[Trainer-talk] WinPatrol

[David Goldfield]

WinPatrol is a program that I've known about for years and had 
occasionally used on my old, clunky XP machine.  It is not an 
antimalware or antivirus program per se but it has many features which 
allows you to examine various items coming up in your system's startup, 
services and it can alert you when specific changes try to alter 
critical system settings.  The program has always been fairly 
accessible.  Recently, I found out that the program's original designer 
sold WinPatrol to a new company and that the new author, Bret Lowry of 
Ruiware, was going to soon implement some UI changes. Since I know that 
making new changes to the user interface can often break accessibility, 
I sprang into action and contacted Bret and voiced my concerns.  I also 
gave him a few examples of some accessibility issues in the current 
version of WinPatrol.  Bret wrote back immediately and I have come to 
realize that this man cares deeply about accessibility and that he's 
going to be examining my various suggestions and bug reports when he 
begins work on future versions.  Obviously, he had my respect and I've 
begun using his program more regularly, not only to locate any possible 
bugs but also just to continue to tweak my windows 7 machine.  You can 
get a list of features at
http://www.winpatrol.com/features.html
there is a free version and a version called WinPatrol Plus, available 
for around thirty dollars.  The Plus version is worth it, as it gives 
you more info on many items and services which you often find coming up 
on your system.
Please note that I don't have the time to provide support on this 
program.  I'm just passing on the info for anyone who is interested.
Please also note that you should exercise caution whenever you start 
disabling startup items or system services.  some of them aren't 
necessary, whereas others most certainly are and disabling them can have 
a serious impact on your system's performance.  When in doubt, leave the 
item alone.  I'm not at all suggesting this as a training tool but it's 
a great diagnostic tool if you're working on a consumer's machine and 
want to examine what's on the machine in more detail.  For portable use, 
there is a winPatrolToGo executable, which can be run off of a thumb drive.


-- 

      David Goldfield,
Assistive Technology specialist
---------

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