PowerShadow vs Returnil

By This Friday please

 

Like Microsoft SteadyState?

 

In terms of functionality, yes (ditto regarding ShadowUser Pro).

The one issue I have with MS SS is that they really seemed to have approached it from a SysAdmin perspective, not a regular user perspective (despite some of the simplified configuration options that are available in MS SS).

Blue

 

Yep, MS SS seems designed towards sysadmins and environments managed throu group policies and the such.

 

Iirc, PowerShadow is made in China and calls home. That was enough for me to look elsewhere. Not that China products are all bad (some are great!) but calling home without forewarning (ie. checking for updates) puts a chink in my armor. (no pun intended.)

 

Too bad really about the call home thingy. I still use on a daily basis Power Shadow 2.6 and it never calls out because i first disable "check for updates", and that concludes that for the life of it's useage on any machine i use it on.

The comparisons for me are of null effect because i favor both and use both and am quite satisfied with the end results each and every operation of them.

 

Just so we keep this on a basis a little firmer than IIRC (although I realize that's all you can work from if the application isn't installed), here's some additional detail.

In version 3.0 of PS, there is a process (PowerRemind.exe) that requests Internet access on system start (launched using a Registry autostart) and on entry into shadow mode (via a secondary launch by PowerMaster.exe).

There seems to be no ill effects from blocking that access, at least in the short term. While Easter mentions disabling "check for updates" in the version that he uses (2.6), this option is not available in version 3.0. If you wish to block V3.0 access, it will need to be via your firewall.

While it's not a major issue to me, this type of communication should be a user selectable option within the application configuration menu.

Blue

 

It seems that many members had a different experience regarding PS calling home, at least with 2.6 and 2.8. I used 2.6 and like Easter, I disabled check for updates, but every time I re-opened the gui, that choice was enabled. So I blocked 2.6 from outbound, which PS attempted when first opened. Later, i deleted that rule to see what would happen, and I was no longer being prompted for PS connecting out. I found this rather odd.

 

Apparently some early PS users of 2.6 found this while those like myself never experience it.

Blue's advice is very Logical of course. In fact i would likely be turned from it with a version like #3 if this became an endless occurance, like a nag screen.

But as it stands, i have both PS version 2.6 as well as 2.82 with ENGLISH translation files although even to this very day i've no need to step up to it since 2.6 remains as perfect as perfect goes, and it's the most stable virtual program of this sort that i have ever had the priviledge to stumble across.

Still am yet to experience the time-expired issue others have reported about.

 

I think that was my mistake. I never blocked that rule and one day I got the message that I've mentioned before about my trial having expired.

It occurred to me that, if and when I ever have to go back to an early image, on the first image I made with Paragon, I have a working copy of Powershadow. Might be that stopping it from checking for updates might allow me to use it again.

With fd-isr on board, along with SafeSpace, I may never need those backup images.

 

Never say never Hard disks still fail and our fingers are faster than our brains

 

Good points, lucas. Maybe I should say that barring hardware problems and keeping my brain in control of my fingers, I may never need those images.

When something happens, my first impulse is to panic. Need to keep cool.

 

Panic, the most genuine human emotion

Excepting testing and hardware failures, the disk images should be barely needed for users who control panic and don't think of the PC as a toaster
If you drive safely, you shouldn't need to exercise your insurance policy very often

 

At least with me, over the course of many years, that something has been physical failure of the hard drive. It's happened more times than anything else. This is why I tend to keep clones handy and appropriately current (generally that means 4-6 months old - yea, that's a relatively long time, but appropriate for my needs).

Blue

 

If not for this forum and the wealth of Xtremely useful + sensible information, i would myself still be crawling along at a snails pace to keep some semblance of real order. That real order comes in the way of making images/clones and storing them as safekeeps against either hard drive malfunctions or system disruptions of one sort or another preventing normal start up.
Not to mention very quality software in ISR's & Sandboxes as well as HIPS etc.

Panic is always been a sleeve away for me when dealing with and/or researching various malwares/virii, where some have been cleverly crafted to create either maximum distraction or complete destruction.

So i know panic.
Throw in the occasional and other sudden unexpected $M internal system interruptions along with their electronic supporters as in hardware glitches and you have the perfect recipe for a panic state.

Thankfully now that technology is progressed along to where things stand today, we have much better fall back systems we can truly depend on, but keep in mind we're still dealing here with MACHINES, and especially electrical ones with wires, circuitry, connections and the like. I find a lot of similarities anymore to the automobile with computers. Sometimes and more often then we like, we either end up having to work under the hood or turn to someplace better equipped, and usually faster at it.

 

In the course of owning 7 computers from 1991 to now, I've had one hard drive die, and that was on my last one. Ideally, I could have replaced the hard drive, but the computer was several years old, and it was an excuse to get a new one.

I had the power supply go on one, fixed that and the motherboard died a month later. The others just got old and couldn't be upgraded to meet the technological advances. The last one, that lost the hard drive, was 6 yrs old. I'd like to think this one will match it.

Work under the hood of today's cars? Easter, I can't even change the sparkplugs in our Mercury without removing the entire fuel injection system. I drive a 1988 Plymouth Voyager minivan with 197000 miles on it. It's NEVER broken down. Not once. Sadly, I'm not sure I'll be able to say that much longer. It's about done for.