The unofficial Shadow Defender Support Thread.

Done (with due credit).

TS

 

Excellent point about Fast Startup

It doesn't apply to me, but good to know for others.

 

Yes I absolutely agree and thanksto safeguy also to The Shadow for posting it to The Official Shadow Defender Forum

 

Who hacked Wilder's Forum and how in sam hill did this ever happen?
A guy can't even take a couple of months break from things only to come back and find everything completely different
Oh well, guess will just have to try to adapt to this whole new change
And BTW, hey everyone, Shadow Defender is STILL TOP BILLING on my systems and working flawlessly as ever

 

Hi EASTER,
Welcome back Yes the changes have been quite dramatic and I'm still trying to get used to them myself. I hope that you have had an enjoyable break.
I agree with you that Shadow Defender is the 'tops' and I still use it every day (In fact I'm using it now)
Reports say via reliable source that Tony has said that the next release will be within 30 days...and that was few days ago. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

 

Good to see Shadow Defender is living on, and working well. I just found my email and word document I sent Tony back in October 2008, re-writing and organising all the content for his front page. It's still there, almost word for word. hehe

Ah, memories.

 

Dominic, it's really good to see you posting again on the SD forum - I remember you from the 'early (SD) days'.

Btw, your photo gallery is nothing short of awesome!

TS

 

Hi Saraceno,
There is nothing wrong with this great forum/thread but The Official Shadow Defender Forum also exists.
Patrick admin The Offficial Shadow Defender Forum

 

Instead of starting new thread, I am posting htis here since it deals with use of SD, specifically 3.25 version on my old Thinkpad T400 which I am leaving with relatives overseas in a pretty remote area with limtied Internet service. It runs Windows Vista and I am looking for a way to provide a maintenance almost free experience for them. Have thought about diabling Windows pudates, maybe setting up Sandboxie with Chrome and putting C drive in Shadow mode with documents on separate partition. My goal is to make the machine user friendly but not require much continual updates. Would appreciate your input on this especially regarding role of SD and thanks.

Gary

 

Gary,

Not wishing to go OT, I won't get into Sandboxie or Chrome. Depending on how and for what purpose your relatives would use the laptop, SD could provide a high degree of security. Establishing a separate partition for Documents, etc. (as you suggest) is a sound practice. That way you could simply set SD to automatically enable Shadow Mode on the C-drive with every startup, so that any malware would be contained and deleted upon the next restart. By doing that, SD would always return the system to the way it was regardless of any accidental or otherwise unwanted changes that occur to Windows and/or apps, yet any changes to their personal files would remain intact.

While SD build .325 is well thought of (a classic of sorts) and is quite stable, I nevertheless suggest using the latest build (currently .457) because the more recent builds have become even more secure! I still recommend supplementing SD with an AV in order to catch spyware and the like, preventing identity theft, etc. which could occur while operating within Shadow Mode! I would also recommend establishing some form of automatic backup. While an external drive is ideal for this purpose, for the sake of operational simplicity you might just dedicate another partition on the HDD to hold the backups (better than not backing-up at all)!

TS

 

I concur with everything you've said - that's exactly how I do it. Perhaps also with the addition of anti-execution or policy restriction to prevent any zero-day threats missed by the AV. In my case, I use AppGuard in combination with Shadow Defender and an AV.

 

I have never used Shadow Defender to to reboot into Shadow Mode.
I've got into the habit of updating anti virus etc each day out of Shadow Mode then going into Shadow Mode for the rest of the day. If I happen to make a part document and "save" during Shadow mode I always use right click in Windows Explorer "commit" then I know whatever happens, even if the pc crashed the document (or uncompleted document) will be there on reboot...but on occasion I've forgotten to 'commit' after part writing a long document and saving it to finish later then forgotten about it, rebooted and then 'Argh!'.
or "commit" once on part completing and saving document then forgetting to commit when I come back later to finish the document during the Shadow seesion and forget to do the final commit "argh!" again on reboot.
If you are writing a document in these circumstances, the main thing is to right click 'commit' on every save during the writing of the document until completion and then finally a 'commit' when the document is finally finished.
I have never used exclusion list.

Shadow and Pegr
I think that your way of using Shadow Defender is good for keeping all documents safe, saving them to the unshadowed partition.
Presumeably the windows registry settings (if there are any) (say for example a saved word document are lost to the app (Word in this case) in the registry which remain on C:\ shadowed) after reboot. What I'm saying is that the files might be saved but the program that made the file might not remember on reboot the location etc.
Is that a genuine concern or am I just being thick?
I don't mean to overcomplicate things and maybe it is a stupid question but I just wondered.

Personally, I would feel uncomfortable leaving relatives with a Shadow Defender formula "scheme" without them fully understanding Shadow Defender and all it's workings. I would prefer them to make their own choices and take responsibility for their own actions in the full knowledge of how the program works and what they are doing and full access. I have that policy for selfish reasons that my mind is at rest and if something does go awry for them they don't accuse me.

 

I agree.

 

Thanks all for the help. As to automatic backup of C partition they would have to bring it out of Shadow Mode for image backup to be accomplished correctly. So, maybe I will show them how it works and they can make their own choice. Will leave MSE installed as antivirus. And, maybe install Image for Windows and do some batch files they can run for backups. They can and must decide when to go into Shadow Mode. Probably will be the best and let them learn for themselves at least a little about computers and take responsibility for their own system. Thanks again for all help in this. I did update to latest SD version and all seems well.

Gary

 

Patrick,

Actually I use SD on-demand. I was suggesting a methodology that I've set-up for my kids (who are totally non-technical) and it just works!

 

Gary, I was actually thinking of backing up the Documents partition, not the System partition. To my way of thinking, those are (most likely) their irreplaceable files. While backing up the System partition is never a bad idea, by using SD to automatically launch Shadow Mode there's little chance that the C-drive will get so messed-up that a restart woudn't remedy the situation. In the less likely event of a system crash, chances are you will have to get involved.

 

That's good, I wasn't criticizing any particular way of using Shadow Defender, or criticizing at all. Whatever works for the individual is fine, I was just putting my thoughts out there.

 

Hi Patrick,

It's true that any settings a program makes in relation to files opened while in Shadow Mode won't be remembered on reboot. Whether that is an advantage or a disadvantage depends partly on the user's view on privacy. In my case, I don't want the system recording my usage and I like the fact that, by keeping it Shadow Mode during normal operation, all program and registry changes are lost on reboot.

For me, the downside of using Shadow Defender on demand just for certain activities, e.g. web browsing, would be more frequent reboots. I don't bother rebooting daily out of Shadow Mode to apply AV definition updates. As my broadband connection has unlimited bandwidth, it doesn't matter that AV definition updates are automatically reapplied when the PC is rebooted. The only time I reboot is to exit Shadow Mode for maintenance to apply system updates or to enter a new Shadow Mode session as an extra precaution before online banking and shopping.

I realise this way of working wouldn't suit everybody, but it works for me. The great thing about Shadow Defender is its versatility in the different ways it can be used. The other point about maintaining all of the data on a separate partition is that it simplifies the task of backing up and restoring the system using imaging software.

Kind regards
pegr

 

Pegr,
I think that my usage is similar to yours except that I only run shadowed for a day or two without reboot and do my updates at that time.

I have Shadow Defender engine runnning in my tray, 'ready to go'.
The reason that I say that is that I had heard somewhere that some people turn it (the engine)off completely between shadowed sessions. I've never tried that and have my own narrow habitual routine usage only. So not sure.

i think that i was just trying to make the point that for those (in Shadow Mode) who are halfway through a creating a document and then save in Explorer and commit by right click, that if they are set to to reboot into unshadowed mode and happen to do that mid document, that the registry settings would be lost to the program that created the file eg Word would not see that you had saved a word document. The document would be saved and reside on your pc but on opening Word, Word would have no memory of it and you would have to re-open the document through Windows Explorer. If you tend to store all your documents in one place that might not be a big problem but if you have a bad memory for file names and store stuff all over the place then you might have some digging to do.

I tend to value privacy, security and anonymity as my right and choice and largely I don't want a system to record hidden data about my useage if that is potentially to my detriment in some way. I (at least) like to feel that I am in control. lol

Windows does record a lot of your usage data behind the scenes that the ordinary user might not be aware of. There are some softwares that show you. One is 'Shellbag Analyzer and Cleaner' It can be quite shocking when you realise what info is stored about you (you have allowed to be stored), what apps you have used etc.
If you do use an app that says it's a cleaner of these sorts of things, I'd advise people that may be new to this, to just use the app to inform yourself at first before deleting anything. I would give the same advice about registry cleaners or anti virus, be careful what you get rid of and don't be impulsive. If it's not an immediate danger to you, take time to think about it. Sometimes these apps get it wrong.
I know that you are aware of all this pegr, just thought that I'd mention it in passing

regards

Patrick

 

Congratulations to Tony
Shadow Defender version 1.4.0.518 - April 23, 2014 released
New: Track 0 virtualization.
New: Hidden boot volume will be shadowed automatically when system volume is shadowed.
Fixed: Some minor bugs.

Patrick

 

Great news Patrick!

 

That's great news! I can't wait to give her a try!

 

great news for sure! but is it worth upgrading to new verison if i am using windows XP, and v1.1.0.325 still working good? : Does Track 0 virtualization work in XP, and what is it? Many questions so i'm very appreciation for any help.

 

I got a BSOD with this version. It occurred as soon as I tried to enter Shadow Mode. I sent Tony a bug report along with the crash dump. There also seems to be something wrong with SD's digital certificate. When I added it as a trusted publisher in AppGuard the certificate name field appears blank in AG.

 

already there with previous version

here too , but on Win8.1 upd 1 x64; you jump directly to the boot screen