Wanted: application control for home PCs

I take a lot of briefings from technology companies so I can learn more about the products they offer. I generally focus on companies that offer solutions for business (as opposed to consumers), but lately I’m finding that there’s a lot of overlap between solutions for business and solutions for consumers. In some cases, I find myself asking the technology companies to please offer a consumer version of their business-oriented product, or a business version of their consumer-oriented product.

What I see offered for businesses, I want for my home, and vice versa. Let me give you a recent example.

Last week my business partner and I chatted with folks from Bit9, Inc. Bit9 offers a solution in the “application control” category. That is, this software allows an administrator to set the rules for what software can and cannot run on Windows-based servers and clients. The application surveys what executable programs are on a computer and compares them to an approved list. If the executable isn’t approved to run, it simply will not run on that client PC. (I should mention that Bit9 has a database with 1.7 million approved executables, and you can add your own.)

I so want this software for my home computers! I want to be able to lock my kids and their friends out of things that I really don’t want them running on our PCs. (Maybe this would have prevented the malware that crashed my daughter’s PC from running at all.)

I know, I could put the Bit9 software on my little home network and manage it from a central server. This would actually work for my household. But what about all the other consumers who don’t have such networks, and only need to protect one or two PCs? I bet they’d love to have this capability, too.

I asked Bit9 about the consumer market, and while they acknowledge there would be benefits to extend their software for that market, they are focused on enterprises for now. Dang!

Do any of you readers know of a consumer product that can do what this business tool does? Specifically, I want to create an “approved” list of executables for my kids’ PCs. I don’t want the white list to be so restrictive that the kids can’t even do their homework without a nasty “this site is blocked!” message coming up. We’ve gone that route and it just didn’t work. I want a consumer product that works more like a business tool, not like a mean babysitter that shouts “NO!” at every turn.

If you’ve found something that works well in your household, please share your experience. Meanwhile, I’ll keep hammering at Bit9 to develop their product for the home market.

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