My son is young now, and we can keep up pretty well on his web surfing. He only knows how to click the buttons on his computer desktop to get to the sites he wants to play in. But what happens when he learns to read? I shudder to think of the day when he realizes there’s a world beyond TumbleBook Library and BobTheBuilder.com. I see what havoc he wreaks now at age five. Who knows what computer mayhem may ensue when he’s — oh, say — six or seven? Oh, mein Gott!

Deliverance is at hand, friends, in the form of Smart Restart from Centurian Technologies.

This simple program, which has no subscription fee, no online service, nothing to renew year in or year out, simply does one thing: It write-protects the hard drive, preventing any and all changes from being made to the system files and programs. When you reboot the computer, it’s restored to what it was before pandemonium broke out. There’s no constant scanning of PC activity, no defrags, no definition updates.

Apparently, the magic pixie dust works like this: The software has three zones: 1) the protected zone, where all system files, programs and settings reside. 2) The keep zone, where documents, email messages, mp3s, settings and favorites live. And 3) the temporary zone, where any changes reside. That third zone is what gets blasted away when you reboot.

All I can say is, “Bring it on, son, bring it on.”

Posted on January 21st, 2008 by dian