New Shoot The Messenger! program constantly monitors and blocks desktop advertising windows
NORTH BRUNSWICK, N.J., October 9 /ZATZ Newswire/ -- ZATZ Publishing, a leading publisher of special-interest online magazines and e-books for technical consumers and IT professionals today published Shoot The Messenger!, a small software product that completely blocks unsolicited desktop ad windows from showing up Windows machines.
Unlike other programs that also block desktop ads, Shoot The Messenger! constantly monitors the Windows computer to make sure a trojan or undesired program doesn't turn the ads back on and also makes sure that all instant messenger traffic (including messages from MSN Messenger and Windows Messenger) are able to pass into and out of the Windows machine without interruption.
The Messenger problem in Windows
When Windows (NT, XP, 2000, and 2003 versions) is installed on a PC, a little program is installed with it. That program is called the "Messenger service."
The Messenger service was originally intended by Microsoft to let system managers on a network tell users when the network was being worked on, and other corporate status information. But, much like the human appendix, the Messenger program was never really used.
However, as designed by Microsoft, anyone with a network connection can send a message to any Windows computer and plaster up one of those annoying ad windows.
There's absolutely no security protection in Windows to prevent these message transmissions. There's not even a password required. Advertisers don't even need to know anything about the PC or a given user's Internet address to send the message. They send messages to every IP address on the Internet and just happen to find PCs with the Messenger service running.
How Shoot The Messenger! kills those messages
Once Shoot The Messenger! is installed, a little program begins running in the background, watching out for intruders. First, Shoot The Messenger! turns off the Messenger service. Then, every second, it makes sure that the Messenger service stays off, even if some other program tried to turn it back on.
It's this constant watchfulness that makes Shoot The Messenger! so incredibly helpful.
Most of the time, the only evidence users have that Shoot The Messenger! is guarding their PCs (besides pop-ups being gone, of course), is a pair of two very watchful little eyes in the system tray, as shown below.
It's amazing how easy it is to use Shoot The Messenger! The main screen, displayed below, simply tells the status of the Messenger service.
Most users will probably want to choose the "Automatically guard from system tray" option so you can have the Shoot The Messenger! protection all the time without the status window getting in the way.
IM access protected
When we developed Shoot The Messenger!, we found that users were concerned about whether they could still chat with their friends after installing Shoot The Messenger! There's no need for worry.
No matter whether a user's using Yahoo Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger, Microsoft MSN Messenger, Windows Messenger, ICQ, or even Jabber, Trillian or others, Shoot The Messenger! makes sure each can run even while the Windows Messenger service desktop ad windows are blocked.
A note for the technically savvy
There have been some concerns by our very technically experienced readers about the use of Shoot The Messenger! ZATZ Publisher David Gewirtz answers those questions.
"We know what you've been thinking," says Gewirtz. "Yes, you could turn off the Messenger service by hand. If you do have some of that geek blood running through your veins, you probably have. You could probably even walk someone through how to do it over the telephone. Fun."
Gewirtz continues, "In a sense, this product's not really intended for you. It's intended for your Dad. And mine. Especially mine. It's designed to make it easy to turn off this annoying element of Windows without opening up the entire Windows services infrastructure to tinkering. We worry when Dad tinkers."
"You know it'll happen," says Gewirtz. If your Dad's like mine, he'll start playing with the Administrative Tools to see what happens. Uh, here's the thing. If you don't know what you're doing, your computer could rest in pieces on Boot Hill."
In fact, we put together a fun cartoon that describes this scenario. We'll bet you can identify with it:
About the freeware Shoot The Messenger program by Gibson Research
Proving that great minds do think alike, both ZATZ and Gibson Research Corporation (GRC) developed a program called Shoot The Messenger. Both were introduced at just about the same time.
GRC's Shoot The Messenger was developed by Steve Gibson, a highly respected PC expert, and is freeware. The ZATZ product was developed by our own David Gewirtz. We've been in contact with Steve and after sharing amusement about the irony of the situation, both of us agreed to simply make both programs available under the similar names.
To reduce confusion, our order page provides a link to Steve's program and a description of the issue. It's at http://zatzhq.zatz.com/stories/storyReader$48.
We also tell customers that they're more than welcome to download his and try it. There are some differences; the most profound being that we offer realtime monitoring and as best as we can tell, his program doesn't. But, given that Steve wrote it, it's bound to be good.
By the way, there's one powerful thing Shoot The Messenger! does that just shutting down the service doesn't do: it checks every second to be sure the service is off and locked down, and it uses almost no cycles to do so. It's a feature that even a geek could love.
Pricing and availability
Shoot The Messenger! is available with either a one-year protection subscription for $29.95 or a lifetime protection subscription for $69.95. It is available now from http://shop.zatz.com/customer/home.php?cat=10.
About ZATZ Publishing
ZATZ Publishing is a leading publisher of special-interest online magazines and e-books for technical consumers and IT professionals. ZATZ publishes popular magazines, including OutlookPower Magazine, Computing Unplugged Magazine, DominoPower Magazine, and WebSpherePower Magazine. Together, these publications have nearly one million readers and are the leading monthly magazines in their markets.
ZATZ is also a leading publisher of electronic technical books, with fifteen e-books on the market and more arriving every month. To make the ZATZ Publishing process work, ZATZ developed ZENPRESS, a patent-pending software technology for Internet magazine production. For more information, please visit the ZATZ Web site at http://www.ZATZ.com or call (732) 422-6990.
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