Power Shadow

[Espresso]

I have 2.8 translated but I can't post the link here.

[Franklin]

Hi Easter,maybe you could pm Espresso asking for the download link for the newer version 2.82.

All the files are zipped with the instructions readme.txt for overwriting to the English version.

I see. So far the other version (older), seems to perform smooth and effortless but am curious to auto-switching from in and out Shadows without boot-ups all the time.

I know users are all abuzz over First Defense Disc Imaging and taking or reverting to snapshots which is a real good thing in and of itself i suppose. lol But for what it's worth those type programs are geared more toward emergency restores or exploring different configurations, testing software, etc. and that's ok too, but for me it's just as useful to go virtual and then drop out right back to earlier state as before.

Guess it all depends on your own personal preferences of what you want to have done and what works best for you.

[Franklin]

Noticed PS wants to connect to the net whilst in shadow mode even with check for updates unticked.

Blocked "C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\SHADOW\SHADOWTIP.EXE" with my firewall within the real system with no adverse effects.

[Espresso]

I noticed that with 2.6 but 2.82 doesn't make a peep, ticked or not.

[bryanjoe]

Originally Posted by Franklin

Noticed PS wants to connect to the net whilst in shadow mode even with check for updates unticked.

Blocked "C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\SHADOW\SHADOWTIP.EXE" with my firewall within the real system with no adverse effects.

what is it use for?

[Franklin]

Originally Posted by bryanjoe

what is it use for?

Don't really know!

Still playing around with it.Too early to tell.

[Espresso]

Shadowtip is the "control" module that opens in the system tray when you start shadow mode. I thought it was the settings module (ShadowSetting.exe) that tried to connect to the net when I had it installed.

[solarpowered candle]

i uninstalled powershadow however i found that at some stage they both tried to connect through my firewall. however that wasnt what prompted me to leave it for now rather the fact that if i chose to not remain in power shadow that the time between disengaging power shadow and reboot ones firewall becomes disengaged while still online. Its only a short time however it does happen. I also emailed them with the email provided for support to ask them about this ( support@powershadow.com) and it was non existant at the time i sent it and was returned . It may all be fine but i dont feel happy with the short time that the firewall is down .

[Chuck57]

I noticed that, too, solar, but for the brief time the firewall is down, I can live with PowerShadow. I haven't found anything else so user friendly.

ShadowSurfer has some kind of glitch - it won't reboot out of shadow mode, plus you have to reboot to get into shadow mode. I'm not aware of any other program of this type that's free, and works without additional steps needed for booting into or out of shadow mode.

[Espresso]

To disengage, powershadow has to shutdown or restart. How do you know the firewall is down during this short period of time?

The chance of a hostile intrusion of an up to date (patch wise) system in such a short period of time seems miniscule to me. Besides, the disk is still shadowed during this time, so any changes from a hostile intruder will be discarded.

[Chuck57]

Duhhhh, thanks espresso. It never occurred to me that the disk is in shadow mode until the reboot begins. Anything that might connect during the few seconds between clicking restart and the reboot out of shadow mode would be eliminated.

[solarpowered candle]

Originally Posted by Espresso

To disengage, powershadow has to shutdown or restart. How do you know the firewall is down during this short period of time?


The chance of a hostile intrusion of an up to date (patch wise) system in such a short period of time seems miniscule to me. Besides, the disk is still shadowed during this time, so any changes from a hostile intruder will be discarded.

Windows alerts if my firewall has been deactivated.


Its not what is coming into my system as much as what can be transmitted from my system if my firewall is out for a short time.

It is perhaps very minor however when emailing them it was returned as it was unable to be delivered. all in all i edge towards caution till these things are clear in my mind . Its a very simple and nice program. just one or two questions that i would like clarified b4 i load it up again.

[silat]

Originally Posted by Espresso

I have 2.8 translated but I can't post the link here.

Espresso I have 2.6 english. Could I get the link for 2.8 with instructions?

wyoksyofee AT kriocoudek DOT mailexpire.com

Thankyou

[aigle]

Hi all, the bugs so far are as follows.

1- It phones home.
1- It disabled system restore on my system, system restore always crashes and can,t be used..
3- Updates notifications become automatically on even if u turn them off.
4- My PC can,t hybernate in shadow mode.

[Chuck57]

aigle said: Hi all, the bugs so far are as follows.
1- It phones home.
1- It disabled system restore on my system, system restore always crashes and can,t be used..
3- Updates notifications become automatically on even if u turn them off.
4- My PC can,t hybernate in shadow mode.

***

Don't know about it phoning home.

My system restore is fine. In fact, just after reading your post, I restored this thing to a couple of days ago without a problem. I was not in shadow mode when I did it. Don't know if it works with shadow mode engaged.

The update thing apparently cannot be disabled. Tried that and it's like you said.

Don't know about hibernate since I don't use it. That would be something that they ought to work on, if anybody can figure out how to contact them.

Can't the phone home thing be blocked by your firewall? I use a hardware firewall and have Windows enabled. No outbound at this time. A 2 way firewall is next on my list.

Finally, I can't figure out why it would trash system restore. If powershadow isn't being used, isn't the program turned off, like other software that isn't in use? But, as I said, my system restore is working fine.

[Franklin]

Originally Posted by aigle

Hi all, the bugs so far are as follows.

1- It phones home.
1- It disabled system restore on my system, system restore always crashes and can,t be used..
3- Updates notifications become automatically on even if u turn them off.
4- My PC can,t hybernate in shadow mode.

Yep, phones home, stopped with my FW.

If you select single shadow mode as default startup then I think that any other settings done through the gui will stick.

Don't use sys restore or hibernate so can't check on these.

[aigle]

Originally Posted by aigle

Hi all, the bugs so far are as follows.

1- It phones home.

Ya, it does.

[aigle]

Originally Posted by aigle

It disabled system restore on my system, system restore always crashes and can,t be used..

Sorry it was an older version of CyberHawk that did it.

Originally Posted by aigle

My PC can,t hybernate in shadow mode.

I get this message while only in ShadowMode, otherwise not.

[Espresso]

It's interesting that it tries to connect to Saudi Arabia - on a dns port (unless you're in SA and it's just checking your ISP dns). Anyone want to run a packet sniffer and check what it sends?

Anyway, like I said, 2.82 doesn't phone home, even if you ask it.

[solarpowered candle]

Originally Posted by Espresso

It's interesting that it tries to connect to Saudi Arabia - on a dns port (unless you're in SA and it's just checking your ISP dns). Anyone want to run a packet sniffer and check what it sends?

Anyway, like I said, 2.82 doesn't phone home, even if you ask it.

without a firewall up for that pariod powershadow can send what it wants

Well, another way i perform work with Power Shadow is like this. I go into ShadowMaster Mode then activate a Virtual Machine program then unleash the latest captures while examining Security Software interception abilities, right?

It's quite entertaining sometimes

On a more serious note, this program seems the safest of the 2. I did hammer things pretty hard at it and have had no problem yet with PS dumping the session completely.

These apps comes down to favoring the simplest features without sacrificing ability/performance as well as no other quirks or issues.

Maneuvering in and out of a Shadowed volume and vice versa without doing any resets/reboot is the best feature that will attract the most attention IMO.

[Chuck57]

Well, *sigh* I downloaded the latest 2.82 version but can't get the English translations to work. Not because they won't. I'm ashamed to say, I don't know how to overwrite the files.

It's no big deal. This version 2.6.xxx is doing fine. No complaints at all. Also, the call home thing is blocked by my new old ZA 5.5.094 firewall that I downloaded today after a brief try with PCTools firewall. Everything seems very compatible and running fine.

[Franklin]

Have to agree Easter.

This app is a keeper here atm.

Still running FF through Sandboxie which I probably don't really need with Powershadow but everything works fine and I feel committed to beta testing new versions of Sandboxie as it's been a fine little product for quite a while now.

Kinda feel naked without it!

A little sandbox running inside a big sandbox, LOL.

[Chuck57]

I'm back with Sandboxie too, after a run with Bufferzone. I haven't run Sandboxie and PS together. What I'm doing is, if I'm just visiting one of the way too many forums I post on, I use Sandboxie. If I'm surfing (no warez, porn, or similar sites) or checking my email, I use PowerShadow. It's just how I like to do it. They're both great programs and I like to use them both.