Great weblog here! Additionally your web site loads up fast!

What web host are you the use of? Can I get your
affiliate link on your host? I want my site loaded up as quickly as
yours lol

This is a late comment - but sometimes it takes awhile to know the value of a program.

If/When I move to another computer - and no longer have this free version: This is one of the GAOTD offerings that I will likely buy.

It's interface and control options are close to indispensable: Telling you which program has a lock on the drive - and the option to stop anyway: How can one do without?

Went through full registration procedure, but now it is saying my "trial version" is about to expire. This "trial version" designation is new, it popped up a few days ago. Is anyone else having this problem?

For the last several days I've been noticing some particularly annoying behavior. For example, when I have a large spreadsheet open (even if it's in the background) and I move the mouse pointer over the task bar on the bottom of the screen, that spreadsheet will be drawn up near the top of the screen... even if it's minimized.

Also, submenus on my start menu will often refuse to appear when I hoper the mouse pointer over the submenu's name on the previous (upper) menu.

Terminating USB Safely Remove and killing USBSRService,exe caused all that misbehavior to go away.

I've had to uncheck "run on Windows Startup" and now I expect to run USB Safely Remove only if and when I need help in stopping a USB device. Sorry; I don't want to have my display acting up strangely all the time.

--H

@ Toby, #146:

keep in mind:
1. they will allow one key per IP
2. they will register one user per key
3. you must use one mail address per user

Their registration page will be on up to august 12 (1 day 13 hours 36 minutes 42 seconds from now on and counting down).

By the way one of the best Giveaways I've ever seen since last quarter of 2007! In hopes the giveaway the excellent Zentimo again (last time was almost a beta...)

Hi
I tried to register and I never got a key. I try to log to your website to do support or get free again can not
is website down

USBSAfely Remove license.
For all GOTd-users that don't have received the USBSafelyRemove License after subscription & have received a newsletter from the producer. You can go to the support page H_tt:p//salefyremove.com/support.htm click on LostLicenseKey enter your email and obtain the license.

Because of the demand for the program they have extended the free download for 3 days, http://safelyremove.com/giveawaygaotd11.htm
download it from here, http://safelyremove.com/exe/usbsafelyremovesetup_4-7-1.exe , please move to the first comments.

After using this over the course of a day I'll give it two thumbs up. Try it you'll like it. (Windows 7 Ultimate 32 bit)

@90 TecKnight: With a license you can reinstall your Zentimo at any time. And any computer. (see comment 67 by Tation)

@92 bromberg: This brings me a System Fail Start. My Win7 machine could not awake from hibernating when doing this, because it expects that device in its acutal reviving configuration. So I lost my session data.

@104 Diana: Browsing multiple drives may be easier done with qdir (Nenad software) instead of mulitple Windows Explorer instances.

Process Explorer highlights USBSafelyRemove.exe as: A Packed Image: malware, including viruses, spyware, and adware is often stored in a packed encrypted form on disk in order to attempt to hide the code it contains from antispyware and antivirus.
Is there an explanation other than 'USB....exe' is a packed image!?

Although it said that it had been registered, I find that a day later it says I'm only on unregistered evaluation version .

#101 Mike - I have 2x 7 port hubs. My system works as it should. It can be a conflict with some older driver.

Many people don´t use the build-in function and just remove the USB... The golden rule is to wait for the LED to be silent then can you take it out... just like your PC is build to survive a power fail.

It´s Windows that´s prissy about when the USB disapear, without telling it to Windows first !
We´re told that Windows is faster than ever before... yeah right... But there´s added more and more options to the OS, so we will still use unneeded time on waiting for this or that to happen.

#119, goughgough, I've encountered similar issues where Windows has files in use on a device. Alternating between Stop and Eject as necessary (with some delay) always worked for me (I hope I remembered the correct terms, I'm actually not presently using it on my Win7 system as I haven't been removing USB devices while Windows is running).

Good software sells itself. I have licenses for both USB Safely Remove and Zentimo.

Never Got the Email
and Yes I did enter it correctly
and Yes I think this is a POORLY run Company
NO I'm not giving them another Email to Spam
Yes I am uninstalling :-) Bye!!


"You or someone else from your IP address have already requested the license during this giveaway. We allow requesting of only one license per IP address and email.


If you have already requested the license, but didn't receive it because of an incorrectly specified email you can try to request your license to a different email. Just enter the same name (must be absolutely the same as in the first request, letter-by-letter!) and specify another email and you'll get your license to other email.
If you want to get a license for your father\girlfriend\cousine or just a friend send him an invite to get a free license through our invite form or with another convenient way for you. "

Excellent utility. Won't say 'just what I was looking for' as I wasn't but now that I've used this I can only wonder why I wasn't looking for something like this.

Installed it twice, on my laptop (Win7 - which only gets used for my images) and my PC (Win XP SP3). Requested a license for each instance, one without the newsletter (why would I want it twice?) and received both licenses thus I am prepared to state that the option you select does not have any bearing on whether you receive your license or not. As the man says, your isp is the most likely offender.

It does what it says it does. In addition I noticed that it shows my usb mouse, on the laptop, as a hidden service. (For what that's worth) A huge improvement on the native Windows 'lack of info' service.

Have to laugh at the suggestion that they change the Latin letters requirement on their site, which I see they did. I would not have, really if you don't know what Latin letters are you shouldn't be using a computer, you'll break the internet. Maybe I should write a little converter to convert your 'English' letters to Latin letters, will be a steal at $9.00. Any takers? For my next trick I shall write a little utility to convert Arabic numbers to English numbers, also at $9.00. If you act now you may have both for $14.99.

This utility is a vast improvement on the Windows service. Those that don't see the advantage must have commented without giving it a try. I recommend it.

I have been using my registered version of USB Safely Remove for about the last 6 months, on my primary Windows XP machine.
It is very handy and reliable.

Some of the 'extras' that it does which Windows native safe remove does not have are:
- actually shows you what device corresponds to what drive letter so you can know which one to eject.
- allows you to assign custom icon, so can have different one for flash drive and different one for external 3.5" HD. Which is also very handy for those of us who are visually/ icon oriented.
- Will automatically try to do a activity shutdown on the device if Windows thinks it is still active/belonging to a process.
- I have made suggestion(s) to developer who is responsive to that.

To those folks who wonder why use this instead of just pulling out the drive -- well, sometimes just pulling the drive plug out you will be OK, and sometimes the data will be corrupted on your device. And sometimes it will cause any dependent program or process to hang/freeze.
If Windows is writing to the drive when you pull it, almost certainly you will have corrupted data on the drive - not good.
And some Windows programs use a cached-delayed write - so you cannot guarantee that the latest data has been written to your deveice unless you go through the Windows 'button'/menu/eject function.

No license or registration returned by email. Only confirmation that I received is that I am now on their mailing list. Not very helpful at all.

this does sound like it has some interesting features, but it will not run fully, successfully, in SANDBOXIE, so can only report partially.

yes, as far as i'm concerned, you should always use safely remove, be it this or the icon from MS.

yes, many of its features can be duplicated with (by using) other software(s).

integration & or saving you from manually hacking the Registry would seem to be its strong points.

often enough i have gone to safely remove only to be told that i can't (but not why). then i'll have to fire up (nirsoft's) Opened Files View program to figure out what has my drive open.

key received immediately.

setup installs into the directory of your choice. you can set up the the program for one or for all users. different files (drivers) are installed depending on system configuration. not certain, but Intel vs AMD system (& or perhaps x86 vs x64 too).

there is a service that runs (mentioned above). perhaps (not certain) a file would (normally) be installed in \system32\?

included CHM help file. looks complete & professional.

FULL range of options.

has a command-line mode.

this looks like a really well designed, professional program. (quite different from many of the flunkies that fly by here.)

website forum is available.
author is here in the comments.

i'm impressed with what i've seen.

if it ran sandboxed ... eh, maybe i'll give it a free go later?

Installed and worked fine. email received almost immediately too so no problems there either.

Had this in the past and worked well, so looking forward to using this again.

Many thanks

Just tried to register and it told me that I can't because a license was already requested from this IP.. Well yes, I'm at a hotspot with a few other of my friends and only one of us could get a license... Why is there now a license restriction with the software that you can only request one license per IP?? This means that only one person, per access point can request a license?? Why isn't it based on one license per unique person/email?? Which is WHY I Assumed they needed our email address!! What gives? Is there something else going on with the program or registration that sniffing my PC/Network while I'm doing the install?? Hope it's not do any kind of keylogging.. might just be why some of the users are seeing their AV programs triggering a virus event?? Program Author Comments/Response Welcome?

I'm not using USB Safely Remove however as a licensed user of Zentimo I highly recommend it. I'm using Zentimo since it's first beta version and I'm very pleased with it. Their support is also excellent, I had good experience with them. I suggest everyone to grab this offer (and consider upgrading to Zentimo if you need the extra functionality).

@PhilS(#18) and Amir(#26) it must be a false positive or your download was corrupted, I have Norton AV as well and mine is up to date and mine didn't have a problem with the setup file. If you still have issues before 3am EST just use the link in the readme file, when you enter it into your browser it will take you to the reg site. Enter the info and in the email you will receive a link to download the installer.
On to my review of the program. I LOVE it, I've always had issues with windows safely remove USB not stopping my portable hard drives(10 at last count). Now I will be able to find out why. Yippie, Thank you GOTD and Crystal Rich LTD.

It pains me to see so many people easily downloading and registering their download when I cannot even get to the published website. I would have liked to try this software, but it seems as though I will not be able to get a registration code even though it downloaded and installed. Any suggestions on how I might be able to register and evaluate this software?

Earlier today I downloaded and installed this program, not knowing whether it was something I would like or not due to the wide range of differing opinions in the comments.

I have spent the day with it running on my Windows XP machine, and for me it is a keeper.

I like the extra functions it includes and available options. If you are someone that uses usb devices very much, it appears to be a very useful program. I give it a thumbs up....

Hey, so I finally get the key, but then on the next reboot it tells me I have 20 days left of my 30 day trial??

In the prior boot the key entered fine and the reg info showed up in the "about" dialog.

Now in this reboot it tells me that it is still trial. What a pain.

I installed and registered with no problem, then accepted to power down my USB when removing (W7 64 bit) then reboot. Immediately after my Windows hangs, my gadgets disappeared on the desktop and my network icon disappeared from the system tray (hangs a while and disappears) while I can see that I can still access the internet.
So I uninstall (and the uninstall program hung) so I have to force shutdown.

Dont know why, but I won't install this again. Too much trouble for not much benefit.

Help needed.

From goughgough of #93

To Igor and staff from Crystal Rich, developer of Zentimo

I have tried Zentimo , hoping it will work with Truecrypt on my 64-bit Windows 7 machine.

It does not work for my SATA external hard drive, which I have opened using Truecrypt in my Windows 7 (64-bit) computer.
May be my system has a handle open that no software can dismount/remove, like comment #17 above seems to imply?

Same error message from Zentimo and USB Safely Remove (see #93 above.)

Any idea to solve this problem. If either one can work, I will definitely buy it.

Thanks.

I downloaded this program twice and was not able to install it. I finally went to the website from there, then requested my GOTD key (which I received promptly.) After installing with NO problems, I entered the key and it is working great...thanks!

Have regularly issues with device in use. this programm installed ok. Not extensively tested

@81 registered without newsletter

@85 - it hides unused memory card slots. and only shows occupied ones.
advantage only disconnects the card to be ejected not the total hub according to the website(not verified)

@71 - options - general - first checkbox on the screen disable run at startup

@76 - used the download version linked in the email with the licencenumber has an installation option install for all users

Help needed.

To Igor and staff from Crystal Rich, developer of USB Safely Remove http://safelyremove.com/

It does not work for my SATA external hard drive, which I have opened using Truecrypt in my Windows 7 (64-bit) computer.
May be my system has a handle open that no software can dismount/remove, like comment #17 above seems to imply?

Below is the message I got from USB Safely Remove :

The device "ST 3500320AS (J:)" cannot be stopped right now.
Close all applications that have open files on the disk(s): "J:". Then try to stop the device again.
Processes that lock files on the device
Process File Name
System
j:\$Extend\$RmMetadata\$TxfLog\$TxfLogContainerOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOl
j:\
j:\
j:\$Extend\$RmMetadata\$TxfLogVSTxf LogCoritaineK)0000000000000000002
j:\$Extend\$RmMetadata\$TxfLog\STxf Log.blf


USB Safely Remove
This action will close all files opened by the listed processes
and close all processes launched from the device drive as
well.
You may have lost your data if one of listed processes is
currently writing data to the device.
Are you sure you want to continue?
Yes
No

Norton users : go to tasks, click antivirus, go to Sonar and slide all sonar's off. Then install this device, Then go back and turn sonar back on.

allow you to return your stopped device back, But not IF they are on a USB HUB.

If your USB devises are on a USB HUB with other Devices, It won't OFF and on. The other devices interupt the use of this.

Great product, I am sick of Vista not allowing me to remove a USB device when it is not in use, even after I have closed every program running. I found it easy to use and very useful.

A tip for using more than one device. Give your devices descriptive names. For example X: eXternal , D: Download, B: Backup. So you can see the description lets you know what device you are dealing with.

I used this with WinXP for years from a GOTD a while back. I just upgraded my PC and it's running Win7 and seems to be fine, but I think that I'll go ahead and install this just because it's a great program.

And yeah I'm not really into adding startup stuff for no reason, but this actually did have some great features to it. I just can't really remember what they all were. ;)

Application is really great but I think I've found one issue...
Under Win7 it is not able to turn off the power from USB 3.0 socket while "remove device" command. It works fine for USB 2.0 ports on the same laptop. Could anyone confirm this issue?
I could provide detailed info about my HW & SW configuration if needed.

Installed no problem. Nice program. Thanks GAOTD!

To those confused: English USES Latin letters. (They probably should have phrased that requirement differently.) They don't want Arabic or Cyrillic or Chinese, etc.

For a long period I've been unable to dismount my USB-memory key - and I couldn't find out which program was the causing the problem.
The problem took place immediately when the key was inserted into the slot even before a file was accessed.

But todays program USB Safely Remove revealed that it was the COMODO System-Cleaner - actually the resident Cleaner_Validator - that was causing the trouble.

Thanks for the help - it's a keeper !

- Ben

@Don (#80):

Just change your IP for each key you request.

@29 CurryDog: ProEject is a very different program from Safely Remove/Zentimo. For starters, ProEject works ONLY with drives (NOT other types of USB devices); second, ProEject must be placed ON the drive you want to 'safely remove' and not on the host computer's drives.

I've used Zentimo from a previous GOTD and am VERY happy with it, though USB Safely Remove would in fact do all I need. Hoever, my sincere thanks to Igor, Crystal Rich, and GOTD for today's giveaway. Also it's VERY refreshing to see the developer taking such an active part in the comments section here!

To #81
You do need to accept their newsletter to receive an activation key.
This is absolutely not true. Whether you will receive newsletters or not - it doesn't matter we send the license anyway. As I already told the license key email may got to the spam folder or may be rejected by your email server while the newsletter notification email may be delivered at the same time. They have different content and maybe treat by the mail servers separately.

To #85:
As far as I can tell this software does not detect devices in my computer’s card slots such as SD or Flash memory.
There are a lot of hardware configurations so our tool may not detect some exotic ones. Please send us the report from the program so that we can understand what's going on. In order to send the report you should proceed to "Main menu -> Help -> Report a bug", and in the opened dialog enter your e-mail and a short description of the problem.

To #84:
I was also puzzled by the latin letter thing. I just went ahead and typed my name as usual and it worked
Actually we meant "English letters" (which also are Roman or Latin). But it seems that this sounds strange for English speakers therefore we change this part of the prompt to just "English letters". Hope it's more clear.

To #91:
Does this work with True Crypt?? Very important in todays werld!
Yes, it does. See program autorun feature. But Zentimo has a better full integration with TrueCrypt.
To #88:
Still did not receive e-mail with registration stuff for USB Safety Remove software. It’s about 4 hours since I filled the form…
Just look in the spam folder of your mail server, it may got there or try to request to a different email.

To #82, #83, #87, #90: Guys, thanks for your nice words!



Regards,
Igor Tkachenko,
CEO of Crystal Rich Ltd
http://crystalrich.com

To those complaining about licences: got mine in less then a minute.
Got in in Gmail's inbox folder.

Very nice utility, thank you. I've spent far too much time searching for anything still using my USB devices with Process Explorer and not with success every time. Unlocker type apps don't seem to work properly with Win 7 64 bit; either not seeing anything locked or unable to unlock what it does see even in administrator mode.

My Toshiba portable hard drive (powered by the USB port only) can be ejected and returned fine but once ejected that little blue power light in the drive case is still on. Does this mean the software is not removing USB power or is the power off function not working on Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64bit? I did tick that Device Power Management option in Safely Remove Hardware options and reboot before plugging in and then trying to stop that portable USB drive.

I was hoping to save wear on my portable drive and that USB port by leaving the drive plugged in but powered off with this utility and bring it back only when needed now and then through the day - a digital power switch so to speak.

I tried something I knew would normally stop me from ejecting the drive, leaving a Windows Explorer window open to a folder on the drive. This utility closed the window for me and ejected the drive. With my habit of browsing multiple drives via multiple Windows Explorer instances, it's too easy for me to miss closing one so that's a good thing.

There have been times when I tried to safely remove my USB drive and all I would get from Windows would be a message that it is being used. I would make sure all programs are shut down and try again. Still being used. What the heck?! I am using a 16GB thumb drive and it has a lot of data on it, so I don't want to take a chance and corrupt the drive and I end up rebooting my machine just so I can safely remove my drive. Common Microsoft, how hard is it to give the user more information? Anyway, I'm really pleased to find this offer and have already installed it and it works great.

This is a nice program, very impressed with the functionality and look. Licence key arrived immediately by email. I personally prefer having a licence key than the usual GOTD process. It means that if for any reason I need to re-install after the 'day' I can. A recent hard drive failure meant I lost the past two years collection of GOTD programs. This is one of the few 'offered' programs I would pay money for.

#64: "I just ran a trial on my win 7 ultimate and received error massages that this software is trying to disable my USB 8 port hub."

Ouch. Works on this rig OK with on-board USB slots at rear, slots at front of case, & 7 port hub. *If* I remember correctly, hubs with more than 4 ports have to use some trick or gimmick, so maybe that's not quite kosher with your 8 port?

* * *

#76: "... The last time I installed this app, it only registered for the active user account..."

Yes, that is still true *by Default* -- try checking install for all users during setup.

* * *

#80: "... 1 request per IP address. I wanted this for my daughter’s computer and I am unable to request a duplicate key. This may have been disclosed before, but I didn’t see it. This leads me to try the same key on multiple computers or..."

Bothered me too in the same way, but the included License.txt says: "... You may install and use an unlimited number of copies of the SOFTWARE PRODUCT...".

* * *

#81: "You do need to accept their newsletter to receive an activation key. I tried twice without accepting the newsletter and received nothing. I then used one of those temporary email addresses and accepted the newsletter and received a key."

With or without still got key -- strongly suspect your ISP's simply blocking those e-mails.

Note: Many [most?] ISPs do block a LOT of e-mails as they try to eliminate all spam. I've always felt it was kinda important to know if your ISP was more prone to blocking e-mails, so you know to use some other service when getting an e-mail is important. Not getting a GOTD key is bad, but not getting an employment interview request, not receiving word you won that contest, not knowing your insurance was canceled, not getting all those sorts of things can be much worse.

* * *

#84: "I’ve been plugging and unplugging USB pens, HDs and SD-Cards every day on different machines (XP, Vista, Windows 7) without to use even the ‘Save remove’ button without any problems."

Then A) you're lucky, B) you're unaware of problems, or C) cautions about damaging &/or shortening the life of USB drives/devices is overblown. :-)

I've never just yanked a USB storage device & had that device fail because I've never seen any reason Not to use the "Safely Remove Hardware..." that Windows nicely provides. Most of the time it causes Very little delay, so I give everyone that says it can damage something the benefit of the doubt -- in a contest between a few seconds & cash, for me cash wins every time, & if properly ejecting a device means I might not have to spend as much, I'm all for it. ;-)

* * *

#88: "Still did not receive e-mail with registration stuff for USB Safety Remove software. It’s about 4 hours since I filled the form…"

Check the dev's comments earlier, check your spam folder(s), try another e-mail address etc. FWIW some ISPs just block certain domains & such so there's nothing you can do but use another e-mail service. Note that you do need to follow the instructions & spell out your name the very same way as your 1st attempt, changing only the e-mail address -- otherwise you'll likely get an error message.

* * *

#92: "I usually remove my USB thumb drive after I power down – isn’t that just as good?"

Yeah. If you never have any problems, & don't have any reason to use USR's more advanced features, it's not a Must Have.

Download and install went well, but I don't understand the registration process (not usually a problem).

I got my registration code via return email, but I keep getting an error message after saving the filled-in reg screen within the app upon completion-- no matter what name I enter above the code box.

Error message says the name is wrong. The email says to use "giveaway@wondershare.com" as my name -- but the error message says to use the exact name I initially used to generate the email containing the code. Neither works. I don't see any other place to enter the email address on the registration screen within the app.

I've copied the reg code from the email, and clicked on "paste" link to enter it. Have alternately used standard copy-and-paste to enter the code. Still not accepted.

Can anyone explain the procedure that works?