Sanjeev, Sent mail to support from ShadowDefender site.
Waiting reply mail from - Support.

Sanjeev, I had same problem Windows disk would not work because Shadow Defender 1.4 had LOCKED the volume being the hard drive. I contacted support. Never heard back from them! I use Macrium Reflect to backup my hard drive to a seperate storage device and was able to do a complete restore. If you dont have a backup of your computer i dont know what to tell you. Unless you can find a way to unlock a hard drive that cant be accessed.

dan, It shouldn't be

consuella, I would not worry. It did the same thing to me. If you got it from GOTD I would trust it. But trust your own instinct.

Bob, I uploaded this to VirusTotal and was informed that 1 of 57 antivirus declared that it was harmful - 'CrowdStrike Falcon (ML) - malicious_confidence_97% (D).' The overall conclusion was "Probably harmless! There are strong indicators suggesting that this file is safe to use."

Bob,

Thank you, Bob, for your kindness. Your comment is appreciated very much.

Regards,

consuella

Terry S.,

Thank you, Terry, for your reply. I appreciate your kindness.

Have a great weekend everyone.


Regards,

consuella

alan, I suspect a similar problem. Installation seemed to start ok, and then I took the option to reboot to complete.

I then got Blue Screen errors 'Inaccessible Boot Device', so presumably a problem with the MBR. However, after letting my PC (64 bit W10 Pro) automatically reboot, it went into repair mode. Selecting the Advanced options enabled me to run a check on the WIndows drive - it did warn me after starting that it could take over an hour (why do I start these tasks at 2am?!!) but in reality it was only about 15 minutes before it restarted and I was back in W10 with everything in place.

Well, almost - I can't find Shadow Defender in my list of programs, though there is a folder in Program Files but with just three entries - CmdTool.txt which just seems to be a guide to the use of some commands; the licence agreement and a Help File.

No sign of any program itself (at least under Shadow Defender) so presumably the Windows repair function removed it.

A shame, as it seems to be something that I would find very useful, but I'm wary of trying to reinstall as there's only six and a half hours left and I need some sleep!

Pity that there does not seem to be anybody from the the company around to answer questions, and their support is by email so no forum to scan for possible solutions to our problem.

Russell,
In Control Panel > Folder options have you unchecked Show Hidden Files, Hide extensions for known types and unchecked Hide protected operating system files?. You need to do this to see ALL files in the folder.

Hope this helps

Thanks forensics guy,

Sadly when I checked, I was already showing all hidden & protected files, plus showing all extensions :-(

And the properties for the Shadow Defender folder gives a size of 520k which matches the three files that I can see. I might try again later with a download from the company site rather than here, on the off chance that the licence file is still around somewhere (perhaps in the Registry) - maybe too these postings will be taken as evidence that I did try, and the support team will take pity :-)

alan,

Why didn't you just do an MBR repair off your Windows install disk??????

If you didn't have an install disk you could have downloaded the ISO image from Microsoft and did the MBR repair.

Would have been better than losing everything.

Jb, yes it will protect you against ransomware.

Jb, it would protect unless ransomware has encrypted the folder that is in the exclusion list of the shadow defender.

Marty Toomajian,

To "stick" or permanently install a program you can turn off the "Shadow Mode" protection usually by rebooting the computer and returning to the desktop. The protection is now turned off. This is the default setting of Shadow Defender. Now install your new program and when you're finished turn the "Shadow Mode" back on if you wish.

You can tell Shadow Defender to leave UNPROTECTED any part of the computer you want while it is in "Shadow Mode" so that you can safely place documents there with no need to reboot to save them. If you have to place a document in a PROTECTED area while "Shadow Mode" is active you can right click the document and choose the option "Commit by Shadow Defender" in the context menu. The document is now saved permanently on your PC's hard drive with no need to reboot the computer.

Marty and Ag

Thanks for your Good Question and detailed response.

It looks like Shadow Defender is always running and you have to do things like reboot and commit to make things 'stick'.

I do not like to go through this hassle. I prefer to run 'normal' environment most of the time. I need a virtual environment only when I am installing or downloading something suspicious.

Is it possible to configure Shadow Defender such that you invoke virtual environment 'shadow mode' only on demand, otherwise run normal environment 'unprotected' by default.

vin,

I am sure many of us agree with you about the hassle of rebooting our computers all the time to turn off "Shadow Mode". Having said that, it does give a better degree of protection. Why? because, lets say you are connected to the internet and a worm virus or some malicious code had secretly downloaded itself to your computer without you knowing it and you turn "Shadow Mode" off without rebooting. Then the virus will become permanently installed on your computer and do its damage. A reboot always insures your computer boots up in a clean state. Time consuming yes but a small price to pay for some peace of mind.

But to answer your question vin, Shadow Defender will allow you to turn off "Shadow Mode" protection and turn it on again without rebooting the computer so that you can run in "Normal" mode. However, my experience is that the on/off works with secondary partitions and not necessarily the system partition. Maybe on your computer you will have better success with the system partition.

vin, You need to watch the video. You don't have to have it in 'shadow mode'. Create and exempt folder. When you want to test something. Turn it on. If you like what you tested put the dl file in the 'exempted' folder restart your PC and re-install after (w/o shadow).

Jim,

Why not use 7zip (free download) to open the archive and see what's there? You can extract the files that way and see which file causes the problem.

StrayCat, I can, boots the same, no problems so far

Evgeny,
Thanks.
I didn't get a reply from support as yet.(I wonder if I ever will...)
Please post in the forum should you run into any kind of trouble using the program in a dual boot environment:
https://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/

Don,

" no icon displayed in the tray."

If the app's running there's an option to turn the tray icon on/off.

In general, with Windows sometimes the cache file needs to be rebuilt, as one or more tray icons will be switched or missing. With Windows Explorer set to show all files, rename C:\Users \[UserName]\ AppData\ Local\ IconCache.db to something like IconCache.d_ -- the cache will be rebuilt next time you (re)start Windows.

Jack, I had both programs installed for a long time without any conflicts.(and still have on one older laptop).For me Shadow Defender is very good program,never had any problems with it.Before I was using ToolwizTimeFreeze,and DeepFreeze(this one only few times).I was warned about Toolwiz TimeFreeze by numerous friends,but it was working fine,so I continued to use it.Until it crashed my system,erase all my browsers bookmarks,all snapshots of previously installed programs and few more things.From that moment I'm using only Shadow Defender for 2 years,without a single problem(knocking on wood).I will skip this Giveaway only because I already have bought version.I noticed one detail in screenshots.There is not Registry Exclusion List ''icon'' which should be located under File Exclusion List!? I know for sure that this option is on main screen in paid and giveaway version of this program,and it's 1st time that I saw Shadow Defender GUI without that option.However this is good and reliable program.

StrayCat, it is pretty obvious what's happening. You're not shutting down the computer completely when it hibernates so you don't change the environment. When you completely shut the computer down and reinitialize the operating system you start out with a new virtual system completely different from your last virtual operation. This is very different from having the computer resume the same operating environment that it had before entering the sleep mode - hibernation. When the computer comes out of hibernation it resumes the same configuration and environment it had before going to sleep.

Michel Ferrier, are you using Windows XP? It seems that GOTD version does't support XP.

Michel Ferrier,
System requirements:-
http://www.shadowdefender.com/help.html

JoeJoo,

System Requirements

Operating System: Windows XP / Windows 2003 / Windows Vista / Windows 7 / Windows 8 / Windows 10

Memory by OS: Windows XP: 256MB, Windows 2003: 256MB, Vista: 512MB, Windows 7: 1GB, Windows 8: 1GB, Windows 10: 1GB

Hard Disk: 3 MB for program files, 1GB or more free space for each partition in Shadow Mode

Steffo and all, thanks for the replies. That is what I thought (XP etc.) but it's too late now : I missed out on the giveaway !!!

Version on Shadow Defender website is compatible with XP, but this GOTD version isn't for some strange reason.

Trying 2 b Helpful, Next time I tried I got a different error, "%1 is not a valid Win32 application". Strange.

Denver, same here! Shame would have loved to check this giveaway out!!

Denver, If you are using Kasperky Internet security (like me) "pausing" it does not work. You have to completely uninstall it. Reboot your computer, install the giveaway, re-install Kaspersky then install all the virus signatures again. This is why i don't install many giveaways. This one is the first in a long time, i have gone to all this trouble, but i think it will be worth it. Hope this helps. If you are not using Kaspersky, it may be worth a try anyway, with whatever security you have installed.

Denver, did you copy files to another...folder, firstly: as becomes pretty well prerequisite for GOTD, yes?

bahag hari, Try disabling your anti-virus temporarily before installing. I have AVG and it blocks the installations from
GOTD. You can disable the antivirus for 10 minutes which is long enough to install the software. I had problems installing GOTD for a couple weeks until someone suggested this to me. Works every time.

I tried re-installing, and this time did not get an activation confirmation screen, but the program installed. After reboot it still told me it was a 30-day shareware. I will uninstall (again) and remove zipped and unzipped files relating to this, unless someone can tell me what is wrong or if this is actually a shareware version.

Thank you, GOTD and Yang Ping.

Edward,
What did you find? Is it really a 30 days shareware?

Yoram Tabori, Yes, it appears to be so. No one has indicated otherwise. I have uninstalled it and will not re-install until GOTD answers my question.

Edward, both the Readme.txt and the EULA say 30 days. There's no difference between getting the program from their website vs. getting it from here. GOTD should not have allowed this program in unless additional perks were provided.

Dear users,
The license given away today is fully functional and will never expire. The 30 days trial limitation in the EULA is probably a typo. We asked the developer to leave a comment on the matter to make sure you get firsthand information.

Sorry for the inconvenience
--
Always yours,
GOTD team

@ CJ Cotter,

I see no mention of "30 days" in the Readme.txt file included with the GOTD.ZIP package. The only time limitation mentioned is that the software has to be installed before the giveaway is over (as is usually the case).

Yes, a clarification should be made by the GOTD team regarding the 30-day software limitation issue.

Hello Tom,

Actually, we clarified it before scheduling the giveaway. Here is exactly what the developer told us, "The giveaway version is full functional and preactivated, after it is installed, it will never expire. but it can be installed only during the promotion period."
ShadowDefender is a trustworthy company, we've worked with them before and there has never been an issue, so you may rest assured the license won't expire :)

--
Always yours
GOTD Team

Tom, In the EULA it states "Anyone may use this software during an evaluation period of 30 days. Following this evaluation period of 30 days or less, if you wish to continue to use the software, you MUST register."

I'm guessing, after the GOTD clarifications here, that this version comes pre-registered.

In the 'About' Tab on the software it does not state that there is any time limitation, nor does it say that it is registered either. It states - "Version: 1.4.0.648".

Its not 100% clear in my view, but I think that this version can be used indefinitely on a computer that it is installed on within the activation period.

Thanks to GOTD team for answering the license term question.

Odd, that in spite of many questions, the developers are not monitoring the comments and answer this definitively.

Giveaway of the Day,

Thank you for your response, and thank you for making this program available.

After re-downloading (3rd time) and re-installing (3rd time) I have re-uninstalled (3rd time) and re-deleted all files and folders related to this shareware (3rd time.) The EULA I had to agree to in order to install was for a 30-day (or less) trial, and the reminder that comes up in Help (F1) restates the 30-day notice. If this is truly a "registered" and "preactivated" program it should state such somewhere in there.

After checking my inbox multiple times I have not received a license/subscription key and there is nowhere in the program to put a key if I had obtained one.

I must agree with a previous commenter that this program seems to be more hassle than it's worth to operate, especially when it concerns downloading programs, pictures, songs, etc. The whole "commit" and reboot process seems to me to be tedious.

Somehow I've managed to survive the computing world for 28 years without running a virtual drive, and I really see no need to run one now. (Actually I did try one out back in the DOS days, but it didn't last long, either.) I've already put more time and effort into this program - just to try it out - than it warrants, and I've rebooted more times today than I normally would in over a week (including during un-installation process).

Once again, thank you for all you do for us.

martin, no problem for me to install, win 7 64bit, must be your computer

martin, having same problem. installed okay on old lap top running 32 bit win 10. turned off all antivirus, anti spyware etc, but still won't install on 64 bit (stuck on 0% extracting). i will download again and see if it makes any difference. if you figure anything out please reply.

Reinhard Doberstein, I installed this on Win 7 64-bit without any issues. Maybe your antivirus or some other monitoring/security software needs to be disabled to allow the installation?

Nick H, I paused protection on Kaspersky, exited Malware fighter, ASC9, Kerish Doctor, SuperSpyware, windows defender is off. No luck. Download setup 3 times, no luck. Put copy from old lap (32 bit) on flash drive, no luck. Download setup for program from developer's site, this installs but is not registered. Looks like I'm not putting it on the 64 bit one!

freezes 0% Extracting