Mike's Profile

Member since September 25, 2002

  • Name

    Mike Diack

  • Location:

    UK

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Recent Posts

  1. Review - Autoruns

    9.2 (May 13, 2008)

    Great software. Just one minor gripe. Sysinternals have got the detail wrong. This is version 9.14 not 9.2 (!)

    But great software.

  2. Review - Python Interpreter/Compiler (v3) for Windows

    3.0 Alpha 3 (Mar 10, 2008)

    I'm confused - I've not yet tried it, but surely it's a interpreter OR a compiler - aren't the too mutually exclusive?

    (Yes before everyone tells me, I know Java and .net "compile" to byte code)....

    Mike

  3. Review - Spyware Terminator

    2.1.0.313 (Feb 11, 2008)

    This is one of the best and most effective tools I've found and it's free. I've been really impressed. I've been using it for just over a year and am very impressed with it's ability to both work preventatively but also to clean up infected machines etc. This seems to handle all the nastys like Smitfraud etc.

    Another thumbs up.

    Mike

  4. Review - Spyware Terminator

    2.1.0.285 Beta (Jan 12, 2008)

    It's good. I've been using Spyware Terminator since early 2007 and version 2.0 was a big improvement, but had recently had slow down problems (well documented by their forum) both when the machine was scanning and in normal use. I'm happy to say both of those problems seem to be gone in version 2.1

    It looks like a great program has got even better. It really is a good program considering it's freeware. Highly recommended.

  5. Review - Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 3

    SP3 Build 3264 RC1 (Dec 19, 2007)

    Hi Matt and all
    I've been betaing SP3 since the summer and am very pleased.

    But DON'T mess with DCOM unless you know what you're doing. I'm a C++ developer and have been using DCOM for about 7 years. It's a messy and poorly documented subject, if you're not sure what you're doing, you'd be well advised to leave it alone.

    Mike

  6. Comment - Microsoft Releases Suite of Windows Live Software

    SP3 Build 3264 RC1 (Sep 6, 2007 - 5:07 AM)

    It looks good. Have tried it at home via the new WLInstaller.exe

    _BUT_

    The WLInstaller.exe seems to do weird stuff via firewalls etc. The long and short of it is that the installer won't download the files here at work, and as far as I can tell (from the notes they ask you to check if it fails) this is due to some firewall exceptions that need to be set up. For people like me, behind a corporate firewall/proxy, this is now useless as the installer won't download the files.

    Why on earth couldn't they have stuck with the original method of giving regular download links for each individual program.

  7. Comment - Slingbox Launches in UK

    SP3 Build 3264 RC1 (May 30, 2006 - 12:58 PM)

    What on earth is a slingbox? Never heard of it! I'm in the UK, and clearly they need to sort out their marketting!

  8. Comment - Microsoft Patches Six Vulnerabilities

    SP3 Build 3264 RC1 (Aug 11, 2005 - 11:08 AM)

    We've had major problems with the patches from Microsoft - can others comment - have you seen similar problems?

    Running Windows XP SP2 on several machines:

    1) McAfee 8 Virusscan no longer auto updates - running its update tool, informs us that the common framework won't run!
    2) The search button on the start button doesn't do anything
    3) Windows Installer no longer allows us to successfully install/uninstall anything.
    4) The debugger in Visual Studio 2003 tells us we don't have permissions/access rights to debug even when we try it with admin priviledges!

    We've seen this on several machines now and the only way we've been able to cure it is to do a system restore to "roll back" to before we installed the patches.

    Just out of interest the set of patches we applied were KB's: 899588, 893756, 899591, 899587, 896423, 894391, 890830

    Can anyone else share their experiences? Are these patches broken?

    Mike

  9. Comment - Customers to Preview Windows XP SP2 Beta

    SP3 Build 3264 RC1 (Mar 22, 2004 - 12:45 AM)

    To get McAfee auto update working (found on google).
    1) Launch DCOM Config (dcomcnfg)
    2) Select Component Services, This Computer
    3) Select Framework Services, Properties
    4) Change Launch Permissions from Custom to Default
    5) Close dcomcnfg
    6) Should fix it!

  10. Comment - Customers to Preview Windows XP SP2 Beta

    SP3 Build 3264 RC1 (Mar 19, 2004 - 11:53 AM)

    All I can say, Stu, is you've had better luck than me. I'm also an official tester, but see my comments above!