A Comparison

HDGUARD provides complete PC protection, unrestrictive, dynamically and permanent!

To achieve the same level of system security using the rigid structure of Windows Policy protection is almost impossible. The system policy structure of WindowsTM is in no way weak, nor should this comparison imply this. We merely wish to illustrate disadvantages inherent to this type of protection strategy, due to its different technical approach. The approach of HDGUARD and ease of maintenance is explained herein.

User Level protection
It may from time to time be necessary for an application to modify the Registry or to write back data to an INI-file. Yet as this type of access has to be granted for the application to work, you inherently risk unauthorized user-access to the related files as well - with all the consequences imaginable. On the other hand, denying an application the 'right' to write to a file when it needs to, inevitably leads to application- or worse system-crashes.

HDGUARD is literally non-restrictive, you may run any application with unrestricted access, even if you are logged on as a user with administrator-privileges you cannot accidentally alter the system. This is especially important for teaching purposes where unrestricted file-access (even to core system-files) is part of the lesson.

System Level protection
A further consequence of Windows-Policies protection is that little changes may accumulate over a long period of time. With each new installation of new software, each file added or new service introduced the stability of the system is impaired. When analysing an occurring system fault it becomes increasingly more difficult to discern whether an inappropriate user-interference, an insufficiently coded application or something else is the cause. The PC concerned slowly 'dies'.

It also needs to be noted that policies will only stop changes to system settings and cannot reliably prevent alterations to the system partition itself. This lack of protection leaves the system open for virus attacks to cause damage or progressing slowdown due to increasing file fragmentation.

The ultimate danger still lies with the system administrator password, as the whole system can be taken over by someone unauthorised knowing this password, leaving ample scope for damage to be done.

HDGUARD does protect the system not only against user-intervention but also against 'itself'. Bug-prone drivers or services cannot do any damage. HDGUARD keeps the entire system transparent to third-party software, it protect files as well as the underlying administrative structure even down to the boot-sector. This keeps badly coded applications or viruses from posing an incalculable risk.

Furthermore HDGUARD 'cleans' all temporary data at every reboot. Therefore undetected consumption of hard disk space (through for example, Cookies or Internet files) on the protected partition is prevented.

When HDGUARD is activated even the administrator cannot trash the system accidentally and any deliberate attempt of doing so is pointless, as the next restart will revert everything back to normal.

Maintenance and ongoing concern
PC protection with Windows-Policies is relatively complicated and requires an intimate knowledge of Windows User-Administration. Setting up an appropriate User-Rights structure is expensive (in as far as time and expertise are concerned). Accordingly the care and maintenance of each set-up becomes progressively difficult and time-consuming the more complex the installation.

If for instance a system is to be protected comprehensively whilst still retaining the flexibility needed in a multi-user level environment, one has to create System policies for each user level. Each new software installation will require the inclusion in these policies for the protection to work at the desired user level. The maintenance requirement is therefore very high and it becomes more error-prone, the more different policies are to be looked after.

In some cases calculated system downtime has to be part of the security strategy, as the IT equipment cannot be fully utilised during policy updates.

In comparison with a large scale expansion of a Windows Policy protected infrastructure, the same growth in a HDGUARD installation would increase maintenance time only marginally. As the computer is returned to its correct state with each reboot, the system partition remains in the same, unfragmented shape as it was when first installed, even after thousand and more service hours.

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