I was user of this software but only for 2 weeks. It was very bad experience for me. The software is not working as they committed. Really fade up of it. Hope they will improve it as users are paying for the services. If you are still looking an alternative, then I would recommend you to go with Faronics Deep Freeze. Really a worth restore software to pay.

Royally screwed up my system and lost 9 days of e mail and any additions I did to software, plus email accounts. Not impressed with this software at all.

THOSE WHO HAD THE SETUP ISSUE CAN FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS GIVEN BELOW I RECEIVED FROM THE SOFTWARE SUPPORT:
I was given two options to remove the software by the software support:

FIRST OPTION
Please try the following way. 1. Reboot your computer. And press Ctrl+F8 hot keys.2. Time is: just after you start your computer and before the subsystem modes selection interface appears.3. Way is: Hold on Ctl key, meanwhile press F8 again and again, until you can see some options.4. Then choose the last option, Remove SubSystem, and then Enter.5. You will be required to provide the password, please enter 12345678, and then enter key.6. You will get the message that the program has been removed.7. Then reboot your computer.

SECOND OPTION WHEN THE ABOVE DID NOT WORK
Seems that the program is not compatible with your computer.
Now, please try another way to uninstall it:

Find one DOS bootable CD or USB, and boot into the DOS environment;
Run fdisk /mbr command;
Nothing will happen unless you get error message, just reboot your PC after the running of the mind;
The program will completely removed.

Second option worked for me. I booted with a DOS6.22 version CD, which I created from the following site:
http://www.allbootdisks.com/download/iso.html

I forgot my password ,and the protection is on ,how can uninstall it?

SOLUTION PROVIDED BY THE TECH SUPPORT OF THE AYRECOVERY LITE VENDOR:

1. Reboot your computer. And press Ctrl+F8 hot keys.
2. Time is: just after you start your computer and before the subsystem modes selection interface appears.
3. Way is: Hold on Ctl key, meanwhile press F8 again and again, until you can see some options.
4. Then choose the last option, Remove SubSystem, and then Enter.
5. You will be required to provide the password, please enter 12345678, and then enter key.
6. You will get the message that the program has been removed.
7. Then reboot your computer.

Should you have more questions, please let us know.

MY COMPLAIN WAS AS GIVEN BELOW:
________________________________________
Dear Sirs,
I installed the above software today from Giveawayoftheday.com site and now I cannot use my PC as it does not start WindowsXP. It keeps giving me the four options under the following:
The subsystem setup was interrupted, please select a choice below to continue:
1.Continue Subsystem Installation
2.Continue Subsystem Installation(VGA mode)
3.Continue Subsystem Installation(Debug mode)
4.Cancel Installation
Enter a choice:
I have selected all the choices so far, but the reboot keeps coming back to the above options and does not allow me to go to WindowsXP. Even F8 does not work to allow me to restore earlier configuration.
Please advise urgently.

To resolve the following problem:
The subsystem setup was interrupted.pleaseselectachoice below and continuw:
1.Continue Subsystem installation.
2.Continue Subsystem installation.[Vga Mode]
3.Continue Subsystem installation.[Debug Mode]
4.Cancel installation

Please use Hiren9.9CD and try to run WindowsXP and then run restore option through F8 key on boot. Further uninstall the software once you go into WindowsXP

Hi
I am not a computer expert and perhaps I did not read as much as I should-- however
I uninstalled a programme in the normal way, but AyRecovery Lite recovered it for me - even though I did not want it.
Perhaps it works too well!
Perhaps an idiots guide is needed for people like me?
Thanks anyway
Baz

I'm pretty sure this program just caused me to lose hours of time and several files. When my computer was booting up, it said something about loading a snapshot and the document I had spent about 8 hours typing today is now in the state it was yesterday, before all of my work. I am extremely frustrated with this program and will never buy anything from this company so long as I shall live.

This piece of software is absolute rubbish it has caused my computer to crash and I cannot get rid of it

After reading just half the comments above, with so many of them so negative, and pointing out the potential dangers, I decided to delete the programme file, without even installing it yet.

If there is any chance that a programme might hose your system, or remove even one of your more important files, I think it is sensible to run a mile from it.

The amount of time you could spend putting everything back together again cannot justify taking a risk with such an obviously "iffy" programme.

If this works like Comodo Time Machine, it will gradually eat up your disk space with all the small changes the operating system does in the background ... eventually you will get a warning that your disk space is running out ... that hard disk light isn't flashing on and off all day for nothing. If something goes wrong you will lose all changes since your last backup because I believe you can only backup the data that was on your hard drive when you installed the program if you try to create an image of your drive. You could copy everything or perform a simple backup like they did 10+ years ago but that usually doesn't backup your locked files and some locked system files. It isn't very noticeable but I partitioned my drive and the partition that was protected by Time Machine/RollbackRx was significantly slower than the other unprotected partitions sometimes half as fast when reading or writing. All that is offset by the ease of taking a few seconds to instruct it to take a snapshot of your system (which only takes a few seconds) before you begin to use questionable software so you can return to that state after a reboot but when it fails you lose everything. I've had that happen when using trying a new anti-virus program. You never know which drivers will conflict with it till it's too late. Perhaps a computer expert or PC technician could restore the data but the average user probably won't be able to do so without a good technical understand of how it works.

Excellent software for times where boot would fail. Have used this and EAZ-Fix for years up to Win7. Win7 has been very faithful, so haven't used such as this software. Can mistakenly loose precious system changes if on boot improper selection is made. i.e. As in loosing an newly installed app, then having to reinstall. On other hand, good to 'test' new software not so sure might want to keep or not. If not, Ay-Recovery, 'turns back' system, more accurately than Windows. Good software in its place. Each, i.e. this and like and system backups all are good tools to keep computing a happy time. None do it all by themselves.

I got rid of it! I restarted and hit the HOME key when the window appeared. It asked for an admin password. I gave my password and it wouldn't accept it. I tried a few more times with the same results. I couldn't get out of the password screen, so I tried Ctrl-Alt-Delete and a screen appeared with the option to delete the program. That's the out of this awful piece of crap.

I can't uninstall it. I've tried Revo uninstaller, Iobit uninstaller and the control panel uninstaller and the program keeps asking for an ID and password. I x it and continue and it disappears from the list. When I reboot the com, it's back again. How do you get rid of this thing?

#51, OldScotty, as they say, this isn't rocket science. AyRecovery Lite doesn't make a copy of your entire system as a particular reviewer claims about this or similar software. That would take a long time, and how would it fit the data on your drive if it's fairly full? AyRecovery Lite clearly virtualizes disk access (look up the meanings of the term). Logically, it sets a marker after the data which you have, and as changes are made or more data added, those sectors/clusters are written to the virtual cache, which can only be in the free space on the drive. Restoring is simply a matter of returning to the logical marker (note that I'm not going into implementation details, merely logically what happens), with the added complexity of taking virtualized My Documents data and linking it to the file tables (most such software works at the cluster level so that's swift and easy) or never virtualizing it in the first place (that's much harder to implement). #55, mike's comments were about how the virtual cache was stored, apparently AyRecovery Lite doesn't do it as cleanly as some of the others and mike wasn't able to find the data, but obviously it's there on the drive. The vast majority of people here don't know anything about computer science, but you claim to, so I would have expected that you would have thought this out.

GOTD user comments are incredibly helpful. TY, All

Here At GOTD, I have found that those who share their truthful
experiences and idea's with the rest of us, before we simply
install "Anything For Free," are the most valued commodity.

Thank you all for your honest reporting.
Your comments and idea's enlighten us, as to;

1. Providing us with a better understanding of a given software.

2. Prepare us, with their knowledge, before installing something
that could possibly do more harm than good.

3. Providing us with a clear understanding and excellent
alternatives for those who may not be able to use the
daily software.

4. Thank you all and keep the invaluable comments coming, please!!

BigPotz

#61, CompNetTeach, I'm used to the hostility from the XP-losers who vote down all of my comments, but I wasn't criticizing you. You said to turn off System Restore on the data volume, but it's useful on Windows 7 because it can be used to restore earlier versions of files. Backup is still necessary, as Restore Points can disappear due to various reasons, including defragmentation, which must also be turned off for near-continuous backups. As my system volume is on an SSD, it doesn't need to be defragmented anyway. I have Raxco PerfectDisk, which I'm not currently using, they're trying to claim that intelligent free space consolidation is useful on an SSD. The problem with that is that NTFS free space and SSD free blocks/pages don't have anything to do with each other, the OS doesn't know anything about the SSD logical to physical mapping.

Regarding image verification, StorageCraft® ShadowProtect® Desktop™ with StorageCraft® ShadowControl™ ImageManager™ (necessary for near-continuous backup, comes with ShadowProtect®, as does the Recovery Environment) does that when backups are created and on the schedule which you specify, default weekly. Before I was using Hard Disk Sentinel, that's how I found out that one of my RAID drives was going bad, ImageManager™ noted an unreadable image in a backup chain (the disk was later able to retrieve the data, not that I ever needed that backup). I've noted some of the numerous issues with Paragon previously, I won't use their products. StorageCraft® products are enterprise products and it shows, unfortunately it also costs (initially). If you have Windows 7 and don't need the features of ShadowProtect®, the Windows 7 Backup is good, you don't need questionable third-party backup software.

What is the version of the 'AyRecovery Lite' program that is being given away today??

FUBAR as the initials represent, seems to think that no matter what others including Ashraf posts or comments upon is incorrect when most often it is FUBAR rushing in to show off his opinions. Enough - FUBAR! We are not awed by your statements requiring clarification by real technical experts.

#48 Fubar: Note that I said "The first generation of System Restore blithely rolled back all changed “My Documents” files without any thought.." - my recommendation to have a system partition and a data partition stems from the fact that many people use different versions of Windows (at work, at home, etc.) and do not remember which version supports what specific feature or not - the 2 partition method works for all versions, is simple to remember, and the non-computer expert doesn't have to remember what. So, don't get upset so quickly and read more carefully please.

I don't normally have the time to revisit, but I thought I'd check in to see if Mike did his usual digging. Just like I concluded, there's not enough documentation to wholehartedly endorse AyRecovery.

And yes, as a few people have pointed out, many offerings of this type of software prevent proper defragmentation.

Worked with Comodo Time Machine at one point and came up with two issues: 1 - as a company, Comodo is always prone to registry bloat and heavy registry usage, 2 - really bogged down some older systems. Not a problem until there was a crash due to low system resources keeping a registry update from completing, resulting in a non-operational system when rebooted.

Working in education & with a community centre with older & donated equipment, system load gets to be a concern. From this standpoint, Returnil also fails to meet the bill due to heavy loading. Thankfully, SteadyState (though no longer supported) still keeps working on these old workhorses.

As I mentioned, today and previously, nothing beats regular, multiple backups. Simple concept, simple to implement by straight copying, archiving or imaging (what's best depends on the situation).

I will point out that though I like Paragon's offerings and do use them, I still am disturbed that there is no image verification option / validation option in their software. Of all of the images I & my students have created through the years, I still see about a 3% invalid image rate - you can only find out when you try to restore an image. What a shame.

#56, Bennie, I was going by what they listed here and elsewhere on their website. Personally, I wouldn't use it on Win7.

To clarify the features of Win7, at least some versions (nowhere does Microsoft give anything resembling a complete list of differences), Restore Points are used to restore system settings and "system" files (only) by System Restore. Restore Points are also used in the Previous Versions tab of drive/folder/file Properties by the user to browse/copy/restore previous versions of files. The mounting is instant, you can browse an earlier version of an entire drive that has Restore Points (System Properties, System Protection, Protection Settings) enabled. You can also configure Protection Settings, Restore Settings for only restoring earlier versions of files. Using Windows Search with natural language queries and partial matching enabled, I get to the settings from Create a Restore Point by typing cre res (I type sys res to go to System Restore). Again, in order for this feature to be useful, Restore Points must have been set automatically or manually, or you must be using Windows 7 Backup (I'm going by the documentation, I'm not using Windows 7 Backup).

Thank you,Lefty, comment #4. I read your comment and the review. Which, by the way is from a very trusted site IMO, and my mind was made up. This software is not for me. Keep the very useful comments coming. They are very helpful to those of us who may be unfamiliar with certain software and or vendors. Thanks anyway GOTD.

Does it seem to anyone else that more and more giveaways, being offered in here, are just a means for the developers to sell a more in depth version of their software. I do understand that this is a vehicle to sell SOME products online, but enough is enough, already.

BigPotz

@Fubar, #48 "...trying this with Windows 7, which it doesn’t support."

On their homepage, on the right side, there is a link to the userguide of Ayrecovery. It states:

System Requirements

To install AyRecovery Lite on your computer, your computer must meet the following minimum requirements:

>> IBM PC or 100% compatible computer.
>> 80486 or higher processor.
>> 128MB of RAM.
>> 256 Color or higher video.
>> CD-ROM or DVD ROM if setup from CD.
>> Microsoft Windows 2000 / XP / Vista / 7 already installed. (Supports both 32-bit and 64-bit of the above operating systems; DO NOT install AyRecovery on LINUX, MAC or WINDOWS SERVERS)

additional info: Im using a P4 x2 (3.6 mghz) Desktop with 4 Gig Mem,Win 7

This is,excuse my french,a piece of shit.after installation,i couldnt read my .txt files,i luckyly was able to fix that,i cant anymore login to facebook desktop,that i cant fix.i tried to uninstall ,but now its asking me for username and password,what i never set up and as im using AI Roboform pro,i should have a record,but nothing.so how can i uninstall this BAD software?i want to get rid of this shit as fas as possible.

AyRecovery Lite is a bit different than apps like Returnil & TimeFreeze, which write changes to a virtual disk, protecting the real drive/partition... Testing with the XP Mode VM, after copying a 1+ GB file to the VM drive with AyRecovery Lite's protection on, I turned the VM off [basically the same thing as pulling the plug vs. regular Windows shut down] & mounted the .vhd [virtual disk] in win7. That new file was non-existent, nor were there any files approaching that size, i.e. no virtual disk files that could hold it. There were no added partitions either. Copying the same file to the running VM, then turning AyRecovery Lite's protection off, the file stayed put after restarting, without the sort of delay that would have been required to copy 1+ GB. A *guess* would be that the new file's location on the virtual hard drive had never been written to the drive/partition file tables. On the downside, I tried that a few times, copying the file & *pulling the plug*, & the XP Mode VM would not start after that. Changes are made to those file tables during install, but other than the AyRecovery Lite boot menu I don't know what's added or modified. Copies of the registry are stored along with other system data, but I don't know what that other data is -- it wasn't obvious in Notepad or a hex editor. While the 2 services can be set from Automatic [i.e. starting with Windows] to manual, removing the 4 drivers caused XP to not start, normally, in safe mode, or after an attempted AyRecovery Lite repair from its boot menu.

With that potential for problems from diver files becoming damaged or being incompatible, &/or Windows maybe not starting after a power failure or hard reboot I wouldn't install/use AyRecovery Lite without a ready backup that could be [at least relatively] easily restored. OTOH AyRecovery Lite may have some advantages over similar apps, e.g. you don't have a delay as changes are copied to the protected drive/partition like you do with apps using a virtual disk file. And unlike TimeFreeze, AyRecovery Lite doesn't need a tray app to turn it on/off, so it might have a slight edge for restricting users so they can't screw things up.

The drivers themselves are signed by EAZ Solution, Inc. -- Google & it seems it might be the same company as the one behind today's GOTD. The AyRecovery Lite manual [ http://goo.gl/HZg55 ] does list win7 32/64 bit. The installed "AyRecovery Lite" program folder holds 85 file, 7 folders, ~14.7 MB -- "anyue" & "configfix" folders are added to Windows system folder. IMHO registry changes are moderate -- it's hard to give an accurate figure because many changes occured after reboot when there are loads of changes already just from Windows starting up. To fully remove the app including drivers you'd have to restore the drive/partition tables as well as the registry, though you might be able to delete all references to the drivers using Regedit or similar. For restoring those tables the only foolproof method I've found is restoring a Paragon backup of the 1st disk track, though there are partition table backup/restore/repair tools that can work [e.g. I've successfully used Partition Table Doc -- EASEUS once had it on GOTD -- but I've had it not work too].

All in all AyRecovery Lite seemed to work just as advertised, but personally I wish they'd put a LOT more info up on their site about how it works, so people could better judge risks/rewards. I don't think I'll use it because I can't see any clear benefits *for me* over TimeFreeze or Returnil or using VMs [Virtual Machines], but that's partly based on guesswork -- like I said, I think they should publish a LOT more info.

#50

"So I keep two 500g USB portables velcroed on the lid of the laptop,"

You have GOT to be kidding me mate....

My tip of the day is backup your backups on an external drv. Keep an updated, pre config clean install backup so when time comes and it will come you will be ready for a reinstall. Easier said then done. There's no magic bullet out there. There are many ways and reasons systems crash. Quickly what happens to your information when you use an information storage facility and you can't pay your bill? Read the fine print and think abou it.

have to agree with Giovanni # 30..... comodo time machine is the best tool for complete system recovery. its a simple tool to use, you just have to be careful when setting it up and which drives to protect. i use it only for the c drive, without any problems....if you use it on other drives, you have to take care how much memory is allocated to the images it makes.

other than that, its the simplest and easiest tool on the market so far!

Giovanni #30
Thanks for today's recommendation of Comodo, I have given it a try and it looks good.
To be honest I am surprised at the number of people who have downloaded and used this program.
It is incredibly dangerous to use this type of program unless you understand what it does conceptually.

Fubar #23
Please reread this comment and note, that if the first sentence is correct then the second sentence is in error. That is, if the developer does not explain the function of the system you can only speculate!
To help you, paste the following in Google “define:speculate”

CompNetTeach #44
The method you describe of having the system on drive C and the data on drive D is the method I use and find most beneficial.

Interesting approaches; I've used PCs since they first came out, and agree - Truly the best way to safeguard critical files is: back them up - two copies to different storage places. Virtual drives do corrupt/fail on you, and then what? I've gravitated to periodic on whim full image backups using Acronis - and a very capable free, gratis version of it(DiskWizard) is preloaded on every Seagate disk Drive (You keep at least one Seagate on or in the machine or it won't run). I like theirs over WD anyway, after having two of the latter do HW failures on me. So I keep two 500g USB portables velcroed on the lid of the laptop, for saving non-critical and second copies of folders, except programs - then run a triple boot win7/Vista/XP, partitioned 30 gig, 20, and 20 - with the rest of its 500 gig internal drive left unused to adjust partition sizes as I might ever need to. This way full compressed image backups run in 30 minutes, and restore in 30 min, too. I can alternately direct the images onto any drive I like. No real need to do incrementals, though I could. The bestest thing about DiskWizard/Acronis is ability to readily merely open and look within any backup image to just copy back and retrieve files or folders you want - without restoring.

When I tried uninstal the software it also removed pin start menu.

Some people were trying this with Windows 7, which it doesn't support. Windows 7, at least some versions, has good backup built-in, it can do a full image and write a boot disk, and it regularly backs up user data. #44, CompNetTeach, your recommendations are incorrect, especially on Windows 7. System Restore varies greatly by Windows version, the one in Windows 7 works as expected, only restoring things which Microsoft considers to be "system". In addition, Restore Points are used by Windows 7, at least some versions, to return earlier versions of files. That, and Windows 7 backups, are fully integrated into the Previous Versions tab of file/folder Properties.

#43, ric, many people, especially businesses, can't risk losing that much. Read my comment #6, there are a number of products which can perform near-continuous backups. The overhead is quite low, but you do need a lot of disk space. I would like to correct the mounting time for an image, the figure I gave was off of one of my RAID volumes, it takes less than 30 seconds for me to mount a complete image off of a USB 3.0 drive. It's recommended to do near-continuous backup to an internal drive (the data can be copied to an external), but I have a bad drive in my RAID array so I'm going straight to the external drive. I'm not a fan of Paragon or Acronis (which can do near-continuous backup).

Have not installed yet to try but after running EAZ-Fix pro(same developer,similar program) for 2years on an XP system,
it continued to get sluggish on reboot. Worked well, saved me more than a few times.
But I discovered you cannot defrag while this was installed. That was the problem after
hours of defrag, the system would restore back to where it was. Had to uninstall,
did not go well, crashed and wiped. Could not recover, too novice,
Did a complete reinstall on system. lost alot of work and progamming.
Then hit the budget and got a second computer to transfer work over to,
since even a second drive is no guarantee against a smoked power supply OUCH.

Having worked in education... keeping systems as pristine as possible is an obvious goal. However, most good solutions are enterprise level, require notable licensing fees and can be too difficult for the normal user to configure properly in a smart manner.

I personally don't think that there is enough information about AyRecovery to recommend installing it ever in its present state. This program attempts to do Window's System Recovery one better, which is why it wants Windows Recovery to be disabled (like most programs of this ilk). I have never found a solution that works well with customized multi-boot or complex partitioned systems. There is a generational change in boot procedure between XP and Vista, and notable changes to Win 7. This multiple paradigm regularly screws up "automatic" handling of low level storage issues - which is what multi-boot users are reporting. Usage of such programs in a simple manner in mult-boot environments is just not possible by basic to above-average users.

Data compression has to be disabled because these types of programs require fast OS response and a complete knowledge of what's on the drive -- background compression is not reported by the OS to applications. Thus if compression is on, AyRecovery doesn't know about changes being done to files behind its back.

As far as not being able to rollback "My Documents", this is actually the safest option for most users. When you use any application, your final data files are usually stored by you in "My Documents", and the application's working data is stored in a multitude of locations: registry, "..\username\Application Data", "Program Files\application", "..\all users\Application Data", "..\username\Local Settings\Application Data" or any number of other locations. So, to rollback from a screw up by an application requires potentially restoring a huge number of files. The first generation of System Restore blithely rolled back all changed "My Documents" files without any thought, resulting in lost data! My response was to inform people to either disable System Restore completely, or always save data on an unprotected (System Restore disabled) drive.

Nothing beats periodic regular backups. No non-enterprise data virtualization / delta versioning scheme I have come across has been foolproof. The usual way I set up systems for friends is to have a small to mid-sized C: system partition with System Restore enabled, and a data only D: drive with System Restore disabled. D: is fully backed up on a regular basis (lots of free archiving solutions are available - try a simple batch file running 7zip triggered by Windows Scheduler). C: is fully imaged after every major change in application software (again lots of free, inexpensive and giveawayoftheday solutions). System Restore is still functional allowing people to try installing new apps with the possibility of a simple recovery if things get screwed up, and you have the safety net of doing a full C: restore.

AyRecovery Lite has a ways to go. All low-level disk access programs are deadly in the hands of uninformed users. Until it is better documented, properly supports Windows 7, and better explains MBR / Boot Partition handling, I wouldn't recommend a potential disaster. Until I see better documentation, I consider myself uninformed. OK, I've lectured enough...

Comodo Time Machine for Windows PCs pointed out earlier seems alright.
Apple has long had a Time Machine.

Paragon recently gave away a stellar product in GOTD to backup and recover your PCs.
If you have that, then you don't need this.

Macrium Reflect (FREE) pointed out earlier is alright too.

To try out questionable software, you can use Sandbox feature in the FREE Comodo Internet Security or use Sandboxie shareware.

If you want a software that CONSTANTLY provides multiple recovery points (their Pro version boasts 1000 recovery points) then it also means that your poor long suffering PC is working itself to death all of the time producing those 1000 recovery points throughout your PC session. There is no free lunch.

Talk about meaningless overload.

Just have a good habit of backing (full backup) up your PCs every once in a while. That can be every 15 days or even once a month. It does not have to be every day.

Be sensible and be prepared to lose some of the data in between the day your PC crashed and your last full backup. This is balancing the trade off between having latest most complete backup against the tediousness of having to backup every day or every hour.

If there is some data that you must NOT risk losing, then simply back it up to a 32 GB USB immediately after you have saved the file and exited the application (e.g. Excel).

I don't think the software offered here is a good solution. Many contributors have reported serious damage to their PCs/Notebooks after installing. I wish to thank those who reported such serious damage, here in the GOTD comments. Because if they did not tell, how would we know? Stupidly we would install the software and face the same disaster.

I will stick to my good old Acronis Version 11 (from 2007), which has been tried and tested. Proven to work easily and completely restored my PC more than once when Windows will not boot. Paragon and Macrium backup software should be similarly excellent.

this tool doesn't protect if boot drive PARTITION or/and MBR area destroyed/damaged = (

It does seem to replace Microsoft's Restore.

There is a perfectly good reason it exculdes "My Documents" and even seems to prevent it from being included - If it returns your computer to the previous state, you DO NOT want all the documents you have been working on being lost, the pictures you "saved" onto your HDD and then deleted from your camera being lost and so on.

Not only that, but updates will be virtualised as well (think Sandboxie, but only for your whole computer). So you need to turn it off and then restart it while anti-virus updates itself, Windows updates need it turned off again and everything elses' updates also.

You will need to be sure your computer is clean before installing it, or ironically it will restore malware back to your system as well.

The following is a review of today's GOTD offering - AyRecovery Lite. It describes a rather annoying aspect of this program as pointed out by Ashraf


Below is an excerpt from Ashraf's site

"Having to restart the computer when enabling protection is very annoying because rebooting the computer means users cannot use ARL's protection on-the-fly. For example, let's say I have ARL's (AyRecovery Lite) protection disabled and I run across a questionable program that I want to try. Since the program is questionable, I want to use ARL to ensure the program is completely removed in case it turns out to be a bad apple. In order for me to use ARL to protect my computer, I would have to restart my computer so ARL can take its snapshot. Only after restarting can I go and download the program to test it out. Other programs, like Returnil and Wondershare Time Freeze, allow for on-the-fly usage since they don't need you to restart your computer to enable protection because of their virtual system-approach."

This software is NOT for those who hibernate instead of shutting down their computer.

Because one day, you WILL forget to reboot and save a clean state. Then, you'll lose all changes: Windows updates and all other updates, registry changes, software installations ---including GOTD's products, lol.

The reboot thing is stupid:
- must stop working
- close all open applications (lose or save temporary work-in-progress)
- must close all sessions
- must halt all hibernated Windows (dual+ boot)
then you can go on screwing up your computer...

What about the MBR, where a few stealth viruses like to reside?

Besides vague features, I'd like to know exactly what it does, and how. Publisher must explain why Windows system restauration should be disabled.

Why so many thumbs up?

Today's GOTD has too many drawbacks to even be downloaded.

#7 About dual booting: Windows is too stupid to read Linux partitions (EXT4), so it probably won't have any effect on your Ubuntu. But I'm not going to find out, it looks sketchy to me. If my XP craps out, who cares? More room for Linux. (Mint is my favorite.)

I've seen similar programs like Deepfreeze that a lot of schools and libraries use. Haven't decided to install this one yet, but when XP does loose it's Microsoft Support, a program like this would insure the OS is protected long after that expiration date. Folks need to understand that they won't be able to install new programs or updates unless they set the program to allow for change per the website. :)

#29, Rick C., that's just Fubar (6,8,23) being Fubar. Imagine Bill O'Reilly's brother from another mother, so to speak. On a seasonal note, it is rumored that the Grinch considers him an identity thief....
I'll put my pointy stick away now.

Thanks Fubar and Giovanni for your valuable explanations and links:

This software is saveguarding changes to your system by providing a virtual disk access on single-shot.

Therefore it may not provide any protection from disk failures, damage, or theft, or very malicious malware.

Today I think some people here don't like the truth or can not read. In the hands of easy users this software is dangerous. Fubar is not an easy going user and I accept his advice as very valuable. Ashraf is a very good minded person, but he does not grasp the technical background deep enough. But his presentation is perfect. So I take advantage from both. Perhaps good mike will also explain later in a more verbose and comprehensive way.

I installed todaysprogram it said to reboot I did and I get the following message each and every time making my pc unuseable!
The subsystem setup was interrupted.pleaseselectachoice below and continuw:
1.Continue Subsystem installation.
2.Continue Subsystem installation.[Vga Mode]
3.Continue Subsystem installation.[Debug Mode]
4.Cancel installation

i have tried all of the choices and get the following message:
Subsystem has been removed,press anykey to reboot..

when i reboot the same screens
come back this programs
has made my pc unusable
any ideas are welcome I am very upset by this

i installed ayrecovery and uninstalled it but unfortunately after rebooting ayrecovery is still there. Wth is this.. Ayrecovery developer please fix this and instruct how to totally removed ayrecovery. I used revouns but ayrecovery still there after reboot.

This one is just too scary for me to give a try based on the posted comments alone. Most times I would not necessarily pass on a gaotd based solely on comments alone but the potential for a problems is just too high for me to do that with this product. Thanks gaotd and Ristom but I am just not prepared to "ASSUME THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE DOWNLOADED SOFTWARE PRODUCT".

By default the protection is on.

How can I receive mail, install security updates, virussignature updates with this tool being protective all the time. Every reboot makes me loose all these?

Do I have to configure my mail to store everything under my documents?
Do I have to disable protection when I receive signature updates and more, do I have to request the updates manually because I don't now when they are coming automatically and be out of protection on the right (or wrong) moment.

If "my documents" is not protected doesn't that suddenly mean I'm vulnarable again with or without protection?

I do use an MBR adaptation, will this tool overwrite everything and if so shouldn't that be mentioned?

Too many questions (unaddressed) to just install and try for me.

To Homesen,

When installing AyRecovery Lite did you choose the multiboot set up or the single set up option? If you ignored this step (by default the program installs for a single boot set up) you will get problems if you have a dual boot system.