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TrendMicro Browser Guard, Explorer Security Plugin

Martin Brinkmann — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 18:04:40 +0000

One of the biggest threats on the Internet these days are zero-day vulnerabilities that tend to get exploited quickly by people with malicious intents. The problem with these kind of vulnerabilities lies in the fact that the majority of computer users do not update their systems immediately. Reasons for this are manifold and range from patches that are not yet available to being unaware or incautious.

Third party tools can mitigate the impact of security vulnerabilities on the system. Firefox users can for instance protect their web browser with the excellent NoScript add-on to avoid the majority of browser attacks if they use the add-on correctly.

TrendMicro Browser Guard 2010 is a free toolbar that has been exclusively designed for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. The program is compatible with all Internet Explorer versions from Internet Explorer 6 to the latest Internet Explorer 9 releases running on 32-bit or 64-bit editions of Windows XP or newer Microsoft operating systems.

The key benefits according to TrendMicro are:

Protects against zero day exploits
Detects buffer-overflow and heap-spray attacks
Protects against execution of shell code
Analyzes and protects against malicious JavaScript
Connects with Trend Micro Smart Protection Network to maximize detections

How effective is the program? That’s a question that I cannot answer. I tried finding reviews and tests of Browser Guard 2010 but did not find any.

The security added by Browser Guard look solid on paper and it would be very interesting to see how the program fares against threats in real usage scenarios.

Users who work with Internet Explorer can download Browser Guard 2010 directly from Antivirus.com.

Facebook Toolbar

Martin Brinkmann — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 12:54:27 +0000

Many Internet users dislike toolbars, which largely stems from the fact that some companies use questionable means to force their toolbars on the user’s system. Not all toolbars are “evil” though, and there are certainly some that may prove to be useful.

The Facebook Toolbar may be one of them, but only if the user is a die hard Facebook addict who wants to stay in the loop all the time and interact with Facebook without being on the site.

On first glance, the Facebook toolbar looks like a lot of other toolbars. It has the usual assortment of buttons and a search form on it. None of these functions can be used without logging in to Facebook first. The toolbar has a Facebook login link on the right side.

Alternatively, a login popup is displayed if any of the features are accessed prior to logging in.

Just enter your Facebook login credentials, and allow the toolbar to interact with the Facebook account.

The layout of the toolbar changes slightly after logging in. Lets take a look at the features offered by the Facebook toolbar.

Facebook Friends Sidebar: Displays the Facebook friend list in a sidebar
Facebook Search: Performs a search on Facebook.
Quick Links: Links pointing to various Facebook pages, including profile, friends, inbox, photos, notes, groups, events, links, videos, account settings, privacy settings, application settings and toolbar settings
Facebook Home: Link to the Facebook homepage
Share: Shares the active page on Facebook
Upload photos: Option to upload photos to the Facebook profile
Set your stats: Quickly set a new status message on Facebook.
Logout: Log out of Facebook from the Toolbar

The toolbar user is automatically logged in on Facebook as well, as long as the login in the toolbar stays active. One of the most interesting features of the toolbar are notifications of activities on Facebook.

The toolbar options define which notifications will be displayed to the logged in user. Notifications are divided into user and friend notifications.

Notifications about me: new friend requests, new message, new poke, new friend, new event invite, new group invite, new share, all other notifications
Notifications about my friends: a friend updates his/her profile, a friend updates his/her status, a friend updates his/her albums, someone writes on a friend’s wall, a friend writes a note
Other notifications: Uploads Complete

All of the notifications in the list above can be enabled or disabled individually. It is furthermore possible to switch from toolbar notifications windows to built-in Firefox notifications.

The Facebook Toolbar is available for Microsoft Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox.

Internet Explorer Toolbar Customization

Martin Brinkmann — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 13:55:06 +0000

Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 and Internet Explorer 8 display the menu bar below the address bar in the header area of the web browser. The menu bar contains links to menus like File, Tools or Help while the address bar is being used to load websites and perform searches on the Internet.

Most web browsers use a different display of toolbars with the menu bar on top and the address bar below which is also the default display in all windows and applications in the Windows operating system. There is however no option to customize Internet Explorer toolbars in the browser itself.

The only way to change the location of the Internet Explorer Toolbar is to edit the Windows Registry. To do that press [Windows R], type [regedit] and hit [enter].

Before:

After:

Navigate to the following Registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar\WebBrowser

Add a new DWord by right-clicking in the left panel of the Registry and selecting New > DWord Value. Name the new Registry key ITBar7Position. Double-click it afterwards and give it the value 1.

Restart Internet Explorer afterwards and you should see that the Internet Explorer Toolbars have been exchanged. The menu toolbar should now be on top and the address toolbar below.