Annoyance Busters

Infection & Hacker Busters

Too Many Passwords

So many Web sites and networks require a log-on that people frequently resort to using easy-to-remember passwords that are a cinch for computer-literate lowlifes to crack. It doesn't have to be that way. Password Safe is an encrypted database that securely stores all your user name and password entries in a single place so you can copy and paste complex passwords into Web pages and system log-on screens. The only password you have to remember is the one you use to access the scrambled Password Safe database. Most important, with this tool you can afford to use long and complicated passwords--the types that are highly resistant to being cracked--for all of your various log-ons. Free

The File Isn't Really Deleted

When you delete a file in Windows, it isn't actually gone. Only the pointers to its locations on the hard disk (and the first letter of its file name) have been removed. Consequently, anyone who has access to your computer can come along with a half-decent file-recovery tool and pull up all sorts of valuable, confidential data from your disk. BCWipe clears out files for good by overwriting with random data the portion of the disk that contains a given file. You can adjust wiping levels to suit your degree of paranoia, from quick one-pass wipes to military-grade cleansings that will overwrite files half a dozen times or more. Also, BCWipe scrubs swap files and free disk space, both of which can house bits and pieces of private data. You can schedule relatively time-consuming operations--such as overwriting large swaths of the disk--to happen overnight. $40

Stop Tailing Me!

Are you sick and tired of having your every move logged by nosy Web sites? Or having your files, including the sensitive ones, silently stored by Windows--for months on end--in cryptically named, hidden subfolders? IE Privacy Keeper is a compact utility that wipes the slate clean every time you start or exit Windows. Cookies, temporary files, lists of recently opened files, Internet Explorer URL history, AutoComplete lists--all of these and more are banished from your hard drive. You can even instruct the applet to delete specific files or Registry keys to ensure that every trace of your movements is lost. When you select the Secure Delete option, IE Privacy Keeper will overwrite the data that it deletes with random bits, thereby foiling outsiders' attempts to recover old files without your permission. Free

Flash Finagling

Not only can Flash animations make an unwelcome (and unexpected) racket when they launch automatically, but they can also bypass most pop-up blockers--which means that a Flash file carrying malicious code has the potential to infect your computer with a virus. TurnFlash offers a trustworthy cure for this vulnerability: It enables you to toggle the Flash playback capability in Internet Explorer on or off anytime you want. When you arrive at a site where you would actually like to see the Flash animation play, all you have to do is click the taskbar icon. Afterward, if you click the TurnFlash icon again, Flash playback in IE will be disabled once more. It doesn't get much easier than that. Free