A Photo-journey to Western Rajasthan, Day 2, Jodhpur

The second day, we reached Jodhpur and visited different parts of the city.

A Photo Journey in Western Rajsthan

Account of Day 1, please read the post for the details.

DVD Ripping with PgcDemux

The tool I have used here is PgcDemux. There are other very popular tools available for this job, namely DVDDecrypter and DVDfab Decrypter. Unlike the other two, PgcDemux does not need any installation. You can run it for the unzipped folder by just clicking the .exe file. So I have preferred this one.

Download:

1. Click here to download PgcDemux
2. Homepage

Here is the Screen shot of the download page:

Installation:

This tool does not require you to run an installer to install it.

As you click the Link 1 from above list you should see this file at your Download Location. It is a zip file. Double click on this file to unzip the contents of this file (you may use a free tool named 7-zip for this purpose).

The unzipped folder contains the following three files

Double clicking on the above 'blue boxed' PgcDemux.exe file will run the program opening up the main program window as explained in the next subsection.

Use:

The following is the program window that you shall see when you run PgcDemux for the first time

Step 1:

Hit the "1." 'Browse' button and you shall be greeted with a pop up window as the next shot, from where you need to choose the IFO file. Do not worry about what is IFO file as this window is only going to list those files which are indeed IFO files. Navigate to the DVD Drive containing your DVD Disc.

Step 2:

As you double click on the VIDEO_TS folder you shall see something like the following:

Step 3:

These are the IFO files that you need to select. Now the question is which one! Hover your mouse over all the three IFO files and choose the file which is the largest in size. In this case I chose VTS_01_0 which is the largest (74.0 KB of the three IFOs listed in the 'choice window'.

Step 4:

Select the largest IFO and hit the "Open" button, and you shall see the following screen. Note that the selected IFO is now displayed in the "Input IFO" field of the Program Window.

Hit the "Browse" button next to the "Output Folder" field to choose the output location. The location should have sufficient Hard Disc Space (about 6 GB at least for a large movie). As you choose your Output location the second field should look like the next screen shot...

Step 5:

Here you need to prepare the program to provide you the output that can be used in the next stage. Look at the next screen shot very carefully and check/ uncheck boxes according to that under "Options" section of the program...this step is very important. Basically, you need to make sure that you uncheck all the boxes but "Create a PGC VOB". "Create Logfile" is optional, but I suggest that you keep it checked as this will help you to see through the process in case anything goes wrong (though the chances are minimal unless you do something wrong).

Check the "Mode" part of the Program and make sure that "by PGC" is selected...

Step 6:

Now the last part before you can actually run the program. Look in the "PGC Selection" part of the main program window.

Make sure that in "Domain", "Titles" is selected. Now look in the next field. If you click on the Green Colored drop down arrow, you can find all the PGCs by numbers and their duration. Choose the PGC number which has the longest duration. In this case it is PGC # 01, with about 3 hrs duration. Except for Episodic DVDs, there will only be one PGC having the longest duration.

Now the program is all set to start the Ripping.

Step 7:

Hit the "Process" button at the bottom lest of the main program window to start the process. Once you hit the "Process" Button, a progress bar will be showing you the process status. Refer the next screen shot...

The Title Bar as well as the progress bar will give you an idea of the progress. Now, you need to just be patient unless the process is completed, the time of which will depend on your Computer's power.

Step 8:

Once the process is over, you shall see a small pop up window opened like the following screen shot. Note that, this happens even though the title bar is displaying that 98% is completed. Do not worry about it. Just hit the "OK" button and then hit "Quit" button at the bottom right corner of the program window.

Now if you navigate to the output folder, you can see a number of VOB files ( about all of size 0.99 GB) and named in sequence. This is very important that you do not rename any of these VOB files otherwise AGK will not be able to convert the full movie.

The logfile at the beginning is created by this program which may be referred to see the full details of the program run.

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DVD Ripping- A Complete Guide (DVDFab HD Decrypter)

DVDFab HD Decrypter

As mentioned in the DVD Backup Post, PgcDemux can not handle Latest Copy Protected DVDs, and to rip your latest copy protected DVD yu need a more capable tool, which in this case is DVDFab HD Decrypter. As the name suggests, this program can Decrypt (which means 'Rip') even the HD DVDs, but we are going to concentrate on its ability to rip our good ol' DVDs for now.

Download:

Link:

• Direct Download: http://www.dvdfab.com/mlink/download.php?g=HDDECRYPTER

• Download Page: http://www.dvdfab.com/free.htm
  

If you go to the Download Page link you should see something like the next screen shot. Hit on the Green "Download" Button to start your download.

Once your download is over, you need to install this program by running the downloaded installer.

Once you complete your installation you should see thisprogram icon placed on the desktop. You will need to Reboot your PC after the installation is over.

Use:

Step 1:

Double Click on the program icon and the following screen will appear.

This is the main program window. All those options which I have blackened are not available in this free program, but in its commercial counterpart. The two enabled functions which we shall require are shown in the Red Rectangle.

Step 2:

The Button 1 will rip the whole content of the DVD to your Hard Disc Drive. We are more interested to get the Movie only to the Hard Disc Drive. And to do that, the Button 2 is required. Now, insert your DVD to your DVD Drive. The program will automatically detect the DVD and you can see it in the "Source" field. Now hit the little 'Folder Icon' beside the "Target" field and choose the location where you would like to save your ripped movie. Remember to choose a location where enough free space (at least about 9GB) is available.

Step 3:

Once you have chosen your source and target, hit the option at the left pane of the main program window labeled as "Main Movie" (if you have not done it already in the previous step). You can see something like the next screen shot.

Look at the portion of the Program Window labeled as "1" in blue. The First column is "Title" and the second column is "Play Time". If the DVD is a single movie DVD, then you do not need to do anything. The Title Number belonging to the Largest Duration will automatically be selected. If it is otherwise, select the required title based on the play time.

Now look at the right part of the main window labeled as "2". Here you can find all the available Audio Streams in the DVD movie. You can choose the one you would like to rip by clicking the check box beside the stream name.

The small window below the Audio Streams (2) window shows the subpictures available. You can also select the ones you require or you may leave it as default.

Once you have completed all the above, just hit the "Start" button at the right bottom corner of the program window to start the Ripping Process.

Step 4:

Once you hit the "Start" button as mentioned in the previous step, you can see the following window.

Let me explain what are the different parts of this window.

1. This is the Log Window, reporting the operation progress in a textual manner. If anything goes wrong, this log really comes handy to pin point the problem.

2. This portion shows you the time required to complete the operation (So that you can decide how many cups of coffee you need to take).

3. This one is pretty handy if you just need to forget this process for now. The program can shut down the PC once the operation completes, provided you check the box beside the option.

4. This is the Graphical Progress Bar.

5. In case you have a old PC which can not handle multi tasking efficiently, you can just pause this process using this button for the time being.

6. In case you need to cancel the whole job!

Step 5:

Once the process is completed, you will be seeing the following screen shot.

Nothing much to do here; just hit the "OK" button in the small pop up window.

Step 7:

Now navigate to the target folder you have chosen to something like the next screen shot.

Take a note of the .vob files. These are the files you need to feed to AGK (AutoGK), the first one to be precise. And do not rename any of these files if you want to convert the whole movie to XviD. If you can not understand which are vob files, just look for the files which are very large in size in comparison with other files.

So the ripping guide is concluded here, using DVDFab Decrypter.

To find out how to convert your DVD to AVI (XviD) using AutoGK after you have ripped the DVD as above, see this post here:

http://sroyc.blogspot.com/2008/02/dvd-backup-complete-guide.html

 

 

DVD to AVI (XviD) Backup - A Complete Guide

Ownership and Disclaimer : The content of this article (pictorial) is the sole property of the author. No part (including images) of it can be reproduced without explicit permission of the owner (that is the author). The tools used here are copyrighted and/or owned by the respective developer. Furthermore, the author can not be held responsible for any loss of what so ever nature claimed to have happened by following this guide. Please remember to follow the copyright rule prevailing in your country. If any break of the rule occurs by using this then you alone will be responsible, neither me nor my guide or Blogger...so use this guide at your own responsibility.

I have few DVDs which I felt that I should have a backup. So I started to search for a way, and there is nothing better than "Google". I encountered many tools and many guides, some having a steep learning curve and some uses tools which require almost no intervention from the User- kind of an AIO. After pondering over all the options for few months, I jumped in and found that there are still problems lying ahead. I got all my problems resolved after discussing the issues in different forums and ultimately produced an excellent backup of one of my favorite movies. My quest made me realize that there is a serious lack of a complete guide to help a complete 'newbie' to get a great quality backup using an Windows PC. So here is a guide which should help a New User to get a perfect backup of his/her favorite movie. So read on.....

Purpose: The aim of this guide is to show a easy way to convert the main movie on a DVD to AVI using XviD codec.

This whole guide is divided in to following two sections:

Section 1: Ripping the DVD to your Hard Disc.

Section 2: Making the Backup

Every section is further subdivided into three subsections:

• Download
• Installation
• Use

Tools Used:

1. • PgcDemux for Ripping- it only works for non-copy protected DVDs.
   • DVDFab HD Decrypter for Ripping- for all newer copy protected DVDs. - I'm in process of adding this, please be patient.
     
   
   
2. Auto Gordian Knot (popularly known as AutoGK or AGK) for making backup

Section 1 - Ripping the DVD to Hard Disc

As the main purpose of this guide is to Convert DVD to AVI (XviD) and Ripping is a necessary but additional part, I have decided to move it to another post so that users who do not require a Ripping Guide can just continue to AGK conversion guide. Please follow the links under the respective tools to view the guide to Rip a DVD using that tool.

1. PgcDemux

----------------------------------------

Note: As mentioned above this tool will not work for copy protected DVDs. It is best usable if (for any reason) you have the DVD folder (VIDEO_TS) on your HDD. Otherwise, please refer to the guide for DVDFab HD Decrypter. PgcDemuxis a very powerful tool which can be used for various reasons in editing the DVD content, but discussing those functions is beyond the scope as well as the purpose of this guide.

---------------------------------------

DVD Ripping with PgcDemux:

http://sroyc.blogspot.com/2008/03/dvd-ripping-with-pgcdemux.html

***************************

2. DVDFab HD Decrypter

DVD Ripping with DVDFab HD Decrypter:

http://sroyc.blogspot.com/2008/03/dvd-ripping-with-pgcdemux.html

This concludes the section of Ripping.

Section 2- Making the Backup

In this stage the tool to be used is AutoGK. The best thing about this tool is that it comes bundled with all the necessary back end tools, so the user do not need to worry about missing components. Though this tool is mainly targeted to new comers, there are hidden options which can be invoked by pressing CTRL+F9. Though there will be no need to mess with the default settings of AGK.

Download:

AGK comes in two versions, one is the Full Installer of the Last Stable Release (2.45) and the other is the last Beta Release (2.48). The Beta release is only the update pack, so the user needs to download the full pack as well as the update ed Beta version installer to use the latest version. I suggest that both the versions should be downloaded. I have used 2.48 Beta release for the purpose of this guide.

1. Click here to Download AGK version 2.45 (Stable)- Full Installer
2. Click here to Download AGK version 2.48 Beta Update- Update Pack Only
3. AutoGK Homepage

Click Link 1 first to download the complete installer of about 8MB in size. Then get the Update Pack using the second link. The installer looks like this .

Installation:

Step 1:

Double click the version 2.45 installer and proceed as usual to install the program. Do not fiddle with the default installation settings unless you are absolutely sure about what you are doing. Though you can safely change the default installation location if you wish.

Step 2:

Once the installation is completed, run the version 2.48 Beta installer. It should pick up the installation location of the previous version by default even if you have changed it in earlier stage. So just carry on with the installation without changing the default options.

During installation, you may like to choose the Standalone Compatibility to be installed provided you have idea about what type of chip your Standalone DVD player uses. This will enhance the compatibility of the end output from the program and hence making it more playable in a standalone player.

Use:

Step 1:

Go to Start> All Programs> AutoGK and click on AutoGK icon which looks like this . The program window looks like as follows:

Step 2:

Click on folder icon beside the "Input File" field. That will open up a Pop-up window. Navigate to the ripped files folder, which were created in the last section. Choose the First File named as VTS_01_1- this is very important to choose the first file and the first file only. Now hot the "Open" button.

As you choose to open this file, the "Input File" field should look like this:

AGK will automatically choose the same input folder as Output folder and the Output file field should look like this:

If you intend to chose a different location for your Output file, just click the Folder Icon at the right end of the field, and you can choose another location. Remember only to choose a location with sufficient free space.

Step 3:

Now look at the Audio and Subtitle Selection section of the Program. the default one should already be selected. In this case there is only one Audio Track available and no subtitle track is there. There may be situations where you need to choose between different Audio Streams and Subtitle Streams. You can choose multiple Audio Streams, but that will simply increase the end file size. You can move the Audio and Subtitle streams up and down using the Blue Arrows beside the respective windows.

Step 4:

In this step you need to choose the output file size. There are three distinctive options available

1. Predefined Size templates
2. Custom size
3. Target Quality (in Percentage)

First let us explore the " Predefined Size templates" option. Click on the Drop Down arrow beside the field and you may see all the available options. Do not choose anything below 1 CD (700Mb), as the end quality will seriously suffer. Generally the default is 2 CDs (1400 Mb).

Next comes the "Custom Size" option. If you select this option, you may input any size in the field. I do not recommend this as it is not at all for Newbies. You can change the size by clicking on the arrow button beside the size field.

Last is the option of "Target Quality (in Percentage)". I would always suggest to use this option. The main reason is that this option is faster than the other two options. There are two problems though, first you do not have any control over the output file size and some Standalone Compatibility features are disabled. The second one should not bother you much, and the first one depends on your personal choice. The quality setting can be any number up to 100. But I would suggest that to keep it at 75% or to increase it till 80% at most. Beyond that percentage the quality improvement will hardly be recognizable for normal viewing purpose .

If you choose this option you will get an warning from AGK like the following regarding Standalone Compatibility as mentioned above:

Just hit the OK button to continue.

As I said, I prefer to use this mode. If one likes otherwise, the other two options can always be chosen.

Note (for Advanced users): In "Predefined Size" mode, AGK will do a 2 pass encoding. This ensures that the quality-size ratio are optimally maintained. But this takes longer time to complete a job. In "Target Quality (in Percentage)" mode, as there is no worries about the output size, AGK does a 1 pass encoding only, making the process faster.

Step 5:

Here we need to change some settings to control the final result. Click on the "Advanced Settings" button as in the next screen shot:

Hitting this button will bring up the following window:

Make all the settings exactly as shown in the above shot. The Codec is XviD and I suggest that it should not be changed as XviD produces better quality output than DivX and this comes bundled with AGK installer.

Regarding the sound I prefer to choose the original sound as that keeps the Multi channel Listening Experience intact. Though if any output size below 2 CDs are chosen, AGK will re encode the original sound to MP3 as that will decrease the output file size.

Leave the Subtitle option as shown above, as external subtitle can not be played by a Standalone player. In another guide I shall try to show the process of ripping subtitle is discussed and how it can be used in the Standalone player (I may also add it to this guide letter).

After all the settings are in order as above, just hit OK to save the settings.

Note: These settings will be saved for the next project too, unless the user changes it to something else.

Step 5a (Optional):

If you are aware of the type of chip used by your standalone player you may proceed to read this step, otherwise proceed to Step 6.

Hit CTRL+F9 to open up advance options in AGK...

Now look at the right-bottom most part of the window and check the box beside "Enable Standalone Support" and then from the next box beside it choose the type of chipset used by your standalone player. Once you are done, just hit "OK" to complete. There is no need to touch any other options.

Step 6:

Now as we are all set and done, just hit the "Add Job" button right below the "Advanced Settings" button.

Now you can see the job being listed in the "Job Queue" as follows...You can also preview the end result by hitting "Preview" button beside the "Advanced Settings" button.

Step 7:

Now there are two options available, you can either start the job in the queue by hitting the "Start" button

or, you can go on adding more jobs in the queue. If you add multiple jobs you may change the priorities by moving the jobs up or down by using the Blue arrows beside the queue window.

As you start the job, you can see the progress in the log window beside the queue window as follows...

Once the job will be over, it will vanish from the Queue Window. You may also terminate the job midway if you wish by hitting the "Abort" button , which will be activated as soon as the job starts.

Annexure:

If you add multiple jobs, you may make AGK to shut down your PC (or sleep etc) after the jobs are done. To do that, look for a small field above the right corner of the log window named "When Finished". Clicking the drop down arrow will give you all the options.

This concludes the guide to get a great backup of your DVD movie. Burn the resultant AVI file on a blank CD or DVD using any standard CD/DVD burning application like CDburnerXP which is free.

Note:

If you face any problems while converting, I suggest that you use DVDDecrypter in IFO mode to rip your DVD and create VOBs to be used in AGK. There are many guides on how to rip a DVD in IFO mode using DVDDecrypter, so I am not adding another one to the crowd. Just search through the net or www.videohelp.com under Guide section.

Another tool that can be used for ripping is DVDFab HD Decrypter (Thanks GMaq for pointing it out to me). This is a free tool and excellent one. One brownie point that it scores over DVDDecrypter is that it is still under active development and can handle all the newer copy protections placed on DVDs, which unfortunately DVDDecrypter can not.

Download links:

DVD Decrypter: http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/DVD_Decrypter/1011845169/1

DVDFab HD Decrypter: http://www.dvdfab.com/free.htm

DVDFab HD Decrypter Ripping Guide: http://sroyc.blogspot.com/2008/03/dvd-ripping-with-pgcdemux.html

If you can not resolve the problem in a very unlikely situation I suggest that you visit the AGK support forum at www.doom9.org.

Let me know if you have liked this guide.

Check your AntiVirus- if it is Working

Hello everyone

As me you must also be using an AntiVirus with a Real Time Scanning. it sit quietly in your system tray. have you ever thought to check out whether it at all works or not? As efficiently as the product's manufacturing Company promises? Well here is a little trick which you can apply to see whether your AV and its Real Time Scanning Engine working as it should be.

1. Right Click anywhere in the empty space on the Desktop and choose 'New'. From there choose 'Text File'.

2. Now you should see a new text file being created on your Desktop. Double click on that file to open it.

3. In that file copy-paste the following:

X5O!P%@AP[4\PZX54(P^)7CC)7}$EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!$H+H*

4. Now from the File menu choose 'Save As'.

5. In the 'Save As' dialog box, choose "All Files" in the 'Save As Type' drop down box.

6. In the "name" filed copy-paste the following name

eicar.com

and hit "Save" button.

7. Now if you get an immediate caution from your AntiVirus, then you have a good antivirus which is working perfectly. It should either ask you to move this file to quarantine or it will itself move the file to quarantine without letting you to save it. So a good AV will never let you to save this file.

8. If your AV does not raise any alarm then you can move the file to a Specific folder and scan the folder using the AV's scanning engine to see whether it get recognized now.

Conclusion: If you are successful in the Step 7, then you are having a pretty well set Av protection. If you have to proceed to Step 8, then I'm afraid that you're AV protection is pretty week and I suggest that you should immediately switch to some other Anti Virus software.

I have tested and received feedbacks that NOD32, Avast! (Free Home Edition) and Kaspersky behaved desirably as detailed in Step 7. So after going through all the above steps if you decide to switch just Avast! Free Version if not willing to pay for other two paid ones.

SpywareGuard

Hello everyone. Here is another of the security programs to make your browsing more secured. If you have already followed the previous SpywareBlaster (SB) tutorial, then this one can be understood as a complimentary to the SB. This program is also from Javacool Software Company, named as SpywareGuard, and I shall call it SG from now on.

How is it different from SB?

It needs to be loaded with Windows to provide the Real Time Protection and it cautions the user about any BHO (Browser Helper Object) that tries to get installed in user's PC. Though it does not provide any protection against ActiveX objects which SB provides. So now you know why I called these to complementary to each other at the beginning.

Name: SpywareGuard.

Latest version: 2.2

Homepage: http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareguard.html

Download: http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/sgdownload.html

Purpose:

• Fast Real-Time Scanning engine - catch and block spyware before it is executed (EXE and CAB files supported) with signature-based scanning for known spyware and heuristic/generic detection capabilities to catch new/mutated spyware
• Download Protection - prevent spyware from being download in Internet Explorer
• Browser Hijacking Protection - stop browser hijacking activity in real-time
• SG LiveUpdate - provides an easy updating solution
• Small size - with a small size and small definition sizes, download and updates are quick
• Report Capabilities - keep a detailed log of all spyware detected
• Spyware files are blocked before being opened or run - they are not simply shut down after they are loaded in memory (and after they have performed their tasks)

System Requirements: Windows 98, ME, 2000, XP

Price: Free, you may donate if you wish.

How to Read this Pictorial: This Pictorial is divided in to three broad sections-

1. Download the software installer.
2. Installation of the software.
3. Configuration and use of the software.

You may jump to the respective section if you so desire.


SECTION A (Download)

Step 1: The first thing that we need to do is to go to the homepage. I have used Firefox throughout, and I urge all my visitors to do so (you may get the download link at the left side of my blog). You should see the following page in your browser.

Look carefully at the name of the company, program name and the software logo. SpywareGuard is rather a common name, so a Google search may show you thousands of very nearly matching names. So you need to check these two in case you do not visit the site directly from my blog. If you have assured yourself that you are at the right place, scroll down to the end of the page and find the following:

hit on the "Download SpywareGuard 2.2" link.

Step 2: As you hot on the above link you will reach the download page as below:

This page shows you all the servers where the installer is available. Remember not to choose "Minimal Installation (the First Link), that is not for the first time users. Choose any link from highlighted two and click on that. I chose the first link.

Step 3: Depending on your connection speed, the page will refresh itself and a confirmation window will be opened by your browser (this may vary according to your browser's settings).

See the confirmation window is showing you the installer name. Just hit "Save File" button and the download will progress automatically. If your settings allow you to choose the location for the saved file, then I would suggest that save it on the Desktop. That will be easy to locate. It is a very small installer, so even if you are on a 56kbps dial up connection, it should not take much time.

SECTION B (Installation)

Step 4: Locate the installer file saved on the desktop (or where ever else that you chose to save it).



Step 5: Double click on the installer to get the following window:

Just hit "Next" to continue.

Step 6: See the following window

Accept the license agreement by hitting "Yes".

Step 7: Now you can see the following window. This window provides all the information about the program. Specially, the features...look at the highlighted section of the window.



Step 8: At this step you get to know about the location for installation of the software:

If you accept the default location, just hit "Next" and go to Step 9. If you decide to choose some other location for the installation then follow the next step.

Step 8/1:

just click on the "Drop Down Arrow" beside the box (Yellow Circled) and choose the desired destination drive and location folder. You can choose the location of your choice from the above window, or you may directly type it in the top field where the default location is being shown. Once you are done, hit "OK" and you will be back in the window of Step 8, but this time showing your choice in the 'Installation Location' field. Hit "Next" at the step 8 screen to continue.

Step 9: At this window you can see the components you want to install. The default is "Full Installation", and I suggest that you keep it so.

If you still want to change, hit the "Drop Down Arrow" and choose Custom Installation and you may decide not to install the support files.

Step 10: In this window you have the opportunity to let the program add Shortcuts of the Program and the Update Component of th program to the Desktop.

I suggest that you leave the check mark unchanged and hit the "Next" button...

Step 11:


This is the review of your final installation related settings. If you are still in a mood for changing anything, just hit the "Back" button and change whatever you like. Otherwise, just click on "Install".

Step 12:

Just let the installation complete. The 'progress bar' will touch the end and you get a screen as the one in the next step. I do not suggest that you should hit the "cancel" button to stop the installation at this step.

Step 13: The following is the information window about this program.

Look at the marked words...it tells you that it is a complete freeware..so no worries.

Step 14: Congratulations!!! Installation completed successfully.

I suggest that you leave the check mark so that this program launches itself as soon as you click "Finish". If you for some reason can not do that, just clear the check box and hit "Finish". Later, you can launch the program from Start Menu or double clicking the icon on the desktop. Either way, you need to press "Finish" now.

This concludes the Section B of this Pictorial.


SECTION C (Configuration and Use)

Step 15: As soon as you press "Finish in the previous step, SpyawreGuard starts running.

Now you can see the two icons (one for the main program and the other for Live Update of the program's database) sitting peacefully on your desktop and a bright red SG logo displayed at the system tray, hence confirming that the program is up and running.

Step 16: Now double click on the SpywareGuard LiveUpdate icon on the desktop to launch the following window.

Hit "Next" button to start to update. You can see the following Update screens.


The following screen will show that the update is in progress


As the update is completed you can see the following screen telling you that the process has completed successfully.

Hit "Exit" button to terminate the update module of this program.

Step 17: Now click on the SG icon in the system tray to launch the main program window.

This screen tells you the "Status" of the defense provided by the program. You should see Green check marks beside all the modules of the program. The lower half of this window shows you the program version and Definition date. If you require any detailed information about any of the three program modules, just bring the mouse pointer near it. You can see that in the Right Pane of the Program Window, detail about that module is shown.


Step 18: The next button is "Report".

Hitting this will bring out the activities of the program. It is a kind of a log and will be displayed inside the program window. You can clear this log if you wish by hitting the "Clear Log" button.


Step 18: The next one is the "Options" button. There are three main classes of option.

The first one is "General" option. Just make sure that all the three boxes are checked.

The next one is the way you want to be protected. There are three ways: simple Alert, Alert and Suggested Action and Silent Blocking.
I suggest that you keep the first option, that is "Alert and Prompt for Action" enabled. Though you may choose any of the three.

The last one is "Password Setting". This is an option for you to protect the settings of this program using a password.

I generally do not use it. It is completely upon you, the user. If you feel that you need it, just carry on and fill away.

Once everything is done, press the "Save Settings" button at the top right corner of the program window.

Step 19: At this step let me tell you about the two remaining features of this program. One we have already used- "Live Update". You can access that module of the program using the "Live Update" button placed here. it will launch the same as we have seen in Step 16. In future you may update your program database from here too.

The last one is "About". You may be thinking what is there! Just the names and all. Yes true, but in the "About" screen you can see a button labeled as "System Info". Hit this button you can get the full system information of your PC. Cool!! Isn't it?


We are at the end of our Pictorial. Nothing more to do. Just click on the "x" button to close the program.
Note that you do need to keep SG running to use its protection, but there is hardly any resources consumed by this program.

Remember: SpywareGuard is not a replacement for standard AntiVirus or other real time guards like firewall. It is an add on protective protective program which tries to thwart attack even before it reaches your system.

If you have liked this, please do not forget to sign my guest book. You can also request Pictorials for specific softwares, but those should preferably be free ones.