Steve, I'll take that refund now. Please let me know what if anything I need to do beyond posting here
@dije:
First of all, you are of
absolutely entitled to a refund of your purchase!
We have your money and
you do not have SpinRite. No question about it. Normally as part of the refunding process we ask SpinRite owners to delete their copy(ies) of SpinRite... but that's not necessary in this case, since Windows has taken care of that for you!
However, if you
want SpinRite, and you're willing to not give up on getting it yet,
your Windows 11 system represents a valuable test case and this community will
not give up on you.
Please understand that this is not your fault, not our fault, and not SpinRite's fault. This is a serious problem with Windows, which is preventing 100% benign and safe software which
you purchased and would like to use from running on
your system. It may be SpinRite today... but what will it be tomorrow
?
Also know that literally (truly)
thousands of copies of the same code you're trying to obtain and run have successfully been downloaded and run without
any trouble. Your problem worries me greatly, because I don't want
any customer to have any such trouble. But for what it's worth, the harassment you are suffering at the hands of Windows 11 is at least blessedly rare.
The solution to this is simple, and there are THREE solutions:
(Note that Microsoft created
three workarounds because they knew this could happen)
- You can temporarily turn off Windows' (overactive) "Real Time Monitoring" while you download and run SpinRite to create its bootable USB media. Once that's done you can (and should) turn it back on (and Windows will turn it back on for you automatically if you forget) At that time, Windows may then see SpinRite and freak out... but you will already have your bootable USB drive, so it won't matter.
- Or you can create a "safe haven" directory in Windows where SpinRite will be left alone. (That's probably the best option.)
- Or you can create an exception for SpinRite to allow your copy to run in your machine without any further hassle.
However, to use this 3rd option you need to select the file. That won't work in your case since Windows won't even allow the file to exist long enough for you to allow it. So the first or the second option will be what you want.
Though Option #2 is probably best, Option #1 is the easiest to do, and if you do an Internet search for "turn off Windows 11 real time protection" you'll see that a great many other people have also been harassed by this feature of Windows. On balance, Windows Defender it's certainly a good thing. But it doesn't always do what its users wish.
For option #1:
- Search for "Windows Security"
- Under: Virus & Threat Protection
- Virus & Threat Protection Settings
- Turn Real-time protection —> OFF.
(Again, note that Windows will automatically turn it back on in case you forget to do so.)
For option #2:
Under Virus & Threat Protection Settings:
- Scroll to the bottom to "Exclusions"
- Click "Add or remove exclusions"
- Click "Add an exclusion"
- Select "Folder" from the dropdown list.
- You're now being asked to select a folder, but you can create the folder here:
Right click on "Downloads" or "Desktop" or wherever and select "New" —> "Folder"
- Right Click on the "New Folder" and choose Rename. Name it "SpinRite" and then select it.
- Under "Exclusions" you should now see something like: "C:\Users\SMG\Downloads\SpinRite"
Either way... Windows will now allow you to download and run SpinRite. If you chose the "safe haven" folder approach, just download another copy of your SpinRite into that folder and Windows will (finally) leave it alone.
UPDATE!! —> If you are using Edge, the other setting that might be interfering even BEFORE this is the "
Cloud Delivered Protection." I'm exploring that now, but I didn't want you to be further frustrated!
If you want to give up and get your money back, just drop Sue a note to
sales2024@grc.com with your purchase information and she will immediately reverse your charge and refund your purchase. But I would LOVE to know whether the steps above work for you, since I'm sure you will not be the only SpinRite purchaser who is harassed in this fashion!
PLEASE let us know?? THANKS!