Secret maker

Has anyone tried or heard anything about the program secretmaker? Some of my co-workers were talking about it?

 

You might want to check out this link http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description/0,fid,24501,00.asp

 

>> "Has anyone tried or heard anything about the program secretmaker? Some of my co-workers were talking about it?" qxghscx <<

You might want to check out the Secretmaker Forum and check in on the more heavily-trafficked threads. In particular; you should definitely check the Found These Problems thread as well as the General thread.

While I give credit to the developers for making this program available as freeware as well as maintaining an onsite web-based forum; I thoroughly tested out this program and was left relatively unimpressed. This program used quite a lot memory (unnecessarily in my opinion) while I was using it. When I tested the latest version 4.2.7 released in March of 2006 the Windows Task Manager often reported that the software was using literally 100's of MB's of memory.

Additionally, for some unknown reason the Secretmaker program would occasionally (and without any warning) make my computer suddenly reboot. I have no idea why it did this; except to say this 'sudden reboot' problem not-so-mysteriously vanished immediately after I finally entirely uninstalled the program after I finished testing it.

Looking back now; I have to giggle a little at the many websites (that list this program) which claim that the All-in-One Secretmaker "contains everything you need to maintain absolute privacy!" While the cleaning process in SecretMaker is fair, it does not offer the option to "shred" your cookies; in other words - it does a "simple" delete. Which means they can very easily be retrieved with any basic undelete program. This is hardly what I would call 'absolute' privacy!

It also did a "fair" (read: 2 Star) job at blocking banners. Some were partially blocked, and some got through and none were removed completely. Whenever it blocks the banners, it replaces them by a strip of blue space. The aggravating part was that there appears to be no way to easily turn this function on and off while surfing. Consequently, every time I wanted to effectively use any search engine on the internet, I’d have to exit Secretmaker first.

Also whenever users install new search toolbars or update them (i.e. from Google or Yahoo) or install other enhancements/add-ons, etc to either Explorer or Internet Explorer; very often the settings from SecretMaker are entirely lost (without any warning whatsoever) - in other words: 'absolutely' privately! <g>

Another HUGE problem that I had occurred within a day or two after installing SecretMaker: I noticed that it first took over and then entirely shut down ZoneAlarm Pro as well as my antivirus software and Spyware Doctor. I uninstalled SecretMaker and then reinstalled several times and it did the same thing again and again.

The Secretmaker Team Member/Moderator "Mindblower" also states that the program developers were unable to arrive at any solution with the makers of Zone Alarm. According to this SecretMaker thread: "If you are using either ZA & SM (meaning ZoneAlarm & SecretMaker) or SM & ZA - do not be surprised to discover a problem (any problem at all). Kindly use one - not both!"

Finally, something worth mentioning is that although the SecretMaker site appears to go out of its way to list glowing "Testimonials;" the FAQ section and even the Secretmaker Forum do not clearly list the "Known Bugs" which SecretMaker clearly suffers from. You have to really dig around a bit to uncover these unresolved Known Problems; which is IMO somewhat hidden in this Download SECRETMAKER webpage on the site (scroll down a bit). Curiously, no mentions of the ongoing ZoneAlarm problems were cited there - only within the forum by the Site Admin ‘Mindblower’ whom I mentioned earlier.

Good Luck!

 

Thanks for the input. After reading your review, and a few others I think I'll leave it alone.

 

Thanks for the input. After reading your review, and a few others I think I'll leave it alone. qxghscx

Oh, anytime... My pleasure, really!

As testing freeware as well shareware programs is sort-of a hobby of mine; I try out many new versions of programs as they come out – and even if the last version was not so hot, I’ll still give them another try.

For the typical user who may not test many new programs (or newer versions) very often; I always recommend first checking the program’s forum right-off-the-bat to get an idea of how the developers or site moderators and administrators address questions, problems, bugs etc. about the programs and/or utilities that they are offering.

What I usually suggest whenever trying out something entirely NEW is to find out the names of the forums’ "Admins" or "moderators" and then search their names within the sites. If the person offering "help" is very often evasive or especially reacts in snotty manner to the forum members’ or guest members’ questions (when asked sincerely, of course) you can usually get a pretty good idea how you’ll be treated if you run into problems or conflicts while using their software.

Most serious software developers; particularly shareware but often freeware developers as well, will offer an onsite-forum as a means to get useful feedback from (as well as providing goodwill toward) their software program’s users. This 'bulletin board' method is generally more efficient than answering numerous ongoing back-and-forth e-mails when their consumers have questions or experience problems.

If the program is a bit complicated to setup, configure and use and the developers do not even have an onsite forum; or do not have a ' well-maintained' forum, I generally suggest passing on such utilities and programs. Even if these programs appear to be potentially useful and/or are offered as freeware; if you cannot easily contact the person who developed these programs and utilities (or their on-site representatives) it is really not worth risking the stability of your system.

Good Luck!