Executable file security. Running an unknown program.

Hey,

If I run a program that I don't make, I could be at risk for anything whatsoever. I have ZoneAlarm, which monitors incoming and outgoing connections. That way I can see if a app is trying to send out information or something like that. How could I tell if a program was writing to disk? Maybe like ZoneAlarm, pop up a message saying a unknown program is writing to disk? Maybe even tell if a program is writing to the registry?

I don't know about yall but I don't like running executable files that I don't know exactly what they do; and I'm wondering what I can do to make that task more safer.

Thanks.

If you don't know what the program does/aren't sure how trustworthy it is, then don't run it.

If you made a program to pop up a message box whenever there
is disk activity going on, you'd get message boxes constantly
piling up on top of each other. If you have a paging file, that just
adds to it.

Look in the 'Useful VB Links' or the 'Handy Sites for Handy Tools'
thread in Tutors Corner for 'FileMon' which monitors disk activity,
but doesn't have any alerts (that I am aware of).

Oops.. went off to fetch the link, got sidetracked. Anyway, here
it is:

FileMon (http://downloads-zdnet.com.com/3000-2094-10020837.html)

Orufet, I know that much but I wanted more control over what I trusted.

Volte, thanks for that link! I went there and downloaded that program. It works well, though it will freak my mind out some looking at it. Thanks alot guys.