Michael Kratz

When Windows XP Service Pack 2 was released, it came along with a whole raft of ’security’ enhancements. One of these was Security Center (I’m tempted to spell ‘center’ as ‘centre’ because I’m Australian. But, it’s called “Security Center” so that’s what I’ll call it).

Security Center was implemented to assist in encouraging general users into being conscious about the security of Windows and their computer. Security Center basically monitors whether Windows Automatic Updates and Windows Firewall are turned on; and whether an appropriate virus scanner with up-to-date virus definitions is installed and running.

This is a good thing, for the general masses. But for us technical folk, who know how to run Windows without Microsoft holding our collective hands, it’s a royal pain in the arse. Why? because it constantly nags you with those little Windows pop-ups (which don’t go away till you click on them) to “check your virus definitions” or “enable the Windows Firewall”, etc.

So… if you fall into this category where it has become a hindrance rather than a handy tool, here’s how to disable it. Read more

Quite a while back, over a year ago infact, I came across this wonderful little program called CCleaner (short for Crap Cleaner). It’s a small freeware Windows program which ‘cleans the crap’ out of Windows.

What I like about it, is that it takes all the tedious cleaning tasks one would ordinarily do manually and bundles them all up into an efficient and easy to use ’single click’ program. Read more