About that last BelArc update

[spy1]

that I mentioned here: http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=78118

Someone from BelArc was nice enough to PM me and explain the "driver" issue I noticed. I'll re-print it here to provide clarification:

"Sorry to see that you were worried that the Belarc Advisor installs a device driver. That driver is needed to detect details of your motherboard's SMBios (it's listed as such in the Windows System Information tool's device driver page).

Your posting on this is in a closed thread. Is there any way you can append my response to that?

I hope you otherwise find the Advisor useful. Please let me know of any further thoughts on it."

I have no problem with that at all, from a security point-of-view, just thought people should be aware of it. Pete

[Smokey]

Originally Posted by spy1

Someone from BelArc was nice enough to PM me and explain the "driver" issue I noticed. I'll re-print it here to provide clarification:

"Sorry to see that you were worried that the Belarc Advisor installs a device driver"

I have no problem with that at all, from a security point-of-view, just thought people should be aware of it. Pete

Thanks for the info!

[Mele20]

That's good to know. I hated 7.0. I uninstalled it immediately and went back to 6.0. I left 7.0 on my 98SE box though because on that OS it is just like 6.0. I took it off my XP Pro box because I don't want that crappy security program rating me and saying I don't have an AV when I do and yelling at me for deliberately having my XP set up as I do and for using SP1a.

Belarc is not about being a rival of MSBA but with this latest version that seems to be its goal. It is fat and bloated now. I want Belarc to do what it has always done so well and not get into security settings. So, I will use 6.0 on my XP box for as long as it is useful but I am going to start looking for other programs. What I like most about Belarc is that it lists all my applications and my keys, etc. That is what is really useful about Belarc. I also like it as another check for whether or not a security fix is failing. I don't need it to tell me that I have not installed x number of security fixes. I already know that and know exactly why I haven't installed them. I really hope that with 8.0 Belarc goes back to doing what it does best and leaves the other stuff alone.

[Franklin]

Have any of you tried Everest home edition.It's free and gives quite a bit of info. This link-
http://www.lavalys.com/products.php?lang=en

[Mele20]

Yes, I have Everest and Aida and SisSoft Sandra and MSBA. None of those give me the list of programs on my computer and the keys. I think all these programs are worth having as each does some things the others don't.

Anyone know where to download Belarc 6.1f? I went back to 6.0 which was still in my downloaded programs file. But it would be nice to be able to get 6.1f which was the last version before 7.0. Others at dslreports are wanting 6.1f also.

[Bubba]

Originally Posted by Mele20

Anyone know where to download Belarc 6.1f?

I have 6.1f if your not able to locate a copy.


Computer Profile Summary
Computer Name: Hal
Profile Date: Tuesday, May 17, 2005 8:23:28 PM
Advisor Version: 6.1f
Windows Logon: Administrator

[chachazz]

Belarc Advisor - version 7.0m
http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

[Primrose]

You can get version 6.1f here..it is called advisor.exe

http://www.cpaz.net/downloads.aspx

after you download it..right clcik on the installer and go to properties to see the stats on it.

The signing time on it is 1 july 2004.

[Mele20]

Thanks everyone. I just got it from a link to PCWorld that someone posted at dslr. Good to see that there are several sites that still offer it. Tucows has 6.0 but not 6.01f. I did do a Google search but I didn't see any sites with 6.01f although I gave up after the first three or so pages. 6.01f is a little different than the 6.0 I had so I'm glad I was able to get it.

I also wrote Belarc and asked them where I could get it and told them why I don't like 7.0 and do very much like earlier versions that I have used for years.

[BelarcGuy]

As chachazz was nice enough to post, Belarc Advisor 7.0m is released and should help discover more anti-virus vendors.

For those of you who don't want to see the new security features in version 7, you can edit the properties of the Belarc Advisor shortcut and remove the

-bAdvisor.bcx

from the end of the Target command. The report will then be nearly the same as version 6.

Many of our customers have asked us to provide security auditing in our professional product, so we thought "free" Advisor end-users would appreciate it as well. Sorry to hear only negative feedback on it from this security forum though. We'd appreciate any constructive thoughts you may have on the security audit, so please let us know.