New option for safe Web browsing

If you have intrepid young Web explorers, file-sharers, and gamers at your house, you might consider a more proactive approach to PC security reviewed by the Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg this week: GreenBorder. It's an innovative piece of software that puts a security wall around your Internet Explorer browser, "the most popular but least secure major Web browser" (you'd have to get your kids to use Explorer again if they've switched to Firefox). The browser is a key conduit for malware (viruses, Trojans, etc.) to the rest of your PC. By isolating browsing from the rest of your computer use, GreenBorder keeps any yucky stuff downloaded away from, say, the computer's registry, which sends instructions to all your other applications (malware changes to the registry can really mess things up). Walt explains in detail how it works. "GreenBorder costs $50 a year, but is free for one year to the first 10,000 to download it," he writes. For an extra $14.95/year, parents of avid online communicators and socializers might be interested in getting an additional feature called SafeFiles, which puts "a fence around files from sources other than your browser, including email attachments and files you copied onto your PC."