Treasure Hunt — 10 hidden gems on OlderGeeks.com

Topic

New Reply

ISSUE 22.02 • 2025-01-13 FREEWARE SPOTLIGHT By Deanna McElveen This week we’re looking at ten very useful and free programs that just kind of got buri
[See the full post at: Treasure Hunt — 10 hidden gems on OlderGeeks.com]

9 users thanked author for this post.

jburk07, abbodi86, fisher75, SueW, M. N., Steve S., Peter Chapa, Norio, DLivesInTexas

Reply | Quote

Replies

Hosts File Editor+

The download has a password-protected .rar inside … cannot open.

 

 

Reply | Quote

You have to use the packaged password!  Weird.

 

Reply | Quote

do you have any programs in your collectino that do a menu navigation like this or similar (attached), you just hover over a folder, and it shows you the subfolders, and you can continue that way several levels deep? rather than haveing to click on every folder/subfolder?

Reply | Quote

I loved all of your selections for free software, especially the one to avoid squirrels and keep writing.   Sincerely,  David L Sincavage MD

Reply | Quote

Regarding Sync-Droid. I found a video on YouTube about it and someone from Syncios (Anvsoft – the company that made Sync-Droid and now makes Syncios) posted the following:

@synciosofficial7996   6 years ago
Sync-Droid Manager has changed its name to Syncios Mobile Manager since 2015, please download latest version from: https://www.syncios.com/features.html

There is apparently a free and a paid upgrade version. Not sure what the difference is.

Win10 Pro x64 22H2, Win10 Home 22H2, Linux Mint + a cat with 'tortitude'.

1 user thanked author for this post.

jburk07

Reply | Quote

I have just looked at it.  All it does is is allow viewing of photos and the like – delete does not work, or anything else, despite the description, in the free version.  I am not prepared to pay $35 p.a. anyway.

Reply | Quote

Hi all,

First, many thanks Deanna and all here at askwoody! I’ve learned so much from all of you!

Newbie question here.

Does anyone know if VirusTotal is giving false positives for Hosts File Editor+?

Hosts File Editor+ 1.5.15 – From: https://www.oldergeeks.com/downloads/download.php?id=1900
Showed 10 detections.
~~~
So I went to the official site to get the newest version, and it shows 5 detections.
Hosts File editor+ Version ​1.5.16. (11.01.2025) – From: https://hostsfileseditorplus.weebly.com/uploads/1/2/6/3/126300629/hosts_file_editor.rar

For whatever it’s worth, both files SHA1 hash match, and they both check OK with Microsoft Defender, and Malwarebytes.

My instinct is to trust it since it was here at askwoody.

Should I ignore VirusTotal in this particular case?

Best Regards to all,

Mike.

Reply | Quote

Virus Total often has lesser known scanners amongst their security vendors. So I consider this if it gets only a few detections. In this case, most big security companies show the file as clean, except for CrowdStrike who only shows its detection confidence at 70%.

If all the major players show the file as clean, I will sometimes trust it — depending on my need-vs-risk tolerance. It seems this one may be OK but that’s for you to decide.

It could be the detections are because editing the hosts file requires administrator rights and editing it in malicious ways could redirect internet traffic in nefarious ways.

 

Win10 Pro x64 22H2, Win10 Home 22H2, Linux Mint + a cat with 'tortitude'.

Reply | Quote

Hi Steve S.

Thanks for your time, and opinion.

As you pointed out, most of the Big Vendors did not flag it as suspicious, which is something I missed.

I think I’m going to trust Hosts File editor+.

Best Regards,

Mike.

Reply | Quote