Powershadow: What are the advantages?

This seems to be a very popular virtualization program, at least in this forum. What makes it better than Greenborder, Sandboxie or any of the other virtualizatiopn apps?

 

What makes one better than the other?

Probably what the user finds easy to use with no conflicts or slowdowns as they are all quite good applications.

I use both Sandboxie and PowerShadow as a shadow can still get infected requiring a reboot to clear but Sandboxie stops any inet attacks that would require me to restart to clear.

Can't really comment on many others as I haven't tried them except for Defensewall which I trialled a fair while ago and would be on my computer if I could buy it over the counter as this, IMHO, is the best realtime security app on the market.

 

I'm not interested in PowerShadow, because I have it already : a frozen snapshot, which is an additional feature of FDISR.
PowerShadow is FASTER than a frozen snapshot, it takes MUCH LESS SPACE than FDISR and it's FREEWARE,
while FDISR costs $70 and it keeps your system partition UNCHANGED in ShadowMode, which is very good if you want to surf on the internet and test softwares, without getting infected.
No wonder it's so popular, the same happened to ShadowSurfer, when it was FREEWARE for a short period. Wait until BOClean is freeware.

One little disadvantage : you can NOT test softwares that need a reboot during the installation, that is not a problem in FDISR.

 

I believe most of all the cons & pros with Power Shadow have mostly already been brought up and intensively discussed here

PS is freeware but won't make snapshots & archives in the same manner as FD-ISR, but then it's not designed for that. It was fashioned to be a somewhat portable solution for users to use when they suspect they might encounter some rough seas while browsing sites or in my case, to capture "live" malware and run them without getting totally owned, only temporarily (if i let them) untill reboot.

After that, everything returns as once was before then.

 

I guess nobody wants to read more than 680 posts to get an idea of PowerShadow.

 

It's greatest strength may be it's simplicity.

Anyone can use PowerShadow. It is very easy to use.

Simply click into PowerShadow mode. When you're done, reboot. Everything, including malware, is gone - and your system is reset back to the way it was.

 

Maybe ErikAlbert, but then for someone who insists strongly in favor of FD-ISR as opposed to Power Shadow, i seen where you don't mind adding to it recently pushing the post count nearly to the 700 post mark now. Thanks!

Hi tayres

Indeed. Is very easy for the most novice of users and offers that excellent degree of safety against anything which might bypass their security.

By the way, do most of you who do use it choose for "single" Shadow-Mode? Or "Full"? and why?

 

I've read through the long threads, and maybe I've missed it, but I don't understand exactly how PowerShadow does it's disk 'virtualization' or 'shadowing'?

Does it create a copy of system information and work only on the copy, or does it hook into the file system and write changes to a temporary area?

Any detailed explanation would be very useful.

 

I would like an answer to that too. I asked even for an User Guide. No answer.
It would be nice to get an explanation how PowerShadow exactly works and how it puts your harddisk back to its original state.

 

I agree. I'll never will learn the Chinese language so will have to leave that up to someone else who is lingual in it.

From my personal observations with it PS, it works somewhat but not exactly similiar to ShadowSurfer in some respects.

 

Hi, Folks: From what I have read so far. The major difference(or advantage, if you will) separating PS from most other sandbox/virtulization apps IS its ability of being able to shift into Shadow mode on fly w/o any sort of rebooting. The mystery goes on and on, perhaps they can apply for a world-wide PATENT.

 

I find it amusing that everybody loves PS so much (and I don't doubt it's great) but nobody knows exactly how it works!

 

I think Powershadow's virtualizion happens at system level, Sandboxie's virtualization happens at Application level.
(I have never tried Greenborder. Looks like it also works at same level as Sandboxie).
Both technologies has it's pros and cons.

I prefer Powershadow because Powershadow is very simple and ROCK SOLID STABLE.
I have 5 computers, all equipped with Powershadow and never met any bug of Powershadow.

Sandboxie ? Too many bugs.

I tried it on my 5 computers two month ago, Only one could install successfully.
Found some bugs of sandboxie and reboot to discard ( I tested it in Powershadow mode )

Today I tried new version of sandboxie on 3 computers ( XP, 2k, 2k3)
Installations were ok, but IE froze in 10 minites in all 3 systems.

Any body want to try my way to make IE froze ?

 

So you think, which means to me, you don't really know. In other words, you are guessing.
Is it really virtualization ?
I'm 100% sure that FDISR isn't virtualization and I know how FDISR brings my system partition back to its original state.

 

I konw FDISR is great, but I am here talking about another great software - Powershadow.

I did do some research before I think.

If you like, Please give me more good ideas and help me to *think* again.

 

Maybe I don't really know "how" it works but I do know that it "does" work and that's what counts.

If someone has an idea on how it may or may not work I am happy to hear it as that what forums are about - different views and discussion.

 

Thanks for that. I was beginning to think i was the only one who never got that program to work right. That's mostly why i had no other alternative then to turn to PS when it surfaced. Did try ShadowUser for a time but it bugged down too, stuck in shadow-mode all the time. (not good).

DeepFreeze and BufferZone taxed my system too much so it left me with no other viable choice. In that light Power Shadow is come to the rescue, and rescue (restore) it does very well.

 

I'm not talking about FDISR, I would like to know how PowerShadow works, just like I know how FDISR works.
Nobody seems to know how PowerShadow works, I just want some straight answers.

 

Yes it's amusing indeed. So far I can see, they just see the results without knowing what is happening behind the screens.

 

Hi Easter,

I'm curious how DF taxed your system. Just checking my Task Manager:

DF5serv.exe
CPU= 0
Mem Usage= 4,360K
CPU Time= 0:00:03

It's that way most of the time here:
Win2K SP4
AMD Athlon XP 2400+

regards,

-rich

 

I think that could be their trade secret but as long as other tested it and considered it secure that's good enough for me.



P/s: I am not sure it is a good idea to let everyone knows how it works.

pp/s: oh the advantages: easy to install, easy to use, low on resource usage.

 

Hi Rmus

That's been many months ago and several versions beyond no doubt have improved, but once a release turns me off i leave it behind for a very long time and besides i'm a patient man and know someone else reads complaints and not only mine and from there it's only a matter of time before a better alternative surfaces. That seems to be the case of every app that stumbles and falls for the majority, some branch off in search of something that will work for them and others just sit tight for the next versions in hopes the bugs are all worked out. So could be it would work fine now, i dunno, but other products raced ahead to outdistance it when the chips were down. I believe in comebacks, and some recover themselves to go on to become tops in the field, but in my case it was too little too late at the time plus you have a very good memory when any program "bites" your system hard enough to chase you away from it.

 

I followed the other(big)thread and installed powershadow 2.6, but after 30 days got a message that the trial of the software had ended, tried uninstaling and reinstalling but can't get rid of the trial has ended. So, I have been without Powershadow since mid March.

If anybody could tell me how get it work again,it would be appreciated.

P.S. I have the installers for both versions, 2.6 & 2.82 but haven't risked installing version 2.82 for fear of having it run for 30days,and then be shut out.

 

I think this is the serial # for Powershadow. Copy and paste, don't type it in. For some reason, typing it doesn't always work.

VVR29E-R4WCK2-K4T111-V1YHTP-4JYJDD

Ver 2.82 is free. I think you just need an email addy or name and email. I used a fake name and email and it registered fine. Unless you read Chinese, be sure to download the instructions and info, also somewhere in the long thread, on changing it to English. It's basically copy and paste.

 

The funny thing is I did copy and paste, I usually follow instructions very carefully, to mitigate against potential stuffups. So I was surprised that after 30 days I was prevented from continuing to use the program. Anyhow, back to the drawing board. LOL