Jay Barney, DVD shrink will do fast and easy.

Jay Barney,
RAMARWALL is correct.
As long as the protection is removed DVD shrink will do what you want.
However do yourself a favor and try this -
- Purchase some Dual layer DVD blanks (they are fairly cheap these days).
- Use today's software to make a dual layer copy
- Also use DVD Shrink to make a single layer copy
- Get the family together and watch a portion of both disks play.
The majority of the family (and me) will say - don't be cheap, we want the better quality video from now on.

And I am Scottish,
Rob

Rob Down Under, I gave it a try. Tomorrow I'll go to Fry's Electronics to buy some dual layer blanks as you suggested. Tonight, my first pass trying to copy a 6.72GB disc failed during the copy phase. "Abnormal termination, Error Code-1. Please contact our Support Team."

cecile, Not true. Once you activate it, it becomes a full version though you can't upgrade it since it's a GOTD license. Have used the earlier GOTD version since I installed it back in February of this year.

cecile, I think you misunderstand. The download is only available for 24 hrs from GOTD, and it's a trial until you apply the registration code. Such a code is normally available for 24 hours only, but in this case you have 5 days to apply it, check the WinX site countdown timer which has a days column. Once applied within the 5 day countdown period it's the full version.

What's this?, By the time you see "install software informer" you have already installed the giveaway. The box you are talking about is letting you know its installed (says that in the big open area above the software informer bit) and is wanting to know if you want to install the software informer program.

I did not get any prompt for software informer. The zip archive downloaded directly (no need to have a link emailed or share on social media). I used the instructions at the top of these comments to get the license code. Ran the installer, when it started up the application it asked for the license. Accepted it and done. I use their video format converter frequently.

EDIT: When I closed all the windows there was a pop up that loaded behind everything else asking if I wanted to install GAOTD's software informer. It is optional and had no impact on installing the DVD ripper.

Bill Freeman, CONFIRMED! the same happened to me on Win 10 Home x64.

Screenshot here: https://imgur.com/a/OXchC

Louis, thanks for the info. I just wanted to tell you that there´s no need to move to a Linux distro. Just move back to Win 8.1 x64 and you will have no problems at all, whatsoever. I installed it more than 3 years ago, and I haven´t even´t bothered reinstalling ever since, since I haven´t had any problems like those you describe. Far, far easier than dealing with Linux, I´m sure... ;)

Louis,

"Microsoft Windows 10, had, AGAIN, simply removed it from my Programs folder, without my permission, in one of their now unavoidable Updates. "

When Windows 10 has a version or build update you're reinstalling Windows. All of your software & settings should be migrated to the new version, but as you've found out, doesn't always work that way. Because we're weeks away from another version update...

When that happens you normally just reinstall the software, though obviously that won't work with GOTD offers. Aside from buying the software, you *might try* moving the app to another location after you've installed it, & activating it there -- that way the uninstall records in the registry can't be used to remove it. If/when the Win10 upgrade process removes rather than uninstalls software, you can normally find those moved folders in C:\Windows.old\ -- just move them back. Either way however the upgrade process changes some Windows &/or system IDs, so existing installed software *may* lose its activation.

One other possible solution, rather than revert to an older version of Windows, is to run that older version of Windows in a VM [Virtual Machine]. It would be somewhat slower than running software normally, because your device resources are split between Windows & the VM, but the bottleneck backing up your DVDs is the data transfer rate from the DVD drive, so it shouldn't effect you much.

andario, yes, you may have a good point there, since there's nothing really in Win 10 that truly offered anything extra or better. I do have Win 8.1 on my little Asus Netbook on which it came pre-installed, and have to say, I've never had any hassles with it whatsoever. Thanks for the idea !

mike, yes, both your suggestions have merit -- I've usually only noticed it in hindsight, that these software installations had been deleted, up to now it's always been more than 30 days after these updates, and apparently Windows 10 cleans out that c:/Windows.old folder after 30 days. Now that I know the cause, I can probably try to save the say whenever I see Windows forcing an update.

Appreciate your suggestions !

Louis, If you are on Win 10 Pro or Enterprise editions, there is a way to stop the auto downloads (notifys of downloads so you can see what they are first) and updates and another to actually hide the updates you don't want

DJ, I've tried to do that, but haven't been able to figure out how (am running Win 10 Pro 64bit). I usually get no option at Start button but to shutdown and update / restart and update, without any option to restart without updating. Can you point me in a direction of how to circumvent these updates ?

Louis, Go here and follow along to stop it from auto updating " https://www.windowscentral.com/how-stop-updates-installing-automatically-windows-10 " Follow the whole thing. After that, when it says you have updates available, check which 1's they are (most times you have to do the "cumulative" update because it has security fixes in it)....then you can decide if you want to hide a particular driver/program update so it won't keep trying to update.
And here is how you hide those pesky "I do not want you" updates " https://www.howtogeek.com/223864/how-to-uninstall-and-block-updates-and-drivers-on-windows-10/ " It is Step 3 and do not copy/paste the included quotation marks..I just place those there to help outline the URL

DJ,
Could you elaborate on that ('stop the auto downloads')
I could live with Notifys. as long as I can choose when downloading will occur, and also choose when the actual updating will occur.
I don't understand why the public is not demanding this control.

Thanks,
Rob

DJ, this is truly helpful, thank you ! Really appreciate your help here, this looks exactly like what I've been looking for.

Rob Down Under, Windows team, with Windows 10, deemed it necessary to automatically download and update the operating system..with their older OS , you just checked a box if you wished to change that to a "notify about downloads"..as I pointed Louis to, if you want to do this in Win 10, you have a few more hoops to go through.

Exactly my problem also. I tried running Setup.exe as Administrator; didn't help.

Someone wrote to me: "Bruce Fraser, I ended up downloading the software directly from Digiarty and using the activation code from their website."
I did that, and it worked perfectly! Thanks.
NOTICE TO ALL: The activation code is still good until September 20. So it's more like "Giveaway of the Week."

Nige,

Try right clicking the setup file and "running as administrator" too.

Nige,

I think everyone's found that you can't simply disable Kaspersky, but have to restart, going into Windows Safe Mode. Kaspersky, like lots of other security software, has constantly running services that cannot be turned off otherwise.

mike,
I don't use Windows Defender, for a similar reason.
I want the ability to disable anti virus whenever I choose.
Windows Defender does not allow us that control.
I use Avast free instead because it does allow us to disable (say until Windows restarts), and it's presence tells Windows Defender to stay out of the picture.
I like to be able to control things, and MS seems determined to take away our control.

Doug Robinson,
blu ray is old fashioned to,

Doug Robinson,

No, today's GOTD will not work with Blu-ray discs. Digiarty had a WinX Blu-ray Ripper, & I believe a copy app too, but while the page for the Blu-ray ripper is still up, it shows: "Sorry, the Software is invalid". *To me*, the fact the page is still up hints that it **might** still be available in other markets, perhaps using a VPN?

winxdvd[.]com/blu-ray-ripper/

The short version of what happened is that one of the companies selling Blu-ray DRM tech sued Fengtao [DVDFab] in the US. Fengtao did not have a rep or lawyer appear at the court proceedings, so the judge issued an order banning them in the US. That apparently scared many [most?] other developers into dropping their Blu-ray software, at least in certain markets.