ProcessGuard v3.3b ready

Try it, SP2 has no problems on any machine I have tried it on so far..

 

No offence, but I'm shocked you are such a frequent poster in a security group like this using various security tools I'll assume and still running SP1. And you may put SP1 on your new computer... Am I missing something here? For security sake get SP2 and get the rest of the critical updates. I mean come on, that's basic. I don't know about Quicken Books, but McAfee is not hard to get off at all. In fact it's one of the easier ones to get off. Not sure why you would have problems with that one. Who in the world have you been talking to? Odd.

 

I guess you didn't read the threads here regarding NO GUI in SP1 using 3.2 and tricky to uninstall as PG could not be stopped? I posted quite a bit about that and posted a warning in the Security Vendors forum over at dslreports. A number of very respected Security forum members thanked me in the thread and by PM because they also run SP1. They do so for the same reasons I do. However, there are also a lot who run SP2 and think we SP1 users are nuts. We have had many a spirited discussion in the Security and Microsoft Help forums about it since SP2 came out.

I installed SP2 on my virtual guest machine last summer and hated it. I reverted back to SP1. Of course, I have all XP Pro SP1 patches. Microsoft has told me several times that when SP1 service pack goes unsupported on Sept 16 of this year that security patches will continue to be available for SP1 until XP Pro itself is no longer supported. Only the Service Pack will go unsupported in Sept. I had decided though to give SP2 a good try on this new machine until I saw Dell had put McAfee on there and Quicken. If I have to reformat to get those off, then I may put SP1 on. The first thing I did with SP2 on the virtual machine was kill that awful Security center junk.

As for McAfee being easy to remove, I started a thread about that in that forum and some say that Dell computers as of this month have an easier to remove McAfee but that half the time the removal still doesn't work and you have to manually track down hundreds of entries still in the registry. Someone in that thread said Quickenbooks was the worst Dell junk to remove as a popup for it for autoupdating it is left on the system and you get that when starting the computer. The registry has to be modified to get rid of it. Most recommend reformatting before using a Dell to get McAfee gone completely, Quicken and AOL and to get rid of the Dell spyware (MyDellWay).

It is nothing new over at dslr to tell anyone with McAfee or Norton installed on a new OEM to reformat to get them off. The problem is that if there is the tiniest remnant of either left then NOD32, Kaspersky and Bit Defender tend to get upset and most of us over there use one of these three AVs and recommend them. I think Kaspersky gets most upset and that is the number one recommended AV over there although NOD32 is very close and might be tied now with KAV and BD is right there too.....almost a three way tie. BD support did tell me that BD should not get upset if I just did the standard removal of McAfee but that not usually what is recommended if you intend to run Kaspersky.
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,15353596

 

No GUI has nothing to do with XP SP1 or SP2, just to clarify.

Personal preference is SP2. I don't know what you could "hate" about it, since you can easily turn off the additional alerts, security center etc and it looks and FEELS exactly like SP1. It also integrates protection against accidentally running a downloaded file (if I had PG off) and lots more security BUILT IN which is the good thing

In any case, we'll try to improve the defaults in PG, Learning Mode needs changes but to have it work more naturally requires a complete rebuild so its not something we are just going to "patch". Some other complications also exist due to PG locking its own files. I think DWWIN etc are already on the list for inclusion in the next version.

 

So the NO GUI bug wasn't a bug just affecting XP SP1? The only ones I saw posting about it had SP1 like myself.

I'm glad to hear that the next version will include more defaults like dwwin.

I'm confused. I thought you left DiamondCS? Or are you working for both Mischel and Wayne?

 

I had the same issue, having no gui and I myself have sp2 installed...

this has been fixed before 3.3b came out.

regards

 

Version 3.3b running fine here, but please , just looking at the protection tab', PG is more than ever in need of skins!

Still missing V.2 colours...

Cheers,
nicM

 

Why am I being ignored?

 

Rasheed187, as far as i can tell:

Also, it seems these have been fixed

• The no GUI problem (XPSP1)
• The EraserUtilDrv10500 / EraserUtilDrv10501 / EraserUtilDrv10502 problem

The DEP no GUI problem (XPSP2) seems to be fixed for the next version

 

A possible attach problem was also fixed in a beta, a full changelog will be posted with the final release.

So far we've had great response from this beta and appreciate all the testers out there. Thanks again for your help !

 

OK thanks, but will there be any major changes to the new version, I mean will some of the requests make it into PG? And perhaps you can also tell which new features you are planning to implement, I mean it´s not only about bug fixing I assume?

 

3.3 is a bugfixed 3.2. I hope the help file satisfies when it comes out

 

Ok Gavin! And this is what happened and take no offence and don't take it to heart . Its just that it took all night to fix.So not too happy that's all!.And it messed system restore up.Restore points were damaged after 3.3 installation within the minute caused BSOD from PG 3.3.


Well my installation went to hell! Took hours to fix my computer after installing this version 3.3 on XP2 Right after many programs started to cause BSOD FATAL error! My computer was perfect with v3.150 full version.Not one problem!


I don't get this? You have v 3.150,v3.2& 3.3 beta can you please make your mind up DCS team? Confusing to say the least!

You have a great product !But on the web it say's version 3.3 is what you get!,But when you go to the download page it's version 3.150?


Anyway my experience with version 3.3 beta was very bad!,I am staying away from this version and all others except version 3.150.

I followed your instructions and printed them out just to make sure I did everything step by step as you said 1,2,3,sorry this version
does not work on my XP sp2,it's buggy as hell! And what was improved?


I did not see much of a change except BSOD until I uninstalled V3.3!,went back to v3.150 and everything is fine and Dandy!

You said a few things were fixed? Very vague on your part! I know your trying your best?, but you should not put this for download as of yet because it sucks! Unstable on XP2 pre installed system and it is a new computer model and the lastest version of XP2 to date.

And don't take this in the wrong way I am just telling you what happened after v3.3 and a few little other things bugging me,Thank you and I do like PG just not this version.Sorry

 

Every one knows that beta versions can be tricky. If you are not prepared to take some risks you should wait for the final release.

 

Never install a beta over the top of a final release, put in a separate folder. Never treat it as a final release ie don't depend on it as you would a final release. Have the final release as your main program, if you don't know how to deal with problems that might occur with a beta.

 

Thank you Osaban & Carver

I know that,but dam! This thing wiped out system restore!All points!.I have tried beta versions on all my software,never had a problem like this one that's all I was trying to say.I know all about the risks my HD is backed up 100% nothing to lose,but it was the mess it did to XP2! ,I have never seen a beta program do so much damage!

And I will wait,as you both have said.And Learned a good lesson about DCS. Don't try it!Version 3.150 is perfect not one problem on my O/S,3.2 little buggy but works,v3.3 a living nightmare!

So nobody put a gun to my head,but that does not mean I can't warn other people who are thinking about.Would not like this to happen to you or anybody else that's all.Peace

 

I'm not sure how you could lose restore points, PG doesn't touch those. If there's a problem with PG the first thing to do is try Learning Mode or if there's a serious problem, uninstall from Safe Mode. Did you try this ? the beta isn't THAT different nor is the installer..

 

Hello Gavin,


I did everything you have said and the above also,it just wiped out system restore and took a few hours to fix some things on XP2 that got really messed up,but all is back to normal and it is Beta so I knew the risk.Why system restore got wiped is beyond me? It is one thing that works 100% of the time on XP2,just something happened during the installation of v3.3.B

I was just was a bit surprized what happened within the minute of V3.3 Beta installed,BSOD on PG FATAL ERROR!,then my LnS was not working caused an error on the LnS driver Fatal Error,and a few other program I had to reinstall.ALL BSOD Fatal errors on the other programs also.

I printed out everything as per your instructions step by step removing everything you said in safemode and did not miss a thing.But something went wrong.

So I shall wait since v 3.150 has no problems at all no BSOD on anything System restore is working again,I fixed everything that was corrupt and no more problems,great software product easy to use,error free and I will never be without it.

Just won't try this version again anytime soon until I see no Beta on V3.3 then I will install it. Thank you for the reply

 

Ok thanks for the info, will run a few upgrades on 2k, xp pro sp1, sp2 and xp home, will see what happens

 

just a quick question, removing stuff in safe mode can sometimes be a bit of a pain, is there any reason after having turned off protection and shut down PG that something like this couldnt be used to unlock the files inuse allowing normal deletion ?

Code:

http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/

 

it sounds like there is a problem with the new beta versions' somehow locking files so that the program cannot be cleanly uninstalled, or maybe the uninstall is not working right, resulting in "leftover" files' being "locked", indicating that, somehow, the program is still running after it should have been uninstalled by running the uninstaller..

 

If you disable protection, confirm, then close down PG and uninstall it will work fine. No need for safe mode but you must disable protection and exit from the tray icon.

The new installer changes the way it handles DAT files, and may not be deleting them automatically.. will have to check this too and ensure every situation is handled correctly If you manually delete the files after uninstall and reboot all should be fine to install any version and set it up.

 

Hi.
Yes I agree, a printable list of instructions would be terrific as I (and probably a lot of others as well) am not very computer literate. I need all the help I can get. Reading these forums is a big help but printed instructions for updates on one page would be good. Hope this makes sense.

 

i am thinking now that where the problem comes in with uninstalling PG is when, in some cases, the GUI/PG's control panel will not display properly, and so PG's protection cannot be disabled before running the uninstall..

 

Sigh. This beta will not run properly on my new Dell that has XP ProSP2. It runs fine on my older XP ProSP1 box that is being returned to Dell next week. I installed it a few hours ago and it seemed ok. I even rebooted a couple of times and it was ok. Then just now, I rebooted so I could turn off the stupid backlight on the front shield on this computer. This was the THIRD reboot after installing PG. When I got done with that and it booted to the desktop, I went to My Computer and tried to have TI assign a temporary drive letter to my image of my old machine. That brought up PG asking about the action. I thought that was odd because PG was supposed to be in learning mode. So, I looked down at the systray and it was missing! Ugh. So, I checked Task Monitor and sure enough procguard.exe was not running. I rebooted into Safe Mode and uninstalled it.

This was a virgin install on this machine so the problem has nothing to do with any vestige of an earlier version being on this computer. I noticed another odd thing and that was that PG was not listed in Start\Programs. I have one other application that after I installed it is not listed in Start\Programs as it is on the SP1 box. That application (RegCleaner 4.3.0.780) has a horrible time starting on this computer. Actually, that is what I first thought until I saw multiple instances of it in Task Manager from my repeatedly clicking on it. It, like PG, runs but I can't see the GUI. I can ONLY see the GUI if choose 256 colors which is weird. I mention this only because of the commonality that the two programs I am having trouble with on this new box that has SP2 both are missing from Start\Programs when installed and both start but I cannot see the GUI for either.

It looks to me like the NO GUI problem occured on the 3rd reboot which is where this new version of PG, I have read, stops learning mode. It did present me with a popup when I tried to get TI to assign a drive letter to my image. I didn't run all my applications and I don't appreciate that it, on its own, decided to leave learning mode (aside from the no GUI problem). I want it to run in learning mode until I decide to turn it off like 3.15 does. But that is a minor irritation compared to the no GUI problem.

EDIT:

I think I know what caused the no GUI. I fully enabled DEP since installing PG and I think I enabled it before that last boot when PG came up missing the GUI. I had read the thread about that here but I forgot it because at that time it was not applicable as I had SP1 that has no DEP on the older computer. So, is the next beta going to fix that problem?