Benjamin BurrowsBenjamin Burrows@2007 Benjamin Burrowsen-us http://www.ubcd4win.com/news.htm Current news, new FAQ topics, and any other important information regarding UBCD4Win. http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Jitbit RSS Feed Creator Thu, 14 Aug 2008 11:53:20 -0400 http://www.ubcd4win.com/news.htmhttp://www.ubcd4win.com/images/sitebanner.jpgFirst I would like to announce the possible addition of Chat for UBCD4Win. Right now we are checking out a Chat add-on for our IPB forum software. There is a link for it at the top right of the screen when you visit our forum. It integrates very nicely, looks good, and is fun! I hope that this extra support medium will help us to continue helping people even more. The only possible negative is that you have to be a registered member of our forum. I was thinking of letting "guests" log in but if we do that then people could log in and pretend to be someone else. So far the response has been very positive for it and as long as that continues I plan to pay for the service. So just a little reminder that these extra things we add and do to support people cost us money and our monthly fees add up quickly. So please consider donating on occasion if we have helped you and if you can afford it. Your donations help keep us up and going. Next I want to mention a cNet blog entry we were just mentioned in. The author was nice enough to take the time to email me about it. If you would like to check it out here is a link: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13554_3-9988099-33.html Thank you Michael! Finally, a user emailed me today asking about the RSS feed. I deeply apologize for it not being updated and regretfully say that it probably won't be updated for about another 2 weeks. Simply because I can not find the license number for the RSS software I use so I have no way to install the software on my backup system. I'm still waiting for my RMA on the motherboard for my main system. It has been hell without my main system but I have work arounds for almost everything I do.http://www.ubcd4win.com/news.htmThu, 14 Aug 2008 11:53:20 -0400 Sorry to everyone who had problems downloading the new version. I had a problems uploading, the first two times the uploads were corrupt but I guess the third time was the charm! It all started with a lightning strike Wednesday night, I didn't really want to get into it because I wanted the release to be positive. The close strike ended up killing the motherboard in my good computer, the cable modem, and the router. I made the mistake of listening to the install guy stating that my Internet would be messed up if I looped it through a surge protector. I also learned another lesson about my network. I have always heard that you should keep your network as simple as possible, keep as few devices as possible. It is true because those first 2 uploads that were corrupt were going through a switch that was hooked up to my router. After I hooked up my backup (test) system straight to my new router the speed was back and the upload did not corrupt! In conclusion, I learned a few lessons and hope my bad experience helps others. Again, I'm sorry for the downloading problems and they should all be taken care of. Prop's goes out to our excellent mirrors for being patient and for being so quick to help me fix my error. Other than that, I hope everyone enjoys the new release!!!http://www.ubcd4win.com/news.htmThu, 14 Aug 2008 11:53:20 -0400 After several weeks of testing we are finally releasing a new 3.20 release of UBCD4Win. Big thanks goes out to our old and new beta testers. Hopefully they have found all of my mistakes so none of you run into problems. I do want to report to everyone that AVG 8.0 still has not made it into our release and FireFox 3.0 did not. AVG 8.0 still has some sporadic and random problems so that is the reason we are holding off on getting it into UBCD4Win. FireFox 3.0 was released during our beta testing so we did not want to delay the release of UBCD4Win by adding that late in the stages of beta testing. There is also a security issue with the new version of FireFox so I expect a 3.01 version soon. So download and enjoy the new release! Visit the "Version History" page for a list of all changes and updates. If you happen to run into any problems or bugs please visit the forum and post your problem if it hasn't already been posted.http://www.ubcd4win.com/news.htmThu, 14 Aug 2008 11:53:19 -0400 Thanks to everyone that sent me an email and thank you also for wanting to help! We received a lot of responses and have about 10 new beta testers added to our team. With their help we will hopefully have 3.20 released within a few weeks and maybe some of them will be able to help us add more cool stuff to UBCD4Win. Thanks again everyone!!http://www.ubcd4win.com/news.htmWed, 18 Jun 2008 22:03:30 -0400 Even with the possible "recession", high oil prices, and slipping US dollar we are hiring! Oh wait a minute, we don't pay anything though?? Ok seriously folks, we are basically looking for more beta testers. We are currently trying to beta test a new version but our current beta testers are busy with real life. I completely understand that because I haven't had the chance to even post news here for almost 2 months now!! I even received an email from a user asking me if I died or something!! Evidently he doesn't visit the forum on a regular basis or he would see posts from me there. I thought it was kinda funny anyways, just imagine if he would have received an email from my wife saying YES! He'd feel like a jerk then! Anyways, beta testing. Testing comes and goes, life changes, etc. We generally try to release new versions every 2-4 months so there can be a long span between testing. 6 months ago someone could have had free time to test and did but now there is a new baby or added responsibilities at work or something else. So I have always accepted the fact that people come and go. I always greatly appreciate their help and hate to see them go but I at least know that they will probably be back to at least download UBCD4Win again in the future when they need it. So if you have some free time for at least the next several months and want to help, send me an email!! I generally like to talk to possible beta testers on the phone so I would prefer US testers so I can talk to them but am willing to discuss possibilities with the International community. Especially if they can provide some help with other language builds. We do currently have a few guys from Europe in our Moderating and Development teams so anything is possible.http://www.ubcd4win.com/news.htmThu, 12 Jun 2008 18:50:55 -0400 Received a nice email from a user last night letting me know UBCD4Win was mentioned in the latest issue of Computer Shopper magazine. I went out this morning to pick up a copy so I could check the issue out. Even though it was a short write up it was to the point and I really liked the false positive mention. The email and the magazine helped push me into updating the site a little today. For at least the last year I've had an "awards and magazine" page on the site, but never found the time to put content on the page. Today I changed that. So now most of our magazine mentions are on that page for everyone to check out. Thank you Computer Shopper magazine and as always I thank the users of UBCD4Win, without your support over the years this would not be possible.http://www.ubcd4win.com/news.htmSun, 13 Apr 2008 20:38:23 -0400 Busy, busy, busy!! Figured it has been a while since we released a new version so we went to work and updated a bunch of stuff in UBCD4Win. We probably missed a few things but that happens. Either way I highly suggest you get rid of 3.12 and download 3.13!! If anyone happens to have any problems with the new version or have questions, please post in the forum. Enjoy the new release!http://www.ubcd4win.com/news.htmThu, 10 Apr 2008 19:46:01 -0400 Most people know that UBCD4Win was inspired by the "original" Ultimate Boot CD. I started out helping a little with that project and shipping it out on CD. Some people stuck on dialup could not download it or some people just like to order a CD. I also distributed AutoPatcher for several years before MS shut them down. I have always wanted to help people by providing a cheap but professional looking product and I think I have achieved that with all of the CD's I send out. Recently thanks to a mention in Gizmo's newsletter I had another idea. Gizmo's list is awesome when it comes to finding a great tool for the task you need to accomplish and for free. However it can be a pain to download everything on his list, 600+ MB's of great software!! So through communications with him I have been granted the exclusive right to distribute a CD of the software on his list. Soon you will be able to purchase a CD with all distributable tools with a nice menu to select and install them. I really think this will be a big time saver for many people and hope that a lot of people purchase the CD. Eventually I hope to compile his entire 118 list into a DVD, but that will take quite a bit of work! So if you have something that needs distributed on CD or USB flash drive or know of a tool that should have that option available, please drop me an email and we will discuss the options and pricing. As you can tell with the prices and packages currently offered by me with UBCD and UBCD4Win, prices can be very affordable for your users.http://www.ubcd4win.com/news.htmThu, 03 Apr 2008 22:52:34 -0400 Happy 4 years everyone!! I can't believe we are still kicking ass after 4 years. So many good things have happened over the years and I'm sure more are to come. I thank all of you for our continued success because without you we wouldn't be here. Without your feedback we couldn't have fixed problems and without donations we wouldn't be able to pay our bills. Thanks again and I look forward to many more years of helping people with UBCD4Win!http://www.ubcd4win.com/news.htmThu, 03 Apr 2008 10:06:10 -0400 I first want to thank all the patient people who had to deal with download.com's SLOW servers. It was an interesting test, one that found that download.com can't handle a big download and another that we do no have the user base to push us up into a newsletter spot in their newsletters. Oh well, we had to try it. The rest of the mirrors will be up soon so no one should have any problems downloading the latest version of UBCD4Win. I have also done a little updating on the "list of tools" page over the past few days also. They are much closer to being up to date. If anyone notices anything on this site, ever, please feel free to contact me and I'll do my best to fix it as promptly as possible. The only other thing worth mentioning is the background activity going on in UBCD4Win. Work with the network tool, localization tool, and USB tool are going well. I'm really hoping more of them are ready for the next release of UBCD4Win. Keep checking the site and forum, there is a lot of great stuff going on!!http://www.ubcd4win.com/news.htmSun, 16 Mar 2008 21:19:11 -0400 Just over a month and we already have a new release? Well there were a few minor issues with 3.11 so we continued to work even though we usually enjoy a few weeks of relaxation. There are a few issues with the newest BTS drivers so we went back to the previous version. I had also mistakenly left out LittlBUGer's DriverPack, that is now included for additional NIC support. We decided to add a few tools, remove a few tools, and of course some had new versions released. Please download the newest version and ENJOY!!http://www.ubcd4win.com/news.htmSun, 16 Mar 2008 21:18:26 -0400 After several weeks of hard work, Version 3.11 is released!! There are a few really exciting things about this release. Other than the normal updates we again have a few more nice tools added to UBCD4Win. For starters, we now have a MultiBoot option that allows you to download a Vista Recovery Console and add it to your CD! Someone also found a free virus removal tool from Kaspersky that looks really good and is also included. Joshua has a very nice Localization tool included in this version also, so a lot of German speaking people will be happy. I would mention more but I honestly have little time at the moment. Big thanks goes out to Gizmo (Ian Richards)!!! I deeply thank you for mentioning UBCD4Win in a recent newsletter and greatly appreciate that you suggested to your readers to buy a copy of UBCD4Win. Your mention of UBCD4Win was pretty much perfect. You gave your readers the normal "warnings" that we give users, basically that UBCD4Win does require a little work and knowledge. I have checked out your site several times over the years but not much recently because I've been so busy. You provide a great service and a wealth of information for computer users, I highly recommend it and plan to find some time soon to get more software for my systems. Finally, thanks to all that have ordered. Most of you have received an email from me over the past few days explaining how we were working on a new version and asked if you would like to wait. I want to thank all of you because almost all of you had the same response, appreciating the email and wanting to wait. Thank you for waiting and I am glad that everything worked out the way it did so I could follow through with my promise of mailing them on Wednesday. Well, as long as no one reports any "big" problems with the new version tomorrow!! Anyways, thanks for the friendly responses and understanding. Your orders will be shipped out Wednesday. http://www.ubcd4win.com/news.htmMon, 28 Jan 2008 23:04:56 -0500 I've made a few minor updates to the site over the past few days. Most notably the "burn ISO" page, it finally has content!! I've also updated some information on the "FAQ" page and added a few more notes to the "how to burn" page. I'm always trying to add more content, update, and make other changes that users suggest. I would like to think that it could be possible that the site be perfect but when I look at it, I don't ever think I will honestly feel happy with it and feel it is complete. There are just too many changes and so much stuff! Anyways, we are under way with some beta testing for a new 3.11 release. I really hope we can have this released soon. http://www.ubcd4win.com/news.htmMon, 21 Jan 2008 23:02:59 -0500 How many of you use or even have heard of Patriot memory? Well, in the past I've had decent experiences with them. I bought a used stick on eBay years ago, upgraded my laptop almost a year ago with it, and haven't had any problems with their MIR's (Mail In Rebates.) We equipped our systems with Patriot memory this past fall and all was good for about 3 months. Now keep in mind that between 3 systems there are 10 sticks of memory between us, 8 1Gig sticks between John and I and 2 2Gig sticks for Tom. They were all purchased in 2 stick kits, important point as you'll see below. So late last month I found some problems! My system started to BSOD and I originally thought it was a driver but through good troubleshooting figured out it was memory and I figured out what stick it was. Only 1 out of my 4 was bad so I was OK with the situation. Then even more issues began! I contacted the RMA department and was sent the forms needed to return my memory. I will admit that I did make a mistake here because I clearly read that "if the memory is part of a kit return both sticks." I didn't think nothing of it because I've returned Kingston memory in the past and had NO problems if it was part of a kit. Then I received the "friendly" email telling me they received my memory but they needed the other stick, unless I wanted to void the warranty??!!? HELL NO, I'll waste another $3.40 in postage and wait longer! There is NO way I'll give up my lifetime warranty especially since one of them has already failed! The thing that really ticks me off about this is the wait. I received notice on the 27th saying my memory was shipped out and will be delivered on the 7th??? A week and a half?? I understand the holidays but damn that is NOT reasonable! Keep in mind that they received the GOOD stick of memory on about the 20th! I sent it on the 17th PRIORITY mail and they evidently didn't have the time to check the GOOD stick several days later! Oh well, I'm done getting mad about it, I just basically want to inform all of you and warn you of the possible RMA issues you could face if you chose Patriot memory. I can say for me, I will not pinch pennies and will get Kingston memory next time! Please feel free to let all of us know of similar situations by posting in our "hardware" area of the forum. We would love to hear of good and bad stories by any manufacturer there and know that it will help others in their decisions. GOOD purchases!! Sorry, can't help myself. I've read the same thing on many other sites and I hate to be an echo but I have to mention GOOD companies. APC still has to be the top company in customer service and I'm reminded of that because Randy recently received an APC UPS for Xmas!! Congrats to him on receiving a quality piece of equipment and if he happens to have to get support from them, it will actually be a great experience! I've taken headache medication after a support call MANY times, but after talking to APC it is NOT necessary! I bought a great APC UPS 3 years ago and when I had a problem with it, the experience was unreal. They back up most of their equipment with a 3 year warranty so really, the extra money you may spend when compared to others is WELL worth it! Ok, I"m off my soapbox. Finally this brings me to my beloved Pittsburgh Steelers. I'll get off topic quick to mention a few purchases and Xmas presents this year. To start, I made my normal July purchase of the new Steelers hat and was yet again disappointed that Ben wasn't wearing my hat on the sidelines for the second year straight. I think I've noticed a trend though. When the new season hats are "released" there have been two these past two years, one that is a little more "flashy" and one that is more "plain." I've noticed the Ben likes to wear the more "plain" and traditional hats. After last year I almost attempted to write him to make make sure I would buy the right hat, and this year I actually told the girl working at my local shop that if Ben wasn't wearing the hat I just bought I would return it!! I didn't though. I didn't make too many purchases this year except for a mini helmet. After the first Steelers game in their throw back uniforms I thought the helmets looked pretty cool so I had to have a helmet. Then Xmas, the boys all received jerseys this year. My oldest Troy got a Polamalu jersey, Ben got a Roethlisberger, and William received a Parker jersey. I would have bought William a "coaches" jacket but someone had to retire so me naming my son after him means nothing!!!!! At least we have Willie Parker so everyone in the family has a player to idolize. Which brings us to next Saturday! It's going to be tough and the situation isn't the same as 05, but the Steelers have A LOT of talent. I don't know how well it will play out but there is a lot of revenge that could play out in the sudden death playoffs! I do know one thing, someone better damn well knock those Patriots into the dirt and out of the possible "perfect" season. They aren't better than the '72 Dolphins until they win the Super Bowl and for the sake of "good" history, they better not accomplish that!! Anyways, with Willie Parker out it will be hard.....however there are enough Offensive weapons to take on any team. The Defense should be strong after a few starters rested today. All the announcers have been saying for at least the past week is that Jacksonville will be scary in the playoffs and that no team wants to see them. I ignore all of that because those idiots only say what the networks allow them to say, they have no real opinions just BS. I've watched them do it all season long, jumping from one bandwagon to another. It makes me sick because these "robots" act like they know nothing but they should. I'm getting ticked off again, I better just go to bed now! GO STEELERS!!!! http://www.ubcd4win.com/news.htmMon, 31 Dec 2007 00:26:09 -0500 After a few minor delays, a new version is finally released! Big thanks to everyone in our development and beta tester teams. Download and enjoy!! http://www.ubcd4win.com/news.htm25 Nov 2007 00:25:32 -0500 The next release is getting close!! We will hopefully be releasing 3.10 soon!!http://www.ubcd4win.com/news.htm19 Nov 2007 00:24:40 -0500 Sorry for the lack of updates for the past few weeks, been busy with the laptop disaster, work, putting our new kick ass systems together, and working on a new beta. Thank you all for your help in getting us our new systems!! Please remember though that we still have our monthly costs so please still consider donating if and when you are able to. If you missed out on the opportunity to donate, you still can. Donations are always used responsibly and go towards purchases to help us make UBCD4Win better. Paying our hosting fees (and our other costs) had an effect on the donation rally, one that I hadn't really thought of. It delayed us reaching our goal. We have always been able to pay our bills thanks to donations. Past "rallies" were for smaller amounts of money so they were completed pretty quickly. This was a HUGE rally and a few times I lost perspective on that, expecting it to be over quicker than it would be. I apologize for acting a little crazy over the past few months, some of you are probably used to it though! The laptop disaster is taken care of and overall everything is good. They ended up replacing the motherboard (what I thought it was) and I got it back pretty quickly. The only thing I didn't like was the chat and phone support. But for a $600 laptop the experience was acceptable. So HP / Compaq still has me satisfied for the most part. Beta? Did I mention a beta? Yes I did and I'm hoping we can get it finished up and released soon. I'm sorry to report though that there really isn't anything too big in this release. Just another maintenance release to fix a few minor problems however a lot of software has been updated over the past. Some now known HashCheck issues have been found and we are taking care of them in this release. Thanks again everyone, I greatly appreciate my new system and know that the other guys really love their new systems!! I'm very happy that I chose Vista Ultimate 64 as our OS for these systems because I've already found 1 bug/problem with UBCD4Win in a 64bit OS.http://www.ubcd4win.com/news.htmTue, 16 Oct 2007 21:27:19 -0400 Big thanks to everyone who has donated so far, no matter how much you donated it's greatly appreciated!! There seems to be a few minor issues with NewEgg Gift Certificates. I've received a few emails and there has been at least one post in the forum from people mentioning they wanted to send a NewEgg Gift Certificate. The problem is that we do not receive them. It's not that the user is being charged and we do not get it, it's basically that users think the process is complete. I did not realize until today that after a user completes the first page of information they must then "login" or create a new account. I apologize for not knowing that sending a gift certificate required a little additional work on the donators end. So please, if you have not received a "thank you" email for your gift certificate from me....please email me so I can verify if a gift certificate was received or not. Like I mentioned in the title though, things have been slow. In the last week and a half we've received just under $200 and that was from about 14 donations. I do not want to sound like I'm complaining because I really appreciate everything so far, but I just hoped for this to go a little better and faster. Just makes me think our user base is smaller than what I thought? To be honest it's been a little depressing for me personally. I would rather see 6,000 $1 donations (6,000 because of PayPal fees) than a bunch of $50, $100, or $200 donations. Just because that would help show we have a big user base that appreciates the work and time we put into UBCD4Win. There are about 50 different variables that play into this though so I'm really not taking the slow results too much to heart. I'm probably just being a weirdo anyways. Thanks again from everyone who has helped so far. Like I've mentioned before, if you are not financially able to help we understand. I will keep you all updated and am really anxious to announce that we have reached our goal.http://www.ubcd4win.com/news.htmThu, 06 Sep 2007 23:36:30 -0400 First thanks to everyone that has been generous towards our need. We have purchased our first system and it is performing quite well so far. I haven't really had much time for testing because we are still "swamped" at work and my regular duties for UBCD4Win have kept me quite busy. I am currently testing Vista Ultimate 64 and am not really ready to say if I am happy with it. Initially I ran into a few issues that I attributed to drivers but at this point I'm still not sure. I have installed Vista twice on this system and at least with this install and the drivers I've used I have only seen a BSOD once so far. I started over because I had seen about 6-8 before and the system was acting funny. Basically this is what I wanted to do, test! I want and need to make sure that my hardware choices for our systems will work well together and I really think they will. Over the past few days though donations have slowed, so please consider donating if you can. We have built one out of the three systems that we need. I will continue to post news on the site and will immediately post when we hit our goal. If I haven't posted new news here a week from now do not assume that we are doing good with donations or that we have hit our goal. I am very happy and proud that our users are willing to help us and cannot wait to announce that we have all three systems built!! Please check out the links below the 8/21 news to send a donation through PayPal, Gift Certificate from NewEgg, or to contact me for alternative methods. Thanks to all!! http://www.ubcd4win.com/news.htmMon, 27 Aug 2007 22:27:33 -0400 Great first 5 days everyone!! I thank you all greatly! It's pretty awesome that in less than a week we are only only $200 away from building our first system. I want to take a moment to help explain the NewEgg gift certificates and other ways you can help us. First if you can not afford a monetary donation, please visit our sponsor links which are generally on the right side of the pages on this site. NewEgg gift certificates are about the best way for us to reach our goal. They generally have the best prices and I plan to order a majority of our hardware from them. The biggest benefit though, NO fees! With all transactions through PayPal, there are always fees. With gift certificates we get every penny you sent to help us. I have added a link below to the gift certificate page on the NewEgg site. If you need to know who/where to send send the gift certificate to, click on the "contact me" button below to find out my email address. I would list my email address here but I already receive too much spam. Bots scour web sites all the time looking for email addresses to spam and I apologize for the inconvenience to you, but I do not want to take any chances on getting more spam! Finally, alternatives to PayPal and NewEgg gift certificates. I understand that some people are not comfortable with putting their credit card information online. So if you would like to donate and do not like PayPal, etc., please contact me and we can discuss alternatives. Thanks again everyone, I really appreciate your great support for our need!! http://www.ubcd4win.com/news.htmTue, 21 Aug 2007 01:36:31 -0400 How about a few computers?? I think most users of UBCD4Win understand that UBCD4Win is freeware run by volunteers. We do our best to help as many people as possible by providing our hard work at no cost. All we have ever asked for is donations to help us recover hosting, license, etc., costs that we have had and currently have. It's an unfortunate fact that several members of the development team are currently in need and I am asking all of you for some help. About a year ago I started talking about upgrading my system, at the time it had been close to 2 years since my last upgrade. Now it is going on 3 years and I am basically still talking about it but unable to actually do anything. My computer has been acting strange lately so I'm afraid that it's about time for something to die in it?? I've been trying to figure out a way to save the money but with 3 boys and just regular bills, I can't figure out a way to do it. 2 weeks ago Tom's (pcuser) computer died and I've been trying to figure out a way to help him also. Then I thought about the Athlon 750 that John (hilander999) is running in his system. I've been thinking for the past week, what can we do??? So I turn to you. Is it unreasonable for me to ask the users of the project for help with getting new systems for a few members of our development team? Will a "donation rally" be successful? We have over 5,000 registered members in the forum, so if only half the members of the forum donated just $1 we would have enough money for the systems. I think most people have appreciated our hard work on this project enough to donate a $1. I do not expect donations from users but greatly appreciate them, donations keep us going by paying our bills. I understand that some people cannot afford to send anything and that is fine. I've been between jobs and I have a family of 5 so I understand completely. I was contacted by a user a few days ago asking if we needed any hardware or software. We exchanged a few emails, like I mentioned above I've been trying to figure out a way to get a new system so I had created a "wish list" at NewEgg last week, so I sent it to him. To my surprise I received a "gift certificate" for NewEgg in the amount of $250!! All I can say is WOW, that is amazing. So I am confident in starting a new "donation rally" to help us get new systems. I am sure we have enough users that are financially able to help us out in our time of need. Please if you are able to, send us a donation or a gift certificate for NewEgg. As always with "donation rallies" I will post news on the site as soon as we reach our goal. If you have any questions, suggestions, etc. please feel free to email me. I will start a post in our forum soon listing what I have spec'd out for our systems. I thank you all for your past and future donations to help keep this project going.d Creator. NOTE: this item description should be edited. Please check out the site for donate buttons or go to www.newegg.com and send a gift certificate to ben@ubcd4win.com.http://www.ubcd4win.com/news.htmWed, 15 Aug 2007 21:51:40 -0400 After several days of testing and yet a few minor mix ups, 3.06 is finally released. We did find a last minute problem with HashCheck so a few of the mirrors have a version of 3.06 with a different MD5 than the one published on the "downloads" page. I have contacted those mirrors and hope they get the files changed soon. Mirrors also provided a slight delay in the release. Contacting people on a Friday night isn't the best time for most people to be reached. I don't like to announce a new version unless most of the mirrors are up, just so their servers don't get overloaded. Version 3.06 is more of a maintenance release. Since HashCheck was updated we couldn't release a patch. No tools were updated but several other things were fixed or updated. Most notable is the NOD32 issue that was present in 3.05. The BTS drivers were updated and Joshua's nVidia NIC package was added to the build. For more information check out the Version History page.http://www.ubcd4win.com/news.htmSat, 04 Aug 2007 20:17:22 -0400 Well, NOD32 users will soon be happy again. Due to a lot of emails/posts from NOD32 users we have taken the time to try and figure out why this is happening. It took several hours of testing and checking hundreds of lines of source code, but Tom has figured it out!! Seems there was ONE line of code that NOD32 did not like. Luckily it wasn't something we needed and was just an old line that we forgot to remove. So we shouldn't have any more false positives from NOD32. We are double checking a few things but I am confident that we'll be able to release a new 3.06 "false positive" free version by this weekend.http://www.ubcd4win.com/news.htmTue, 31 Jul 2007 18:10:35 -0400 I posted news about this in the forum and completely forgot to update the site! In the last few releases of UBCD4Win we have trimmed away a few useful tools. AntiVirus companies prefer to scare their users (and potential UBCD4Win users) by stating we have Viruses and Hack Tools in the project. It's really sad because we've removed some useful tools from the UBCD4Win because of this mess. In the past we tried our best to inform users as to what is really going on, but some just do not take the time to read and understand. It's not fair that we get negative comments or ratings on sites because a user doesn't have or take the time to understand what is really going on. So, www.UBCD4WinDownloads.com is here! I have been promising users for a few months now that any tools removed from the project would still be available for download. I was trying to figure out the best way to do it. It finally struck me one day, buy another domain and setup a "cheaper" hosting account for that domain! I just hope that hosting account can handle the traffic that it receives. Please if you have any problems downloading, email me so I can check into it and fix any possible problems. Also please post any "requests" for plugins in our forum, we will gladly point you in the right direction. If you need a plugin hosted, please contact me and I should be able to help you out. At the moment I do not have an elaborate plans with the domain, I probably won't even create viewable pages for it? Right now it is only going to be used to provide direct download links for plugins listed on the "downloads" page of this site. After time though I could possibly setup a "downloads" page for that domain, but I only see that happening if a lot of users would like me/us to host plugins for them. So I hope you users understand that we do our best to provide you all with easy options and quick updates. It's unfortunate that sometimes it requires us to spend money to provide something free for everyone. So now with even more monthly expenses now it more important than ever that we receive donations to help with these costs. If you have ever thought about donating, please think about it again because it is more important than ever. I'm sure the project has saved you repair costs so please just send a fraction of what you would have had to spend at a "shop" to us to help us pay our bills. Lack of feedback from my 7/2 news. In a way I'm surprised that I didn't receive any email about that news post? Then again with all my rambling, maybe I'm the only person who could even understand what I was trying to say??!! I apologize for some aspects of that post and it's a reminder as to why I do not do any "professional" writing. I have the tendency of getting a little fired up with topics that I strongly believe in. When that happens it seems I cannot focus on getting the point across. So I apologize for my rambling and hope you can figure out and understand the points I was really trying to get across. Maybe someday I'll revisit that subject and take a little more time when writing it. http://www.ubcd4win.com/news.htmSat, 14 Jul 2007 13:53:02 -0400 I received an email from a 10yr. tech that works for NASA a few weeks ago. Here is a quote from the email: "Some of the software I've had to disable due to license or security concerns, but even so the CD is more useful than any other diagnostic or recovery tool we've ever found. You have no idea how many computers your tool has recovered or how much user data you've been responsible for rescuing." He also wanted to send a little "token" of appreciation. Last week I received a "mission coin" with a card describing the mission. The really cool part is what the coin is made of. After each mission they take the frames that hold the experiments, space station components, etc and melt them down and make coins out of them. Thanks for the gift!! It's really appreciated!http://www.ubcd4win.com/news.htmThu, 28 Jun 2007 22:29:27 -0400 I received an email late last night from SoftPedia. Seems they have found the time to check out and evaluate UBCD4Win. So we now have the honor of having their 100% Clean award! I've only added it to the "home" page and "downloads" page so far, but will probably add it to the rest. This should help prove to users that whenever they see a problem with the program, it is truly a "false positive"!!http://www.ubcd4win.com/news.htmThu, 27 Jun 2007 22:28:16 -0400 Many updates and a few changes have made there way into the latest release of UBCD4Win. For the long list of updated tools and other changes check out the Version History page. I think the biggest news is the addition of AVG AntiVirus!! We have been in contact with them for months working together on a good PE plugin for their software and getting permission to include it in our download. Because we now have AVG a few of our old AV buddies had to go. ClamWin and SysClean. While they are probably good pieces of software, I (and other members of our development team) have never really gotten them to work very well in our builds. For those die hard fans though, we will be releasing individual plugins for those tools and anything else we have or will remove from the project. I just have to work out more details on that and get the html setup on the downloads page. HashCheck has been updated again and addresses many more issues than it has in the past. I hope the users really understand what we are trying to accomplish with this tool. These tools are created and added to the project to help us and the user figure out extraction problems with the project if they have any. Tom worked really hard to add additional "checks" into the tool that should help users figure out what went wrong if something does. BTS drivers have been added and our old storage drivers have been removed. The NIC drivers are still there but we have moved to a newer and better method with the BTS drivers. The only word of caution.....the are currently disabled by default. If you will need or think you will need storage drivers in your build, "Config" and then enable the plugin before building. It will automatically download the latest BTS driver pack and integrate it for you. Slight changes to help control the size of the project. We have been discussing "pruning" the project and have done that a little with this release. We are pretty busy working on about 3 other things for the project so we couldn't really focus on it much in this release. I also need to find the time to post some polls in the forum to get a better idea of what YOU think could be removed and considered optional in the build. After all you are the reason why we do what we do and we try to make you as happy as possible. A few disappointments in this release though. AdAware 2007 and AVG AntiSpyware did not make it into this release. We worked hard to try and get them to work, but could not. We are still working on them and hope to figure out what changes were made to the programs and how to get them to work in the project. Finally, site and "how to" updates. I apologize now for not having the time to get all of the site updated. Not much has really changed with building the project but I do need to get a little documentation out there to help people with a few questions. Most notably the BTS drivers and how to setup the AVG AV plugin. If you happen to have questions or problems before I am able to get that information updated on the site, please search and/or post in the forum. http://www.ubcd4win.com/news.htmSat, 23 Jun 2007 12:50:27 -0400 Patch, recently it came to my attention that I made a mistake with a few recent orders. I always try to update the AntiVirus, AntiSpyware, and any other definition files that need updated regularly at least every 3-4 weeks for the ordered CD of the project. I figure most people that order the CD are stuck on dialup and it would take that person a long time to update all definition files. The last time I did this though, I updated a few other things I normally do not update. It's not that big of a bug and can actually be fixed pretty easily. My development team was on top of things and created instructions and a fix for MY bug, thanks John!! You can download the fix in this post in our support forum: http://ubcd4win.com/forum/index.php?s=&showtopic=8505&view=findpost&p=47976 Remember, this bug ONLY effects ordered CD's. The volume label for the effected CD's should read "UBCD4Win30401."  3.05, due to the above error I am trying to get more testing done with our current beta. We will hopefully release 3.05 next week. Testing has been going very well so I truely believe that we will be able to "wrap up" 3.05 and get it released. RC, just wanted to give everyone a little update on my root canal issues. Luckily the pain went away for a few days but came back a little today. I have been wanting to give everyone an update on it but was afraid I would jinx my luck and the pain would come back. So I have been feeling better and trying to get more work done. It's been much easier since I haven't had to take pain killers for the past few days. Thanks to the few that sent me emails and advice about my tooth, I really do appreciate it but have not had time to get responses sent out to all of you.http://www.ubcd4win.com/news.htmTue, 12 Jun 2007 22:50:37 -0400 The past few weeks have been quite trying for me. I've had a toothache for over a month and found that I needed a root canal. Sure it sucked that my insurance won't cover it all but that really is the least of my worries. Dealing with the pain has been hell. Thanks to someone canceling their appointment last week I was able to have my root canal done. I was actually pretty happy because I figured that after an hour of hell, I would finally find relief. WRONG. I have actually been in more pain this past week and I don't know when I will finally be pain free. I hope it happens before my next appoint early next month. So that brings me to apologies. I am sorry that I haven't been that active in the forum and have barely been answering any emails. The painkillers I've been taking have had me feeling a bit "loopy." So I really haven't been able to concentrate on much of anything. At least somehow I have been able to handle work pretty well for the most part, but by the end of the day I really can't cope with anything else. I am very sorry to everyone that I haven't emailed back yet. Slowly but surely my inbox will be taken care of but I don't know how soon. So if you need support please now more than ever, post in the forum.http://www.ubcd4win.com/news.htmTue, 05 Jun 2007 21:05:19 -0400 Benjamin BurrowsI thought all the "bad" words were supposed to be four letter words? Anyways, beta2 for version 3.05 was released to beta testers yesterday and everything is looking good so far. Today was a holiday though so I'm thinking it just hasn't been tested too much yet? There are a lot of tool updates in this upcoming release so it might take a little more time to find any problems. RSS, CSS, etc., were things I worked on today. After a long day of testing and compiling yesterday, I needed something else to work on!! Users have requested RSS feeds in the past so yesterday and today I found time to work on it. I have heard plenty about RSS but never really found the need or time to check into them more. If you like RSS feeds, use a reader regularly, and enjoy the project please subscribe to our new feed. I'm still new to this so please report any errors or problems to me via email. In my RSS adventures I spent a little time updating the site today also. CSS has always been a thorn in my side, but today I found the time to learn a little more about it. My main focus has always been the project in general, but the project makes me learn and deal with A LOT of different things. Today I made several cosmetic changes to the site thanks to CSS. In the process I learned a few more things about HTML and was reminded of W3C compliance. A few years ago I found that important and spent some time ensuring that the site was compliant with all the W3C rules. Today I checked a few pages and found several minor issues. All pages of the site are not yet completely compliant but I'll spend some time over the next few days to get the rest "up to snuff." The only sad thing about being compliant, is the fact that MS doesn't care. IE7 was a step in the right direction, but MS still talks about making their own standards. I don't think that IE7 follows all the rules, but it does follow them better than IE6. I just wish they would follow the rules instead of always trying to MAKE them!!http://www.ubcd4win.com/news.htmMon, 28 May 2007 11:51:03 -0400 Benjamin BurrowsWell I made a huge mistake with my previous news post. I thank everyone who has emailed me over the past 2 days. The responses I've received to my "cry baby" news is very nice. Life is life, it is what it is. Sometimes I am overwhelmed and I try my best to control "freak out" moments like I just had. I try to be as professional as possible but my emotions get the best of me at times. It's a flaw in myself that is annoying. With so many things going on I just have my moments. I honestly think the real problem at the moment is pain. I've had a toothache that has given me a headache pretty much daily for the past month. I can't stand being in pain and it just kills my motivation/ability to get anything done. Sucks because I have two options, extraction or root canal. My crappy insurance doesn't help either because it's not an "important" tooth to them??!! They'll cover the extraction but not all of the root canal. So I basically I have to figure out how to come up with about $350 just so I can save it. I'll figure out a way, doesn't matter how because I want my tooth! I got a little side tracked, kind of. Thank you again to everyone that has emailed me. I know the project kicks ass and I apologize for giving the impression that I was considering giving up. I have a great group of guys in my "development team" that help me A LOT with the project. I'm a bit frustrated with support. There was a HUGE mess a few weeks ago with cNet/download.com that was really just a bunch of BS. We've had a few server issues over the past few weeks. IPB (our forum software) support really SUCKS! These "behind the scene" problems that only I have to deal with and are very frustrating. Let's do some GOOD news now! Beta testing for 3.05 will continue soon once I find the time to get a few finishing touches to Beta2 done. It looks pretty good and includes a lot of updates. The best news though is our "deal" with AVG/Grisoft is almost finished!! I can't remember if I've ever posted news about this here on the site, but I do know that we've talked about it in the forum on a few occasions. We've been in contact/talks with Grisoft for a while now. We've been working together to create a plugin for UBCD4Win to include their AntiVirus software. It is almost final now. I really hope to get the official OK within the next several days so we can include it in 3.05.http://www.ubcd4win.com/news.htmMon, 28 May 2007 11:51:03 -0400