R. Waddilove checks out a utility to
protect your PC from malware and other problems
Suryl Guardian is a
utility that aims to protect you from software problems, viruses, spyware and
other malware. It does this by storing the PC’s configuration when it's working
well and it enables you to refresh this at any time.
Suryl Guardian
When the software is
installed, it saves the current environment, so before you start you must
ensure that the PC is working properly. Scan for malware with your security
software; clean up the PC with Ccleaner or something similar, defragment the
disk and so on. With your PC in tip top condition, installing Suryl Guardian
saves the state of the PC.
Several randomly
selected programs were installed to test the software and see if it could undo
the changes made by them. Right-clicking the Suryl Guardian icon at the right
side of the taskbar and entering the password (it’s so unauthorized users
cannot meddle with it) opens the main window. There are two large icons, one of
which refreshes the computer, which the other updates the environment. The
update option updates the saved state, which can be used when you've added new
software or changed the PC in some way and want to keep the changes. The
refresh option puts the PC back to its saved state.
The main window has just two icons. It
was hard to tell what the left one did
The refresh option
didn’t appear to do anything. Suryl provides very little information about how
Guardian works and what it does, so this was confusing to say the least. There
is an advanced screen, which displays the current environment and the saved
environment created when the program was installed. Switching to the saved
environment removed all the software that had been installed and files saved.
The PC looked exactly as it did at the start.
In the preferences you
can set Guardian to refresh back to the original environment at every boot.
This means that you can do anything to the PC during the day and then switch
off at night. When you switch on in the morning everything will be reset back
to the way it was. The idea is that this can be used by libraries, schools and
similar places where people could meddle with the settings or change things to
the detriment of the computer.
Restoring a saved environment was easy
and there are some useful options
Restoring the original
environment removes any files that have been created, which means files in the
Documents folder too. To prevent the loss of valuable files, such as work,
music, photos and so on, you have three options. The first is to update the
saved environment with the changes, the second is to back up the files on an
external drive, and the third is to use the Shared folder. Any files stored in
C:\Shared survive a restore operation and are untouched. This is a useful
option, but it would be more convenient if the Documents, Music, and Pictures
folders could be kept.
Surly Guardian, simplifying the PC for
Everyone Useful For People Frequently Need To Undo Changes Made To A PC
Suryl Guardian did
actually undo changes made to the PC. It’s reasonably cheap, but the lack of
information and the confusing refresh is off-putting.
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Details:
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Price: $24.47
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Manufacturer: Suryl
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Website: www.suryl.com
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Required spec: Windows XP or later, 512MB RAM,
1GHz processor, 20MB HDD space
Scores:
·
Quality: 7/10
·
Value: 7/10
·
Overall: 7/10
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