Neowin.net

Thanks to 3nd3r for the heads up on this new release.

Customizer XP is a special utility which is designed to optimize Windows 2000 and XP performance. Using a graphical user interface, it allows you to modify many hidden Windows registry settings only by simply clicking the provided checkboxes. Get a better internet connection simply by clicking a specified button and Customizer XP will set all recomended provided settings for you. In addition, Customizer XP offers a wide range of possibilities to customize Windows, including setting a background for pre-logon, automatic restart of Windows Explorer when it crashes to avoid loosing your work.

Changes:

• Improved the Process Manager tool


• Improved the Startup Manager tool


• Added "Create Shortcut" tool


• Added "System Info" tool


• Added "Special Folder Info" tool


• Better user Interface


• Added option to rebuilt Windows icons (Registry Tweak->Miscellaneous)

News source: Betanews
View: Customizer XP Homepage
Download: Customizer XP 1.6 Beta 3 (Direct - 1.35MB)

This is BETA software!, please use caution when installing it on your system

Microsoft's Goodhew maintained that W32.Donut is irrelevant. The virus, he said, was written using Windows code and is very similar to one that came out last March called W32.Winux. The Donut virus also could be written to infect other file types, he added.

But "this virus itself is a new virus," Symantec's Yamamura said, even though only a small part of it--the part that targets .Net files--was written in the .Net programming language.

Virus researcher Rob Rosenberger, editor of virus information site VMyths.com, agrees with Microsoft's position. He said the virus is standard and only used a token amount of the .Net language, Microsoft Intermediate Language, or MSIL.

"It's like using the term 'woman' to describe a male cross-dresser," Rosenberger said.

The virus, which affects computers running Windows 2000 and XP, was not detected by antivirus software until vendors included a definition, or fingerprint, for it in their products this week, said Vincent Gullotto, senior research director for Network Associates' Antivirus Research Team.

Microsoft and the antivirus vendors agreed that the risk from the virus is extremely low because so few people have .Net software installed on their computers and because the virus can not spread itself.

In addition, the .Net software has mechanisms that would prevent it from running on a system, Goodhew said.

"Not only is there very little chance that it will ever propagate, but it also does no damage" to the system, Goodhew said.

So far, software developers are the only ones using .Net technology, under a standard beta, or test, program.