Jeber Jabber

Security is key...SecuriKey

I live with my laptop by my side. Using my wireless ISP, I can get online anywhere in the county, whether at breakfast or at work. But having my laptop with me all the time presents its own danger, loss or theft. As you can imagine, I’m pretty paranoid when it comes to ensuring the security of my portable computer. Not only do I have a BIOS password but both operating systems, Windows XP and Mandrake Linux, are password protected as well. I’ve also been using a cable lock when at work, but a recent article about how easy it is to open those locks has caused me to question that protection.
So when the folks at Griffin Technologies offered to let me test their SecuriKey® Computer Protection product, I jumped at the chance to see if this could add another valuable layer of protection to my existing setup.
I’ve been using SecuriKey® for a week now, and my overall impression is positive.

Registry clutter cleaner

Registry Cleaner is a product you may find useful if, like me, you do a lot of work on your computer and want to be sure it's as lean and mean as possible. I frequently defragment my disks, delete empty folders, remove programs I don't use any longer. I keep everything in an appropriately named folder, and organize my folders into partitions by type. In other words, I do whatever I can to keep my system running well and make finding things a breeze.

The only part of my system that presents a real challenge to keep in check is the registry. The biggest problem with trying to prune entries there is that if you delete just one wrong item you can make Windows totally unusable. Add to that the fact that so many entries are fairly cryptic as to their purpose and function. As a result, the registry tends to be ignored by even advanced users. Yet a junked up registry will affect your system negatively as much as a fragmented file system. This is when you need an application like Registry Cleaner.