Messages

1

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Mini-Review and Discount (Sep 2010): USB Safely Remove and Zentimo

« on: February 21, 2012, 07:27 PM »

I just recently posted a thread here discussing whether or not USBSR & Zentimo are even needed anymore. At least you were doing better than me. You knew that Crystal Rich had stopped offering lifetime licenses. Up till a day or so ago I didn't know they had ever stopped.

I did ultimately buy, but I probably wouldn't have pulled the trigger if I hadn't worked the system to get a steep discount (see my thread above for details).

Since you are talking about licensing I will reiterate here for emphasis what I observed in my aforementioned thread. *I found it a little odd (probably an oversight) that USBSR licensees are able to upgrade to a lifetime Zentimo license no matter their current status and yet, at least visible on the web site, **there seems to be no way for a Zentimo licensee to change their license into a lifetime one.

-Innuendo (February 12, 2012, 12:53 PM)

*: Yes I too have never really understood the logic behind that peculiarity with respect to USB-S-R but getting a logical explanation out of Igor isn't easy (perhaps it's a Russian to English translation thing?)


**Last week there was a 30%OFF promotion (ending 17th February) but just a few minutes ago, I went back to the Zentimo order page and there was a selectable "drop down" allowing the user to choose between normal/non-discounted prices of: a 1 Year License for USD$29.00, 2 Year License for USD$10 more at USD$39.00, or Lifetime License options at USD$59.00  .


Certainly Zentimo's 'Lifetime License.' option is a welcome addition, at least I.M.H.O., and I note that based on a 1 Year purchase price the 'L.L.' is being offered for only twice the normal retail price, and most people (with a value for money mindset) would be happy to pay only the equivalent of '2x the normal 1 Year price' for never ending support & unlimited upgrades and updates, by comparison to paying a never ending annual or biannual subscription arrangement - albeit 'optional' as the license owner can choose at any time to not renew their subscription.


Edit addition:
When I started writing this reply, almost 24 hours ago, the 30%OFF promotion had expired, but it (30%OFF) has now been renewed until February 29th, 2012, so the options to choose from are now: a 1 Year License for USD$20.93, 2 Year License for USD$7 more at $27.93, or Lifetime License options at $41.93 (Bargain )

2

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Mini-Review and Discount (Sep 2010): USB Safely Remove and Zentimo

« on: February 11, 2012, 05:26 PM »

There's not much difference between USBSR and Zentimo IMO (http://zentimo.com/zentimovsusbsr.htm).

They gave Zentimo away for free some week ago (http://zentimo.com/giveawayd11.htm). Missed that. Well, they had free giveaway of USBSR and Zentimo all the time, I'm sure there'll be another giveaway.

-wr975 (February 11, 2012, 05:47 AM)

Yes wr975 you're right on both matters but ultimately Zentimo is supposed to be the companies all-in-one-all-singing-and-dancing USB (& SATA) control toolkit.

As I sort of indicated USB Safely Remove is mature (and years old) at version 5.x, but Zentimo is only 2 years old and version 1.5x at present but BOTH products do continue to constantly develop.

Having said that, I have seen some other excellent USB applications about the interwebs worth consideration.

I believe I've read Zentimo & USB Safely Remove BLOG comments asking things like: "why do do keep giving away Freebies on sites such as GOTD when I've paid good money for a license" & Igor Tkachenko (the chief developer) usually answers with the following paraphrased responces: it increases the user base, gets feedback regards compatibility and errors as well as feature requests and some of the Freebie owners try and then later buy.

Igor (I.M.H.O.) really prefers people to take the subscription model and has given some dreadfully lame answers when people asked about the Zentimo 'Lifetime License" purchase option removal such as: you cant give a LiFETIME license when the company may not exist forever and other such crazy answers but the fact remained that USB Safely Remove was still being offered with an L.L. and Yet the same company wasn't offering L.L. for Zentimo which didn't seem fair especially as a group of owners who "bought in" to Zentimo when it was a fledgling product did have L.L. and would never have to pay anymore money.

--------------------
It would seem obvious to most rational people, that when they buy software with a 'Lifetime' license the term "means for the life of the product" but IGOR used to imply that it meant 'for the life of the owner' which of course was utter codswallop.  Plenty of software programs reach their "zenith" were further updates would be tinkering for no real reason and ultimately a waste of resources, for example: Anvir Task Manager Pro v6.3.1 didn't release an update for almost 2 years (v6.5.x was released in Feb. 2012) and "some" buyers complained and felt they'd wasted their money as updates weren't being released, but many more reasonable people were happy that they had a "stable" program which didn't require updating and they knew they could always email for support at anytime if a problem occurred.
--------------------

Anyways after that small digression the point of my comments is a "heads up"  to many owners that at this moment in time, at last the Zentimo L.L. is a purchase option again, and, as it includes free major upgrades as well as the usual free minor updates, the L.L. purchase option is for most people 'the best value for money' license option that CrystalRich dot com offer (and to previous "paid owners" of Zentimo or USB.S.R. will almost certainly be discounted from the face value price)

3

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Mini-Review and Discount (Sep 2010): USB Safely Remove and Zentimo

« on: February 11, 2012, 02:18 AM »

Zentimo "Lifetime License" is available again ... at least for the moment


Hello folks,

After Zentimo's initial beta release around the beginning of 2010 at some point Lifetime Licensing became available to purchase but in a low key move "Lifetime Licensing (which included major upgrades as well as the usual minor updates" was removed from the purchase options around the end of August 2010.

From then on the vendor chose to offer either 1 or 2 year subscription models at varying prices depending on if you also owned a USB Safely Remove license.

Why would you own both? probably because you has already purchased a license of USB Safely Remove license which has been around for a number of years and has just released v5.0 (although the vendor advises against installing or perhaps that should read running both USB Safely Remove & Zentimo at the same time on your PC).

Now as you might find in the Zentimo website blog and elsewhere, there has been much aggravation and many user emails complaining to the vendor about the withdrawal or nonavailability of "Lifetime Licensing" and the vendor has got a little hot under the collar at times in responce with various responces, but stuck to their guns only making 1 or 2 year purchase options available.

Well by pure chance on Feb. 10, 2012, I discovered that the Lifetime License option has been restored,  and so i contacted the vendor to ask if this change of policy was for a brief period or restored for all time (as there is a 30%OFF promotion running until Feb. 17, 2012) and the reply said the "L.L." had been restored late last year (2011) and the current thinking was it would be made permanent, BUT no guarantee it would be available for ever more.

(which to my mind says one thing, forget about what you might have paid for a 1 or 2 year license and buy the Lifetime License NOW.)

I thought it was worth advising DonationCoder's of the change of policy as many people either own a Zentimo "purchased license" or a "freebie not-upgradable license" made available through Giveawayoftheday dot com largely because you couldn't buy a Lifetime License.

So currently, if you meet the correct requirements to upgrade or renew your Zentimo License (which are on the Zentimo purchase page), then contact the vendor and they will likely send you a discounted (- personalised?,) license upgrade voucher.

Hope this helps someone

4

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: AnVir Task Manager Pro 60% off Today Only

« on: January 02, 2012, 09:56 PM »

I think IL1keT0Donate was just concerned that his extended service agreement was coming to an end & since he liked the software was wanting to extend that service agreement even longer....at any price. He wasn't angling for a discount at all.

Hopefully, the answer you provided him will put him back on the path of software bliss.

-Innuendo (January 02, 2012, 10:12 AM)

You've got it in one Innuendo.

I figured that the vendor would send out renewal notices just like many subscription services do, but, perhaps in this companies case they leave it entirely up to the buyer.

Anyway, I encourage everyone to try Anvir Task Manager Pro and hopefully the highly anticipated update which must be around the corner) will make A_TMP even better than the current v6.3.1

5

General Software Discussion / Re: USB Disk Ejector

« on: January 02, 2012, 08:51 PM »

Thanks for the heads up on this program. 

Up until now I'd been a paid up user of Zentimo which is an all singing & dancing upgrade of the same companies USB Safely Remove, but after a look at USB Disk Ejector I really do like this programs simplicity and ease of use.

Look & Learn Micro$oft.

6

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: AnVir Task Manager Pro 60% off Today Only

« on: January 02, 2012, 06:57 AM »

Dear Curt,

If YOU ARE UPSET WITH ME then please do me the courtesy of explaining why, in detail, because I have paid for Anvir Task Manager Pro & Maintenance subscription, so please show me where I have said or suggested that I hadn't paid for the program and for what it's worth - as your reply appears to be impuning my integrity) I haven't not* paid for software I use/own in many many years unless I obtained them legitimately through Giveawayoftheday.    

I take great umbrage at the inferred suggestion in your comment that I'm using something I have not paid for.

Please show me where - in my previous post, I have said that I'm using something that hadn't been paid for or better yet re-read what I have typed/said and then perhaps you'll swallow your words.

To Recap: Originally I paid in full but due to a processing stuff-up, THEY - Anvir Software Support, sent me a URL and told me to use the URL to repeat the purchase and - to my surprise, it just so happened that the URL I was sent from Anvir was discounted to the tune of 70%.

My maintenance period HAS NOT YET EXPIRED but is now inside a month of expiring, and so far - despite my best efforts to contact Anvir Software Support (with all of the information they request to be included when seeking to renew), I have not been contacted about PAYiNG for renewing my maintenance for a further 1 or 3 year period.

I do not believe I have done anything wrong, so the ball is in your court, Curt.

Footnote: * in case you dont understand "haven't not" is a double-negative which are commonly used where I come from and means the opposite of what is written (so in the context of my sentence above it means: I've paid for software)

7

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: AnVir Task Manager Pro 60% off Today Only

« on: January 01, 2012, 12:47 PM »

Question: Does anybody know what Anvir Software Support is currently offering as the discount to renew for "3 additional years of updates and priority support for AnVir Task Manager Pro"?

In the past the discount was up to 70%. I know it was 70% OFF for a fact, because of a stuff up that was made with my purchase and Anvir Support sent me a 70% discount renewal coupon/url to use for the purchase of the program & maintenance.

However I have sent Anvir Software Support, 3 reasonably detailed emails since 1st December 2011, and, so far I have not managed to get even 1 reply from them   (unless their spam detectors have blacklisted either my email address or iP address?).

Now it could be that Anvir Software Support are very very busy because of a new release that Anvir Software Support said was supposed to be released in November/December 2011, and I'll quote what Anvir Software Support wrote in reply to bitsdujour_com users questions in the last Bitsdujour_com promotion of Anvir Task Manager Pro on the 17Nov2011:
________________________________________
"AnVir Software support Hi,

Windows 64-bit is supported.

New version will be released in this month. Registered users get 1 year free subscription to all future versions of the product."
 date of comment was: Nov 17 2011 at 8:43am
________________________________________

So if anybody has recently renewed their 3 years of maintenance & support I'd like to hear from you, because I really like the program  and I would like to do the right thing by them and pay for a renewal.

8

General Software Discussion / Re: Converting DRM protected music files: software recommendations

« on: July 18, 2011, 11:37 PM »

The good people at SoundTaxi tell me there program removes DRM protection legally and whats more compared to Audials TuneBite a license for SoundTaxi includes upgrades fro life.

I hope to be able to share 1 or 2 coupon(s) with you in the next 24 hours or so

9

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: AudialsOne on offer

« on: June 22, 2011, 01:21 PM »

I'm very glad to know that you won a license from Audials because i often wondered about that section of Giveawayoftheday and if the vendors actually do do as they say.

Q. Do you know if your lifetime license is a special one off license or if anybody buys Audials 8 they also receive a lifetime license?

They do NOT have a contact email address to ask them such a simple question and You have to go thru the hassle of joining their forum blah blah blah (what a pain in the proberbial Ar*e)

Q. Out of curiosity What Processor and RAM and OS are you using if the program is so slow to use?

(I'm only a 2.1GHz T6500 Core Duo + 4GB of RAM & Vista/Windows 7 notebook)

Q. How do you find the program once it has actually started?
 
Q. Do you only use it for removal of DRM or for lots of applications?


I was looking to buy anti-DRM or DRM Content Removal software and apparently Audials Tunebite 8 Platinum or Pro both remove DRM content "legally" but if it is so slow to use then perhaps I should look elsewhere?

Perhaps I should wait until they act on Your suggestion and bring out a new release (again more expensive than last time?) that allows the user to just start the function that they want too use instead of the entire program

10

General Software Discussion / Re: ZoneLabs makes the worst garbage ever!

« on: December 03, 2010, 07:50 AM »

Well for what its worth until a month ago i'd only ever used their ZoneAlarm Pro firewall and was very happy with the results.

Just recently I've had reason to trial ZoneAlarm Free on a notebook and it's basic and basically a firewall that's been crippled of features although by accident I did discover that a feature they don't mention has been running in the background which is part of their ZoneAlarm Forcefiled program which is supposed to be a transparant to use Virtual broswer capable of stopping any nasties that are looking to get into the system.

I went looking to buy ZA Pro and perhaps ZA Forecfield too found that a discount coupon that has not been stopped although it was supposed to be active until 30th November 2010, BUT the catch is the coupon is only a discount off the full retail price.

So I was looking for ZoneAlarm Pro and ZoneAlarm Forcefield and discovered it was cheaper to buy ZoneAlarm Extreme Security once the 'discounted from full retail price' coupon was applied andas it happens the Extreme Security version comes with an AntiVirus & AntiSpyware software too so I'll get a chance to see what their other programs are like and see if nite_monkey was right or not

Incase anyone is interested iin seeing if the coupon works (but only at ZoneAlarms own website not a 3rd party site) for them, the 'all caps' coupon is: SAVE60

For example:at 6am California time December 3rd 2010 (as I type this email)
2 years 3xPC ZoneAlarm Pro Discounted price is USD$59.95 but once the SAVE60 was applied [60% off price from full retail USD$99.95] the new price is USD$39.98
2 years 3xPC ZoneAlarm Forcefiled price is USD$49.95 but once the SAVE60 was applied [60% off price from full retail USD$49.95] the new price is USD$19.98
2 years 3xPC ZoneAlarm Extreme Security is USD$79.95 but once the SAVE60 was applied [60% off price from full retail $129.95] the new price is USD$51.98

hope it helps somebody

11

General Software Discussion / Re: What's your preferred File Manager

« on: April 08, 2010, 08:57 PM »

Yesterday I happened to come across PikySuite which says it is an add-on to many explorer programs:

PikyBasket provides innovative ways of copying files in Windows.
PikyFolders lets you jump to your favorite folders very fast.
PikyTools are small utilities designed to boost your productivity.


Note: PikySuite integrates seamlessly with other 3rd party file managers, including Total Commander, Directory Opus, xplorer2, RecentX, XYPlorer, and ExplorerXP.

PikySuite runs on Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, (Both 32 bit & 64 bit)

This reminds me of a wonderful little program which worked on Win 95 thru to XP but sadly not Vista (or therefore Windows 7) called File-Ex v3.x written by CottonwoodSW dot com which integrated into Windows Explorer and acted in a similar manner to the very useful Dialog Tracker in ExplorerPlus. Both programs would remember the last x number of files/file names or folder locations etc and could be accessed through the save or open windows that the user had previously opened or saved files too.

Q. Does anyone know of any other 3rd party File & Folder trackers that intergrate into File Managers or File Explorers and work with both 32bit & 64bit versions of Windows XP, thru to Windows 7.

12

General Software Discussion / Re: What's your preferred File Manager

« on: January 15, 2010, 12:40 AM »

The Novatix re-incarnation of PowerDesk that they dubbed Explorer Plus is without a doubt the most desirable version of the PowerDesk siblings. As of the last published version v6.2 it had all of the bugs fixed that were/are in every other iteration of the product.

Unfortunately, Novatix axed the product and last time I checked they were focused on network security products & there's no way to buy the product. If the PowerDesk way of doing things is anyone's 'groove', so to speak then it'd be very advantageous for one to track down a copy of Explorer Plus v6.2.

-Innuendo (April 26, 2009, 11:11 AM)

When the links were still working I contacted Novatix and was informed that ExplorerPlus was written by the person who wrote/compiled the original and earlier versions of PowerDesk (before it got sold to a number of companies like VCOM Avanquest etc).

History (taken from a horses mouth source): ExplorerPlus was originally released in 2003 and was a Novatix Corporation product.  In May of 2005, however, that Novatix Corporation officially changed its name to SendPhotos, Inc. and that was where you could find ExplorerPlus being supported until just recently (late 2006).  (A new different Novatix was also formed whose focus was solely on behavior-based security products.)

But although ExplorerPlus was a great file manager and possibly even better or more reliable than PowerDesk v6 or v7, I doubt that it works glitch free in Windows 7 32 bit (and don't even think about 64bit).

So now that my newish notebook will have Win 7 installed and Vista sent packing I'm trawling through this topic to find a browser that works the way I'd like a File Manager too.

I like to see all file & foder details (not just icons or listings) and also see true file sizes not round ups. I'd like a dialog tracker to find recently opened files & folders, quick viewer pane and an indexing search engine built into the program if possible.

13

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Free License Give-away for USB Safely Remove v4.1

« on: November 02, 2009, 01:14 AM »

If you missed previous free or discounted deals, then ...

According to Bits Du Jour ...

The next time you'll receive a 40% discount on USB Safely Remove

will be the 7th December 2009

14

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: USB Safely Remove, 50% discount on January 17th

« on: November 02, 2009, 01:14 AM »

If you missed previous free or discounted deals, then ...

According to Bits Du Jour ...

The next time you'll receive a 40% discount on USB Safely Remove

will be the 7th December 2009

15

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: MailWasher Pro - 30% Discount

« on: August 27, 2009, 03:39 AM »

Yes a person at work got 50% off and he didn't even have a trade-in!!!

On the right hand side of the Mailwasher Pro web-page:

Trade in your old anti-spam!

Trade in your old anti-spam and save 50% off
the price of MailWasher Pro! Send an email to:
 [email protected]

If it is not on the website the day you look, try again the next day and I'll bet it's there because Firetrust appear to offer this discount regularly at present (August 2009)

This is what to do:
All the person at work did, was find an old spam product mentioned on the web and then placed that product name into the email and sent it off too Firetrust, and within 24 hours back came a reply with a 50% off coupon code included.

They didn't have to send in or destroy their old program. No kidding I couldn't believe it was that easy. BUT [As far as ethics are concerned, well it wasn't really 100% Kosher but they saved themselves USD $20 (and I bet they're not the first person to have done the same thing)

I would have done it myself had I not already been a licensed MailWasher Pro user , but other Donation Coder user's might find this info useful

16

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Finally perfected my download commenter after only 8 years

« on: February 18, 2009, 01:34 AM »

In the daze of Win98SE, a South African guy, Johannes Plachy, (Copyright 1997 {[email protected]}) wrote Annotator or AnnotateIt! which added a tab to the file Properties box called Annotation with a little notepad icon.  ... Then along came XP and altho even today the tab Annotation still appears in all of my Properties tabs for a file, if I put any information in it is either lost, appears in ALL Annotation boxes... or none. ...

-olamoree (February 16, 2009, 07:47 PM)

Arh the wonders of a good search engine: the program olamoree refers to reply #12 is called ANNOTSX v1.0.0

Description for ANNOTSX v1.0.0:
Is a Windows shell extension that lets you add comments to any file. Once installed, ANNOTSX adds a new page to the "properties" folder of each of your files. This "annotation" page is accessible by simply right-clicking on any file and choosing "properties". In this page, you can add, edit and remove file comments that can be longer than the 255 character limitation that Windows imposes on file names.

Annotation Shell extension for use in all Windows version (Vista not tested) and can be found at the download page of Johannes Plachy's current website  One Step Ahead Software. If this program is such a good file annotator as olamoree suggests, then perhaps someone should write to Johannes and tell him there is a small hopefully fixable problem and then all our troubles will be solved and we'll all have a working annotator (that works well up to Win XP and probably Vista too, if run in Program Compatibility mode.

I personally haven't tested ANNOTSX because I'm in the middle of legal hassles and don't want to change anything on my PC at this exact moment in time, but it sounds like the answer to all of our problems.

So, would anyone like to install ANNOTSX and give it a try and if it needs a tweak to get it working properly, then send Johannes a quick email?

Failing that, File Notes Organizer 3 must have surely been updated by now and the dreaded "Blue Screen of Death", patteo referred in reply #5 to has probably been fixed by now, although, it must be said, the program seems to do a lot more than just simple file annotation.