VoodooShield discussion

[simmerskool]

Yes, or adding it as exception (options exclude) in CCleaner. A better solution IMO.

thanks guys!

EDIT errr, Dan just moved the token, so I guess I'm fixed either way

 

[VecchioScarpone]

Lucky me. No registration, autostart or any other issue since yesterday and I started and restarted hips of times just to be sure before reporting.
Thanks to all that chipped in

Edit:
BTW for the record, I am using CCleaner running at startup, without tweak. And I'm surprised that this time around I don't have the registration issue.

 

[ForgottenSeer 58943]

I'm not running the betas. But I noticed with VS 3X installed my shutdowns are 4-5 times slower.

 

[VecchioScarpone]

Dan
About Create Rules. Whenever you find some time, I understand that some users would appreciate some guideline/example how to set rules. Also I happen to mention in here some time back, some good suggestions from @Baldrick to which several user expressed support, I included
As for myself I repeat my question, would using VS without interacting, setting rules, be safe? Will/does VS have a default set rules that cover that contingency?

 

[danb]

Ok, the good news is that the ONLY remaining errors in the error reporting system are the Region / conversion errors… which is kind of surprising to me, but I am certainly not going to complain about that . These Region / conversion error can cause ALL kinds of problems, but once they are resolved, we should be good to go.

There still might be an odd bug or two that you guys have found and reported that is not fixed yet, but we really need to fix these Region / conversion errors first, because they really do cause all kinds of odd problems, which might be resolved once these errors are fixed.

I moved the token to c:\programdata\voodooshield, so that should no longer be an issue. Actually, I thought we had already moved a month or so ago to avoid this issue, but for some reason VS was putting it in the temp folder, which is obviously cleaned by the various disk cleaning utilities.

If we really want to do this right, here is what we should do (whether you are running VS Pro or Free)…

1. Start VS 4.04b, and go to VoodooShield Settings / Register, and click the big “Reset Registration” button at the bottom. VS will reset the registration and exit.
2. Uninstall VS, and click “Yes” when it asks if you want to delete the Settings and Logs
3. Reboot the computer
4. Install VS 4.05b
5. You will need to register one last time, but hopefully this really is the last time.

Also, a lot of people are asking about the new Rules feature. The Rules feature is STRICTLY optional… much like the Custom Folders feature. Most users will not use it, but in a few months when we have had the chance to build it out a little more and add more parameters, I think it will be a very cool feature because we will be able to build and share rulesets, and even users who have no interest in learning how to create rules will benefit because they will be able to select their favorite ruleset. At that point, VS will pretty much be totally silent, but still block what it needs to.

Basically, I completely understand that we need to keep VS as simple and user-friendly as possible, and I also know what our users like you guys prefer and expect, and while we might add some advanced features from time to time, they will always be completely optional.

About VS slowing the windows shutdown process… yeah, VS has a shutdown sequence and needs to save some settings. We should be able to optimize that some more so that shutdowns will be quicker. If I moved that code to a timer, and fired it every 30 minutes or so, that would probably work, and then shutdowns would be super fast… either way, I will figure it out.

http://www.voodooshield.com/Download/beta4/InstallVoodooShield405beta.exe

Thank you guys for all of your patients and help!

 

[VecchioScarpone]

Much obliged Dan. I take my hat off, good on you mate

 

[lowdetection]

Tested against some new malwares, I like it, I hope to see the new final to test better some behaviors, but in my opinion is on the right way.

 

[plat1098]

About VS slowing the windows shutdown process… yeah, VS has a shutdown sequence and needs to save some settings. We should be able to optimize that some more so that shutdowns will be quicker. If I moved that code to a timer, and fired it every 30 minutes or so, that would probably work, and then shutdowns would be super fast… either way, I will figure it out.

Shutdowns here are affected a bit. Very good to know, thanks.

 

[VecchioScarpone]

Installed 405b as per Dan instructions. Did a couple of cold startup and reboot and no issues to report.
Computer shutdown time, 25s more or less.
A happy camper here

 

[ForgottenSeer 58943]

Installed 405b as per Dan instructions. Did a couple of cold startup and reboot and no issues to report.
Computer shutdown time, 25s more or less.
A happy camper here

I haven't tested the beta's yet. But with 3.59 the shutdowns are slow on all systems, including my 8 Core Ryzen, and the other boxes. All of them have SSD's.

 

[VecchioScarpone]

I haven't tested the beta's yet. But with 3.59 the shutdowns are slow on all systems, including my 8 Core Ryzen, and the other boxes. All of them have SSD's.

Just reported the shutdown time for the record. Don't quite know if it is too slow or what. A very very average computer user here.

 

[ForgottenSeer 58943]

Just reported the shutdown time for the record. Don't quite know if it is too slow or what. A very very average computer user here.
View attachment 167425

It all depends on if you use real shutdown or hybrid. I don't use hybrid as I use a specific program to disable my NIC's when the system is turned off and it doesn't work right with hybrid. Without Voodooshield my real shutdown is about 1 second. With Voodooshield, it jumps up to almost 20-30 seconds. Not referring to the beta, 3.59 I believe is what I am running. Whatever the current public release is.

 

[VecchioScarpone]

It all depends on if you use real shutdown or hybrid. I don't use hybrid as I use a specific program to disable my NIC's when the system is turned off and it doesn't work right with hybrid. Without Voodooshield my real shutdown is about 1 second. With Voodooshield, it jumps up to almost 20-30 seconds. Not referring to the beta, 3.59 I believe is what I am running. Whatever the current public release is.

I use a plain W10 Home.The computer components are more than 5 years old and nothing fancy. I guess I will have to exit VS and see the shutting down speed to asses its impact. I'll do that and get back to you.

 

[VecchioScarpone]

@ForgottenSeer 58943
After exit VS and VS service, it took average 13s for the computer to shutdown.
Dan is working on it, as from his last post. Going from what he reckon in the last paragraph the shutdown time it is gonna be faster even for my system.

 

[danb]

Here is a quick update... the error reporting logs for 4.05b look basically perfect, with the exception of some firewall blocks .

There still may be a couple of small oddities / bugs that are not actually logged, but we are getting close, thank you guys for your persistence!

As far as VS slowing down Windows Shutdown... this should be easy to figure out. I have not experienced it myself, and I have tested the heck out of it on several different computers. Basically, when Windows is shutting down, it asks for all of the programs to finish what they are doing, save their settings, and perform a normal app shutdown. So when Windows is shutting down, VS has to save 7 or so settings to the hard drive, and then shut down. These settings include things like what previous mode VS was in, so that it knows what mode to start in the next time the computer is rebooted. With an SSD, this should be super, super fast and you should not see any slowdown at all. With a mechanical HDD, it might slow the shutdown process down a second or so, but anything beyond that, there is something wrong.

Let me ask you guys this... whoever is having an issue with VS delaying the Windows shutdown processes... what happens when you bring up the task manager, and make it so you can see the VoodooShield.exe process running. Then right click on VS and choose Exit. That is exactly how long your computer takes to shutdown VS... so if there is a delay beyond that, then there is a conflict / issue of some kind that we need to figure out. Once you guys let me know, I can add some logging to the shutdown code... the ironic thing is that this will actually slow the shutdown process slightly . Anyway, not too many people have this issue, but we really need to figure out why this is happening, and now that the other bugs are pretty much resolved, I can start looking at this.

BTW... just a thought for anyone experiencing this issue. What happens if you restart the computer, let the desktop come up completely, and then reboot the computer? The reason I ask is because on some of my systems with a main SSD drive and a mechanical D drive, if the computer has been on long enough the D drive will go to sleep and can really slow certain things down... windows shutdown being one of them.

 

[VecchioScarpone]

Let me ask you guys this... whoever is having an issue with VS delaying the Windows shutdown processes... what happens when you bring up the task manager, and make it so you can see the VoodooShield.exe process running. Then right click on VS and choose Exit. That is exactly how long your computer takes to shutdown VS... so if there is a delay beyond that, then there is a conflict / issue of some kind that we need to figure out. Once you guys let me know, I can add some logging to the shutdown code... the ironic thing is that this will actually slow the shutdown process slightly .

Shutting down VS in that way it take hardly 1s.
BTW I'm not concerned about the 20s or so it take for my old computer (at least 6 probably 7/8 years) to shutdown when VS is on.
I was just troubleshooting for @ForgottenSeer 58943 perusal.

 

[danb]

Dan
About Create Rules. Whenever you find some time, I understand that some users would appreciate some guideline/example how to set rules. Also I happen to mention in here some time back, some good suggestions from @Baldrick to which several user expressed support, I included
As for myself I repeat my question, would using VS without interacting, setting rules, be safe? Will/does VS have a default set rules that cover that contingency?

Absolutely... as soon as VS 4.0 is ready (which it looks like we are close), we will figure everything out, and I will catch up on posts, emails and pms. I originally wanted to stay somewhat incognito as far as my identity is concerned, but a lot has changed since then and well, I think it is time to broadcast live sessions or at a minimum post youtube videos. I would prefer live sessions that are recorded and are posted to youtube permanently.

So once VS 4.0 is ready (enough), we will get this going... and I will be able to do quick demos on how to create rules, along with tons of other info.

I simply can no longer keep up with everything... I mean most security companies have 10-4,000 employees, who do everything from development, customer service, accounting, etc., so I need to find a more efficient way to communicate with everyone.

And once we figure this out... I have a hell of a lot to tell you guys.

 

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

Hi Dan I get a VoodooAi error when trying to run hitmanpro_x64.exe portable from my downloads folder:

 

[VecchioScarpone]

Absolutely... as soon as VS 4.0 is ready (which it looks like we are close), we will figure everything out, and I will catch up on posts, emails and pms. I originally wanted to stay somewhat incognito as far as my identity is concerned, but a lot has changed since then and well, I think it is time to broadcast live sessions or at a minimum post youtube videos. I would prefer live sessions.

So once VS 4.0 is ready (enough), we will get this going... and I will be able to do quick demos on how to create rules, along with tons of other info.

I simply can no longer keep up with everything... I mean most security companies have 10-4,000 employees, who do everything from development, customer service, accounting, etc., so I need to find a more efficient way to communicate with everyone.

And once we figure this out... I have a hell of a lot to tell you guys.

Dan
It sound great. Keep up the good work.

 

[danb]

Hi Dan I get a VoodooAi error when trying to run hitmanpro_x64.exe portable from my downloads folder:

View attachment 167439

Hehehe, wow, at first I thought it was a conversion error, but thankfully it is not . I just downloaded the HMP file to my D drive and had the same result. Let me debug this and figure out what is going on, thank you!