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Since Grisoft, the company that makes the popular free anti-virus software AVG, stopped supporting updates for version 7 of their software, I made the plunge and downloaded the upgrade to version 8 a few days ago. I hadn’t really noticed any differences in the new version (one of the best things about AVG is that you never really notice it’s there, unless it’s updating), but today I started wondering about what I initially thought was a new feature in Google: some weird green stars that appeared next to my search results:

After a while, I got curious and moused-over one of them. Turns out they’re a feature of AVG’s software, not Google’s site, called LinkChecker. It basically analyzes sites for potential mal- or spy-ware content, then rates them as either a red X, yellow !, or green star. Since I’d only seen green stars so far, I did a quick search for ‘warez,’ which is guaranteed to get you crap every time. Sure enough, the picture was a little different:

I’m not really sure about the diagnosis of some of the sites as ‘Risky’–they seemed pretty much to be categorized as such merely because they were ‘Cracks’ sites–but then again, I kind of had the same assumption based on my choice of search term. Most importantly, I haven’t noticed any performance change in Firefox. If the page doesn’t load quickly enough, a throbber simply takes the place of a rating until it can be returned. You can click through to any page without having to wait. All in all, a pretty nice feature.

If you’ve read any of my previous posts about creating a McAfee installer for our campus that would remove all pre-installed versions of other anti-virus software, you’ll know that the best thing Symantec’s ever done is create the Norton Removal Tool. This nifty piece of software is really the only program that gets into the nitty-gritty, seedy underbelly world of Norton and strips it clean out of your system, rendering it usable again.

While I’ve been using Symantec’s tool in my installer (which installs our site license of McAfee VirusScan Enterprise 8.5i) for over a year now, there hasn’t been a defense against the rising tide of cheap, junkware McAfee products that are showing up on more and more of the Dell computers our students buy. Thankfully, one of my colleagues found a link on a Dell forum (NOT the McAfee site–hide the shame, hide it!!!) which revealed the existence of a similar removal tool for McAfee products. There are some helpful instructions on that link, or you can just download and run the tool directly from here.

As an interesting side note, I’ve had a machine actually running Enterprise 8.5i that’s thrown me nothing but trouble. I’ve ‘completely’ uninstalled McAfee and the ePO Agent 4.0, but I simply can’t make the problem go away (framework error, whee!). I’m going to try this new tool soon on that machine, to see if it actually solves the problem. I’ll post again when I have some results.

Are You an Internet Security Wizard?

I am. The proof is to the left of this text. The latest sponsored review to come my way was for an online Security Quiz that purports to test your knowledge of computer security-related terminology and practice.

The quiz itself is pretty tough, both because it asks a variety of decent questions on things like firewalls and phishing, and because it features questions phrased like “Which of the following is NOT…” with a ‘None of the above’ answer choice (does that mean ‘all of the above’ ARE?). There are also quite a few spelling and grammar errors in the questions, which added to the ambiguity factor.

There was no area of knowledge on the quiz that I, as a support technician at a university, felt that I didn’t know, but at the end, I apparently got a 19 out of 30 (hence the Warlock classification). I’m not blaming the questions entirely, but I will say some of them were very confusing in the way they were posed.

Anyway, the test is obviously part of a larger website, into which you are funnelled once you complete the quiz, if you choose to click a link to sign up for Agnitum’s newsletter. Agnitum’s main product is the Outpost Security Suite, which purports to be a one-stop-shop for all your anti-spyware, -malware, and -virus needs. Judging by some of the leading questions in the security quiz (”What makes most virus software slow down your computer?” type questions), the folks at Agnitum believe they have a lighter-weight and better PC protection suite than most of the big names out there right now. The software starts at $49.95 for a single-user home license, and they offer enterprise and business pricing, in addition to some family packs and other options for home users.

antivirus, anti virus, malware, spyware, agnitum, outpost security, security quiz, wizard

InstallShield 11.5 provides an easy way to search the registry for a desired value

Oftentimes when creating a new installer, it is necessary to provide for the contingency of previously installed software that will need to be removed. This can be a previous version of the same software (although those modules should maintain the same unique IDs, making this extra procedure unnecessary) or it can be a piece of software that will conflict with the software you’re trying to install (i.e. an old anti-virus program). Either way, in order to effectively remove the software, you’re going to need to:

1) Search for the program’s existence, and
2) Run its UninstallString from the registry.

Thankfully, InstallShield provides a couple of easy ways to accomplish this. The first (ideal) way to run the other software’s uninstaller is to do a simple system search for the registry key UninstallString for the program you wish to remove. The advantage to this method is that the search is very specific–it only looks within a particular key–so you can easily do 100 of these searches in the course of an install. In order to create the appropriate Custom Action within your MSI in this manner, do the following:

1) In the ‘System Search’ screen, add a new search by right-clicking and choosing ‘Add…’ (or hit Ins).
2) Choose ‘File Path, as specified by a registry entry’ at the next screen.
3) For the Registry Root choose ‘HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE’
4) For the Registry Path type ‘SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\**ProgramName**’ (in other words, to uninstall Macromedia Flash, type ‘SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\Macromedia Shockwave Player’
5) Under the optional Registry Value field, type ‘UninstallString’
6) Pick a memorable name for your new file-path variable like FLASH8PATH, then choose the top option to only store it in the tables, not use it as an install condition (you will attach the custom action later).

Your System Search is now complete, and will look for the UninstallString for Flash Player, then store that value to the variable FLASH8PATH. If you wish, you can immediately use this variable to create Install Conditions for different Custom Actions, either as an exists/does not exist check that launches an .exe or something, or by using the actual path contained in the variable. To launch the uninstaller, create the following Custom Action:

Working Directory: SystemFolder
Filename & Command Line: FLASH8PATH
Return Processing: Synchronous (Ignores exit code)
In-Script Execution: Immediate Execution

NB: You need to schedule the Custom Action after the AppSearch action in the InstallExecute sequence, because that’s when the MSI checks the registry for the key…it will fail otherwise.

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