Panda's recently-introduced Cloud Antivirus generated a lot of buzz when it hit blogs like ours. It's certainly a good, free program for protecting your system from various nasties. It's just too bad that the installer craps out if you try and launch it on a Windows 7 system.

Well, there's a way around this, and it's not too complicated.

First, download Cloud AV and extract the contents of the .exe file. Any decent archiver should be able to do that for you. Since I use 7-zip (a free download), I just right click on CloudAntivirus.exe and choose 7-zip -> extract to -> "CloudAntivirus\".

Next, you need to utilize compatibility mode. Navigate into the newly-created CloudAntivirus folder and right-click on Setup.exe. Choose properties, and then click on the Compatibility tab. Check the box marked "Run this program..." and set the drop-down menu to Vista (I used SP2, but the other options worked, too). Click ok.

Now you're ready to run the installer. Click through the prompts until it completes, and voila! Panda Cloud Antivirus on Windows 7. Scanning worked flawlessly on my test system, and the realtime protection appears to be just fine as well.

While it works, Cloud AV obviously isn't fully Windows 7 friendly. If you're unsure, stick with another antivirus option until support is added!

If there's one type of software news that always brightens my day, it's news that a purveyor of crapware has lost a legal game of Rochambault. This time, it was Kaspersky snatching victory away from perennial nuisance Zango.

Zango has a history of rising from the grave like some horrible software zombie. Their other incarnations include HotBar and 180solutions, both of which are familiar to those of you who wrestle with malware on a regular basis. Want to read about what Zango does? You'll have to visit Wikipedia or some other site, because the Zango website itself is a "closed user community."

In the lawsuit, Zango claimed Kaspersky should be ordered to reclassify Zango's programs as nonthreatening and asked that the court "prevent Kaspersky Lab's security software from blocking Zango's potentially undesirable programs."

Thankfully, the appellate court upheld an earlier ruling that granted Kaspersky "Good Samaratin immunity," and that they were free to classify Zango as adware and treat it as such.

This isn't the first time Zango has lost in court. Will it be the last? Doubtful. Zango probably still has a little money left to blow on spurious lawsuits, and there are plenty of other anti-malware developers they can bitch about.

Password masking - the practice of replacing the characters a user types into password entry field with bullets - has been widespread on the web for a long time. Jakob Nielsen recently wrote a thought-provoking post suggesting masking is hurting more than it helps, and that it's only being kept around out of habit. I'll try to make the case for and against masking here, and let Download Squad readers weigh in on the subject.

Down With Masking:

Masking ruins the user experience. When users can't see what they're typing, they're likely to make mistakes and second-guess themselves. Did I forget my password, or did I just make a typo? After enough login failures, they'll either stop using your site or call support. As a result, users try to get around the problems of masking by entering a simple, insecure password, or by copying and pasting their passwords in. Why are we continuing a practice that undermines user security and adds uncertainty to the user experience? Masking has got to go.

Masking Forever:

Masking doesn't make users feel insecure, it makes them feel more secure. It was instituted for a reason: to keep someone who might be reading over your shoulder from reading your password. Maybe this has become less of a concern over the years, but masking has picked up some new, equally important uses, too. What if you're screensharing with a coworker or recording a screencast that happens to include your site's login process? Users have come to expect masking. When they run into the rare site that doesn't use it, they get nervous that their password might be sent unencrypted. Part of good design is giving users what they expect, so keep giving them password masking.

So, readers, what do you think? Take the poll, and let me know in the comments if you've got better arguments for or against.

Yesterday I wrote up a little list of things I wished people would quit installing on their PCs. Today, I've put together a selection of handy programs those same people can use to take care of some of the annoyances I mentioned - and more.

Here are six (seventeen, really, but some are grouped) simple applications that will help - and they're all free for personal use!

1. PC Decrapifier - A lot of people that drop their systems off for repair say "take out any programs that don't need to be there." Well, that's exactly the kind of crud Decrapifier is designed to get rid of. It compares the programs on your system to a list of known bloatware (Wikipedia definition) and simplifies the removal process.

2. Malware Bytes - Those annoying popups you're getting? The weird pages you see when you try to search for something in your browser? Malware Bytes does a great job at removing the pests that cause those problems. It's usually the first program I run on horribly bogged-down computers. After a scan, clean, and reboot, they're usually much more cooperative.

3. Glary Utilities - The one-click maintenance mode in Glary is a wonderfully simple way for even non-technical users to keep their systems tuned. It tackles all kinds of tasks, from removing temporary file garbage and broken shortcuts to tuning up your registry.

One note: download the slim version to avoid the Ask Toolbar. You can opt out of it during the regular install, but slim removes it altogether.

It leaked last week, but it didn't take long for Microsoft to follow up with a legitimate download for interested testers: the download page for Microsoft Security Essentials (formerly Moro) is now live.

You'll need to sign in with your Connect account or register for a new one to gain access to the download - for now. There will no doubt be hundreds of happy seeders sharing the Beta on torrent trackers later today.

Microsoft had originally slated only 75,000 spots for beta testers, though they have since announced that the number will be increased to accomodate demand. Interest will likely be high considering the generally positive reviews SE has generated since we first got our hands on it.

We've got a big gallery of screenshots of SE in action, including it detecting the trojan that I *ahem* intentionally left on my machine so I could test the program fully. I've been very happy so far with SE's level of protection and low impact on system performance.

Bozeman, Montana -- a city just 5 miles to the east of freakin' nowhere -- as part of a more thorough set of background checks, is asking job applicants to, "list any and all, current personal or business websites, web pages or memberships on any Internet-based chat rooms, social clubs or forums, to include, but not limited to: Facebook, Google, Yahoo, YouTube.com, MySpace, etc."

Federal law states that you can't ask about religion or marital status when interviewing you for a job, but both of those things are conveniently available in most Facebook profiles. Added to which, giving a prospective employer all your logins and passwords gives them access to direct and private messages, and in the case of most social networks, indirect access to the information of other people who never granted the city access. The whole thing violates just about every social network's Terms of Service, and just generally feels slimy.

In an interview with local news, the city's attorney says it isn't "trying to find out all kinds of information about the person that we're not able to use or shouldn't use in the hiring process."

Current job listings for Bozeman include a Water/Sewer technician so, presumably, with a high school diploma and a clean Facebook record, you could get hired to dig around in something that smells almost as bad as this hiring policy.

[via BoingBoing]

Remember yesterday when I said we all knew a Morro leak was coming? Ba-da-bing!

Less than 24 hours later, there's a torrent available on one of the Internet's favorite sites (which shall remain nameless until someone inevitably posts it in the comments). At last, we've got a leaked MS antivirus tool to remove trojans from our leaked Windows 7 builds!

The download is tiny. The XP version is just under 8MB while Vista's installer is less than 5MB. It looks as though SE will provide solid protection for Windows systems, and it includes all the features you'd expect from this type of app like scheduled scanning and updates, customizable default actions, context menu integration, and exclusions. Idling, SE uses less than 4MB memory when idle and between 2-6% CPU and no more than 8MB when running a full scan on Windows 7.

I've got some more screenshots today as a result, but be warned: they're really not that much more exciting than what you saw yesterday. You can check them out after the break.

Edit: because of my recent irresponsible surfing, you can see SE catching and removing a trojan. w00t!
Edit: Worth mentioning that my system was running NOD32 up until now. Unsure why it never spotted the trojan.

Make sure you read the EULA before installing - it clearly states that you'll only be able to recover $5US if something goes horribly wrong with the program.

Thanks for the heads up, Paul @ MoDaCo!

It's trendy to use the latest and greatest URL shortening services in IMs and Twitter postings, but clicking on a TinyURL is like a box of chocolates: you never know what you're gonna get. To avoid any nasty surprises, affiliate links, or other deceptive uses of TinyURLs, you can install a Greasemonkey script called TinyURL Decoder.

Although the name of the script contains "TinyURL," that's not the only service it works with. It can decode dozens of different flavors of shortened links. I'm impressed with the huge number of services this plugin includes, from the very popular (the aforementioned TinyURL) to the obscure (PeaUrl). Installing it should leave you well-situated to know where these sometimes-sketchy links are taking you.

Word on the street has it that Microsoft is preparing to launch a free anti-virus application for Windows. That's not breaking news - we first reported the project back in November 2008, but Reuters is now reporting that a beta version of the software should be available for download "soon."

Microsoft has reportedly been testing the product internally, and expects it to compete with similar utilities from Symantec, McAfee, AVG, Avast, and other security companies. The Microsoft anti-virus app is code-named Morro (after a beach in Brazil), but it will probably have a different name by the time it's released.

The program isn't expected to be competitive with high priced security software, but it should offer the basic anti-virus functionality you would expect from the entry level anti-virus apps from companies that typically charge an annual subscription fee for updates.

You could make the case that Microsoft is aiming to take business away from those companies. But you could also make the case that Microsoft should have been offering better virus scanning and removal tools all along in order to provide better security for Windows.

Intego, a "leading internet security and privacy software" publisher dropped a press release on my inbox this morning that might as well have read, "Hey, Apple.. Gotcha!"

Beyond recognizing the malware threat to Macs, Apple goes further, admitting that the techniques it includes in Mac OS X aren't enough to fully protect Macs from viruses and malware. The company provides security advice, as Intego has said for many years, saying, "since no system can be 100 percent immune from every threat, antivirus software may offer additional protection." (emphasis Intego's)

Complete with footnotes, Intego uses the feature list for Apple's upcoming OSX 10.6 release to essentially say, "There, we told you so! Apple put thought into securing its operating system therefore it must be vulnerable!"

How does an enumeration of security features imply a susceptibility to malware? That's like calling GM to the carpet for agreeing that a car parked in a locked garage is more protected than one parked on the street. The very concept of a garage offers additional protection, it however doesn't imply that the protection is actually necessary.

Maybe it's me. Maybe I expect too much from a company who sent out a press release about Conflicker which read in part, "This worm, which affects Windows computers, has no effect on Mac OS X; at least not yet. Intego's Virus Monitoring Center is on full alert in case a Mac OS X variant of this worm should appear"

Wait, is this thing going to magically change from a worm written directly to the vulnerabilities of Windows into some shape shifting super worm that defies the all the reality of modern computing, as well as all common sense and logic? Does anyone else picture Intego's "Virus Monitoring Center" as some overweight bald guy trolling Slashdot while eating Cheetos?

My advice? Save your money for magic beans. And, if the nagging voice inside your head absolutely won't be quiet until you buy quasi-useful anti-virus software for your Mac, don't buy it from Intego.

Intego were contacted for comment, but failed to respond prior to publication

Early morning Tuesday a software malfunction caused a security breach at Rudder, a web based financial management service Download Squad has covered in the past.

It seems a number of Rudder users received email intended for a ton of other users, and in some cases one user received hundreds of emails intended for other users of the service.

Soon after, Twitter went crazy with tweets and retweets about Rudder's security breach, and before you know it a mishap affecting hundreds of users was being widely commented on by thousands of people.

So how serious is it, really?

One thing that I always like to see in a corporate entity is the ability to have a little fun from time to time. If I was going to give an award for "Best Comedic Performance by a Software Vendor," it would go to antivirus developer Sophos, hands down.

Why? For their brand-new Klingon antivirus application.

The program is no joke - it's real Sophos AV, but it may not be a real benefit for you if you can't read Klingon. Of course, you can always improve your linguistic skills over at the Klingon Language Institute. Just make sure you pay attention to the compatibility notes:

"Runs on Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista.
This software has compatibility issues with the version of msxml4.dll used by cloaking devices on Romulan-modded D7-class battle cruisers. Installing this software on such vessels is punishable by ordeal of Ginst'a'Ed."

Sophos scores additional bonus points for the product's web page, which boasts such excellent touches as untouched "Lorem" text, the rarely-used <blurb> tag, and, of course, copious references to Star Trek.

Pics or it didn't happen, you say? Check out a few more screens after the break. Sorry for the lack of explanations, but my skills are limited to three human languages - English, Spanish, and bad English.