On behalf of myself and my fellow downloaders who dont have the time or whose language prevents them from writing of their appreciation to the contributors and others that run this site we all would like to thank you all for the effort you make each day also those developers who give away their programs or beta test them here we all look forward to having you back again we hope for better and cheaper programs so that we can help you all remain in the developing business for times to come .
Seasons greetings and many thanks to you all your families and loved ones too .

king  –  11 months ago  –  Ritieni questo commento utile? sì | no (+115)

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*To me*, the standout offers in this really great giveaway are AOMEI Backupper Pro & Partition Assistant Pro, while MyRecover Pro & Auslogics Windows Slimmer both are Very interesting. That's NOT to say that the other apps in this fantastic offer aren't worthwhile -- just that they're not something I need or use, e.g., Sticky Password has gotten rave reviews, but I don't see a need to migrate from KeePass.

Backupper is good to very good hard disk partition image backup software -- Partition Assistant lets you manage [create, delete, resize etc.] hard disk [& SSD] partitions. Both have the caveat that you need to modify the bootable USB sticks they create... with Backupper, at least through version 7.3.2, and Partition Assistant through 9.13.0, I’ve found that you need to make a copy of C:\Windows\ Boot\ EFI\ bootmgfw.efi, rename that copy bootx64.efi, and use it to replace the copy on the USB stick you create with Backupper in [X]:\EFI\BOOT\, where [X] = the drive letter for your USB stick. That way it will work with the UEFI BIOS and Secure Boot found & used in current hardware.

Not everyone needs to back up their PC, laptop, or tablet, so Backupper Pro may not be for you. If all you use are apps from Windows Store, and/or if you mainly just work online, without many [or any] apps and games installed, reinstalling everything nowadays isn’t so bad. You can also try just resetting Windows, which does sometimes work. The days of spending hours performing Windows 7 updates after reinstalling Windows are long gone, so you just need to make sure you backup *your* stuff -- not software & Windows. For everyone else however, backing up your hard disks / SSDs, while maybe a hassle, does reduce your risks, especially given today’s malware.

Backupper gives you enough control that you can do what you want/need, while having a well thought out design that doesn't make it confusing. Some, like Ashampoo's backup app, try so hard to make things easy that you find your hands are tied, and it's impossible to just do what you want. Others, like Disk Genius, pack in a ton of stuff in an interface guaranteed to confuse. Disk partition image backup software does tend to get pricey if you have more than one PC or laptop [at least with my meager budget] -- besides being very generous with their regular offers on GOTD, AOMEI's free version could be extremely helpful. Since Macrium Reflect ended their free version, I don't know of any alternative that checks all those boxes.

You won't use Partition Assistant Pro that often -- many will only use it when Windows Recovery partition gets messed up or duplicated [I had one copy of Windows 10 that added another Recovery Partition every time a version update required a reinstall, until I had 4!]. If you use Backupper you don't need it anyway. You can also use Partition Assistant to create a Windows to Go drive -- a copy of Win10 or 11 [or both] on an SSD in an external USB housing that you can use with most PCs & laptops. [In theory you can use a USB stick instead, but it will be so slow as to be unusable.]

Background...
Every hard disk, SSD, USB stick etc. has at least one partition storing the physical location of every file stored on that partition. Hard disks, SSDs, and USB sticks can have multiple partitions, though USB sticks are generally limited to two, which can help with organization and is necessary when you want to isolate the contents of one partition from another. By default, installing Windows creates four. A disk image backup app clones – makes an exact copy of – one or more hard disk partitions to usually a single file archive, usually a VHD [Virtual Hard Disk]. Disk image backup software lets you back up an individual or any combination of partitions on a hard disk / SSD, or every partition on a hard disk. Restoring a backup completely replaces anything stored on the effected partitions, creating an exact duplicate of the partition(s) that were backed up. IOW all of you GOTD stuff should be intact.

The VHD files used to archive disk/partition image backups are usually a single file that when mounted behaves like a physical hard disk in Windows. Mounting a backup archive allows you to browse and copy files and/or folders stored in that archive. Most disk / partition image backup apps, including Backupper, use their own, proprietary format for the VHDs used to store backups, though a few, e.g., O&O Disk Image, will allow you to use the .vhd format recognized natively by Windows. Usually, backups in those proprietary formats take up less disk space. Some backup software, e.g., Macrium Reflect, can enable booting [starting Windows] using a backup archive. Once you create a backup that can act as a baseline, you usually [including with Backupper] have the option to just backup anything that’s changed since that baseline backup was created. That takes up less total disk space, but depends on prior backups being available.

Because ransomware looks for backup archives, and will encrypt any that it finds, you want to store your backups on external or removable storage. It’s also insurance in case your device’s hard disk or SSD fails, so you lose access to your backups. Choose carefully, because some external USB drives are prone to failure, as are writable Blu-ray discs – the pro recommendation is to store multiple copies, including one off site in case of fire, floods, tornadoes etc. The cheapest reliable solution is often regular hard disks or SSDs that you put in a USB housing yourself or use with a USB drive dock. Note that with Windows 11 you can create a storage pool using 2 drives with data mirroring – everything’s written to both drives at the same time, so if one drive should fail, you’ve still got a copy on the 2nd.

mike  –  11 months ago  –  Ritieni questo commento utile? sì | no (+51)

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I got the link (tiny readme only) and used it to find the full giveaway. There are 17 items in the list. I downloaded 15 of them. I did not download the cloud ones because I avoid the cloud as not-secure. Of those 15 - 11 were limited one-year licenses.

I have not yet installed the 4 permanent (no updates or support, as expected).

I did note that many of the products do not say they must be installed today. At least one is as late as the end of Feb. 2024.

Diane  –  11 months ago  –  Ritieni questo commento utile? sì | no (+43)

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Most awesome Thank You Giveaway Of The Day and contributing software creators

MOV  –  11 months ago  –  Ritieni questo commento utile? sì | no (+41)

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Just wanted to make everyone aware, that if you install WinX HD Video Converter Deluxe and you already have a version that includes the YouTube download feature, it will remove it. Your new version will not include the ability to download videos from YouTube.

Unfortunately, I just found out the hard way.

RG  –  11 months ago  –  Ritieni questo commento utile? sì | no (+37)

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