DriveSentry

[-pops-]

I've just been made aware of this program http://www.drivesentry.com/default.aspx which seems almost too good to be true.

DriveSentry is the next generation, Security 2.0, Antivirus technology. DriveSentry offers proactive up to the second security for your system and your personal data, enabling you to work, play and interact with your computer with confidence, both online and offline.

Has anyone any experience of DriveSentry?

[catgate]

It looks interesting.

[-pops-]

I'll give it a go later on a subsidiary machine.

[andsome]

Never heard of it. Let us know how you get on. Does it have a firewall? :D

[-pops-]

I think you need to read about it andsome. It takes a different approach to conventional security software (that's why I'm only trying it on a minor machine).

If it does as it says, it will be very good.

This independent (?) article tells you something about it http://www.thefreewareforum.com/index.php?showtopic=3897

[andsome]

Very interesting. What bothers me however, is that if it is as good as claimed how can it be offered free? Who has paid for all the work done on it? If it is only free to the home user, and businesses have to pay, will the home program be a watered down version? I use free anti Malware programs alongside a paid for security suite at present, but I appreciate the fact that they are watered down to some extent, this is why I use more than one. :D

[-pops-]

Having had another look, it seems that you are getting a fully functional 30 day trial after which either the functionality is reduced or pay up for the full version. It's only $10 so not going to break the bank if it's any good.

[Dencandy]

There's another review of it HERE from softpedia. When I googled on the words Drive Sentry I got a lot of red and orange warnings from SiteAdvisor, so it seems you have to be careful about where you download it from.

[-pops-]

I only saw one McAfee danger sign on Google but, anyway, I've installed it on my "media" machine.

Easy to install and to set up. After the initial scanning it is not at all intrusive and the only times it has made itself known to me is a couple of times it has seen something it doesn't like (and I didn't either).

I'll put it on my main machine now, especially as PrevX has expired on me, and give a report later.

Some of the information given about payment may be out of date because the program itself it gives different information than the web pages.

[-pops-]

I've just done a scan with Ad-Aware, SuperAntispyware and A-squared on the machine with Drive Sentry installed.

Normally there are at least two or three bits of (not too severe) malware received every week. This time the scans came up with nothing. I checked on the Drive Sentry "Advisor" and found it had silently stopped 9 malware items and another three things it wasn't sure about but asked me before downloading - these were new programs that were new to it.

So far I'm impressed. I'm installing on my main machine and I'll see how it goes on that.

[andsome]

Very interesting. :D

[-pops-]

I've worked out the pricing structure. The initial download is a fully functional product on a thirty day trial. After that, the software still works but you need to manually update which, apparently, it reminds you about.

It's only a £10 one off lifetime payment so I think I'm going to shell out the money.

[andsome]

I've worked out the pricing structure. The initial download is a fully functional product on a thirty day trial. After that, the software still works but you need to manually update which, apparently, it reminds you about.

It's only a £10 one off lifetime payment so I think I'm going to shell out the money.

Don't open your purse too quickly or all the moths will escape. :lol: :lol: :lol:

[Irene]

I've worked out the pricing structure. The initial download is a fully functional product on a thirty day trial. After that, the software still works but you need to manually update which, apparently, it reminds you about.

It's only a £10 one off lifetime payment so I think I'm going to shell out the money.

It's certainly a modest sum. :D

I will be interested to hear how it performs longer term.

[-pops-]

As mentioned in another thread, I stopped my daily AVG A/V scans some weeks ago. I have just completed my first antivirus scan since I decided on that. It came up completely clear. I've also done scans with Ad-Aware, A Squared, AVG Antispy and SuperA/S. All came up clean except Ad-Aware which came up with one tracking cookie with a TAC of 1 (which is much less than it usually comes up with).

Very impressed.

[Boris]

Thanks for the info -pops- :) - I'm giving this one a try on your recommendation.

[andsome]

Very interesting. My current subscription has some time to run, but this is worth a look later. :D

[Boris]

It sems to be good :)

- I just updated a-squared free and Drive Sentry popped up and told me that there was a program being changed and did I want to allow it ?

[-pops-]

Well, I've just completed another week without a daily AVG scan. I've just done one and also scans with various antispyware utilities (before my weekly backup) and everything has come up clean.

There were a few warnings during the week from DriveSentry about things trying to gain access to the machine - and an opinion whether I might allow them or not. I took the advice each time.

Whether you use this or not is up to you. It works for me and I'm very happy with it.

[andsome]

Current subscription still has six months to run. Certainly worth a look at that stage. :D

[-pops-]

Final words from me on this.

I've just done a thorough scan after another week of not doing a daily AVG scan.

I used AVG, AdAware, SuperAntispyware, Asquared and AVG Antispyware.

Everything came up clean. As reported before, Drivesentry did ask me a few times about things trying to write to the hard drive and each time I've taken its advice.

[andsome]

Well worth a look when my current subscription expires. Meanwhile let us know if any problems occur. :D

[-pops-]

andsome reminded me that I was going to report back on this. Well, here's what I think of it now.

There was an update/upgrade of the program about six weeks ago and, although I didn't associate this at the time, I found the Windows boot time (the time from when the splash screen appears to when it becomes usable) became inordinately long - this is an old machine, after all and I thought it may be suffering some age related creakiness (like its owner). Anyway, this delay started to become irritating so I set about investigating. Without going into too much detail it turns out that one of the default modes of the updated DriveSentry included a boot time scan of all the startup programs which was obviously taking up quite a lot of time. I disabled this option (couldn't see the point of it anyway) and it's back to being an excellent program in my opinion.

I'm using it alongside AVG and the usual anti-malware programs and I've just done the first AVG scan for over four weeks (used to be every day) which came up clean. I've also just done scans with SuperAntiSpyware and Ad-Aware. The only thing that came up with those was some minor thing on Ad-Aware.

I have the paid for version on this machine and the freebie on the others. With the freebies there is a reminder balloon every day that tells you to update on bootup (the paid for updates automatically)

So, I can say I'm very pleased with it.

[andsome]

I see that it claims to act as a firewall also. My licence for Nod 32 expires in January, so I will do a full Acronis back up and try it out after uninstalling Nod 32. I will then decide on installing it on my new machine shortly, pending on how it behave for now. Thanks for the info. :D

[andsome]

I have chosen to turn Windows Firewall off, should I have done this? There is also a security warning shield in the bottom right hand corner of the screen, stating that there is no AV protection to be found. :D