============================================================================ VIRUSZ III REVISION HISTORY ============================================================================ 0.94ß Changes/Additions since 0.93aß: - Now no longer made by Georg Hörmann, but made by Dirk Stöcker. - Added lots of new patches running on my system. - Removed unfinished old style archiver support - Added short report format (like in VirusZ II) - Bug fixes - Added file archiver support using xadmaster.library NOTE: Registered VirusZ users can get special conditions when registering xadmaster.library. Contact me. - Fixed preferences storage. - Added my PGP signature to all the important files. - Fixed VirusZ II Docs. - Removed VirusZ II history stuff (It is no longer developed!). - Added resize feature to some windows. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- This version still causes PatchWork hits in the startup-code while scanning for an already running VirusZ_III copy. This may be fixed in a later release and doesn't influence the performance of VirusZ. 0.93aß Changes/Additions since 0.93ß: - Argh! Fixed tiny little bug that made 0.93ß crash on all Amigas that don't have archiver prefs saved in 'ENV:VirusZ_III'. Thanks to Jan Andersen and Dirk Stöcker for the reports. - Memory Monitor now uses a pointer to ExecBase as default address to prevent Enforcer hits when 'Chip Start Address = 0' option is activated. Manually forced read accesses to locations $0 to $ff still cause Enforcer hits, but that is intended. That's why you can switch off the above mentioned option :-) Thanks to Dirk Stöcker for the report and idea. - Fixed unsafe calls to FindTask() in 'Fake SnoopDos' code. Fixed shutdown code for timer port. Thanks to Dirk Stöcker again for the reports and for sending PatchWork (written by Richard Körber), a very useful debug utility. - Added recognition for patches caused by PoolMem and PatchWork. Thanks again to Dirk for sending that stuff. 0.93ß Changes/Additions since 0.92ß: - Finally added a new file check that works asynchronously. Right now it doesn't support archives and doesn't create a report, but all other features of VZ II file check have been implemented. - Certainly added preferences windows for file check. Some features are not implemented yet, just ignore those settings. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Oh, oh, it's September already, and nothing great happened to VirusZ III. This really is a shame, but I was on a holiday trip in August after my final exams... 0.92ß Changes/Additions since 0.91ß: - Added some system patches to vector check that disturbed me on my machine;-) - Changed VirusZ status to FREEWARE until I will have more time to develop new features or at least finish VirusZ III. Why should you pay money for an incomplete program? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From March to August '98 I'm once again just at home for the week-ends. This will definitely delay further development, but I'm going to try my best to finish the work I've started as soon as possible. 0.91ß Changes/Additions since 0.90ß: - Added xvs.library version string to About request. Idea by Jan Andersen. - Fixed Disk-Validator check (path was DFx::L/Disk-Validator), thanks to Dirk Stöcker for the report. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Please understand that I didn't have the time to write a documentation for VirusZ III until now, just try the features yourself, most things are quite similar to VirusZ II. Best thing would be to run VirusZ III permanently in the background and call VirusZ II if you want to check files/sectors. Disable all background checking in VirusZ II 1.42/1.43 then to avoid double testing. Sorry, but huge programs, like VirusZ became over the years, cannot be rewritten in just a few days. 0.90ß Changes/Additions since VirusZ II 1.42a: - Argh, just after releasing the fixed version, I found another bug in the Vector Check code. But now it's fully fixed. - Added option to Memory Monitor to skip the low memory region in Chip-Ram to prevent Enforcer hits. - Fixed little bug in Memory Monitor, the scroll functions didn't roll over the end of a region properly. - Changed whole signal/message handling to asynchronous style. The second (background) process is obsolete and has been removed. Even reqtools requesters are asynchronous now, everything runs at the same time and nothing blocks out VirusZ. Functionality is now just limited by the number of free task signals as each window needs at least one. - Rewritten whole startup code, all initialization routines and module setups for proper support of all new features. - Removed File Check and Sector Check. These must be rewritten first to be able to support async design. - Totally rewritten Bootblock Lab. The brainfile is compatible to VirusZ II but is stored by default in 'S:' now. - Totally new and safe device scanner: Only disk-based devices will be recognized. This should prevent complications with some odd harddisks, cd-roms etc. - Added new preferences. The preferences format changed and is no longer compatible with VirusZ II as many things became obsolete. - All settings are stored in ENV:VirusZ_III subdirectory now, as there will be created several files. - Preferences are kind of interactive now, every change is used immediately. There's no more need for Use/Cancel buttons. - VirusZ remembers all window positions now. After a restart all windows will appear at their old positions. This only works if centering is disabled (in Misc Prefs)! - Added a few new patches to the vector check. Thanks to all the guys who sent them. - Added new viruses to xvs.library: 'Death To Maxs' 1-4 trojans. Thanks to Jan Andersen for sending them. - Re-added 'Hide Known Patches' option to Vector Check as this is really useful if you have lots of patches in your system. - Added new feature to Vector Check: If VirusZ detects some new unknown vectors, the Vector Check will mark them '--> CHANGED SINCE LAST CHECK' when they are first reported. This comment will then change to '--> SUSPICIOUS' as usual after a refresh. This may help you at determining which program causes which changes. Idea by Ramiro Garcia and others. - Removed detection for Sinmut bootvirus. This actually isn't a virus, but some intro bootblock. - Added/improved ARexx scripts CheckFiles.vzrx and CheckDir.vzrx. CheckFiles supports multiple filenames as arguments and CheckDir reports which drawer has been checked now. Thanks to Ramiro Garcia for developping the improvements. This history entry is just a rough overview of what happened in the last few weeks. I sat in front of my machine almost every evening, my girlfriend is getting angry and other hobbies (even television) are canceled. There were several moments when another huge problem appeared that I didn't believe in myself any longer and thought about cancelling all the work, but until now, I nevertheless managed to solve all the problems (asynchronous layout is really tricky ;-) There is still a lot of work to come, as I'm planning new features for the File Check and other parts of VirusZ III, but I really hope that some day I can say: It's done!