AnswersThatWork.com's The Ultimate Troublshooter

Greetings everyone, I am a fairly new user of Process Guard and I like the product. I am also a user of the Ultimate Troubleshooter program by AnswersThatWork and upon updating to v2.36, I read the newest service definitions and suggestions and found this recommendation for the DCSPGSRV. Make your own conclusions:

"TUT Description

Usermode Aspect Windows 2000/XP service installed by Diamond Computer Systems' Process Guard (as a standalone product or
as part of Trojan Defence Suite). This service implements various security features of the above products.

TUT Recommendation

Down to end-user preference. We have serious reservations about products like Process Guard as we feel the benefits are marginal
when compared to the potential pitfalls. While we are prepared to be proved wrong, we believe that a product like Process Guard will
at most detect 40% of trojan programs out there, which is actually very good. Most importantly, however, the potential problems
are too serious : for example, we have had many instances of users running Process Guard and not being able to run our own The
Ultimate Troubleshooter product because Process Guard had issues with it, issues that we could not fathom out. Additionally,
products like this are, in our opinion, always at the mercy of changes implemented by Microsoft through Windows Update with the
potential that, one day, you could find yourself with serious compatibility issues. Lastly, many of the defence mechanisms used by
products like Process Guard are now progressively being introduced into Windows, as part of Windows, starting with Service Pack 2
as far as Windows XP is concerned - this itself makes such products relatively obsolete in our view. For all these reasons we
ourselves recommend against such products in most cases apart from PCs which are used frequently to download using file sharing
programs.".

That's it, just thought some who don't use The Ultimate Troubleshooter and use PG might find this interesting. I apologize for the format.

 

Am a bit surprised that TUT have taken that line with ProcessGuard as I can't really see how SP2 guards the running processes. The Wintasks programme has added some new features since I last looked at it - being able to prevent any new processes starting without your permission is an excellent idea. It is a bit expensive thought at $49.95, (nearly £30 in real money, lol, I'll have to save up).

With further regard to running processes, I've looked high and low for a simple programme that shows the number of processes running as a systemtray icon/number. The nearest I've come is CoolMon. I know exactly how many processes I should have running after the computer has started and during use. It seems such an obvious security benefit but, as I say, I cannot find such a programme. You can't spend your life opening TaskManager to have a quick peek.

 

Hi, blackimp

If they trust Windows to look after their Securtiy good luck to them.

And why do they make a Program of any kind, if they have such faith in Windows.

Take Care,
TheQuest

 

TUT misses a running HackerDefender rootkit (hxdef073.exe) with a hidden Remote Administrator server (r_server.exe) on XP SP2. PG would have caught the rootkit installation at several levels. I would go with PG despite their "recommendation".

Nick

 

Hi, nick s

TUT also so does not says the benefits of SP2 protection is hardware based, ie the newest CPU's which only a few are supported at the moment, and might switch TUT off as suspicious.

Take Care,
TheQuest

 

Hi TheQuest,

Correct. I also question the statement: "While we are prepared to be proved wrong, we believe that a product like Process Guard will at most detect 40% of trojan programs out there, which is actually very good." PG does not detect or claim to detect trojans. It detects trojan behavior.

Nick

 

TUT

Hmm, No comment

 

Very interesting.. but complete misinformation. ProcessGuard is completely standalone, not part of Trojan Defense Suite. DETECTION of trojan programs is exactly the opposite of the reason for ProcessGuard. ProcessGuard is all about blocking of infection and attack techniques used by the latest and future trojans.

As for 40%, that is rather understated in my opinion, and is not a statement by us. The real figure is impossible to estimate or measure since trojan usage is, by definition, unknown and stealthy. What a system protected by ProcessGuard gets is guarantee that all new trojan variants which use these attack methods will be stopped. This is especially important for 0day attacks and unknown malware, which can't be stopped by any other method except for heuristics, which are never 100% foolproof.

If they have problems they should contact us. ProcessGuard is compatible, thats for sure, as others are showing. I dont know what issues they are having, but they should be easy to resolve.

 

That description sort of makes me laugh in a way. It's like they took a marketting guy to analyze ProcessGuard and then come up with that.

ProcessGuard v3.00 should solve many of the earlier compatability issues, so if there were issues with this program they should be gone in this next release.

 

I agree Pilli. It would appear that because their product TUT "might" have problems with PG, they are simply blaming PG without really knowing the facts.

nick_s - what font are you using for TUT on the screenshot you posted in this thread ? Much nicer than the standard font!

 

I've never used the Ultimate Troubleshooter, but I have tried Wintasks and I think TaskInfo 2003 blows Wintasks away, how does TUT compare to TaskInfo ?
Anybody have any other opinions on TaskInfo 2003 ?


TUT is so wrong about ProcessGuard

 

I wonder how long they spent trying to get PG to scan? LOL