VoodooShield/Cyberlock

This is a non-issue.

 

Cool, thank you Antarctica, Miquell, ichito, ghodgson, smith2006, MrGump, bjm_, Gillor, TH, Baldrick, and anyone else that I missed! (I did not reply individual to the positive comments that did not have questions or concerns, but I wanted to say thank you!)

Sorry I have been away, things have been crazy with everything that is going on. I think I replied to all of the posts above, but if not, please let me know!

 

Firstly:
Congratulations Dan... a long time of perseverance to reach this success.

I have followed VS's development since version 1.09, through the 1.2Xs to 1.27 where I got a licence, then the 39 or so betas before September 2014, then the 27 or so versions leading up to the public release of v2.30.

Some say, genius is 90% inspiration 110% perspiration. Every kudos to you!

Secondly:
May I ask some questions regarding the current presentation of the web-site: -

* Are the various "nag screens" (free) really very intrusive for the average user?
* By no "user adjustable settings" (free) I presume you are not referring to the white-listing feature that an average user can use to get program XYZ to run?
* I guess the free and paid are the same download - it's just a case of inserting a paid licence?
* Are you considering other payment options than a flat $20/PC/year? ... a variable price depending on number of computers and number of years , like Emsisoft, might be attractive to some users with a PC for each family member, and then some again.

anyhoo..the main thing is congratulation is in order to acknowledge your long, but successful struggle.

Best regards,
feandur.

 

Hey feandur, yeah, it has been awhile, huh? And it has been a lot of work, and tremendous struggles and obstacles (although admittedly a lot of fun at the same time), but I think we are finally in a position to start focusing on the mission of the project, which is to put a toggling desktop shield gadget / computer lock on every web connected device . I am hoping that 1-2 years from now that will happen, and everyone on wilders who has helped me with the project will smile every time they see, click on or tap VS, knowing that they were a part of it.

Anyway, hehehe... in the free version, there are nag screens when the user go into VS's settings. The main purpose of these is to let the user know why most of the settings are greyed out. Although, I still receive emails from non-wilders users who tell me that they think VS is not running properly because all of the settings are disabled. The only other nag screen will be displayed on Fridays when VS starts, only if VS has detected a threat with the cloud based blacklist scan, otherwise, they will never see this nag screen. But basically, it just asks them if they would like to purchase VS Pro.

I know Kees had some great ideas on how we can improve the nag screen (post 5677), and I want to implement his suggestions asap. So Kees, if you are reading this, can you please send me a quick sample of how you think we should implement this?

Yeah, the free version includes all of the whitelisting and the cloud based blacklist scan, but the user is unable to tweak the settings unless they buy VS Pro. Basically, we had to disable something in order to be able to offer a free version, but we still wanted VS to operate securely and offer the same level of protection in both versions. The only way around this that I could find was to disable most of the settings. If anyone else has a better way around this, please let me know!

Yes, the software is this same and it turns into Pro when the user registers VS with their email address and password.

Yes, we offer a discount on multiple computers, it is on our website.

Thank you (and everyone else) for sticking with me! I really appreciate it!

 

I am going to start working on a long overdue owners manual for VS. Should it be web based so we can post it on our website, or do you guys think it would be better to have like a clickable pdf document that we distribute with VS, and offer as a download on our website? We could actually do both, but I think sticking with one might be better. We could also create one in the Windows Help format (or whatever it is called), but I have never personally liked that format. Please let me know what you guys think!

 

BTW, if anyone wants to try a super old version of VS just to see how far we have come... here is the last version from the initial two developers. Dywayne is still working with us from time to time on web stuff, and Karl is busy with growing his consulting business.

http://www.voodooshield.com/Download/Versions/Install VoodooShield.1.04.exe

Then here is my first "stable" version, and it was the point that I started development on VS.

http://www.voodooshield.com/Download/Versions/Install VoodooShield.1.08.exe

They should run fine on any computer, but it might be best to try them in a VM. Anyway, it is kinda fun to look back and see how far we have come. Thank you!

Edit: And it is also fun to enjoy some good laughs .

 

In-product manual is good for offline users.
But it gets updated only with new product release.
I vote for online cause IMHO the majority of users are online most of the time.

 

Thanks, Dan. That makes it much clearer. However, when those boxes fill up, the program will not Block or Allow. How do I fix this?

 

Sure, thank you! Well, hmmmm, I always imagined that most users would only have 2-3 command lines listed at most. Right now there is a limit of 20 command lines, but I can certainly make it unlimited if we need to. But I think the better option at this point is to figure out why you have so many command lines, that way we can get to the root of the issue. I think you sent me a list of your command lines before, but can you please take screen shots and send them to dan@voodooshield.com, and I will go through each one and try to figure out what is going on. Thank you!

 

BTW, not to beat a dead horse, but I had a few more thoughts in general.

If for example, someone were to compare VS to UAC…

With UAC, the user is presented with an affirmative prompt and they are forced to make a decision immediately whether to allow the new item or not. I am guessing that the odds are more likely that they will click Yes / Allow, since everyone is so accustomed to automatically clicking yes / allow these days. We have turned into a society of instant gratification, and yes is the shortest distance to the gratification most of the time . And in my opinion, this is an issue when it comes to computer security, especially if we are going to make computer security a priority of some kind.

With VS, there is not an affirmative prompt, there is only an optional balloon that basically says “hey, I blocked something, if you happen to want to run this, please let me know.”, so this completely eliminates the chance of the user accidentally clicking Yes / Allow.

Not to mention that VS will scan with 50+ of the top blacklist scans before it will actually let the user run the new item.

So while VS has to prompt on occasion, I am doing everything possible to safely allow the good stuff without prompting the user, and I think you will find that VS prompts only on occasion, and only when necessary. I have to reset my whitelist constantly because I am always testing something new or whatever, and I have to tell you… VS hardly ever blocks anything for me.

I know prompts are a real pain and people simply do not like them, and besides they are dangerous. If there is a better way to completely lock a computer while limiting or eliminating user prompts, other than what VS is doing, then by all means I encourage someone to develop that technology. There always is a better mousetrap.

But the alternative to prompts is “allow by default”, which is more user friendly , but we all know it has proven to be ineffective. The UAC affirmative prompt is even less user-friendly and has been proven to be ineffective as well, especially with 91-92% of users disabling it out of the box.

But this is why I think VS users simply do not get viruses or malware anymore. Basically, they are not forced to reply to an affirmative prompt, so VS completely eliminates this massive security hole. And I think they realize over time the one of the main concepts of VS, which is… if VS blocks something that they did not ask to run, just assume it was a virus and ignore it.

And yes, with any new technology or concept, there is always a learning curve, otherwise, it would not be new . So yes, there is a slight learning curve with VS, but believe me, ALL users understand the concept at some point, and until they understand the concept, VS keeps them protected in the mean time. But either way, I believe that we need to start locking our computers and devices when a web app is running.

If there is a better way that is equally secure, please, by all means pursue it. That way I can quit racking my brain trying to develop the ever elusive perfect computer lock .

So which do you think is more user friendly and is better for computer novices to advanced computer users, VS or UAC? . If your answer is VS, then I think you are starting to see what I am trying to accomplish. Thank you!

BTW, thank your the C++ runtime suggestion, I will add that. I think I will reword the other FAQ you asked about as well. I can see where it can be a little misleading, although that is not what we meant .

 

Am new to VS. Thanks for making a free version available. I have it running on an old P4 XP SP3 desktop. One thing I noticed is that the app does not activate when the email client I use there DreamMail is launched. And it appears that due to the limitations of the free version I cannot add it to 'Custom web browsers and email clients.'

 

Hi Dan,

Yeah I get it. I don't know of a security program that can be all things to everyone (without a learning curve) and it was just me having a whinge, after all, VS does work exactly as it says on the box and is very good at what it does.

No need to take too much notice of me, mate, I'm just an Aussie having a whinge.

Thanks for developing a great product and for providing a free version too.

Cheers.

 

Yes, quite right Dan... didn't scroll down far enough. Thanks..

Re: manual - I vote both(download manual and Online), or at least a downloadable/pdf of a Basic/Getting Started manual.

Why? ... Eyesight; Old enough to prefer reading paper manuals (so I can skip around quickly here and there); and paranoid enough to prefer being off line while I'm tweaking or setting up an application at the same time.

-just me.
feandur

 

Hi Dan

Congratulations on getting 2.30 out. However there is a problem. I tried to install 2.30 today and Avast flagged it as a virus. I am sure it is not but may put off new users.

I went back and scanned the file and Avast confirmed the virus. It was also present in 2.23n. Prior to those it was clean. See screenshot.

I am also having the problem with Otter browser and the command line loading. It is ok when I re-image the computer but later fails. There is probably some conflict on my m/c. I will have to go through it slowly when I have the time.

 

Cool, thank you siketa! I will hopefully finish the owners manual soon!

 

Hey silver0066, well, you should be able to just delete them manually then click save and close, but until we get to the root of the problem, I imagine it will keep happening. So if you can send me some screen shots of what is being blocked, we can figure out what we need to do to fix this issue. If for some reason there are going to be some users that have more than 20 command lines, then I can just make them unlimited. Since VS already has most of the common command lines hardwired in, I never thought there would be anymore than 3-4 command lines for pretty much any user, so I just stored them in the settings.dat file. But if we need to make them unlimited, I can just create a commandlines.dat and store them separately, that way they will be unlimited. But if something can be fixed in the code so that there will never be more than 10 or so command lines for any given system, I think it is better to store them in the settings.dat file. I think if you send me screen shots of your current command lines, it will be easy to figure out which direction to take. Thank you!

 

Hey aztony, we can fix that, just shoot me an email at dan@voodooshield.com and I will set up a VS Pro account for you. Thank you!

 

I certainly appreciate your input, and I like to think these things through with everyone, that way we can make VS the best it can be! So thank you for your help!

 

Cool, thank you feandur, I will get started on the manual soon and probably have both versions.

 

Hey David,

Cool, thank you! Yeah, I submitted a false positive to Avast and GDATA for our installer on Thursday, but so far neither have fixed it. Although, that was for the installer, but I see by your screenshot that they are also falsely detecting the new VSUP.exe (the new upgrade utility) as well. So hopefully we will get this fixed soon.

I see a lot of different Otter browsers, can you please post or send me a link to the one you are using so I can take a look at it? What happens if you put VS in training, then start Otter? Or, possibly just make sure VS is in smart mode, start Otter and let it do its thing, THEN add it to the web apps list? Please let me know and I will take a look.

 

Good on the virus - hopefully it will be sorted soon.

Nothing wrong with Otter, VS just does not like the loading command which is

"G:\Program Files (x86)\Otter Browser\otter-browser.exe" --profile "F:\program settings\Otter\Otter"

When booting VS flags this and I have to click Allow, this then loads Otter but the profile instructions are ignored. Then close Otter and reload. VS then accepts the profile without any further interference. But at the next boot the same process has to be repeated. I have tried training but makes no difference. I assume that this might happen with any program similarly setup. Otter does use Qt - don't know if that make any difference.

Hope this helps

 

Sent this morning.

 

Done. Thanx

 

Question: Does VS require .NET framework ?

Can you make the shield disappear when running full screen application ?

 

Yeppers to both.

Daniel