I’ve become an avid reader of your weekly newsletter and look forward each week to explore your recommendations. I was interested in VirtualBox after reading about it on your site. I’m running Windows XP. I tried downloading the file “VirtualBox 3.0.6 for Windows hosts x86/amd64″ from www.virtualbox.org but during the installation a warning came up suggesting that I should not continue as the software  is not recognized as being approved with “Windows Logo” and went on  to say that completing the download could corrupt my system. Should I be concerned?

The Windows Logo testing error message Mark refers to is not something that just happens in VirtualBox. It may appear when installing other applications as well, but as long as you trust the software developers and the application you’re about to install, you don’t have anything to worry about.

This error means that some components – usually drivers -  inside the program you’re installing couldn’t be properly tested by Windows during installation. It doesn’t mean that the program is dangerous, or that it’s going to crash your system, erase your hard drive or any of those horrible things you may have thought about… well, not necessarily. It’s just that Windows wasn’t able to complete the test on those particular items. Our advice for Mark then, in this particular case of VirtualBox, is to ignore that message and go on with the installation. I did, and my Windows XP is perfectly fine!

Once again, this message should be ignored only in those cases when you’re installing a trustworthy application, coming from a reputable developer. In case of doubt, do some ask@onsoftware.com so that we can provide handy solutions for you and the rest of our readers!

It seems that the three months of beta testing have been as calm as a millpond. At least that’s what you infer from the differences between the beta and the final versions, which are basically none. Microsoft Security Essentials features the same clear, easy-to-use tabbed interface and pretty the same tools and functionality.

Microsoft Security Essentials includes three types of scans: Quick, which scans those areas in your system that are most likely to get infected; Full, which scans your whole computer; and Customizable, which lets you select which specific folders and files should be scanned.

These scans can also be scheduled to run at a give time or particular location, and modified to work when the computer is not actually in use. Microsoft Security Essentials also boasts a system restore point, in case you need to undo any over-enthusiastic cleaning. Handily, it also updates virus and spyware definitions automatically, so that you’re protected even against the most recent online threats. Of course, the program is seamlessly embedded with Windows Explorer, which means you can scan files and folders directly from the file manager.

Microsoft Security Essentials is a very simple security tool. It doesn’t have a firewall, nor does it include filters for web browsing or email. It’s surprisingly basic, considering it comes from Microsoft – even if this is only their first ’serious’ security application. On the upside, it’s one of the most easy-to-use antivirus and antispyware tools I’ve seen, so it’s probably a good choice only to cover the bases for the average user. More advanced users and professional network administrators should probably look elsewhere.

The more digital content we store on our computers, the more important reliable backup solutions become. For example, my iMac has about 50GB of music and photos on its primary disk drive. While much of the music could probably be replaced, any photo not yet uploaded to Flickr would be lost forever if that disk failed. So, like many other Mac users, I use Time Machine to maintain a secure copy of all my files, albeit on a potentially unstable portable hard disk in the same room as my Mac.

It was this potential unreliability of my Time Machine disk that got me interested in online backup options. What could be better than being able to backup to a remote server, safe in the knowledge that should any disaster befall my Time Machine disk, everything would still be OK. At least, that was the theory.

Solution found!

After some research and a little help from OnSoftware, I settled on Mozy – generally regarded as being a great online backup tool. I signed up for the $4.95/month unlimited backup plan: I thought (and still think) that $5 a month is a pretty good price point for total piece of mind. After setting up my account – a really simple process – and installing the Mozy desktop client – also a breeze – I let Mozy get to work on its initial backup. It was about eight hours after this that I spotted the main flaw in Mozy’s design: you have to complete an entire backup in one go right at the beginning, without any interruptions whatsoever. You can’t go restarting your Mac (not that I did), and you can’t lose connectivity for even a short time, which seems to have happened to me.

Around this time, my Mac was acting a little weird. I’d narrowed the problem down to a graphics driver error, but the truth is that my Mac was freezing from time to time. This meant that every time the driver error reared its ugly exception, I’d have to start from scratch on the Mozy backup. That’s not Mozy’s fault, nor is the occasional eccentricity of my ADSL connection. But Mozy could come up with a way of resuming backups, even for the initial backup process.

In order to be fair, I tried running Mozy after I’d fixed the driver issue and done a clean install, to see if it performed better under optimal conditions. Left overnight, I expected Mozy to be up to about 25% when I checked it in the morning. Unfortunately, Mozy had failed for some unknown reason at some point during the evening… all I could do was start it again. Then it failed again during the day. So I canceled my account, disappointed by a product that I’d been planning on loving.

Two things Mozy could do to win me back

Find a way of resuming backups. When backing up 100GB of data, it’s just ridiculous that an interruption causes the whole process to be canceled. Building a decent file index at the beginning of the backup operation should allow for Mozy to pick up where it left off, and then look for changes after the initial backup is complete.

Clearer error messages. One of the biggest problems I found was that when Mozy’s backup process failed, the information available about what had happened was very limited. More information, on the web side of the user interface, if necessary, would make it easier to diagnose and fix problems preventing the backup from working properly.

Much of password hacking isn’t like the movies, but either educated guess work or using programs that fling the entire dictionary at password protected things, until they happen upon the right one.

Here are two simple things you can do to improve your passwords,

1: Don’t use just a word, and don’t use something related to you that anyone might be able to find out or easily guess. So no dates, or names of loved ones! Not doing that will keep the most basic hacks away. Complicated, seemingly random passwords maybe hard to remember, but you’ll be surprised how quickly your fingers learn the routine. Create a random password, and give yourself a week to remember it!

2: For password recovery and internet banking, when a password system asks security questions make the answers as bizarre and uniquely yours as possible: What was the name of your first school? Don’t give the right answer, as that might be discoverable: What was the name of my first school? Monkey Tennis Junior. Not true, but something I will remember. If you can create a question, be as bizarre as you can be – as long as it’s something memorable for you!

Most of us will never suffer from identity theft, but these two suggestions will keep you as safe as you reasonably can be. Of course, all systems are probably hackable by someone with the right resources and persistence, but it’s difficult enough that it’s not worth doing for normal people!

If you need a Wifi connection but aren’t sure where to look, don’t worry! There are plenty of tools that mean you won’t have to hang around in the street, looking like someone who is up to no good. Boingo is one example, a service that gives you access to the hundreds of Boingo hotspots around the globe. The only problem with services like Boingo is that many require membership and/or subscription, which isn’t exactly what you want to hear in your time of need. NetStumbler is a no-subscribe alternative, but I think it’s always good to have a few on hand, because hotspot finders are famously finicky.

What about safety? Are you sure that no one is taking advantage of the fact that you are taking advantage of some free Internet? You’ll need to protect yourself from possible attacks, and luckily there are plenty of programs that will help you do just that. Hotspot Shield is a perennial favorite, re-routing your IP address through a VPN (virtual private network) connection of its own. This blurs your connection’s origins, making it much harder to hack.

As these programs work by making your IP address a little hard to pin down, they also have another, unexpected benefit. Many of the US’s most popular websites – such as Hulu and Pandora – are not available outside of the country. These companies know whether you are on American soil by – wait for it – looking at your IP address! Obviously, if they can’t tell that you’re not in the US, they can’t prevent you from accessing their sites, a surprise that makes IP based-hotspot shields twice as attractive!

After three years, the McAfee list of riskiest celebrities online has almost become a tradition but I’m not sure about its usefulness. What’s the point of scaring people away from searching for stuff about their idols? To me, it looks more like a marketing trick to sell more security-related software apps – while the top celebrity surely gets a boost in ZoneAlarm, Jetico or PC Tools Firewall will do.

Regular readers will remember that about a month ago, we decided to conduct a spam experiment to see what email providers perform best when dealing with junk mail. Bets were made, stances taken and friendships placed on the line, but NOBODY could have predicted the results. Read on, and prepare to be surprised!

Just to remind people, we took some deliberate risks to make sure the email accounts were given a run for their money. I entered the email addresses into a dodgy-looking Internet

What can you learn from our little test? Well, bear in mind that the situation we created is somewhat unnatural, and that when picking an email account, there is more to consider than spam capabilities; security, usability and features are all hugely important. It is also worth asking around for the opinions of actual real-life users – even though Gmail didn’t perform great in the test, it always performs perfectly in my real accounts. That said, the test highlighted some definite winners and losers, and even though I have no intention of changing from Gmail, I certainly know which email providers I won’t be recommending to my friends!

As a starter, Panda Cloud is not compatible with other antivirus tools you may have already installed on your system (in my case, AVG 8.5) but this is in fact a typical feature of Panda software – they can’t even coexist with other Panda apps. Immunet Protect, for its part, doesn’t mind working with other antivirus software, though you should generally avoid having two antivirus apps running at the same time.

Both programs have a ‘Summary’ window that shows system’s current status and other data. But there are some differences: Panda Cloud Antivirus has a nicer interface, with visually appealing icons and large buttons that make it easier to use. Immunet Protect, on the contrary, seems to focus more on numbers and statistics, and its toolbar menu is a bit overcrowded with buttons a links. Just after installation, Immunet performs a first system scan, while Panda doesn’t lift a finger.

Anything that doesn’t relate to these is either an impostor which could mean a virus, malware or remnant of an application you have uninstalled. Whatever it is, it will be consuming valuable memory and processing power and could be the source of any number of problems you’ve been having. The problem is, reading a process list is like trying to read hieroglyphics. Processes simply labeled “pboard”, “mdworker” and “launchd” make no sense at all to the average user.

However, there is a very simple solution to this. While recently trying to work out what a rogue process was, I discovered a very handy online tool from developers triviware. They have developed a simple process anlyser which can take a look at your system and work out exactly what each process on your system corresponds to. All you have to do is follow a simple terminal command which downloads your processes into a list which you can then upload to the analyser for inspection. This may sound a bit dodgy to some but hey, I’ve got nothing to hide on my system so I gave it a go.

Processes are labelled with either a tick, a question mark or an exclamation mark. A tick indicates that the process is a known Mac OS X component and gives a brief description of what it does. A question mark indicates that the process is not part of OS X and provides you with a link which will

Which is why if you’ve ever installed McAfee VirusScan (formerly known as McAfee Virex) on a Mac, you’ll need more thmore than the Trashcan to get rid of it. For ages, I had been mystified by a couple of processes running on my system labeled “VShieldCheck” that were sometimes hogging up to 30% of my CPU. A few sign-up for a McAfee account!

To save you going through the same ridiculous process I had to, you now download the official McAfee VirusScan uninstaller on Softonic. No sign-ups or wild goose chases needed. Make sure that McAfee Virus Scan is definitely installed on your Mac (if not re-install it) and then run the installer.

It opens a dialog in Terminal where you have to enter your password. After that, removal takes just a couple of seconds and you’re left with no nasty process remnants.

Incidentally, since removing the VShieldCheck processes associated with this program, my Mac has been running as quiet as a mouse. Especially when using Parallels, the cooling fans would scream like a jumbo jet taking-off and it’s my guess that these virus scanning processes were going into overdrive and putting too much load on the RAM and CPU.

Thanks for nothing McAfee!