cool. Thanks for the suggestion. I could have been using this all along! I primarily rely on Total Uninstall, which has been very good to delete everything installed, even tricky Adobe stuff in the registry.

mouser:
there is no doubt that the safest way to *test* software is to install it in a virtual machine tool like vmware or virtualpc.

second safest might be to test new software on a secondary machine which you have a good drive image for and don't mind restoring to its previous state every once and a while.

those two methods really let you install stuff without worrying, since your plan is always to go back to a safe state, and anything short of that dictates that you be a little careful of what you install.

being pro-active and checking out the reputation of a program before installing it (which was much of carol's procedure) is probably the best approach.  you might also add to that the guideline of not installing something until it's been out for a while, to give other people a chance to test and report any issues.

another thing i do is i do a full drive image of my machine every month, like say on the 1st of each month.
so i save any testing of apps that i might be worried about (or major upgrades) until right after that drive image.
that way if something goes wrong, i know i can restore back easily to the recent backup.

Veign:
The reason I like VPC better than another PC is that the entire virtual PC is contained in a single file.  I have the file backed up on my external 250Gig hard drive and when I need a restore I just have to delete and move a copy over (new system in seconds).  The other reason is that it lets me stay in one environment, this means I only need to worry about upgrading a single computer as each VPC uses the hardware of the host system.

VPC is well worth the price considering the hours it takes to restore a system..

In theory is you are writing a review you could take a clean install of Win2K or WinXP and load it up with all your applications to test.  Do your tests and then delete the file when done (all gone)..

Attached is a screenshot of my system running 3 OS's

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