Mrs. Mecomber's Scrapbook Talking technology, computers, and the Internet… for the average computer user

I’m not too pleased with this one. It messed up my computer! That’s too bad, because I think it is, overall, a very effective program when it works correctly.

A discussion by young mothers on Twitter caused me to look into Internet filtering software again (see my brief review of Blue Coat K-9 software). Their kids are just beginning to stretch their wings and go on the computers. There’s a lot more to be concerned about today, than when my kids were just starting out on computers, even 10 years ago. Back then, the filth wasn’t in one’s face… today, a LOT has changed.

So I wanted to test out a free Internet monitoring software program that I’d heard about, McGruff SafeGuard. I signed up for an account and downloaded the program.

From there, it was about two hours of screaming at the computer as it rebooted and rebooted and rebooted. It was possessed. I still don’t know what happened!

OK, back to the beginning: I installed McGruff SafeGuard, using all the “recommended” configuration choices. One little window among dozens popped up, saying that McGruff SafeGuard might experience problems because the computer had Vista Service Pack 2. I had the option to stop the installation, or continue. Well, I’ve dealt with programs that have had all sorts of problems with Vista! If the SafeGuard software seemed buggy, I’d just uninstall it. So I clicked “Next.”

Whoa. Bad move. The thing went bananas. It wanted to uninstall all sorts of stuff from the operating system, including my NVIDIA App Filter. The thing rebooted, and Windows went wonky. Data Execution app closed, a number of other online programs (IM, web browser, anti-virus) closed, and then Windows said it was restarting in one minute. And it kept restarting, again and again! I tried to get into Safe Mode to uninstall McGriff SafeGuard, or at least do a System Restore.. nope! I was livid– I couldn’t even get into Safe Mode?!

Now, I understand that it must be difficult for software vendors keep up with ALL the Windows operating systems, updates, and service packs. And it doesn’t help that *some* software makers intentionally make it very difficult to install and maintain monitoring software (not to mention, a wholesome computer environment). So it must be tough for McGruff and others to constantly be changing their software. But for heaven’s sake, PLEASE mention this on the website or something! I scoured the website for mention of fatal errors and problems with Vista the program… nothing. The only slightest heads up I had was with the “you may experience some problems with Vista Service Pack 2″ while I was installing it. :-p It said I may have “problems.” Didn’t mention that the program would kill my computer!

I finally dumped the software. Windows only gave me one minute to do anything before it shut down and restarted again, so as soon as it booted up, I typed very quickly to uninstall McGruff SafeGuard. It took me 6 tries (the computer is kind of slow, lol). In the end, I wasn’t able to fully uninstall the program in one minute’s time, but I uninstalled enough files to force McGruff SafeGuard to abort itself. This allowed me to go into System Restore and roll back the computer files.

Whew!

I again searched for any mention of such problems (any problems) on the McGruff website. Not a peep. Too bad. There’s no telephone support, either. I had to email my urgent message. I got an email response in about 2 hours, but by then, I had figured out a way to disable the program.

I hear good things about McGruff SafeGuard among Windows XP users. But if you have Vista, beware. Who uses XP anymore?!