What good is "ID-Blaster"?

[ondamark]

What good is this program. There are HUNDREDS of unique identifiers
in your registry and most of them have an identical set of digets
that are unique to your computer. Are you going to go through
ALL of them and randomize them, while possibly risking screwing
up links between modules in programs or disallowing updates,
such as with virus program updates, etc.

Am I missing something here? If so, let me know. I don't see
the logic of randomizing one or two ids when there are hundreds
others that can identify you and be used to track your page visits,
or profile you.

Also, why is there virtually NO documentation for this program?
I don't see any links to a manual or even a detailed explaination
of what the program does, how to best use it, etc. I guess this
is another instance of you get what you pay for.

[javacool]

A small FAQ is available here: http://www.wilderssecurity.net/idblasterfaq.html

Certainly any program could create its own identifier to track you with. ID-Blaster comes with a list of the main ones (i.e. the Windows Product IDs, from which many other programs create their "own" IDs), and at least one user has created a much more expansive list that covers lots of other programs: http://www.geocities.com/yosponge/updates.html

You are quite right - there isn't much documentation available for the program at the moment. If I get time I may create an online help file. :)

Best regards,

-Javacool

[Bdiamond]

Doesn't IEClean by Privacy Software Corporation use the same process? (www.nsclean.com)

I believe the product IE Clean by Privacy Software Corporation uses changes of the GUID as one of the major mechanisms to support that product. Is that the same thing you are talking about?

That product has been in pretty wide usage for a long time with good reports; hence it would be very interesting to hear their response to your analysis. This is especially true if it "screws up links between modules in programs" and "disallows updates" .


Thank you in advance.

Bdiamond

[javacool]

{QUOTE-> quoting: Bdiamond link=board=32;threadid=11641;start=0#msg77111 date=1059758808]
Doesn't IEClean by Privacy Software Corporation use the same process? (www.nsclean.com)

I believe the product IE Clean by Privacy Software Corporation uses changes of the GUID as one of the major mechanisms to support that product. Is that the same thing you are talking about? <-QUOTE}

I'm not sure - I haven't tried the product (and since no demo is available, I can't do so). It may, but a it looks lot like it would target just the Windows GUID, or perhaps the IE GUID. It seems like it may only do so when you press a button (?). (It also looks like the program is limited, in that you cannot add new GUIDs you, or others, may find. But if you use IEClean and don't feel like randomizing other IDs, it should be perfectly fine. It's other features are its main strength, IMHO.)

{QUOTE-> That product has been in pretty wide usage for a long time with good reports; hence it would be very interesting to hear their response to your analysis. This is especially true if it "screws up links between modules in programs" and "disallows updates" .

Thank you in advance.

Bdiamond
<-QUOTE}

Indeed, IEClean is quite a good application, from what I hear.

Just FYI - ID-Blaster will not "screw up links between modules in programs" - I believe the original poster was thinking of CLSIDs, which are quite different from the ID numbers that ID-Blaster randomizes (and the original poster is quite right - should someone go through and change all of the CLSID keys in the registry, programs would most likely not function correctly, or at all).

The potential for problems with Windows Update is always possible, should Microsoft decide to lock down the process using those Windows GUIDs - so far they haven't, and should they try something similar it will most likely use an embedded GUID that cannot be changed. And in any case, ID-Blaster provides an easy-to-print list of your original IDs before you can configure it to randomize them, and it will allow you to manually change them back should any problems occur. :)

Best regards,

-Javacool

[Bdiamond]

Thank you for such a lucid explanation. I just remembered reading about IE Clean in the past and was curious about the GUID's in that instance.

Perhaps ondamark was offdamark?

Thanks again for your helpful discussion!

Regards
Bdiamond

[Mr.Blaze]

>:( blaze pull out newbie spoon smack smack in back of heads lol

why are you guys complaining it free software it easy to use and it free did i mention it free.

;D ;)

[Mr.Blaze]

;D i love free lol free is good drewllllllll :D

[Pieter_Arntz]

Hail newbie king, ;D

I have to rescue some people from the "dreaded spoon" here, I guess.

They are not complaining, they are asking questions.
That´s free too, so it must be good. ;)

Regards,

Pieter

[Mr.Blaze]

:D i love Javacool Software its the best its specficaly made to face a certin problem rather then confuse me with a bunch of extra features.

id like to see the following people ge together and make something happend a free utlity

i like to see pepi mk from spybot search and destroy, Javacool,nancy and kevein,and dcs team come up with a great free utlity.

i dont se why they cant work together on something

just start something pass the open source to another developer add something then pass it to another one so forth and so forth lol

[nameless]

{QUOTE-> quoting: ondamark link=board=32;threadid=11641;start=0#msg75265 date=1058982834]
What good is this program. There are HUNDREDS of unique identifiers
in your registry and most of them have an identical set of digets
that are unique to your computer. Are you going to go through
ALL of them and randomize them, while possibly risking screwing
up links between modules in programs or disallowing updates,
such as with virus program updates, etc. <-QUOTE}
If you are referring to interface and CLSID values in the registry, those aren't unique, nor are they used (typically) as GUIDs.