Any info on StartGuard Free Edition?

[Spyros]

I've seen this on a number of sites (do a google search for "StartGuard" and you'll see too). It seems to be new(?). Does anybody have any info on it? Can it be trusted?
Official site: hxxp://www.startguard.net/
Thanks.

[Rasheed187]

I think there are plenty of other apps that offer the same and have already proved themselves, know what I mean. And a lot of anti malware tools are in fact spyware themselves, that´s why I would stick to the more widely known apps. ;)

[ErikAlbert]

-{ Quote: "
** Blocks All Spyware - StartGuard blocks all spyware by asking the user whether each possible threat is spyware or not.
" }-
Do less-knowledgeable users see the difference between good and bad ? My dear sister is certainly not one of them.

It also has a bad uninstaller. So make sure that the file SGPro.exe is removed before you reboot otherwise you get a blank screen in stead of your usual desktop.

Disapproved by me :)

[StevieO]

Thought i'd give the Free version a spin after scanning it with AV/AT etc, as it appears to have some unusual features built in !

http://img47.imageshack.us/img47/1769/protset11py.png (http://imageshack.us)

Real time protection is only in the pay version, as is seems so is Launch Services Manager & Create System Checkpoint, unless one or more is only for XP etc. I'm running 98SE.

http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/5610/advopttools16ib.png (http://imageshack.us)

Install and first scan started no problem, except for when it got to the Protect Memory Hooks part which i had to Ctl/Alt/Del as it seemed to instantly freeze, and didn't respond even after several minutes, and took up 90% of CPU whilst doing so ? I then closed down all running programs in case there had been a conflict, offline of course, and tried to manually scan, but it froze once more at PMH.

Thats a shame as i thought this one feature alone would be worth having, along with some of the others !

I rebooted and the desktop started up with no icons as yet, but didn't progress. Startgaurd had launched first before any other App, and started scanning. It froze at PMH and i had to press the PC restart button to escape ! Same thing again on reboot, so i tried to get into safe mode to disable it. Couldn't finish SM startup, as i got only the bare desktop and and error message saying it couldn't continue.

So i decided that the only way out was to do a scanreg/restore on the next boot, which worked and took me back to before the SG startup entries were made. Now it doesn't auto start on boot, and i've disabled the PMH option.

I don't know if it's a 98SE thing or a more widespread problem. It would be interesting to see how others on XP make out with it. I think it has potential because of the unusual things it's supposed to cover that not all Apps do. I know it also covers some regular things too, but that's probably to make it more of an inclusive App, for those that don't have other protection in place.

Dissapointed, but not given up yet, if it can be sorted !


StevieO

[startguard]

Hello everyone and StevieO,

Thank you StevieO for notifying us of these issues. Your problem with the memory hooks has been confirmed to exist only on Windows 98. The Launch Services Manager & Create System Checkpoint buttons are not enabled on 98 since these Windows 98 does not have a Services Manager or System Restore.

This issue has been fixed and the latest release is uploaded already.

ErikAlbert: what makes the uninstaller bad? Let us know and it shall be fixed!

By the way, I am Mike, do do most of the tech support for StartGuard.

-Mike, StartGuard.Net

[StevieO]

Hi Mike from StartGuard

Wow that was quick work ! I hope the 98 memory hooks bug is Definately fixed now. I'll DL a fresh copy and have another go, brave soul that i am, and post back with my results.

Thanks for stopping by.

StevieO

[ErikAlbert]

-{ Quote: "ErikAlbert: what makes the uninstaller bad? Let us know and it shall be fixed!
-Mike, StartGuard.Net" }-
If you click on "uninstall" the uninstaller should CLOSE all programs of StartGuard FIRST and then remove ALL objects (registry, folders, files, icons, ...) of StartGuard as if the software was never there. It's simple. :)

[Spyros]

Thanks for all the replies.
StevieO, I'm waiting for your second round of testing :thumb:

[StevieO]

Spyros

What about you, have you tested it. If so what is your OS and what are your observations ? If you havn't why not ?


Here's what happened to me.

I DL the updated .exe ready to try again, and proceeded to uninstall the existing version.

First i looked in the usual windows place to uninstall, and it wasn't there ? so i used the uninstaller in the program files. I got a message saying that ALL my previous setting had been returned to as before the install. But the uninstaller wouldn't exit after that so i had to Ctl/Alt/Del out of that ! I then used Total Uninstall and Regseeker to clean up, and only found one in the start entry, which looked very promising.

Went to re boot, and to my horror found that while still in DOS, i got a list of errors saying that all these were missing etc etc.

TDIMYS.VXD

ebios

vmouse

msmouse.vxd

dynapage

vod

vpd

int13

vled

vdd

vflat.vxd

Pressed the last ENTER and windows booted up, but i had NO mouse control whatsoever ! Not surprising really as i had seen the references to the missing files just now.

Did a hard restart and yet another scanreg/restore backup, the same one from 3 days ago i did yesterday. If that hadn't been still available, as 98 only stores 4 i think, i would have been screwed !!! Never mind about other types of backup etc, that's not the point, all this stuff should NOT happen, period !

I know new Apps can often have teething troubles, but most people out there won't know how to recover from such events, and therefore will be screwed ! I still think that if ALL the problems can be sorted out properly, and Fully tested on the vendors PC's with different OS's, then it could be a worthwhile addition for some people.

I havn't had time, or the inclination, to attempt to install the latest version with the "supposed" fixes in place. It's taken enough of my time to do all of the above, and then compile and write all this !!!

Will i be brave enough to risk it, or even more problems, by try to install the latest version ? I havn't decided yet, as i don't feel overly confident in it, or that it was fully tested on ALL OS's. Not just how the install and running it etc went, but ALSO the uninstalls.

As you can imagine, i'm not very well pleased about what happened !

If we get catagoric assurances that ALL this has been done and fully tested, then i may reconsider ! Either way i hope you can get it sorted, and wish you well.


StevieO

[ErikAlbert]

Well I found the uninstaller under Programs, but it didn't work either and the file SGPro.exe screwed up my desktop.

Each time I rebooted, I got a BLANK desktop, even in Safe Mode.
Finally I logged off as an user and logged on as an administrator and then I was able to remove the nasty file SGPro.exe.
I logged on back as an user and got my desktop back.
Cleaned the leftovers of StartGuard with CCleaner and everything was back to normal.

As I said from the beginning it has a bad uninstaller and I'm 100% sure that the uninstaller was never tested by the programmers of StartGuard.
Shame on them and very irresponsible. :)

[Fernando Villegas]

My guess is your problem is that you tried it in your non-admin account!!!

[ErikAlbert]

-{ Quote: "My guess is your problem is that you tried it in your non-admin account!!!" }-
Right, it's all my fault ::)

[NICK ADSL UK]

Hi mike :)
Just a brief reminder that (as ever) in discussing, testing, commenting on all kinds of software - this one included. That said vendor support should be provided by the vendor by email or his own dedicated support forum hosted on his own server(s) or elsewhere. In the end that's the one and only way to go, for the benefit of both the software vendor and his clients/interested other parties
So please do not ask support question's with regards this topic

Thank you

[Spyros]

-{ Quote: "Spyros
What about you, have you tested it. ... If you havn't why not ?
StevieO" }-

StevieO, I was going to check it out, but I had sent my home PC to a repair-shop because of a hardware problem. I have it back now, but once I read everybody's problems with this app, I think I won't spend any time on this, for now at least ;D :-\
Thanks again, everybody.

[Rasheed187]

Btw, it does look like an interesting app, I will test it a bit more in Vmware, but if I read some of the stories I´m not sure if it´s ready for primetime yet. And btw, it would be nice if the GUI was resizable. ;)

[startguard]

Hello Everyone,

First of all, let me thank all of your for this wonderful feedback, we have gone and made many improvements and fixed some bugs in Windows 98. It is correct that the uninstaller did not remove everything if StartGuard was running during the uninstall. Now all startguard files are removed during the uninstall, even the startguard log files. As for SteveO's problem, we were not able to duplicate this after much testing. We can only guess that StevieO has heavily tweaked his 98 box, is using Windows 98 Lite, or something like that. StartGuard does not touch the files he mentioned nor does it change any registry settings that has to do with those files.

We are still taking feature requests, as StartGuard is a fairly new tool. ;D

-Mike, StartGuard.Net

[ErikAlbert]

Well, I don't like your way of making StartGuard public.
It still had serious bugs. not even the word "beta" is mentioned and you are selling it already for $20.

[startguard]

-{ Quote: "Well, I don't like your way of making StartGuard public.
It still had serious bugs. not even the word "beta" is mentioned and you are selling it already for $20." }-

ErikAlbert,

Any bug you can report to us would be great... at this time all bugs known to us have been fixed.

-Mike

[StevieO]

Rasheed187

Have you tested this in Vmware yet, i'd be very interested in how it went, especially the Protect Memory Hooks, and of course the uninstall, and what OS you used !

Thanks

.

startguard

Yes i have heavily tweaked/hardened my 98SE, but i don't see why that would effect the uninstall. No other App i've uninstalled ever did all that ! And yes i sincerely hope it is 100% fixed, and if it has been, then i hope it succeeds !

StevieO

[Rasheed187]

Hi,

I´m afraid I haven´t really been able to test the app because I was playing around with Outpost and KAV 6. I did install it (on Win XP Home) but I´ve decided that I will not test the app more because I´m not going to use it. Overall it looks like an interesting app but KAV 6 offers a lot more. ;)