Microsoft dropped the ball with Internet Explorer. It took Service Pack 2 for Windows XP before IE had an official pop-up blocker, but we all know that only benefits users of XP. A lot of people I assist are still using Windows 98 because they use older machines and by and large their setups get the job done. And Microsoft recently announced they won't be backporting many new IE "enhancements" to Windows 2000, which has miffed many corporations. And let's not get started on standards compliance, or IE's lack thereof. Netscape 7.x, Mozilla and FireFox are all superior browsers these days.

I haven't had much luck with Windows and ZoneAlarm, it tends to block legitimate traffic after a while and requires disabling the firewall and re-enabling to get its act together. Same thing goes for SyGate Personal Firewall. My advice is that if you are on dialup, a firewall isn't that necessary. If you have a broadband connection, a firewall is a good idea, but you may as well get a router with a built-in firewall. It costs as much for a router as it does for firewall software anymore.

Spyware should be illegal, it's such a pain to remove at times. There isn't a single program out there which can detect everything, and it's not worth my time taking hours out of a day straightening out their mess if I'm doing it as a favor (free).

I've put my friends on notice, if they continue to have virus and spyware incursions and want my help, they will be looking at upgrading from MS Windows products to Linux. Linux has matured enough as a desktop OS that it can handle 100% of the tasks they perform under Windows. They don't want to deal with viruses and spyware, and I've wasted enough time cleaning up after them.