• Geek Superhero protects your web browser's home page and other important settings. It lets you easily fix things if your browser has been taken over by a hijacker, and watches for hijackers trying to invade.
• Helps your computer start faster by keeping unnecessary things from starting every time you start Windows.
• Keeps you from having your modem's phone number changed to dial expensive pay-per-minute numbers when connecting to the Internet!
• Catches many of the changes a virus, worm, or trojan program will make to your computer.
• Prevents programs you install from adding new icons or favorites that you don't want.
  In my testing, installing America Online's latest software adds 2 programs to run every time Windows starts, adds 5 icons on your desktop, and adds 2 icons in the Quick Launch area. All without ever asking you what you want. Geek Superhero catches all those changes and lets you choose to keep or reject them.
• And many more. There are dozens and dozens of different settings that Geek Superhero watches to protect you.

Geek Superhero helps you prevent worms, hackers, or other malicious programs from invading your computer by letting you easily turn off rarely used Windows features. Features that have had security problems and have been exploited by several worms like MSBlast already.

Geek Superhero improves your web browsing by blocking unwanted popup windows using smart checks to automatically show the windows you want, but block the advertisements you don't want. (And lets you turn off the "Windows Messenger Service" that is just used to send you more ads too.)

Geek Superhero protects your privacy by blocking "Web Bugs": tags that are invisibly included on web pages to track you.

Geek Superhero has tools to easily look at all the programs that will start when Windows starts, to let you see where the space is being used on your hard drives, and more!

Version 1.2 Release (October 20, 04):

Fixed handling of "file://" things.

Fixed a bug in "Allow Popups" editor window that it didn't clear things right.

Added some Internet Explorer settings to the Browser Extras Editor report.

Added right click menus for Startup Editor and Browser Extras Editor. New item just in there to delete the real file that is run by the startup entry; also works if the file is locked (in use by Windows), will add so the file will be deleted the next time you reboot. Easier than copying over to the "In Use File Delete" for difficult hijackers.

Some additional Toolbar settings are monitored.

Improve some "fishy" detections.

Version 1.1a Release (October 20, 04):

Added a "Fishy" column to the Startup and Browser Extras editors; lets you quickly find ones that look a little off.

Added more items to "Emergency Browser Reset".

Added some checks when Geek Superhero runs the first time to ask about fixing things if a computer seems to have already been Hijacked.

Added option for "installing something I trust, don't ask for 5 minutes" to help with setup programs that make lots of OK changes.

Added so windows remember the positions.

Version 1.1 Release (June 16, 04):

Added monitoring for new Internet Explorer toolbars, new toolbar buttons, and new Tools menu items.

Changed so Browser Helper Editor is now Browser Extras Editor. Lists not just Browser Helper Objects; it now also includes Toolbars, Toolbar Buttons, and Tools menu items.

Added monitoring of "about:" protocol things, to deal with about:blank hijacking.

Added option to see the websites where Popup Slapdown will allow popups. And lets you remove items from the list.

Added "In Use File Delete" to Tools.

Added monitoring of "text/plain" filtering.

Fixed so checking to see if Windows Update is turned on knows about WindowsXP SP2; which stores it slightly different.

Version 1.0.3 Release (Apr 28, 04):

Added so checking for new versions gives better diagnositic errors if it has problems.

Added "Report" to Startup Editor and BHO Editor; so can send a nice list of everything in an email. Will help us figure what shouldn't be there if someone already is infected, etc.

Added option for Fewer Character Graphics; still a few, but a lot are gone.

Fixed so you can turn off Favorites protection in the middle of it alerting about new favorites (mainly in case some program is adding dozens of Favorites--are a few that add whole menus of items.)

Version 1.0.2 Release (Mar 30, 04):

Added so Geek Superhero can be translated into other languages!

Added option for automatic checking for New Version and Tips.

Fixed that if it didn't have type for programs in the path (notepad vs notepad.exe), it didn't display the file details right.

Fixed that "Remember and Don't Ask Again" for phone number changes wasn't remembering right.

Version 1.0.1b Release (Mar 16, 04):

Added more items to check, looks for Tabs hidden from your Internet Options window.

Passwords were global but setting to the "lesser changes allowed" lock type (to allow changes to Desktop icons, Favorites, etc. without a password) wasn't global. So didn't work right for multiple users on the PC, asked for the password for "allowed" changes. And added a "Don't ask again for an hour" on the password confirm entry--nice if you know you're going to be using the PC for a length of time.

Added a so you can add a button to your IE toolbar that shows a menu to control the Web Bug Swatter--on/off; allow/block for a site; play sounds.

Some odd loop caused crashes when checking/unchecking in the Startup Editor. Fixed.

Version 1.0.1 Release (Mar 8, 04):

Oops, the Lock buttons on the Startup Editor weren't showing at all! Fixed.

Fixed so changing selection with the arrow keys on Startup Editor, etc. updates the Details right.

Fixed so putting in the registration code once gets it set right for all users on the computer.

Added so running Geek Superhero, if it is already active, opens the Options window and doesn't start another copy. And also re-creates the Tray Icon in case it's been lost by Windows (Explorer crashing, etc.)

Added so installer creates Uninstall shortcut in the Geek Superhero start menu group to make it easier for people who don't know to look in the Windows Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs.

Added "Tools" to the tray icon menu, to make quicker access to that tab.

Added so Windows Dial-Up phone number changes remember the old and new numbers if you OK them, to make switching back easier. And add so ignores "extra" characters when doing comparisons of phone numbers--so commas, spaces, dashes, etc. are ignored when comparing.

Changed so "Emergency Browser Reset" shows a checkbox list of things it can reset for you, so it isn't an all-or-nothing reset.

Version 1.0.0 Release (Feb 24, 04):

Added "Lock" on the Startup Editor. You can lock any items that you want to be notified if they're deleted. For your virus scanner, firewall, etc. And set so Geek Superhero's own startup item will be locked.

Added if you check "Remember" so some remember the Old value too--so going back again (which happens often for some) won't re-prompt.

Added a startup item check for Session Manager registry key.

Resized some windows and changed some text so details fit better without scrolling.

Handle some Shell Folder changes better, some service things seem to change it.

Version 1.0 beta 3a (Feb 8, 04):

Fix a bug in the installer for upgrading (turned off the Popup Blocker & Bug Blocker).

Fixed so it skips "desktop.ini" when comparing folders.

Changed so if moving to Recycle Bin fails, it deletes the file.

Version 1.0 beta 3 (Feb 5, 04):

Added watching for new Scheduled Tasks; lets you Delete any new ones that appear.

Added watching for new Windows Services; lets you Disable any new ones that appear.

Added monitoring for one setting that the new MyDoom virus changed, would get the other registry changes already :)

Added item to Tools so you can reset all the "Remember what I pick..." settings.

Added so all the windows remember the "Remeber what I pick..." check states for the next time you see it.

Added another set of registry items that should be checked. "Shell Folders" where all the Windows folders are stored (in the Suspicious category).

Improve how it handles changes to an existing entry in the Run registry areas and Startup folders, has a better message and lets you fix it back to the previous value.

Added "Changes.log" file so you can see what's been fixed on your computer.

Fixed a bug in Startup Editor that didn't let some things be Deleted completely.

Added Shawn's new (and very cute) "Time To Buy" image in a few places when your trial is over and "Locked" for all the Password screens.

Added new "Check More Security Settings" to check that settings from a variety of programs look right (Word macros security set to highest level, Outlook security set right, etc.)

Changed how the Popup Blocker & Bug Swatter are turned on and off. Turning off now removes the main registry entries that plug into the browser (instead of disabling internally). So if they're causing problems or will never be used, that gets rid of them completely. Also added so they are both listed in the installer and are off by default.

Version 1.0 beta 2 (Jan 21, 04):

Fixed one protected setting that didn't remember the old values right if you turned it off; so it couldn't easily be switched back on later.

Fixed an odd crash that the Web Bug blocker seemed to cause in the Windows Display Control Panel (for some versions of Windows; not sure the combinations, one PC here did crash, the other worked fine.) I actually think it's a bug in the Windows Display control panel--but figured a way to avoid it.

Fixed so turning off the "Exit Confirm" works.

Added so the Startup Editor shows the program icon for anything you pick to make identifying things easier.

Added so "Where's My Space Gone" shows the total number of files in the folder and subfolders at the bottom when you pick something in the tree.

Added several more graphics for different alerts, looks cool, plus helps you see what's been changed.

Version 1.0 beta 1b (Jan 11, 04):

Added Statistics button on the About window.

Some of the network settings were getting a warning both when they went to blank and then again when it went back to the previous value, which really is OK (and happens for some networks). Was just doing a little over-warning :) Handles those better.

A bug actually discovered by my pet cat "Curry". If you stepped on the F1 key, it gave an error instead of showing the right Help page. The same thing happened if a human pressed the F1 key.

Fix "Cancel" when selecting a Skin file & added "Default Skin" choice to make going back easy.

Improved the Help pages, including "Back" links.

Fixed the tooltips (on the toolbars) not showing right for a few people.

Version 1.0 beta 1a (Jan 6, 04):

Some of the "Remember" checkboxes didn't work if you changed the check, so either always remembered or never remembered.

Version 1.0 beta 1 (Jan 5, 04):

Brand New!!!