Paragon Virtualization Manager 12 Compact for FREE! – Save $29.95 On This 3 Day Giveaway

Virtualization is all the rage. With good reason – this very cool technology, if used correctly, has the power to control malware intrusion through the use of a ‘”virtual” environment, rather than operating in a “real” environment.

But, running in a virtual environment, provides an opportunity to do so much more than simply building a buffer between you and the bad guys. Program files, data files, and application directory structures can all be stored on a Virtual Disk Drive.

So, what can you do with Virtualization Manager 12 Compact? As it turns out – quite a lot. To avoid any confusion – this application is a “Virtualization Manager”. You must have virtualization software such as, Oracle VirtualBox 4, Microsoft Virtual PC, VMware Workstation, VMware Fusion, already installed.

Usage Scenarios – From the site:

Scenario 1: Use different operating systems on one computer.

Virtualization allows parallel use of several incompatible operating systems on one computer. You can run Windows, Linux, Mac OS X inside of virtual machine on one host machine.

Scenario 2: Continue using your old PC’s applications – enjoy your favorite applications in a virtual environment on your new computer.

When it’s time to upgrade to a new PC and operating system, you may find that some of your favorite applications haven’t been updated yet to work with it. Using Virtualization Manager 12 Compact, you can make a virtual clone of your old system before migrating to a new computer. Take advantage of an up-to-date powerful computer while still having access to favorite applications from the old computer.

If your old computer is corrupted but you have a backup image of your old system made with Paragon software – you can virtualize it using Virtualization Manager installed on your new PC.

Scenario 3: Safely evaluate new software.

New software can be unintentionally harmful to your computer. You can easily avoid negative system conflicts by creating a virtual clone of your current physical system using Virtualization Manager 12 Compact.

Try new software in a safe environment and decide whether it works and is exactly what you need before making it a permanent addition to your collection.  If changes made on a virtual machine were successful you can just migrate your updated system from virtual environment to your PC.

Scenario 4: Make a system bootable on different virtual environment.

Virtualization Manager makes your system bootable when migrating to new hardware by automatically injecting the required drivers in your operating system. If you unsuccessfully virtualized your system with a 3rd party tool and it became unbootable, the problem can be resolved with Virtualization Manager.

I have not tested this application extensively (just heard about this free offer this morning) – but, I have installed it and taken it for a quick run. Based on my initial impression I’ll give it high marks for ease of setup, and ease of use. The bottom line – a reasonably solid virtualization manager.

Here’s a quick run through:

In the following example I’ve chosen to create a virtual disk.

Clicking on this choice opens the “Create Virtual Disk Wizard” as shown below.

I’ve set the initial size at 5 GB using Microsoft Virtual PC. You can download Microsoft Virtual PC – here.

Done! How hard was that?

System requirements: Windows 7 (32/64-bit), Vista (32/64-bit), XP Professional (32/64-bit), XP Home.

Supported Virtual Machines: Oracle VirtualBox 4, Microsoft Virtual PC, VMware Workstation, VMware Fusion.

This giveaway offer expires April 20th, 8 am (GMT-4).

How to get Paragon Virtualization Manager: Go to the Paragon Facebook page – click the like button – follow the instructions.

Here’s a sample of the process.

Special thanks to regular reader Delenn13 for the heads up on this free offer.

Free Licensed Zemana AntiLogger At Bitsdujour.com – Today Only

I’ve long considered Zemana AntiLogger a must have security application for my Internet connected machines. To drive home that point, I’ve reviewed this application several times. In fact, based on a number of recent web cam hacks (an event Zemana AntiLogger protects against), I currently have a new review in the hopper waiting for an appropriate time to post.

In the meantime, Delenn13, a super contributor to the Tech Thoughts community has, once again, passed on info on a freebie offer. This time for Zemana AntiLogger being hosted over at bitsdujour.com. According to Delenn13, there are roughly 18 hours left on this giveaway offer at the time of posting this notice.

Zemana AntiLogger can significantly bolster your online security so, you should consider adding this application to your antimalware defenses.

You can read a review of this application at bitsdujour.com  or, you can read the following edited version of an older review previously posted here.

Zemana AntiLogger:

Because Keyloggers, a particularly sinister type of malware, that monitors every keystroke a user types on a computer’s keyboard, are often executed as part of a rootkit, or a remote administration (RAT) Trojan horse, they can be extremely difficult to detect, and remove.

While it’s true, that many good quality malware and spyware detection tools should capture Keyloggers, and a properly configured Firewall should prevent all unauthorized connections, the reality is – this is NOT always the case. Keyloggers in fact, can disable Firewalls and anti-malware tools.

Since my personal home machines now run on Windows 7, I can no longer protect against Keyloggers using SnoopFree Privacy Shield, so I had to find an alternative. Unfortunately, I could not find a freeware substitute application. However, I did find a competitively priced application, Zemana AntiLogger, following a reader’s recommendation, which I’ve been testing for a week or so.

I was immediately impressed by this application, particularly the system defense function. The application intercepted proposed changes to system files NOT picked up by other security applications on my system.

Since I use a Webcam extensively for communicating, I was more than happy to see the active Webcam protection offered by Zemana AntiLogger, which was immediately apparent.

Test Screens:

This is an example of a Zemana warning, triggered by my launching an anonymous proxy application which by design, injects code into my primary Browser. By checking an appropriate check box I established a rule, permitting this action in future.

This is an example of a Zemana warning, triggered by my updating both Microsoft Security Essentials and Malwarebytes definition databases which, in each case, will make changes to system files. Simply checking a check box establishes a rule, which will permit this action in future.

This is an example of a Zemana warning, triggered by a screen capture utility I was in the process of using. If this had been an illegal activity. I would of course, have received the same warning. Again, simply checking a check box establishes a rule, which will permit this action, by this utility, in future.

Fast facts:

Secure your Internet banking and financial transactions

Protect information in emails and Instant Messages

Protect keystrokes from spyware

Protect all screen images

Webcam Logger protection

System Defense

No need to download latest virus signatures

No need to know or detect the malware’s signature

No need to wait for updates from a virus lab

No need to scan files

Proactively looks for suspicious activity

Catches not just the usual suspects, but also sophisticated “zero day” malware

Prevents theft of data via secure connections (HTTPS / SSL)

Does not slow down your PC

Easy to download, install and use

Future-proof

System requirements: Windows Vista, XP, Win 7.

Crave World Clock License Giveaway – The Winners Are….

I’m happy to announce the 20 winners of a free license for Crave World Clock, a must-have world clock application for people who need to keep track of the current time in different cities and time zones around the world. The current time can be displayed on a real world map, along with day and night effects.

You can add cities of your choice on the world map.

You can set the world clock as your desktop wallpaper, or use it as a screensaver.

You can add analog clock and digital clock on your desktop, to keep track of time for multiple cities.

Congratulations to the winners:

Grr, Nil, Ankit, yılmaz, Bob Slyker, Stfan, Mal, John d, TRY, John, Hipockets, Alvin Bruce, Jerry Chance, ha14, Brennan Krieger, delenn13, Don Naphen, Briareoushex, Mike M, David.

Each winner will be notified directly by the developer – please allow up to 4 days for the developer to contact you.

If you weren’t one of the lucky winners, you can download a 14 day trial version of this great application.

System requirements: Windows XP, Vista, Win 7

Try the full version free for 14 days.

Download at: Reflection Software Solutions

Purchase: $14 USD.

Giveaway: Advanced SystemCare 5 PRO – Valentine’s Day Feb 14, 0:00 – Feb 14, 24:00 PST (24 Hours Only)

IObit has been offering a comprehensive PC care utility (Advanced SystemCare), that takes a one-click approach to help protect, repair, and optimize your computer, since 2006. IObit continues this strong tradition with Advanced SystemCare 5 PRO, which will be available for download on Valentines Day.

Heads up: The free offer is available starting at 12 am PST, February 14, and will last 24 hours only.

Visiting the download site prior to, will generate the following notice.

Regular readers will know, that I have tested and recommended previous versions of both the free, and pro versions of Advanced SystemCare. While I haven’t yet had a chance to comprehensively test Advanced SystemCare 5 PRO, I have little doubt this version continues to provide a super convenient solution for PC maintenance and protection.

I did however, start it up – perform a quick scan – and was not surprised to see the “Poor” PC Health notice, since this particular test platform is scheduled for an OS reinstall later in the week.

Advanced SystemCare 5 PRO integrates IObit’s latest Toolbox, which has more than 20 dedicated smart tools for everyday PC maintenance – including tools for system cleaning, optimizing and repairing, tools for security enhancement, and tools for full control over the system.

Fast facts:

Keeps your PC running at peak performance – Fully optimizes Windows for ultimate system performance and top Internet speed by unleashing the built-in power of your system, based on how you use your PC and your network configuration. It turns your PC into a business PC, a productive workstation, an entertainment center, a game machine, or a scientific computing PC.

Defends PC security with extra protection – Detects and analyzes Windows security environment. Scans and removes spyware and adware using up-to-date definition files in order to prevent spyware, hackers and hijackers from installing malicious programs on your computer. Erases and updates your PC’s activity histories.

One click to solve as many as 10 common PC problems – Advanced SystemCare 5 inherits the ease-of-use from previous versions, with more powerful capabilities. With one click, it scans and repairs ten PC problems and protects your PC from hidden security threats.

Real-time optimization with ActiveBoost function – ActiveBoost, technology that actively runs in the background intelligently managing system resources in real-time, constantly detecting inactive resources and optimizing CPU and RAM usage.

More than 20 dedicated smart tools for everyday PC maintenance – Advanced SystemCare 5 integrates IObit’s latest Toolbox which has more than 20 dedicated smart tools for everyday PC maintenance or advanced needs, including tools for system cleaning, optimizing and repairing, tools for security enhancement, and tools for full control over the system.

Cloud technology to keep database up-to-date – The new “Cloud” technology ensures the database is kept updated at all times so that you can benefit from the latest definitions and configurations.

Boost your PC for working and gaming – You now have two Turbo Boost options, Work Mode and Game Mode. In addition, you can now adjust the configuration of each mode from the main screen.

Next-generation registry deep clean and optimizer – Safely cleans registry junk, compacts registry bloats and defragments the whole registry for maximum performance. Finds and fixes the registry errors that other utilities miss with “Deep Scan” technology.

Automatically works in the background – This powerful utility works continuously, automatically and quietly in the background on your PC. You can set it as your schedule or just let it work automatically when your PC is idle.

Powerful hard drive defragmentation – Fast, powerfully and incredibly effective Disk Defrag function to defragment hard drives – up to 10 times faster than other defragmentation tools.

Bottom line: As well as keeping your machine physically clean, it’s always good practice to keep your computer’s operating system and subsystems clean, so that you can get maximum performance from your machine. This application can certainly help you do just that.

System requirements: Windows 8, Windows 7 (32-bit and 64-bit), Vista (32-bit and 64-bit), XP (32-bit and 64-bit).

Download: You may download a fully licensed free version of Advanced SystemCare 5 PRO, starting at 12 am PST, February 14, 2012 at: iobit’s Valentines Day Giveaway

Update: February 14, 2012.

Unless you’re prepared for a very long wait for a response from IObit’s mail server, you might be better off avoiding this offer.

Download Crew Giveaway – Today Only – Acronis True Image Personal 2010

Before you read any further – this offer is restricted to residents of the United States and Canada. I won’t repeat here what I’ve said many times in the past,  regarding companies who shut out 90% of their potential customers. Except to say – it’s not complementary.

At least in this case, the Download Crew had the courage to apologize – “Sorry, but that was one of the restrictions placed on this promotion by Acronis, Inc who authorized this promotion.”

According to the Download crew – this offer expires Friday January 20th, 2012, at 23:59.

A personal note: Would I review, rate, or recommend this company and its products? Not a chance. Companies who engage in restrictive giveaways like this, are well down on my list.

Not so long ago, an offshore company – one which I hold in high regard, sponsored a giveaway on a rival site. A giveaway, in which the site owner (as is his practice), restricted the freebie to residents of the United States and Canada.

On querying the developer on this restrictive practice, I was not surprised to learn, that if the developer had been aware of the blogger imposed restriction, they would not have sponsored the giveaway.

So, before you start thinking that I’m getting my “knickers in a knot” over a non-issue, you should know – the mature software developers whom I deal with – do not engage in what some consider to be a xenophobic practice.

The offer is available here – Download Crew

Get uRexsoft DVD Ripper Platinum (Win) For Free

Another month, another DVD ripper you’ve probably never heard of. Even so – from now until Sept. 30, this $35 program is absolutely free. And it works!

Best of all, and as opposed to so many of this type of offer – there are no hoops to jump through.

Read all about this software giveaway on CNET’s Cheapskate page here.

If you found this article useful, why not subscribe to this Blog via RSS, or email? It’s easy; just click on this link and you’ll never miss another Tech Thoughts article.

Save $59.95 – Outpost Security Suite Pro 7.5 Giveaway At TipRadar

John W., my good buddy from Australia, tipped me off to a free license giveaway over at TipRadar for Outpost Security Suite Pro 7.5.

From the publisher:

Outpost Security Suite Pro delivers comprehensive, multilayered protection against all possible Internet risks. Its ample functionality ensures threats are confronted at all stages down their conceivable propagation route — from initial contact to potential data theft or compromise.

Let’s take a look at what tools and mechanisms are available to challenge the threats as they occur. The chart below briefly lists all protection mechanisms that activate in succession to prevent breaches:

From TipRadar:

In cooperation with Agnitum (sponsor of this giveaway), we can offer 72 hours unlimited downloads for the FULL VERSION! of Outpost Security Suite Pro 7.5 .

Here is the promo key: 54YP8-BPAWD-GK48G-KWGC8-GCC4C

It needs to be entered on the promo page – http://www.agnitum.com/promo/tipradar/ in order to receive the long registration key to activate the application.

Software must be downloaded from the promo page http://www.agnitum.com/promo/tipradar/ ONLY.

Long key should be used to activate software.

For complete information on this giveaway, take a run over to TipRadar and checkout the article.

If you found this article useful, why not subscribe to this Blog via RSS, or email? It’s easy; just click on this link and you’ll never miss another Tech Thoughts article.

300 Free Emsisoft Anti-Malware License Giveaway At MalwareTips.com

The good people over at MalwareTips.com are at it again – this time out, the guys have 300 one year licenses to giveaway for one of the better AV applications on the market – Emsisoft Anti-Malware.

Fast facts:

2 combined scanners for cleaning: Anti-Virus + Anti-Malware

• • Not just any scanners, but a combination of two world class products – the Emsisoft Anti-Malware, and the Ikarus Anti-Virus engine. Latest tests approve that both are cutting edge in Malware detection.
  • No doubling of the scan duration as would be the case with two separate scanning programs. Considerable performance improvement is possible thanks to the integration of the two engines on the lowest level.
  • No double price – two top security products for the price of one.

3 guards against new infections: file guard, behavior blocker and surf protection

• Since version 5: The new, free configurable file guard compares all files that are downloaded or started with about 4 million patterns of known malicious software.
• Unlike conventional protection systems Emsisoft Anti-Malware does not only check files, but it also constantly monitors the behavior of all active programs and raises an alarm as soon as something suspicious happens.
• Typical ways of infection are disabled in advance. Websites that try to plant trojans or spyware or that offer deceptive contents are blocked by the surf protection.
• Signature updates at least 5 times per day, in combination with the zero-day protection of the behavior analysis this guarantees the best possible protection from new infections.

3 ways of Malware removal to clean every infection

• When a Malware infection is detected, the scanner puts the found objects under quarantine or deletes them finally.
• For tough problems our helpful Malware experts are at your disposal for free. With their step-by-step advises, any infection, no matter how resistant it is, can be purged – guaranteed.
• Anti-Malware holds plenty of advanced options for experts to detect and delete Malware manually. For this purpose the integrated system analysis tool HiJackFree is included, and helps you to have all processes, services, auto-runs, open ports, browser plug-ins and host entries under your control.

Take a run over to MalwareTips.com, read the article carefully, and follow the instructions to obtain a 12 month license.

If you found this article useful, why not subscribe to this Blog via RSS, or email? It’s easy; just click on this link and you’ll never miss another Tech Thoughts article.

Experts Galaxy – Kaspersky and Bitdefender License Giveaway

My good buddy Neeraj Rawat, over at the Experts Galaxy web site, is currently running a number of license giveaway contests. Checkout the site for more details.

From the site:

One More License Giveaway For Bitdefender Antivirus 2011 (1 Year)

Exclusive Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 One Year License Giveaway

Neeraj tells me that he has two more license giveaways scheduled in the coming weeks for Superantispyware and Zemana AntiLogger –two superb applications which I highly recommend.

If you found this article useful, why not subscribe to this Blog via RSS, or email? It’s easy; just click on this link and you’ll never miss another Tech Thoughts article.

Save $29: Partition Assistant Professional Edition 4 Day License Giveaway

There are a number of sound reasons to partition today’s large Hard Drives. The best reason I can think of (from a personal perspective), is simply this – data organization.

Additional good reasons to partition could include, keeping your valuable data separate from the operating system so that if you are faced with an OS reinstall following an infection, you can do so without losing irreplaceable data. As well, a multiple boot configuration (resident on one of my machines), which allow users to have more than one operating systems on a computer, requires multiple partitions.

While we’re talking about an OS reinstall following a malware infection, let me just remind you that partitioning is NOT a substitute for backing up your important data. Hard Drives can, and do, fail – a good backup strategy is an absolute must.

Software developer Aomei Technology, recently invited me to be part of their four day giveaway (January 25 to 29, 2011), for a free licensed version of their premier partition manager – Partition Assistant Professional Edition.

Partition Assistant Professional Edition, with its simple user interface allows you to easily create, delete, format, move, resize partitions, and much more. The “much more” characterization (see fast facts), takes this application out of the range of typical free partition management applications.

Click graphic to expand.

Publisher’s description:

This professional edition is an advanced partition manager software to assist you to optimize your disk performance; most widely used by personal users which allows you to be an partition solution expert with professional unique technology.

Fast facts:

Extend NTFS partition without restarting computer.

Resize and Move partition to optimize disk space management.

Extend Partition Wizard help you step by step expand the size of your selected partition.

Clone/Copy Disk, Clone/Copy Partition.

Merge two or more partitions into a larger one.

Split one partition into two or more.

Create, Delete and Format partition.

Convert file system from FAT to NTFS.

Wipe permanently sensitive data to anti-recovery.

Wipe hard drive, Wipe Partition.

Repartition by drag & drop mouse on a disk panel.

Support resizing NTFS and FAT32 file system.

System requirements: Windows 2000/XP/Vista/Windows 7 (Both 32 bit and 64 bit).

Publisher’s site – Aomei Technology

Giveaway download link. This is the only link from which the license giveaway is available.

If you’re in the market for a partition manager that includes professional capabilities, then Partition Assistant Professional Edition is worth a close look. As well, FREE has a nice ring to it.

If you found this article useful, why not subscribe to this Blog via RSS, or email? It’s easy; just click on this link and you’ll never miss another Tech Thoughts article.