Five criteria for determining spyware

Here are the five criteria that Microsoft (and others) use to determine if a program qualifies as spyware, and the level of danger that it poses.

1. "Deceptive behaviors. Runs processes or programs on the user's computer without notifying the user and getting the user's consent. Prevents users from controlling the actions taken by the program while it runs on the computer. Prevents users from uninstalling or removing the program."

2. "Privacy. Collects, uses, or communicates the user's personal information and behaviors (such as Web browsing habits) without explicit consent."

3."Security. Attempts to circumvent or disable the security features on the user’s computer, or otherwise compromises the computer's security."

4. "Performance. Undermines performance, reliability, and quality of the user's computing experience with slow computer speed, reduced productivity, or corruption of the operating system."

5. "Industry and consumer opinion. Considers the input from software industry and individual users as a key factor to help identify new behaviors and programs that might present risks to the user's computing experience."

You can go here to read more about it, including longer explanations of the five criteria. You will find them about halfway down the page.

New service pack for Windows XP

Microsoft has recently confirmed that it is creating a third Service Pack for Windows XP.
A "service pack" (or SP) is a collection of patches, fixes and general improvements that Microsoft believes will make the operating system work better.

Early testing on SP3 indicates that not only is does it show a 10% improvement in performance (read speed) over Windows XP Service Pack 2, but it makes Windows XP work almost twice as fast as Windows Vista with Service Pack 1 installed. You can read details of the testing here.