On behalf of BillP Studios, I'd like to welcome WinPatrol users, Security Professionals and everyone interested to our new WinPatrol forum.

Special thanks to the folks here at ComputerCops.biz and all the folks whose knowledge, caring and integrity have made this site such a popular and desirable stop.

The focus of this forum will be WinPatrol specific questions, comments and suggestions. We'll be glad to help you learn how you can use WinPatrol to clean up unwanted parasites on your system.

If you're not familiar with our Free WinPatrol program you can learn more and download it directly on our main website, www.WinPatrol.com.

Thank you,
Bill Pytlovany
BillP Studios

Welcome aboard Bill, its great having you and your team along for the ride.

Hello all,

I've been with WinPatrol and BillP Studios for about a year and a half. I've watched Scotty grow from a pup to a full-sized Windows watchdog. I research programs to determine what they do and whether you need to keep them around.

I'm very excited to be a small part of this forum. I'm really looking forward to hearing from you and helping you to get the most from WinPatrol.

Aloha, Robin
WinPatrol Research Team Leader

This must be a new Forum. Good - I hope it grows and grows - I will try to spread the word, Bill P. I have Plus on one computer and free version on the other of my home network - really am impressed with it. Thanks!

Hi there Bill and Robin,
Welcome aboard and this looks like a great start to a great venture.

If you need anything just yell... plenty of nice people will come running

cheers.... Bill

Welcome aboard Robin.

Welcome Bill and Robin.

Welcome, I'll be interested to find out more about WinPatrol

Hi Acheton,

Glad to have you interested in WinPatrol.

WinPatrol is a very small robust program which monitors changes to important system resources. Fred Langa once called WinPatrol a hybrid because it can catch viruses, spyware, adware, worms, Trojans, tracking cookies, and anything else that may infect your computer without your knowledge.

Typically traditional security programs act in one of two ways.

1) They might monitor everything that goes is happening via the network and alert you to unwanted actions. Most of these programs take over so much of your computer you typically lose performance and compatibility. What I recommend for this type of protection is something like ZoneAlarm but with only the basic firewall protection enabled.

2) There are also file scanners that depend on reference or signature files that have been created based on known parasites. These programs scan your hard drive and will remove files known to be malicious. For this type of functionality and clean up I find the real SpyBot S&D (accept no fakes) and Adaware as probably the top of the line.

WinPatrol uses an heuristic approach where it takes a quick snapshot of your critical system resources, commonly used by parasitic programs. When a change is detected WinPatrol, via Scotty the Windows WatchDog, will alert you to the change and allows you to acknowledge if this change was intended.

This method provides emergency treatment and handles brand new mysteryware that might not have been identified yet by other security researchers. It also allows users to fix the problem immediately without having to manually go into the registry with regedit.

The description above is probably the most valuable feature these days but there is more. WinPatrol is also a helpful utility for power users who enjoy a quick way to review what is happening on a system. It's also a learning tool for folks who are interested in learning more about their system.

Probably the best way to find out more is to go to www.WinPatrol.com and read what we have available and download our free software to see it in action.

And naturally, if you have any more questions we'll be here to help.

Thanks,
Bill

BillP Studios

Do you reccomend running Win Patrol in place of Ad Aware and Spybot, or in addition to??

Hi Bill, first off, thanks for creating an excellent program. I recommend it to everyone I come into contact with. And I have links to this forum, and your product, located on my own security site.

I diagnose HiJackThis logs over at Spyware Warrior forums, owned by Suzi, who also has her Spyware Warrior Blog, and whether or not you know it, she along with Eric Howes maintaine a list of Rogue Anti Spy Apps.

I had a question regarding multiple users on XP boxes.

Is all the preotection with WinPatrol 'global', or does it need to be enabled per user?

We are trying to set up a sticky regarding how to set up all the apps we recommend for everyone to go by. Your input would be greatly appraciated.

Thanks very much, have a great day!!

Hi TeMerc,

It's a pleasure to meet you and an honor to have you come visit our community forum. I certainly have seen the good work being done by SpyWarrior. I had the pleasure of getting to know Eric in person at the FTC Spyware Workshop and he's definitely one of the "good guys".

The current version of WinPatrol does offer global protection equally among users. Our upcoming WinPatrol 8.0 which has been announced will include better support for multiple users and their needs but the protection will remain in force regardless of user log in. Microsoft has actually been very helpful in making sure WinPatrol handles current user attributes and options.

Thanks,
Bill

Well, thanks so much for your quick reply, its nice to see that your in touch with the 'little' people so to speak.

I read all about you and Eric, along with the others at the FTC spyware Workshop with great interest.

I look forward to the coming new version of WinPatrol, and will upgrade as soon as possible.

I'll pass along the info regarding the 'global' coverage which WinPatrol offers so we can get this sticky thread completed, thanks again!!

Keep up the good fight!!!

Hi Bill. I haven't tried WinPatrol just yet. I thought I'd find out exactly what it's capable of first and this topic addresses that aspect quite well.

One possibility that occurs to me is that someone might look to WinPatrol to correct a malware issue. But that won't do it right?

If I understand this correctly, any already installed malware would be accepted as normal since it's there already. So the computer first needs to be tested for the presence of malware and cleaned by other means before WinPatrol is installed ... unless I've missed something.