Messages

1

Tweaking.com Support & Help / Re: Why Do I need Reimage (your ad on this page) When Your AIO Performs So Well

« on: March 01, 2014, 09:14:42 am »

Yes, I understand why you post Google ads.  But that doesn't answer my question.  How would you characterize the differences between your tool (WR-AIO) and ReImage?  At the highest level of description they "sound" identical.  I suspect AIO is the superior product, but I wanted your take on it.

I guess we shouldn't be too surprised that Google would choose *that* ad (for ReImage--reminds me of RePet!) because they make a calculated effort to tailor ads to consumers.  But it is disconcerting to be on the Tweaking page but seeing ads for other like-sounding tools!  It's confusing.  I suspect that if *you* thought their tool was so great, you wouldn't have built WR-AIO!

My guess is that the code to display the ads contacts the ad server, which in turn, scans the page on which the ad is being served, using keywords from the page to decide which ad to display. Google calls this "AdSense", so if terms like "registry", "system", "tweak", "repair" and such appear often on the page displaying the ad, they'll choose an ad related to such topics--including ads which may be competitors ads. Some ad servers also track you, using "tracking cookies" (which many malware scanners detect and remove, btw), in theory to allow them to custom tailor the ads they choose to display to you according to the types of web pages you've recently visited. As an example.. Shane may not see the same "Reimage" ad that you see, because it's not likely he spends much time browsing websites looking for tools similar to his, while you may have recently browsed other similar websites, so the ad server is trying to "suggest" similar tools to you.

For myself, I block certain ad servers because they're well-known for allowing their advertisers to create misleading ads, such as those which appear like "Before you download, run this program!" in a way that makes it appear the author is endorsing their product when in fact, the author doesn't know what ad is being chosen or displayed. I also block those ads which look like the "download" button--Ever download a program from c|net and wonder which of the "download" links/buttons is the actual download link and which are just misleading ads? This is why some websites use CSS to create a frame around their ad sections to make it clear that anything inside the box frame is only an ad banner.

As for the differences.. I did a Google search for Reimage, and found ReImagePlus. Not sure if this is the same one you're seeing an ad for, but it does sound like their focus is on repairing corrupt system files, which it appears to do by comparing the files on your computer with their database of good (and possibly bad) files on their web server. This also implies that the program may be sending their server a list of the files on your computer, which may be a bad idea security-wise (as well as for those concerned with privacy issues), since such interactions may expose vulnerabilities in your system to those wishing to exploit your system. (But don't panic! I say "may" here because I don't know how ReImagePlus operates--it may also operate in a "safe" fashion that doesn't expose you to additional risk.. But these are long and deep topics for another thread and/or forum..)

HTH,
Cas

2

Tweaking.com Support & Help / Re: Registry Backup - Weirdness on drive(s?) other than C:

« on: February 28, 2014, 07:25:23 pm »

Awesomeness! It looks like you used the same idea as I did, only as a temporary measure instead of an "always there" version!

Maybe a better solution than letting the user select a drive would be write something to find an unused drive letter to mount at the time the script is run? That way, even if a user changes their configuration (or plugs a USB device in that grabs the letter they tried to choose), it won't affect them at all, and won't bother them to try to choose a drive? I already do something very similar with my USB portable software drive--The autorun script tries to mount it to P:, but if P: is not available, it'll find any available drive and adjust itself accordingly. This way, whether I'm at home, at the office, or at a client site, I can plug the drive in and "it just works."

From the looks of your code, you're using VB to create a batch script to do the work.. Much the same as I am doing with my backup scripts  You could just have the VB code find an unused drive letter (I don't use VB much, so not sure how to go about that part), then when outputting the batch file, add something like "SET ""VSS_DRIVE=" & sDriveLetter & ":""" to the batch file, and replace every occurrence of ``B:'' with ``%VSS_DRIVE%'', or something similar. Or, if you'd like, I could show you some of the code from my own batch scripts that will auto-mount drives only when actually needed/used.

Cheers, and thanks for providing Registry Backup! So far, it's taken over the job that ERUNT used to do without any other problems.

3

Tweaking.com Support & Help / Registry Backup - Weirdness on drive(s?) other than C:

« on: February 26, 2014, 09:17:03 am »

Hi,

First, a little background.. I've used ERUNT for years to backup my Windows' registry, but I recently got a new laptop with Win8.1, which ERUNT doesn't seem to properly back everything up. So I'm giving Tweaking.com's Registry Backup a try.. However, I'm set up in a specific way, using a very large library of hand crafted tools and utilities (both batch/cmd files and binary executables) which would be a major pain to go back and change them all at this point :-( Specifically, my drives are set up so that the C: drive is mainly for booting the OS, the files needed by the OS for normal operation, and *some* applications. I've moved my user profiles and the majority of applications to the D: (Data) and P: (Programs) drives, which I set up as additional partitions after trimming the C: drive down to just what it needs. Additionally, I've got another partition, the B: (Backup - And a throwback from when I used the B: drive for a IOMega Zip disk instead of a floppy drive) drive in which I have some critical backup/restore software and their data (including the metadata needed to restore the entire  system from scratch, if need be).

Of course, I installed Registry Backup (RB) to this B: drive, and told it to use a dedicated folder on this drive for it's backup and data files. And this is where I seem to have my problem..

It looks like RB installed fine to the B: drive, and seems to start up fine, without any issues. However, when I click the button to backup manually now.. It creates a rift in the space-time continuum that seems to turn my B(ackup) drive in to a B(lack hole)! :-( First, VSS takes a long time to start (and the other problems persist even if I use the alternate method, either from the start, or by clicking the "I'm impatient" button): The B: drive just disappears, entirely and completely, from the system. RB spazzes out and fails to backup anything at all, and fails to even save a log file (it seems it can no longer find the B: drive anymore, either), File Explorer seems to think the drive has vanished, even the Disk Manager refuses to let me do anything with the B: partition. It still sees the partition, but it won't let me view it or assign it to a drive letter again. RB seems to fail because it cannot find the B: drive anymore, either--including not being able to save a log file (so I cannot provide a log file for you to look at!)

This seems to continue on even after RB fails to backup anything.. At first, I thought I would have to reboot to restore the universe to it's proper configuration.. But.. The moment I exited the RB application, my B: drive suddenly reappeared on it's own. I've tried this now four times, with the same results each time: As soon as I start the backup, the B: drive unmounts until I close RB. I tried to install RB to the C: drive and run it from there, but the same problem persists if I use the B: drive to store the data. Finally, I installed RB to the C: drive AND used the C: drive to store the RB  data.. And everything worked beautifully without any problems.

So it would seem the RB does not like using anything but the C: drive, or whatever it is doing during it's backup prep-work, it's unmounting the other drive, even though it's trying to use the drive at the same time. Thankfully, it seems temporary and goes away as soon as the RB application terminates, so it seems very likely that the problem is within the RB code.

I have NOT tried RB with another drive, such as the D: or P: drives, but given it's behavior, I suspect the results would be much the same. I am not able to test this, though, as anything that unmounts D: or P: *will* bring my system to a crashing halt.. If need be, I can create a testing drive to test it on some other drive letter; Just let me know. I'll happily provide any other information to help diagnose the problem, too.
(*EDIT: Correction, I did try this on another temporary drive--using a USB "ThumbDrive", but not a hard disk partition, and had the same issues.*)

In the meantime, I'm working around the problem by backing up the registry to the C: drive, then copying the backup to the B: drive.. Just not sure how effective this would be if I need to restore, however.

Regards,
Cas