The unofficial Shadow Defender Support Thread.

I don't know whether you can answer this Bo as you don't use Chrome, therefore this is an open question to anyone: How to exclude Chrome bookmarks from shadow mode, I just can't find any file path within the Chrome folder...

 

Windows XP:
C:\Documents and Settings\<USER NAME>\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Bookmarks

Windows 7/8:
C:\Users\USER NAME\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default

 

C:\Users\USER NAME\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Bookmarks

 

Pegr and bjm, thanks! There are so many Google folders, and this is the one I missed...

 

Something very odd just happened: Exiting shadow mode and rebooting the machine, all my Chrome bookmarks are gone, tabula rasa! I'm pretty sure it is Shadow Defender responsible for it. Has anybody else experienced such behaviour?

 

Various users have and have not experienced different hiccups when exiting Shadow Mode. For me, it was solved by upgrading to the new version. For some, it didn't make a difference.

 

These sorts of behaviours have occurred from time to time but don't seem to occur consistantly. I have mentioned it quite a lot in previous posts. Lost settings, both app and Windows. Which version are you having the problem with? I would not say that moving to the latest version will necessarily solve that problem as I have experienced similar problems in the more recent versions. I'm running 32 bit XP sp3 with 1.4.0.519 without any noticeable problems.

Patrick

 

This has happened on a Win 8 (64 bit) machine with version 1.4.0.578. I have used Shadow Defender virtually from the very outset and never experienced something like that. I have to say however, that I've recently added to the exclusion list a file path to Chrome bookmarks which cannot be dismissed as coincidental, given the fact that all my Chrome bookmarks disappeared...

Possibly the bug is within the exclusion list, although I had entered and exited shadow mode a couple of times without any problems since excluding Chrome bookmarks...
I have restored an image of my OS (backup images are really the mother of all remedies!), and have reverted to my usual practice namely no exclusion entries...

 

This is fairly serious, I mean if things disappear at random, one may not be aware of it until something breaks down. How do we know whether the OS has been affected in its innards? Is Tony aware of these issues? I think from now on I will image my system more often. Come to think about it, my Windows System Restore only retains a couple of restore points, something that can be attributed to SD's erratic behaviour...

 

Hi Osaban,
Yes I've let Tony know when these sorts of things have happened to me and others. Tony withdrew one version completely soon after release because it almost completely wrecked my system by ruining my internet connection, reverting sounds settings to default and over-riding other settings of mine including sticking the themes onto Windows XP default and making it impossible to change it back to my chosen settings without a mini hack. In the past anti virus software user settings have changed, registered software has become unregistered. Lost icons, password agent losing it's settings.
I still use Shadow Defender every day but I have chosen to use the last good one known to me before the changes were introduced to do with hibernation etc.
I have always felt that when these sorts of glitches occur that it is Shadow defender's kernel driver overriding other software's kernel level drivers or kernel level drivers within Windows itself.
I am not an expert by any means but those are my thoughts.
The earliest instances of this occuring was when Nero lost it's registration settings and Alcohol 120% and Daemon Tools. I found those problems and Tony did some changes and sorted it out but the sorts of problems that have occured since then (which don't seem to be widespread or consistant) seem to be of the same sort of thing. Over-ridden app user settings or Windows user settings.
I went back to 1.4.0.519 because I found that I was having glitches in the up to date versions.
1.4.0.519 was prior to the changes with hibernation.
Just as a sidenote. Most of the earlier versions, including 1.4.0.519, on installation would give an alert from Avast Anto Virus but the latest versions don't, which makes me think that it is over-riding the anti-virus.
From the earliest version Shadow Defender would give virus alerts to some users on installation. It was known as a false positive, I guess the anti virus saw it as something that was running deeply in the system and a threat (my guess only). I have known two bad version of Shadow Defender. The latest one was the one that was trying to deal with some hibernation problem. That was the one that Tony withdrew.
The problem with these sorts of glitches is that not every user experiences them and I've often heard members say that it must be a problem with my system. I've had various systems on which glitches have occurred so I believe that that is not the case.

Patrick

 

Hi Patrick

Thank you for giving us this exhaustive description of the problem, alas it has made me a bit wary about using SD in the future as I have experienced some of your glitches at times even on my Vista machine. I only hope that on a given system the erratic behaviour is somewhat repetitive insofar as the areas that it affects are always the same...

 

Regarding glitches mentioned on this page....
Curious whether there's a better way to exit Shadow Mode based upon user experience...

Do I exit Shadow Mode via Mode Setting then shutdown / restart....or,
do I simply shutdown / restart without going through Mode Setting>Exit

Anyone think it makes a difference....

 

I usually do it via right clicking the SD icon on the tray, but I'm pretty sure there is no difference as a reboot under any circumstances will always delete the shadow session. I have experienced sporadically that by exiting shadow mode and shutting down the machine (without an immediate restart), the shadow session is preserved on the next restart. It's never happened with version .578 though.

 

Thanks...I had a Firefox bookmarks hiccup. Then I read your posts. So, I was just wondering if users think one exit shadow is better than another.

 

Tony told me years ago that, even if your system crashes in Shadow Mode that on re-boot everything would be back to normal.
These days, I run in Shadow mode most of the time and occasionaly just re-boot into normal mode to update anti-virus etc. I have worked like this with most versions and haven't found a problem in that area, that I've noticed. I am still using 1.4.0.519 which seems to suit my own system and I'm happy with that , so I will probably stick with this version until I eventually am forced to move on from XP.
My main mistake on the bad version that I mentioned was that I backed up my main drive to two drives before I was aware of the problem. I have managed to get my system back to normal by re-installing Windows sp3 and some other Windows updates that I had kept on my drive.
My cd/dvd drive is now working again and my internet connection is steady again instead of dropping out after every session and giving ras faults.
I will still always use Shadow Defender and I would suggest that anyone intending to use it with a real system find the right one which suits you and is stable for you. There were some significant Shadow Defender security updates in recent versions so very old versions would not have that (even though very stable as 1.1.0.278 ). I also think that more recent versions had changes which accomodated to newer systems and solid state drives.
Here is the history of changes.
The reason that I am using 1.4.0.519 now instead of 1.1.0.278 (which I regarded as a classic) is that 1.4.0.519 is advanced enough to incorporate new security features and (for me) has the stablity that I require to run comfortably every day without worry on my Xp sp3 system. I know this because I ran 1.4.0.519 for quite a long time, without problem, prior to the incident when my system was damaged by that bad version.

Patrick

 

Yeah, et al ... I started with 578 so, that's all I know. Bookmarks stopped saving...places.sqlite was corrupt. Mozilla helped me sort.
Seem to be corrupt after restart from Shadow Mode so, I pointed to SD. Who knows. Thanks

 

Belt n' Suspenders

 

Of course this is totally unnecessary. If SD doesn´t work for you, just don´t use it.

 

bjm, maybe this is why you couldn't save Firefox bookmarks in Shadow mode. If you reinstall Firefox and delete Firefox AppData folders or create a new Firefox profile, to continue saving Firefox bookmarks in Shadow mode, you need to exclude the new places.sqlite file that was created in the new Firefox profile folder.

Bo

 

Yeah, I renamed places to old. New places was created. Mozilla Support introduced me to Places Maintenance and Favicon Reloaded.
What ever happened it seemed to be related to SD. But, now I'm able to save Firefox bookmarks through Shadow.

 

Next time, delete the old exclusion for places.sqlite and add a new one for the new places.sqlite in the new Firefox profile folder.

Bo