Monday, January 16, 2012

D7 - Wicked Scary Tweaking tool

I love windows tweaking tools.  I’ve got a large collection of them reaching back into my XP days forward into Windows 8.

Couldn’t live without most of them.

However, I’ve finally met one that just downright scares me. Seriously. I’m still sitting on it wondering if I really want to get behind the wheel of this one (yeah, I do!).

D7 project from Foolish IT

First take a look at a ton of screenshots via this Addictive Tips post: D7 Is All-In-One System Backup, Maintenance, Repair & Tweaking Tool.

From the D7 homepage:

D7 is a tool for PC technicians to aid in many tasks and provide a uniform procedure for technicians to follow.  It has many capabilities and many uses including but not limited to:

  • offline and live malware removal assistance via many internal and 3rd party tools
  • automatic download/extraction of 3rd party tools on demand when missing
  • repairing Windows after malware removals
  • general PC maintenance
  • offline and live registry editing with mass search & delete features
  • offline and live data backup
  • CPU/RAM stress testing
  • information gathering and quality assurance uses
  • OS Branding
  • IP/DNS configuration + backup & restore
  • shortcuts to frequently used Windows components
  • quick access to frequently used Windows tweaks
  • numerous right-click context menu (in Windows Explorer) features for working with files and directories
  • wrappers / one-click execution options for frequently used command line tools
  • synchronization of Malware Scan definition files
  • automatic updates of all your favorite 3rd party tools via Ketarin
  • offline application of password removal tricks enabling you to gain access to password protected live systems
Too much to list here, right now at least. 

And then it is accompanied by this warning that I usually just merrily ignore on most tweaking tools but gives me great pause with D7."

“THIS TOOL IS INTENDED FOR EXPERIENCED PC TECHNICIANS ONLY, NOT FOR "END USERS."  This tool can be very dangerous and destructive if you don't know how to use it properly, or are inexperienced in malware removal techniques.” 

Need more info before jumping in?

Pics and Vids via D7 page

Online Manual via D7 page

According to the author it is fully portable but there are some considerations. Please see the SETUP section of the online manual for a good understanding.

It’s a simply amazing tool for advanced sysadmins and PC techs.

Wield it with caution!

Dragons lurk here…

--Claus V.

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