Get Panda Cloud Antivirus Pro for free

There are plenty of free security tools out there, but few include technical support, and many of them bug you with ads and nag screens.

Those are just two of the reasons to spend a few bucks on a pro-level antivirus solution. Of course, why spend a few bucks when you don't have to? Until tomorrow, you can get Panda Cloud Antivirus Pro 1.3 absolutely free. Regular price: $29.95.

As with most paid AV programs, that price is for a one-year license--and so is this freebie. Next year at this time, you can decide if you want to pony up for another year, or just stick with the feature-reduced (but still very effective) free version.

Cloud Antivirus Pro promises protection from viruses, spyware, and rootkits. It can disable Autorun to help protect you from viruses that propagate via flash drives, and the Pro version includes "automatic USB vaccination" to keep you from getting or spreading that kind of malware. (Interestingly, I just had such an encounter with an infected flash drive.)

Also included with the Pro version: 24-7 multilingual tech support. For anyone who wouldn't have a clue what to do in the event of a virus infestation, that could prove mighty helpful.

You can read more about Panda Cloud Antivirus over at CNET's Download Blog. As noted there, "during the registration process, the checkout cart will state at some point, 'Your card hasn't been charged yet.' This is apparently a cart template and does not affect users who are taking part in the license key giveaway." So don't freak out.

I continue to rely on Microsoft Security Essentials for malware protection, but just the other day I had to rescue my parents' laptop from an infection that MSE missed. Maybe a pro-level tool like Cloud Antivirus would have done a better job.


Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13845_3-20021017-58.html#ixzz13ioS3nss

Windows 7 Registry Backup a precise judgment

Registry has a very important role in windows operating system. When there is something wrong with your computer, you can restore it to repair your computer, so backup it frequently is very important. While you just upgraded you System from Windows Vista to Windows 7, which is the latest version of Microsoft Windows including much more new features. You may get some guide how to edit registry.
But if you make a mistake and don’t correct it, you may find your computer is not as functional as it was before. To protect yourself from any mistakes, you need to backup your registry. This article is focused on the guide about the backup and restoring registry. It is of prime concern to understand the various contents of Windows 7 Registry.

Left side of the Registry Editor window is analogous to Explorer's Folders pane and the right side is similar to Explorer's Contents pane. In this case, the right side of the Registry Editor window displays the settings contained in each key (so I'll call it the Settings pane). The Settings pane is divided into three columns: Name, Type and Data.

1) Name — This column tells you the name of each setting in the currently selected key (similar to a filename in Explorer).

2) Type — This column tells you the data type of the setting. There are six possible data types:

REG_SZ — This is a string value.

REG_MULTI_SZ — This is a series of strings.

REG_EXPAND_SZ — This is a string value that contains an environment variable name that gets "expanded" into the value of that variable. For example, the %SystemRoot% environment variable holds the folder in which Windows 7 was installed. So, if you see a Registry setting with the value %SystemRoot%\System32\, and Windows 7 is installed in C:\Windows, the setting's expanded value is C:\Windows\System32\.

REG_DWORD— This is a double word value: a 32-bit hexadecimal value arranged as eight digits. For example, 11 hex is 17 decimal, so this number would be represented in DWORD form as 0x00000011 (17). (Why "double word"? A 32-bit value represents four bytes of data, and because a word in programming circles is defined as two bytes, a four-byte value is a double word.)

REG_QWORD— This is a quadruple word value: a 64-bit hexadecimal value arranged as 16 digits. Note that leading zeros are suppressed for the high 8 digits. Therefore, 11 hex appears as 0x00000011 (17), and 100000000 hex appears as 0x1000000000 (4294967296).

REG_BINARY— This value is a series of hexadecimal digits.

3) Data— This column displays the value of each setting.



Backing up the entire registry


1. Click Start type systempropertiesprotection in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER.
If you are prompted for an administrator password or for a confirmation, type the password, or click Allow
2. Wait for Windows to search for available disks and most recent restore points. In the System Properties dialog box, on the System Protection tab, click Create.
3. Type a name for the restore point and then click Create.
4. After the restore point has been created successfully, click OK two times.
Note: If System Restore is turned off, click to select the local disk, click Apply and then click Create.

Restoring the Entire Registry


1. Click Start, type systempropertiesprotection in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER
If you are prompted for an administrator password or for a confirmation, type the password, or click Allow
2. In the System Properties dialog box, on the System Protection tab, click System Restore.
3. In the System Restore dialog box select Choose a different restore point, and then click Next.
4. Select the restore point that you want to use, and then click Next.
5. Confirm your restore point, and then click Finish System restore - this restores the selected Windows 7 configuration and then restarts the computer.
6. Log on to the computer. When the System Restore confirmation page appears, click OK.
Before you edit your Windows 7 Registry, it is important to take back up. Since Windows system configuration, the computer hardware configuration, information about installed programs, the types of documents that each program can create, and user preferences are all stored in the registry. If you find any difficulty you may use utility program for it. For example, Argentum Backup is a handy, small backup program that lets you easily back up your documents and folders. It safely protects you from accidental deletes, overwrites, and viruses. This can be stored in Zip files either manually or automatically.