Downloading and installing Microsoft Security Essentials on Windows XP Pro SP3 32-bit edition

Microsoft Security Essentials is a software package which is designed to protect your computer system by automatically updating itself for computer malware. Microsoft claims that its key benefits are comprehensive malware protection, simple and free to download, automatic updating of the system so you don’t need to manually keep it up to date as well as being a very easy to use application. But don’t be fooled ...

From the page http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials/support.aspx?mkt=en-za#mainNav you can watch howto videos explaining how to install the software, how to do an on-demand scan of your system and how to fix a problem.

To download Microsoft Security Essentials you can browse to http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials/ and click on the blue Download Now button. This will open up a window Download Microsoft Security Essentials thanking you for choosing Microsoft Security Essentials with a Download link on it. Immediately a File Download – Security warning will be opened asking whether you want to run or save a file named mssefullinstall-x86fre-en-us-xp.exe, which Microsoft calls a client full install package – mine was version 1.0.1611.0. Clicking the Run button will immediately start the installation...

After a while I found the Run installation was not progressing particularly fast. So I halted the Run and chose to Save the 8.61MB file first to My Documents and then to install it locally.

The initial installation process is simple. As soon as you click the downloaded file it will start the extraction of a couple of .msi files and will then open up an installation wizard. Click the Next button on the welcome page and read the security license terms and accept or decline. Obviously declining will halt the installation.

Now things take a bit of a turn.

An interesting point is stated with regards to the usage of the software in the Installation and User Rights section. According to which “You may install and use any number of copies of the software on your devices in your household for use by people who reside there or for use in your home-based small business.” My immediate question was “So what if the laptop I use at home is actually my work computer which I use at the office as well?” The terms and agreement did not clarify this.

Another important point to remember is that the software may cause the operating system to perform software validation checks – this may include verifying that your operating system has being activated and it is properly licensed. No problem here as I have licensed operating system software.

Then under point d in the Microsoft Security Essentials License Agreement Microsoft states that "If, after a validation check, your operating system software is found not to be properly licensed, the software you are installing may be disabled, or the functionality of the operating system software may be affected, depending upon your specific operating system and applicable laws. For example, you may need to reactivate the operating system software or you may receive reminders to obtain a properly licensed copy of the operating system software, or you may not be able to use or continue to use some of the features of the operating system software or obtain certain updates, upgrades or services from Microsoft."

At this point however I decided to bail out – NOT because of unlicensed software, as my company installs the software on the system and I understand the software to be licensed but specifically because of previous experiences I have had with installing Microsoft software which was supposed to check whether software was licensed and then tagged software I had, which our IT guys confirmed was licensed, as supposedly unlicensed. Did not want a repeat of that.

OK, so after all of this rigmarole, here is the kicker at the bottom of the license agreement “The software is licensed “as-is”. You bear the risk of using it..”

I want to avoid succumbing to Microsoft bashing as what has started out as a blog post to increase the protection of a Microsoft system has now turned into a matter-of-principle debate on privacy, user rights and payment for services rendered, as I am myself a Microsoft Certified Professional ... but you know it’s nonsense like this that makes me love my Ubuntu.

My issue is not with a specific company but with the whole idea of paid licensed software. I don’t want to punt it ... but those guys at Ubuntu do not even charge you for the postage and packaging to get the latest Ubuntu release disk to you. If I buy a tv and the tv breaks or blows up and burns out the wooden cabinet it is standing in, I sue the television company. If I build some or other system on licensed and paid software and put in hundreds of hours in populating it with data who am I going to sue if an error in the paid for software destroys my whole system and data? The software provider? You may just as well believe in Saint Nicolas – sorry had to sneak that one in for the ratings you know ;-). And in return as a point of principle I only use free and preferably open source software for my personal affairs – in other words the things that are not related to my employer’s business.

Using Ubuntu's Take Screenshot utility

If you are concerned with Training in your company or need to compile some or other illustration of steps on a screen to present, then Ubuntu 9.10 provides the Screenshot Utility with which you can enhance your training material. (Ok, I am aware that Windows 7 also provides a similar functionality – but think about concepts like global recession, power to the people, the idea that knowledge should be shared freely and the like … oh and the fact that Ubuntu costs niks … nichts … nothing ... nada … zulch. Ubuntu foundation does not even charge for postage and packaging to get the dekstop OS to you!) I'm going to illustrate this with a step-by-step of using Take Screenshot.

First click on Applications in the top menu. Then click on Accessories from the drop down menu. Then click on Take Screenshot from the fly out menu.




This will open up a window providing you with three different ways of taking the screenshot, namely to Grab the whole desktop, Grab the current window or Select area to grab. With the first two options you can set a timer to grab the selection after a delay of a specified number of seconds. This is one of the options I used to enable me to to navigate and set up the screen precisely the way I wanted the screenshot to display once it is taken. If you select to take the screenshot by selecting an area to grab there is no delay. And this last option is better for use when you want to discuss some or other screen element where the first two options are more suited for use in discussing some process or steps that need to be taken.



Once you've clicked the Take Screenshot button the screenshot will then be taken after the specified number of seconds have lapsed. A new window will then open up as per below, allowing you to specify where and under which name to save your screenshots.



In my opinion a very intuitive and easy to use utility.

Filtering ads shown via Adsense

If you run a blog and find that material are adverstised which you either find offensive or inappropriate to your site, you can filter them out by configuring your adsense setup. For example, say you run a blog on computer technology and don't want singles dating advertisements and the like to be displayed via Adsense you can just filter out these types of advertisements. Read below on the howto.

First login to your blog and click on your My Account link
Then click on Adsense and sign in or go directly to your account
Then click on the Adsense Setup tab in the top navigation bar
Then click on Ad Review Center in the sub navigation bar at the top

Google describes the Ad Review Center as “The Ad Review Center is a tool within your account that enables you to review placement-targeted ads that may appear on your pages. If you're interested in more transparency and control over placement-targeted ads appearing on your sites, it may be a good fit for you. You can allow or block individual ad groups and advertisers, as well as filter ads by type: text or image.”

In the Filtered Categories on https://www.google.com/adsense/site-targeted-ad-review you can then filter out categories of advertisements which should not be displayed.

Once you've selected the categories click the submit button.

Now you should go back to your blog and verify that these ad types are not being displayed on your blog anymore.

Where did my gedit Text doc go?

When you open up a new gedit Text doc, while currently already having a gedit doc open the new document will be moved to the end of the gedit queue and will be the only one listed in the panel. However the previous gedit document will still be available and you can access it by simply activating the gedit icon and then choosing Documents > Previous Document in the gedit top menu.

Multiple commands in bash on one line

You can submit multiple commands on one line to the bash and have them performed sequentially, like so:

$ ls;who;date;echo `expr 22 + 14`

This command will first list the contents of the working directory, then indicate who is logged into the system, then report the date and time and lastlyu echo the result of adding 22 to 14.