PrivaZer Discussion Thread

@Krusty13
thanks for the info.
Download the new v2.45.1
http://privazer.com/download.php

 

Can I use this or wait for the donor's version?

 

New donor's version here :
http://privazer.com/download-donors.php

 

Yes, Fixed!

Thanks.

 

Hi Privazer Team.

I am grateful for all your work on Privazer so please take the following as written by a fan and not a list of complaints.

There are some issues with Privazer which have been present for a long time, at least a year or so. I was wondering if other forum members could help identify the cause and perhaps help the Privazer Team fix them ?

System used...

Win 7 64bit SP1 NTFS formatted.


Issue 1.

When using a VeraCrypt encrypted slave drive, opened/mounted, I am unable to clean the MFT with Privazer. When running Privazer it appears to be cleaning the mounted volume but it isn't actually. The drive is 500GB NTFS formatted and WDE (Whole Drive Encrypted). The drive is mounted as "N" and the drive letter "N" is selected in Privazer before cleaning.

As a test to see if the problem is with VeraCrypt I ran the same test with CCleaner, which was successful. So CCleaner is able to clean the MFT successfully on this system but Privazer is not.


Issue 2.

The setting "windows history / usb history" is never retained when a user closes and restarts Privazer.

Also even when the usb history item is checked, it does not seem to clean as well as DriveCleanup.exe

Available here....

http://www.uwe-sieber.de/drivetools_e.html

Issue 3

When running Privazer within a Win7 virtual machine (virtualbox) Privazer does not clean the MFT. Again it appears to be working at the time but it isn't actually cleaning.


Thank you.

 

Hello @takiabtom,
thanks for your patience. I will try to answer all your questions.
We re-checked our code to catch a potential display issue but could not find one so I presume that we should explain more how PrivaZer works
and give details on what is displayed when the cleanup is completed :

1. MFT entries : PrivaZer cleans every free entry as it is not possible to clean them individually (so, it may clean again a free entry already cleaned by a previous PrivaZer run)
   and display the amount of free entries found by PrivaZer's scan.
   
   
2. $LogFile entries and USN entries : PrivaZer cleans every entry and display the total amount of cleaned entries.
   
   
3. "Files Cleaned" : you are right, it should show "Files cleaned & deleted", meaning that file contents are overwritten ="cleaned" and removed from the MFT table (files attributes are securely overwritten) ="deleted".
   When PrivaZer deletes files during the cleanup process, the corresponding MFT entries are also cleaned by PrivaZer but those entries are not counted under the section "Free MFT entry cleaned" because they were not "free entries".

Hope it helps.

 

Hello @chunkie,

1. We will work on that. USB history cleanup is disabled in PrivaZer, needing a rework. We will work on it to get it ready this month.
2. What do you mean by not "actually cleaning" in your virtual machine? Does PrivaZer find the same amount of MFT entries to be cleaned after the cleanup ?

 

Hi The_PrivaZer_Team

Regarding issue 1

This issue remains and has nothing to do with issue 3. This has never worked as far as I know.


Regarding issue 2

Thank you, I look forward to it.


Regarding issue 3

I think I have found out what is wrong, it is a recurrence of an old Privazer bug.

Using Privazer v2.45.1, in portable mode and running it from the desktop it does not clean any items in MFT INDEX if their path is also desktop.

All I had to do was run Privazer from "My Documents" and on the next run it actually cleaned the residual items which were in the desktop path from the MFT INDEX.

So this is the same bug reported and I thought fixed some time ago. If the items to be deleted from the MFT INDEX are in the same path the user runs Privazer portable from then it does not clean them.

Thank you and I hope you can fix it

 

Hello @chunkie and all here,

we need your help, guys.

in the new v2.46 released today, we re-enabled the USB history detection through the main drop-down list on the main PrivaZer window.
Just select "USB history" in the list.
It will perform a scan and show you traces of devices that were previously connected to your PC.
No cleanup will be performed as we would like to be sure that still connected USB devices are not listed.

Do you see connected USB devices in the list?

 

Hi all

PrivaZer Update info 2.46

v2.46 (10 February 2016)

- Improved scheduled cleanups
- Improved context menu
. Improved option : "Empty Without a Trace"
- Improved polish

Changelog site

http://privazer.com/download.php#changelog

Download site

http://privazer.com/download.php#Reviews

With best Regards
Mops21

 

No , I don't see any connected devices in the list here ( W7 SP1 64-bit )

It is quite a list .... the entries go back over five years !

Keep up the good work .

 

Thanks @quietman for your feedback!
Do you have bluetooth devices connected to your PC, as well?

 

I have bluetooth turned off by default.
I only turn it on as needed , which is rarely.

I noticed something odd just now .....
....in the column headed " Last time" , all the dates are now the same ( as is the time )
.... ( 09/02/2016 ) and some are devices from years ago , that I no longer have !

This was not the case when I looked yesterday .... the dates were meaningful.

 

OK, thanks. I will check.
If you don't mind, you can send us a screenshot to support@privazer.com

 

Done

BTW - I connected a bluetooth device last week and I've just checked in the list

.... it does not appear .

 

Checked the list, saw many USB devices "not connected."
Connected one of the devices.
Checked the list, it was no longer there.
Dismounted device
Checked the list, it was listed.
so it's working (up to this point anyway...)

 

Thanks @jwcca, any bluetooth connected?

 

No, I don't use bluetooth

 

I cannot see "connected" USB devices in my list as expected, well done.

 

Great .

@quietman, are you here?

 

@privazer

ref1106 - No ! - thankyou for your patience and explanations

just a quickie new version has....... Improved option : "Empty Without a Trace" - cannot see it anywhere ?
What is it ?

 

simply right-click on your recycle bin

 

a problem
http://ddlw.org/img/e1msfpoh.jpg

and

Why Difference?
http://ddlw.org/img/m6xiq8w7.jpg

 

Hello @liba,

thanks for your question.

1. To securely delete entries in the USN Journal, PrivaZer will delete all entries because this is the best way to be sure that traces of previous files are deleted
   and deletion of a single event in the USN Journal is not possible. So PrivaZer overwrote 80,652 entries to be sure that your 21,958 traces of files deletion in the USN Journal, are deleted.
   
   
2. For $Logfile entries, the same thing happens. It is not possible to delete an individual entry. Thus, all entries are securely deleted (overwritten).

Hope it helps.

 

thank you so much for the reply.

But this? http://ddlw.org/img/e1msfpoh.jpg