Rich-M

Once the forum is properly setup there will be a separate forum for software and hopefully hardware reviews. I have done this on every forum I was involved in for years and plan to do it here once everything else is out of the way. Cindy always works with me and I will be looking for other recruits when the time comes as usually I can get a few free copies to do so as long as the reviews go back to the vendor. and Bob sets up the proper vehicle. I am rusty at it so I was practicing with Macrium but the "Recommended Software" sticky that went up this week is a part of that whole picture. We should be recommending and testing various programs old and new I think Bob called it "Tutorials" which is a feature he has always had on his forums.

There is a sticky at the entrance to the "Am I infected" Forum suggesting that log interpretation should only be up to the degreed trained Security Mods so I would ask all posters to refrain from posting here until Pete or Gene decide if I am right here in moving these 2 threads but I think the spirit of what was intended was for us to help decide if Malware should be the direction or hardware or software was more likely. I read it as all Malware Removal logs and Emsisoft is a Malware Removal program.

Gary, I communicate with Saul Painter all the time as he is the media guy and I have his address. When I originally setup testing with a resource I go to the media guy and Saul was very quick to answer and set me up for testing when I first tested this a year ago. Soon we will be ready to run tests on all kinds of software so I was just getting my feet wet then but I had a slight relationship with him.

Wow I was about to post about this N3 and actually I am not positive....one thing I can see if you are not going to purchase it, then "default" makes the most sense because that is "set and forget",you still can open it and manually update it though, however it is $15 for 10 pc's for life and I think this is one of those rare moments where even people who never purchase software should because I would be willing to bet one day this becomes yearly fee and the opportunity to be grandfathered in would be missed like Ad Muncher, Win Patrol is still that way etc....so I did it. This threat is way too serious to be thinking about timing in updating, businesses have been ruined by this thing. Now you use Nod32 and I use Emsisoft and both claim to prevent Crypto Locker and its variants, but that is a claim I think is hard to prove but I do know that these guys at "foolishit" were the first ones to spot this problem and offer a solution and that impresses me. And so far we have never had an issue that we could not easily remove and fix issues except for this so I look at Ransomware as a very special but different danger than all the others. As I have said before my files are all on a server and all my pcs are backup machines because of how I back up files and very seldom are both desktops on at the same time because of this threat so I doubt I have any real danger. However in spite of all that precaution I still have a NAS drive I purchased specially for this situation for nearly $500 (Netgear with cpu and memory) that is only on twice a week making auto backups of everything on the server as well as what my other pcs do daily. Before purchasing make up your mind on one thing and I would hope Pete jumps in here with an opinion, but I have been reading the risks of using too many free exploit programs like using this and MBAE (Mbam Anti Exploit) is probably not a good idea as they do the same thing though MBAE should do more than just what this does. But bear in mind Crypto Prevent is total Ransomware prevention and for now I think that is definitely something everyone should be doing and I will put this on all new systems for sale myself. This one problem is way too serious to not be protecting against and this cure, was the first one out and to my mind the only one I trust. Obviously no one is making money here and though the same is true for Mbam, the track for free is not as good as with these guys because all you have to do to see that is to remember when Mbam was $24.95 for life and then they took in their own words a "slight price increase" to $24.95 for life, just as the product was losing its potency too! If you purchase it as I did then my inclination is to go "Maximum Protection" as it is not clear if the "default" will back itself up automatically though manual update is an easy option choosing "updates". I intend to ask them that question but regardless of answer I believe "maximum protection" is the way I will go.

I hope that doesn't stay is it?

Nah you and I know each other's style!

Careful reminds me of when I was writing a book years ago. I never finished it because everytime I would go in and reread the early chapters to get the feel for what I was saying I would rewrite them and then never finished because of that!

Funny you mentioned that I really liked that as well!

No man I really meant that because the thing becomes a sea of white without the red margins left and right.

Hey Dougie it seems lately almost every post I make someone is interpreting as an attack on their very being so I thought I would anticipate one for a change. You know my style I am opinionated and say what I think as a tech though, seldom is it personal but as we all get used to each other's style, this will stop happening am sure.

used to be

It's funny I am not paranoid at all about the things most people are such as credit cards on the internet, firewall protection and so on but when I catch wind of the word optimize or speedup, I run the other way. My other favorite word is "tweak" I have "tweaked" more pcs into "oblivion" then I care to think about so from here on I am done with that for a lifetime and the other thing, I don't ever remember changing a whole pile of stuff recommended by some "guru" or "guru wannabe" where I either noticed no difference at all or I hosed my pc completely. Now recent discussion on software recommended list reminded me of the one program I have always trusted which offers not only monitoring but also solutions and that is SiSoft Sandra and after I added it to the list I also downloaded the most recent version. So if I disappear into that "black hole" of malaise again, you will know why but that one has never hosed me. Oh and before I forget this is my opinion I am sharing, not an attack on anyone or thing here so whoever is about to be supersensitive stop it right now! :rotf:

I don't like the less red because to me you need the border right and left to make the white stand out.

Shouldn't that be automatic?

I really agree that if you have a file and data backup program then incrementals are meaningless. I just never use a free program without either donating something or eventually buying it because I think people should get paid for their work. Then I don't owe them anything. I never in my life let anyone give me something for nothing.

I would guess you would have to do one at a time. Right click the icon choose Properties and change icon. After you have installed Pale Moon it should be an option as an icon choice.

Not new but its a classic and belongs here: Three Ladies in a Sauna THREE WOMEN, TWO YOUNGER, AND ONE SENIOR CITIZEN, WERE SITTING NAKED IN A SAUNA. SUDDENLY THERE WAS A BEEPING SOUND. THE YOUNG WOMAN PRESSED HER FOREARM AND THE BEEP STOPPED. THE OTHERS LOOKED AT HER QUESTIONINGLY. "THAT WAS MY PAGER," SHE SAID. "I HAVE A MICROCHIP UNDER THE SKIN OF MY ARM." A FEW MINUTES LATER, A PHONE RANG. THE SECOND YOUNG WOMAN LIFTED HER PALM TO HER EAR. WHEN SHE FINISHED, SHE EXPLAINED, "THAT WAS MY MOBILE PHONE. I HAVE A MICROCHIP IN MY HAND." THE OLDER WOMAN FELT VERY LOW-TECH. NOT TO BE OUT DONE, SHE DECIDED SHE HAD TO DO SOMETHING JUST AS IMPRESSIVE. SHE STEPPED OUT OF THE SAUNA AND WENT TO THE BATHROOM. SHE RETURNED WITH A PIECE OF TOILET PAPER HANGING FROM HER REAR END. THE OTHERS RAISED THEIR EYEBROWS AND STARED AT HER. THE OLDER WOMAN FINALLY SAID.........."WELL, WILL YOU LOOK AT THAT......I'M GETTING A FAX!!"

Well I realized after I wrote that is the trial not really the free version but I will ask Saul Painter when the free one will be out and let us all know.

The other thing I like is they have had version 5 out for almost 4 years. In that same time Acronis has had at least 3 versions and God knows how many updates. I don't mind buying a new version every 3-4 years but I resent having to buy one every year!

Yes it can Cindy because unlike Acronis it will usually clone a failing hard drive whereas Acronis won't. Then often times you can run checkdisk or Hdd Regenerator on the new drive and all is well! It is also so damn simple and uncluttered. If you go to buy it remember the 20% off coupon James supplied because those things are seldom offered, these guys do not need to promote as their program is on every ones lips right now and has been for more than a year. This version is even cleaner and easier to work with and I knew it would be because I was exchanging email with Saul a few months back and he told me what they were doing. That is why I jumped on it so fast but James gave me the incentive.

The Security Mods and MVPs on TSF always use "Driver Verifier".

OK your "less red" means exactly that it is not a lighter red there just is less red and my vote is for the original which I am keeping. The red in it almost looks darker to me but it might just be optical. Having the total red border on the sides makes the white stand out better actually to me.

I have to take my hat off to this one. Clean, easy update that makes this process so simple a child can do it. As always there is more than one way to make an image file in this program but the main screen is cleaned up so you can easily see how to clone a hard drive, make an image file of restore one effortlessly. Now I am using standard version but everything I am saying applies to the free version as well as the only real difference is the making of incrementals and differentials. I made an image file that is 90 gb in use on a 128 gb hard drive in 16 minutes which is about 10 minutes faster than version 5.0. Even the Rescue Disk, which now defaults to the Windows PE environment but of course you can make a Linux disk if you so desire is way quicker and the Windows PE environment bots now in half the time and is an exact replica of the main screen which makes is so clean and easy to use for restoring or making an image file if you want to do it that way. The only thing you still have to know is that to make incremental or differential files, you have to leave the sml screen, the last screen you see before it begins making the image file checked as then all you need to do to make an incremental is open the heading "Backup definition Files" and choose the one you want to make the incremental for then right click it and chose "make incremental" or "make differential" and off you go making it the same as the original settings made the original file. My only issue which is easy to forget is that the personalized settings could easily be missed as in earlier versions because you have to choose "advanced settings" from the main box after designing your project to alter default compression, file size, add a password or check the image file for errors but if you forget as I have done many times just cancel, go back and set it up again is all. Once again Macrium Reflect for me is the easiest least complicated program I have ever used that does the job of making an image file, cloning a drive or making updated image files under a variety of circumstances and I believe going forward protects you better than any other program. Now it won't get your mail for you or wash your car as Acronis tries to, but it will "save your bacon" every time flawlessly. Their foresite as they had just reduced the size of the Windows PE disk from a Dvd to a Cd for heavy use as Windows 8 was blowing away programs using Linux disks by not being able to read them, and that is something I will never forget. Storage Craft and Acronis may have all the "bells and whistles" but I find Storage Craft a totally intimidating program and Acronis a most often flawed one and the latter for me has long stopped being dependable as it once was. After constant insurances that Acronis 2013 was ready for Prime Time (updated for Windows 8) I lost one system completely trying to restore an image file and had to return the laptop to have them replace the hard drive destroyed by Acronis, and the other after a simple install as the final program it broke Windows and I had to totally reinstall Windows. BTW anyone reading this who has Windows 8, please make sure your System Restore is defaulted "enabled" as I found out when that happened to me many systems have it disabled from the factory, as that might have saved me if it had been "enabled" in the second instance. http://www.macrium.com/ Download free full featured trial version: http://www.macrium.com/Download.aspx?type=home I see where the free version has not been released quite yet.