The unofficial Shadow Defender Support Thread.

The following was posted by member 'hany3' shortly after v1.1.0.331 was released:

TS

 

Hi The Shadow

I asked the same similar Question #1274 that CyberMan969 asked, because it was always added at the time of of release by Tony.

Not in a Post on a Forum that had [Has] no direct connection to Shadow Defender, by a said a self confessed friend.

Take Care
TheQuest

 

Thank you for reminding me The Shadow, I remember that hany3 guy. I'm afraid that he was talking total crap. diskpt.sys was indeed signed by VeriSign (for the silent update that Tony released), but to date no version of SD has been WHQL-ed by Microsoft:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/co...=Shadow Defender&l=zh-cn&compat=all&os=32-bit

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/co...=Shadow Defender&l=zh-cn&compat=all&os=64-bit

Minor GUI changes? There have been no changes in the GUI whatsoever between v325 and v331 (at least none that I can see)...

Maybe the REAL Tony can at last come forward with a REAL changelog even belatedly? I really want to believe that Tony is back, but there are still far too many inconsistencies. If the 'real Tony' can't even post at the very least a proper changelog for v331 as a sign of good faith, then in my view this is a clear indication that this new 'Tony' is just an imposter. I hope that I'm wrong but this situation is fast becoming a really bad joke on us all, the SD fans who have supported this software and kept its legacy alive for all this time.

Win8 and SSD compatibility (if it comes) would still be no proof that the real author of SD is back. It could be just a case of the current SD owners employing fresh coding talent to pick up where Tony left off, and merely posing as Tony in order to gain legitimacy and to pacify the SD die-hards. If this is the case then this 'Tony' deception would be for me reason enough not to trust any new versions, SSD compatibility or not. Why is it so hard to display at least some degree of transparency?

Tony, if it's you then the ball is firmly in your court.

 

I've just sent an email asking for the changelog v1.1.0.331

 

Thank you so much Patrick, if he has written v331 then it should be no problem for him to let us know what has really changed since v325.

 

Wow, I am shocked at how many are willing to believe this person emailing sdmod is the real developer of Shadow Defender.

SDMOD:

There are soooo many ways to get this verified - or not.

1. Can you just ask 'Tony' to sign-in to his old Wilders so that many users will know that he is truly the real SD developer? Simple. Just ask him to do you a favor for all you've done for SD. (Blame it on Western paranoia)

2. Is there not something the two of you discussed way back that you cannot use to 'verify' that this IS, in fact, the SD developer?

3. Failure for him to sign-in here at Wilders and post an "all's well" will say everything.

Something's not right about this. I want to deal with the original developer and quality customer support that the 'old' Tony provided. Not someone masquerading as him and playing the "Google Translate" card. Anybody who's read communications from him in the past know good and well his English was more than fine to deal with his customers and way past a simple Google translation.

This is important. It cuts to TRUST and VERIFY - basic security principles.

 

+1 LockBox. At this point even if "Tony" comes up with a v331 changelog this wouldn't really prove much at all. Anyone can write crap like "so and so has been changed, a BSOD has been fixed etc", these are things that most end users cannot verify.

The more 'Tony' refuses to sign in here and face the music from his customers, the more suspect the situation looks. This is not some freeware program where we rely on the whims of the developer. We have paid money for this and as customers we deserve a far better treatment than the one we have been getting for almost 2.5 years now!

As I said, it's probably a ploy by the current owners in order to pacify the SD die hards and gain some much needed legitimacy for their operation, so the money will keep rolling in. If it is a ploy, then it's a really dumb one. They cannot seriously believe that we'd fall for this. Unless something dramatically changes in the next few weeks with Tony coming in here and setting things straight, then this latest 'Tony' charade will be the last nail in the coffin of SD...

 

I believe the bottom line is let the so-called Tony sign in Wilders Forum, face the questions and inquiries in his usual way, provide support to customers like the way he did it and release a new improved Shadow Defender version.

Only then we can trust this Tony and truly say the real developer Tony is back and we can all have a peace of mind.

 

I actually never meet people that are chinese, korean or japanese named Tony anyways.

 

Has anyone experienced system crash while using SD?

I am experiencing random crashes on my Windows 7 Ultimate 32 bit system.I have SD 1.1.0.325 installed along with Sandboxie and Rollback Rx.

I have set SD to Enter Shadow Mode on boot for the OS partition.

Initially i thought firefox was the culprit,but after the first boot of the system on a new day,system crashed for no apparent reason.

Only hard reboot is possible.

How to troubleshoot this crashing problem of SD?.

 

CSKfan,

Is your system on an SSD?
Which (if any) antivirus are you running?
Which (if any) image-backup app have you installed?

TS

 

NO for everything what you have mentioned.

 

CSKfan,

SD causing a hard-crash of a Win7 system has happened to others including my Win7 x64 laptop, which may be attributed (just a guess) to my laptop's SSD system-cache. SD runs without issues on my wife's Win7 x86 system (no SSD).

Since your system doesn't use an SSD it seems there's some other reason for the apparent conflict.

TS

 

When I tried running SD on Windows 7 (64-bit) I experienced total system lockup every time I would launch IE9.

I reinstalled SD a few times (trying 325 and 331) but that did not solve my system lockup problem which was (and still is) perplexing after reading of many happy Windows 7 - SD users.

Cruise


PS. As an aside, I noticed that the website now has a more complete version history including v 1.1.0.331 changes.

 

At long last, a changelog for v331! Thanks for the heads-up Cruise!

Version 1.1.0.331 - March 31, 2011
Fix: Alter an IO command that some computers can't support.

This is a step towards the right direction; but the mere fact that it was only done after a lot of begging and coaxing, largely diminshes its value. As I mentioned before a changelog at this stage is still not enough to convince the long suffering SD fans that the original author is back. Anyone could have written a changelog putting generic/unprovable things in there, fixes for issues that most end users would be unable to replicate anyway. A changelog is USELESS without trust, transparency, and dialogue between developer and customers. Since there has been no active communication regarding the issue fixed, then the accuracy of this new changelog cannot be verified in any meaningful way.

We still need Tony in here, bad English or not, it doesn't matter. In the back of my mind (and against all of my insticts), I still harbour a fading hope that it is him after all. We need him in here engaging into a proper discussion with his customers. I feel that we deserve at least this much, as we have endured the complete absence of any communication and official support for more than two years now.

 

Hi CyberMan969]
I haven't received a reply to my last two emails to Tony and I do have concerns. I don't know if the changelog has happened because of what I wrote or not!
My own feeling currently about this matter is that this is the Tony I "knew" from previously but the fact that the issues that you mentioned have not been addressed in any meaningful way makes me lose confidence.
I am certain that if Tony is alone and doesn't speak English (only through Google Translate) then we have a real problem with anything other than basic matters. So I don't think it is likely that we'll see Tony posting here on the forum.
Although I didn't (for politness sake) ask Tony exactly what had happened over this last period of time whilst he was missing, I find that I do really want to know, it only seems right to be fair to current and potential users.
Another problem is that I use tormail to contact Tony and I discovered that China has blocked tor after a short time in the past...so you may, (for example) send and receive a couple of messages, before it is no longer useable.
I think that even if the new Shadow Defender is released it cannot continue in this vein without a steady support/contact/"transparency". A security software of this type requires that there is regular user/developer input/exchange (eg tzuk Sandboxie and his users) for it to progress succesfully with the confidence of it's users.
I've written to Tony and mentioned all these points, so he is aware of it. I hope that some formula for good communication can be worked out but I am not really (at this point) optimistic.
I'll write to Tony later this evening from a different email account and see what happens.

 

Thanks again Patrick, you have already done so much. The mere fact that you're still here 2.5 years later still offering your advice, is an obvious measure of your undeniable commitment to SD.

 

interesting ! the best ever virtualization software has stopped giving updates.
it's not funny..

 

Hi all

I have been watching this thread very carefully, and I would thank all contributors.

A short time ago, I purchased SD but did not install: I then bit the bullet and installed. I have Norton 360 which immediately began to play up. On Thursday last week I powered up and Norton 360 required a fix which did not work. I contacted Norton through their chat facility. They could not find a problem but reinstalled the application. Then Liveupdate did not work.

SD was the final application loaded. I reformatted the disk installed Norton 360 which worked perfectly: installed SD and immediately encounted the same problems. (SD and Norton 360 were the only applications installed.)

What do you think?


Marse

 

Norton 360, it seems, has a long list of programs that it conflicts with (Including Windows XP sp3) and of course there was the whitelisting of Magic Lantern Keylogger.

 

Marse,

"Tony" is now responding to support issues via email, so I would encourage you to report this potential conflict to him.

TS

-----
PS. Based on my past history with Norton products, I would agree with Patrick in that I have had other conflicting issues!

 

Sent email on Aug 26th - Hello! will there be any future plans for Shadow Defender to support OS X - Apple.

Reply back on Aug 28th - sorry,there is no plans for OS X. Best Regards Tony

 

I cannot have it enabled on restart. My system crashed too. And it was running really slow. So I just enable it after my comp is completely finished startup.

 

I downloaded 331 from the website less than a week ago and installed it on my father's laptop. Windows 7 and he has Norton. When I restarted, my computer had to do a startup repair and do a system restore. I wondered if there was something different about the download from the website. I have an earlier copy of 331 but I am not going to experiment with my father's laptop.

 

Question. Returnil does not virtualize the pagefile. Does SD? Returnil has the option to wipe traces left after reboot. What kind of traces and private information does SD leave behind? Or does anyone really know?