Power Shadow

Hi, folks: The word :"shadow" is used in ShadowUser, Shadowsurfer, and ShadowProtect. I just wonder has it been trademarked? Has had any trademark infringment issue with PowerShadow ? If any security app using "Zone", especially a firewall, such as ZoneAlert, I guess CheckPoint would waste no time to jump up w/ a AK-7.

 

There is no relationship (other than conceptual) between ShadowUser and PowerShadow. Completely different companies (with no relationship), each with their own unique sandbox solution.

I have two computers at home. One on which I do software development, and the other which is used by the family, friends, in-laws, etc, on which I have ShadowUser installed. We treat that computer like a microwave. It's an appliance. I never have to maintain it even though I know that it collects debris on a regular basis. A simple reboot resolves any such issues. I find that I actually use this "appliance" a lot when I want to check my stocks, bank account, etc, because I know that when it first boots up there is no way that it can have any keyloggers/viruses/etc. I guess I do some maintenance on it, but never to fix anything - every month or so I leave ShadowMode and update virus profiles and run Windows update, and then re-enter ShadowMode. That's it. Another side effect is that because it doesn't collect clutter, it run fast and clean. It doesn't experience that slow degradation that you typically see on a shared machine. Oh, I also excluded all the user "My Documents" directories from ShadowMode so that people can save their work between reboots.

@Ptah - I'm sorry if I was confusing. You seem to be mixing chkdsk errors with fragmentation. These are two different conditions. Let's focus on the first one, chkdsk errors. Leave ShadowMode, reboot, then run Chkdsk /f agains the volume that had chkdsk errors. Run it a second time to make sure there are no more errors. Then re-enter shadowmode, run chkdsk again while in shadowmode. Does chkdsk show errors (call this test1)? If so, leave shadowmode and run chkdsk again and see if there are errors at this point (call this test2). If test 1 fails (let me know) then it will help to know the results of test2.

 

Did you follow the instructions? It's pretty straightforward. Make sure none of the executables are running when you try to overwrite the files.

 

Lol i didn't know there were instructions. If you could point me to them it would be appreciated.

 

I thought you had downloaded the translated files. PM sent.

 

What about BufferZone?

 

It only shows that these companies aren't very inventive to name their products. That's why they all look alike.
A user of ShadowUser is called ShadowUserUser (two times user).
A PowerShadowUser uses PowerShadow and ShadowUser together, like belts and bracelets.

 

The reason you see Shadow so much is that this term has become synonymous with Snapshot. Thus, products which employ "Shadow" technology are products which are using snapshot to accomplish their ends.

LOL - ShadowUserUser - that's great! If i installed both ShadowUser and PowerShadow, I could have a PowerShadowShadowUserUser. hehe

 

ROFL You got it.

 

May have been covered in an earlier post.

If you have set your machine to boot straight into PS mode and "Shadow System Service" within services is set to manual or disabled you won't get the taskbar icon or the "single shadow mode" in the corners of your screen.

So if your kids come over and fire up your machine when your not there, (like mine do), you can have it boot into PS mode without them seeing any clues by setting the service to manual or disabled.

Remember you have to change any settings from within windows or they won't stick.

 

Look at this http://powershadowsecurity.com/ScreenCfgReminder.aspx

I think there is a easy way to reach your achievement - Just disable the hints-display-at-corners option.

 

Thanks namdog.

I was sorta elaborating on what the service was for and got carried away a bit.

 

Excellent discussion continues...........

By the way, do most of you who do use it choose for "single" Shadow-Mode? Or "Full"? and why?

 

I have two partitions. Drive C and D. I used TweakUI and moved Desktop, My Documents and Faverites from C to D.

80% of my time is in non-Shadow Mode and 20% is in Shadow Mode.

If I am in Shadow Mode,
90% I use single Shadow Mode (When I trial software or surfur online)
10% I use full Shadow Mode (When I test malware or virus)

 

I always use single shadow for C drive which leaves D free to copy to from a shadowed C.

E is where I keep ghost images and I don't touch this drive with anything, not even a defrag.Only accessed with ghost when needed.

Further to the "Shadow System Service" if disabled and booting directly into shadow mode.When I double click the PS icon on desktop and hit quit it shuts down immediately without the prompt coming up to restart - shutdown -cancel.

 

I use PS Single Shadow mode most of the time except:

1) When I am updating security patch for my system.

2) Only in Full Shadow mode just to make sure it still works. It does.

3) Since my HD is partition into system and data I need to save all my data onto data partition so I need to use Single Shadow mode. I do have external HD to backup my data but I only use them every 3 days.

So far I like PS very much and am thinking of ditching Sandboxie (constant updating loop on FF even with the latest edition) and Windows Defender (due to real time resource usage) and to keep SWB, SWG, SnoopFree, On demand scan and browser securities only. I have no choice because my system only takes 512MB Ram max only.

 

I run only 512MB ram also but it does support 1Gb, but frankly i don't do games or photoshop and the like so 512 holds up extremely well under ALL the security apps plus HIPS i can pile into it. Although for surfing to security forums like Wilder's and Googling for related info to security i normally keep ONLY ssm plus kerio 2.15 and thats it, well snoopfree too FWIW. I occasionally forget/neglect while doing a RESTORATION (Delete Completly) deleted files job, to have Kerio & SSM running but i soon get wind of that and fire them up. You see i close out all programs running so RESTORATION can work with as little strain as possible on the hard drive since it's overwriting and removing file names in the process. I don't like $M's way of simply making a letter change to a deleted file, i want it completely cleared of previous data to make way for a fresh new file as possible. Plus it gives a little boost to accessing my common folders/files afterwards. (Wandered OT)

Power Shadow in Single-mode is what i use most. It works great and is stable as rock!

 

Only problem with this software i see is if you have an insecure system to start with. its just as insecure in shadow mode.
And any info is still venerable to trojins rootkits etc that cam let your personal info out. As this is an exact copy of your machine What it does do is stop any thing other then what you let into you machine.
It will not help stop any thing from leaving.
So you going to want to be totally secure before using this.
So you can infect your self in shadow mode with all the things you were vunerable to before. It won,t permenetly damage the non shadowed files.
But all the info running in that shadowed enviernment at the time you compromise it is up for grabs by witch ever hacker owns the exploits.

Fine you reboot they are gone. You may have been lucky and the exploit needed some one live on fer end to rumage through machine. Most likely though it was automated and the bot sent all your passwords and credit cards on....

 

a two way firewall with stop data from being sent out.
i dont know what you could do about your personal files being damaged thou.
lodore

 

You can still do an online scan with Kav or one of the others whilst in shadow mode for a checkup.

From the FAQ's

http://powershadowsecurity.com/PowerShadowFAQ.aspx

 

I've poked around and tested PS but would now like to see what the update brings. PS are not giving away much apart from the new version of PowerShadow will be more 'simple and easy' and they don't have any plans to continue shadow session after reboot.
Powershadow is good at being compatible with other software, but it doesn't and support RAID disk. I'd like to see improvement, enterprise version rivaling something like Deep Freeze enterprise.

 

Mmm good question. I'm afraid I only got a short 'not supported' to my questions.