http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ Giveaway of the Day Forums User Favorites: MidnightRambler en Wed, 08 Oct 2008 09:29:22 +0000 http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/1122#post-6407 Thu, 31 May 2007 20:06:12 +0000 MidnightRambler 6407@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>Such as:<br /> NTI Shadow 3 &lt;http://www.ntius.com/shadow.asp&gt;, and<br /> Stardock KeepSafe &lt;http://www.stardock.com/products/keepsafe/&gt;.</p> <p>These are incremental file/folder revision backup programs mentioned in the July, 2006 issue of PCWorld. </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/1100#post-6303 Mon, 28 May 2007 17:46:42 +0000 MidnightRambler 6303@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>Turns out Eraser permanently changed a swapfile wipe registry setting without warning from 0 to 1:</p> <p>HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\ClearPageFileAtShutdownREG_DWORD.</p> <p>Pretty sneaky, especially since it also didn't provide method to correct.</p> <p>For those interested, see <a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/05/05/wipe_swap_file/" rel="nofollow">http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/05/05/wipe_swap_file/</a> </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/1100#post-6295 Mon, 28 May 2007 13:47:58 +0000 MidnightRambler 6295@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>I saw that before (posting this issue), unchecked it and rebooted but the program still always clears it (the pagefile) after reboot causing the delay.</p> <p>In fact, I unchecked ALL components under "Privacy Guard" Tab Activation with the exception of "Custom" which apparently can't be deselected.</p> <p>It's as if this is some kind of bug or if not, must be adjusted in the registry settings somehow.</p> <p>Good program overall, however. Especially the desktop drag and drop file erasure. </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/1100#post-6287 Mon, 28 May 2007 12:19:35 +0000 BuBBy 6287@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>It's under "Privacy Guard" on the "Windows" Tab.</p> <p>See <a href="http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/6233/20070528221819ku0.png">HERE</a> </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/1100#post-6285 Mon, 28 May 2007 11:36:45 +0000 MidnightRambler 6285@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>Noticed immediately after installation of East-Tec Eraser 2007 that my WinXP Home SP2 system took noticeably longer to reboot.</p> <p>Yahooed "WinXP boot delay" and found: "Correspondent Graeme J.W. Smith reported a more obscure cause of slow shutdown: In Win XP Professional, the Group Policy Editor has a security option to clear the pagefile at system shutdown. The same setting also forces the hibernation file to be wiped at shutdown. These processes take long enough that users may think that shutdown has hung. To change the setting, click Start | Run, type GPEDIT.MSC, click OK. Drill down to Computer Configuration | Windows Settings | Security Settings | Local Policies | Security Options. In the right pane, find “Shutdown: Clear virtual memory pagefile.” NOTE: Since someone actually has to have set this policy, the problem will be pretty rare, but is worth mentioning. However, Forum participant “roadrunner” reported that the personal security app Privacy Eraser automatically enables “Clear virtual memory pagefile,” and, therefore, may be the cause of a slow shutdown."</p> <p>Surmised that East-Tec Eraser ALSO automatically enabled “Clear virtual memory pagefile,” but can't find program setting to disable it. </p> <p>To test theory, uninstalled East-Tec Eraser 2007 and found problem vanished. Then reinstalled program and problem reappeared. </p> <p>Rather annoying; don't need/want clearing of pagefile after every reboot. </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/1081#post-6189 Sat, 26 May 2007 00:32:54 +0000 MidnightRambler 6189@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>Delayed system restart and/or shutdown on WinXP Home SP2.</p> <p>Thought it was due to East-Tec Eraser 2007 clearing out privacy items during reboot so unchecked all but still have noticed the delay.</p> <p>Anyone else?</p> <p>Experience in general has been that hangups occur when certain programs refuse to shutdown. </p> <p>Makes me think Eraser, although less feature-rich, is a better alternative. </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/1081#post-6188 Sat, 26 May 2007 00:28:35 +0000 BuBBy 6188@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p><em>When i click activate in the zip file it opens the registration program but it does not activate</em></p> <p>I suspect you have the wrong zip file. There is no "activate" in this giveaway. There is no "registration program". </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/1081#post-6183 Fri, 25 May 2007 21:45:27 +0000 microsoftmoderator 6183@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>When i click activate in the zip file it opens the registration program but it does not activate i waited like 30mins and still it says connecting gaway avalibilty its doing nothing!<br /> Whats rong </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/1081#post-6177 Fri, 25 May 2007 16:56:17 +0000 lumpy 6177@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>Yes, it's working now, same as playboy85 no email but key was on the screen </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/1081#post-6176 Fri, 25 May 2007 16:53:40 +0000 playboy85 6176@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>Seems to be working again. I got my key. It wasnt in an email but show up on the screen after clicking Submit. </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/1081#post-6174 Fri, 25 May 2007 16:44:58 +0000 playboy85 6174@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>Did they shut down the registration page due to too many downloads??? </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/1081#post-6172 Fri, 25 May 2007 16:44:13 +0000 lumpy 6172@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>Yes, it's the same for me too, I can't register :( </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/1081#post-6171 Fri, 25 May 2007 16:42:04 +0000 DigitalGoth 6171@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>I have the same problem. Exactly. </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/1081#post-6170 Fri, 25 May 2007 16:40:34 +0000 playboy85 6170@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>Here is the link:</p> <p><a href="http://customer.east-tec.com/misc/gotd/index.htm" rel="nofollow">http://customer.east-tec.com/misc/gotd/index.htm</a> </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/1081#post-6169 Fri, 25 May 2007 16:38:50 +0000 Lee 6169@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>Maybe there is an error at the website, put reg link in post and we will check it. </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/1081#post-6168 Fri, 25 May 2007 16:32:02 +0000 playboy85 6168@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>I cant register my name/email for the East-Tec Eraser 2007 key.<br /> I enter my info, click submit and get this:</p> <p>Warning: Unknown(/usr/www/users/eastcust/customer/misc/gotd/main.php): failed to open stream: Permission denied in Unknown on line 0</p> <p>Warning: (null)(): Failed opening '/usr/www/users/eastcust/customer/misc/gotd/main.php' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/local/lib/php') in Unknown on line 0 </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/1003#post-5819 Wed, 16 May 2007 04:14:26 +0000 BuBBy 5819@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>Yes, I know... I was only prodding for something a little more 'useful' than "use Windows Backup" which really doesn't help or explain the process adequately.</p> <p>But for users for whom all of this sounds like rocket surgery - this is something you should learn about by reading from other windows tech related sites. Here is not the place to focus on teaching users to use windows. (There are other sites that focus on doing this much better). </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/1003#post-5817 Wed, 16 May 2007 03:33:43 +0000 tjchan 5817@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>I'll just say that BillW50's method is tried and true. There is no other way I'd trust in doing it except manually. </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/1010#post-5815 Wed, 16 May 2007 01:36:07 +0000 BuBBy 5815@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <ol> <li> Use <strong>MJ's Help Diagnostics</strong> to ensure that all the help viewer components are properly installed and registered.<br /> <a href="http://helpware.net/downloads/index.htm#MJs" rel="nofollow">http://helpware.net/downloads/index.htm#MJs</a><br /> (Run the Diag report and Refresh Registration of all HH 1.x DLLs) </li> <li> Delete the file "hh.dat", which you should find in this subdirectory:<br /> \Documents and Settings\%username%\Application Data\Microsoft\HTML Help</p> <p> This file stores information about all the HTML Help files on your system (Favorites, window size and position, etc.), and can cause the files to misbehave if it has somehow been corrupted. </li> </ol> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/1003#post-5814 Wed, 16 May 2007 01:28:39 +0000 BuBBy 5814@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <blockquote><p>BillW50 - The correct way is to use Windows Backup or some commercial backup utility. As other methods may fail. </p></blockquote> <p>Hopefully your description (regedit dumps, system restores, ERUNT, and XP Repairs) might help someone.</p> <p>Thank you. </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/1003#post-5811 Tue, 15 May 2007 22:16:07 +0000 BillW50 5811@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>"If it stopped working again, you have to delete keys that are referenced to the software with Regedit. Then export another reg file and repeat above" -- BillW50</p> <p>Or you can do it this way and this actually works with Windows System Restore…</p> <p>Check how far back you can go back with System Restore (but don't restore or create yet)<br /> If you the one you want is as far back as you can go, you need to bump up the disk space it uses to like 12%<br /> You can do this through System Restore Settings<br /> Create a System Restore point first or use ERUNT<br /> Restore registry back to when it worked (System Restore or ERUNT)<br /> Check to make sure the unregistered program now is registered</p> <p>Open up Regedit<br /> File -&gt; Export -&gt; All (Export Range)<br /> Give it a name and click Save<br /> Close Regedit</p> <p>Now restore back to today, so now you are back to where you started from<br /> Now double-click on that reg file you just made from when it was registered<br /> Everything should be fine now. :)</p> <p>You don't have to edit anything with Regedit by using this second method. </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/1003#post-5810 Tue, 15 May 2007 21:08:08 +0000 BillW50 5810@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>Oh sorry BuBBy! I didn't see your post. And sure I can elaborate.</p> <p>"It would be helpful say for an example - today you ran a program that was a Giveaway in the first week of March. It worked the first few days, but you haven't run it for at least a month - and now it doesn't work anymore. How do you fix this?" -- BuBBy</p> <p>Open up Regedit<br /> File -&gt; Export -&gt; All (Export Range)<br /> Give it a name and click Save<br /> Close Regedit</p> <p>Now open up your favorite Registry utility like ERUNT (freeware)<br /> Restore it to the last known working registered date<br /> Check to make sure the unregistered program now is registered<br /> Now double-click on that reg file you just saved from Regedit<br /> Program should be registered, if so you're done!<br /> If it stopped working again, you have to delete keys that are referenced to the software with Regedit. Then export another reg file and repeat above</p> <p>WARNING: Do not use System Restore in this case for a registry utility. It will remove all of your later installed software.</p> <p>"A second example - someone's computer crashed - they have possibly lost all of their giveaways. The problem is a faulty motherboard - and they need to reinstall XP again because their new motherboard is a current motherboard (their old motherboard was 4 years old). How do they get their giveaways and activations back?" -- BuBBy</p> <p>Simple, do a Windows XP Repair. This reinstalls Windows XP, but leaves your applications and registry keys for them alone.<br /> <a href="http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm" rel="nofollow">http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm</a> </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/1010#post-5809 Tue, 15 May 2007 19:09:01 +0000 MidnightRambler 5809@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>Downloaded, activated and installed Advanced File Organizer but get an error after selecting Documentation icon in Start\Programs\AFO folder: Cannot open the file: mk:@MSITStore:C:\Program Files\Advanced File Organizer\aforg.chm.</p> <p>Is the Help file corrupted? </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/1003#post-5804 Tue, 15 May 2007 15:25:05 +0000 Lee 5804@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>The author released an update for his/her program a week or so later, to 3.18</p> <p>If you don't want to accept the user agreement don't install.</p> <p>Buy the program then you should get a years worth of updates or to it gets to 3.99 </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/1003#post-5803 Tue, 15 May 2007 15:23:50 +0000 BillW50 5803@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>There is no reason a GAOTD program will not restore if the backup utility did it right. You need a backup of the OS, the registry, and the program files. And you should be good to go. :) </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/1003#post-5802 Tue, 15 May 2007 15:16:54 +0000 MidnightRambler 5802@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>BillW50, CC: BuBBy:</p> <p>I DID use a commercial backup utility, StompSoft's "Backup MyPC." I think this is the first time Backup MyPC failed to fully restore a program.</p> <p>But after reading BuBBy's lucid explanation of GOTD's giveaways policy, I'm not surprised at the restoration failure.</p> <p>In fact, I'm almost glad this happened as I now fully know how the site operates. The manufacturer policy is fair and makes economic sense. Thanks for the explanation, BuBBy. </p> <p>It appears that even if I took note of the registration data or some kind soul provided it to me from their install, it wouldn't have mattered as, "'the giveaway' is only 'an install of the software within a 24 hour period'."</p> <p>Live and learn. </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/1003#post-5799 Tue, 15 May 2007 13:31:49 +0000 BuBBy 5799@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>BillW50. The correct way? Could you elaborate on this?</p> <p>It would be helpful say for an example - today you ran a program that was a Giveaway in the first week of March. It worked the first few days, but you haven't run it for at least a month - and now it doesn't work anymore. How do you fix this?</p> <p>A second example - someone's computer crashed - they have possibly lost all of their giveaways. The problem is a faulty motherboard - and they need to reinstall XP again because their new motherboard is a current motherboard (their old motherboard was 4 years old). How do they get their giveaways and activations back?</p> <p>This might be useful as lots of people will be in either of the two cases - so a set of detailed steps will be handy. (naturally I don't care about the "how to install XP" but just the "get my giveaways back" part).</p> <p>Thanks. </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/1003#post-5796 Tue, 15 May 2007 12:48:23 +0000 BillW50 5796@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>The correct way is to use Windows Backup or some commercial backup utility. As other methods may fail. </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/1003#post-5795 Tue, 15 May 2007 12:45:05 +0000 BuBBy 5795@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>Sounds great in theory, but in reality 'the giveaway' is only '<em>an install</em> of the software within a 24 hour period'. The way most of the developers who offer their software doesn't include the ability to install at some stage in the future.</p> <p>This discussion has come up several times in the past and the official line is the giveaway can only be installed and activated during the 24 hours while it is "featured". If the giveaway developers wanted everyone to be able to install that version at any point in the future they could release the software as freeware.</p> <p>Of course at such a time in the future when a user finds it necessary to reinstall the software - or desires to upgrade to a newer version, naturally the developer of the software would hope that the user would consider registering the program.</p> <p>So the "conditions" on the giveaway restricting against future version upgrades or "re-installing" software for an indefinite period into the future, are clearly to protect the developers commercial interests in the software to ensure the potential for future software sales.</p> <p>The "right" that some people they feel they are entitled to - being able to reinstall the software whenever the need arises - is something not provided under the terms and conditions of the GiveawayOfTheDay daily downloads. To have the rights and conditions normally associated with most licensed and purchased software (such as support, future upgrades, and the ability to reinstall the software in the future -after the 24hour giveaway period) the software should be registered with the developer.</p> <p>And to increase sales and get new customers is the reason why software developers "giveaway" their programs. It's promotions. Marketing. It is also a great deal for users - but if "free" users weren't restricted to a 24hour install window - obviously the software would end being treated as a type of "freeware" (probably ending up on freeware software library style sites)</p> <p>If the software is good enough - users will need either a carrot or a stick to motivate them to decide to register. Some users don't need much motivation - the desire for new features or bug fixes is the carrot that results in a sale. For other users, the thought of doing without their "favorite program" - the inability to install after a rebuild and the desire to keep what they have - could be viewed as the stick that results in a sale.</p> <p>If the user doesn't feel the software is good enough - they will either uninstall straight away - or just leave it installed - and should it stop working or be lost through a system rebuild etc, the user just forgets about it.</p> <p>But, (not directed at any individual) ask yourself... if something happens, and you lose your free software - do you want or need the software back enough to warrant purchasing a full license for maybe $30 or whatever - and getting all the benefits and future upgrades etc, or is the software such that you can just shrug your shoulders and say... "oh well, I'll just find something else to take it's place".</p> <p>Finally, most software "types" are also available in the form of freeware - sometimes rivaling the commercial alternatives. Hopefully it works out that competition between the free and commercial software offerings will result in the quality improvement in both (My experience and observations often appear that freeware and open source software continues to "raise the bar" on commercial software). </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/1003#post-5791 Tue, 15 May 2007 10:09:44 +0000 MidnightRambler 5791@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>Thanks for your response, BillW50.</p> <p>There's no way to prove that what I'm claiming is the truth but it seems to me that those who've had a piece of registered software should be able to reinstall it from a backup as I've attempted. </p> <p>I mean, it's not as if I'm trying to upgrade it for free or get support. </p>