Today we are glad to announce the availability of a brand new application – Zentimo. Zentimo is the successor to our award winning application USB Safely Remove. While USB Safely Remove is an extended safe removal tool, Zentimo is aimed to be a Swiss army knife for the management of external storage devices. At the moment, the program is under active development so your feature requests and notes are very much appreciated. The more exciting news is that while the program is in its beta-testing period you can get the license absolutely free.
Why we decided to create another tool?
Everyday we get lots of feature requests for USB Safely Remove. Users ask or even beg us to add a very needed features both compatible and not compatible with the program ideology. Display drive size in the menu, add protection from autorun viruses (and from data theft using external drives as well), a CD-ejector, add icons of fingerprint scanner (and portable rocket launcher as well:)), menu to quick start portable applications and many more. But… everytime we add a new feature the program became a bit more difficult for novice user. Step-by-step and the program became an overbloated with buttons and menus monster, that frighten even its own developers. However the features you requested are really needed and we cannot leave the demand without a response. It’s inhumane and illogical :) We just want that the program wouldn’t overgrow its basic ideology as it may ruin it . So we decided to divide our efforts on two ways.
- USB Safely Remove will stay a useful and simple safe removal tool. Enhanced and better than the Windows one, but not more than it says on the tin. It means that we will improve it as a safe removal tool, improve its usability but we will not change its overall look and feel and we will not add to it such features as a device firewall or autorun virus protection.
- Zentimo, on the other hand, will be a full-fledged tool for the management of external devices. Of course, we will also try not growing an awkward monster from it and therefore we want to get as much of your feedback as possible to create a really useful tool.
What features has Zentimo over USB Safely Remove right now?
- More powerful menu where you can see drive sizes and empty space, browse for a drive with a click
- Drive speed test feature
- Portable apps quick launcher
- It doesn’t have a main window, all devices are displayed in the menu
For more details see screenshots or feature list
Ok, stop talking. Let me see it!
We are waiting impatiently for your bug-reports, suggestions and criticism of the program :)
I’m assuming USB Safely Remove needs to be uninstalled before installing the beta. Also, what sort of an upgrade path will there be for licensed users of USB Safely Remove?
1. No, it’s not required to uninstall USB Safely Remove. Both programs are compatible with each other, so you can try Zentimo without uninstallation od USB Safely Remove. However in future you should keep only one of the programs as Zentimo has same and more functionality as USB Safely Remove so you needn’t to keep both programs. If you do not need extra features of Zentimo you should unistall it and keep USB Safely Remove and otherwise if you like Zentimo more than USB Safely Remove we recommend you to uninstall the last one.
2. There will be significant discounts for already registered users of USB Safely Remove. We will publish the information later close to the end of the beta-testing period.
Downloaded, installed and applied the license. So far, this program is performing well, without any hitches!
As per Igor’s suggestion, I uninstalled USB Safely Remove (for now) as yea, both programs perform identical duties.
This is not to say that some minor bugs will not appear over time, but they’re to be expected with any new software.
1st Impression. I like it. It has some nice extras not found in USB Safely Remove! The new USB Images are an improvement, although some remain the same.
The program loads fast, is stable and very accurate, although I had to change some of my device images, but that’s to be expected.
What I would like to see changed:
Too many language packs included with the program. Although they are between 44 and 47K each, the language packs should be separate and made available to those who need the language of their choice.
The name Zentimo! We need a new name relevant to the program. This sounds like you got this from an Italian dictionary and doesn’t seem suitable for what this program does.
Something closer to USB/Sata Safely Remove would be more appropriate.
The main Icon could/should be changed. I liked the Green downward Arrow from USB Safely Remove and selected the Yellow one in “Zentimo” as my Icon of choice.
Apart from that, all is well. The program performs very nicely so far. Bug reports to follow, as they occur.
Steve,
Many thanks for the detailed feedback!
I loved USB Safely Remove no complaints absolutely,good to see that u are not making it a bloatware and difficult for novice and new user!
Zentimo looks very promising maybe the desired security features of the users could be considered here because removable media gets infected very easily so firewall and virus protection looks a splendid idea,making Zentimo a good security tool against malwares.
Thank you for your efforts.
Hail,
Thanks for the nice words! We will consider security features to be added in one of the closest versions.
Hail,
With Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 (KIS)… whenever I plug in a USB device, KIS pops up a window asking if I want to run a Full or Quick Scan., a nice safety feature. The USB devices are also protected while they are plugged in. I was wondering which AV you are using and if it offers such feature!
We can never have enough security these days!
I think that this is just a money grabbing excuse to get people to buy another lifetime license for a “New featured program”. The below listed new features must be included in USB Safely Remove since they are important:
* Stop all devices at once
* Displaying what processes prevent device from being stopped…
* … and enables to kill these processes …
* … or just to unlock them from the device
* Hotkeys to stop a device or call the menu
* Stopping of all devices at once
* Ability to stop SATA drives
* Returning just stopped device back
I suppose you ran out of paying customers for USB Safely Remove.
Regards
Michael Goldmann
ps I doubt that this comment will ever get published.
Michael,
Thanks for taking time for your feedback! The features listed by you are already included into USB Safely Remove, so if you are a registered user of it you can freely use them without installation of Zentimo. But if you need more features (see section ” What features has Zentimo over USB Safely Remove right now?” above) you can try evaluating Zentimo.
As I wrote above that the only reason of creating Zentimo is to avoid overbloating USB Safely Remove with tonnes of features that many users do not expect in this application.
Opinions vary and you are certainly entitled to yours!
While USB Safely Remove is a remarkable, Award winning product, it had it’s limitations and rather than make it Bloated, Igor and Co. decided that a new, different product was needed to enhance what USB Safely Remove has and now we have Zentimo! Hardly an excuse, but a more feature rich, enhanced product that goes beyond with it’s improvements.
You have a choice! Use Zentimo or stick with USB Safely Remove. Nobody’s twisting your arm or forcing you to change. Keep what works best for you, as I and many others are doing! Simple, isn’t it?
@Michael,
I’m a current user of USB Safely Remove, when I first read about this new product (especially with the use of the word “successor”) I too jumped to conclusion as I thought that this meant that Crystal Rich is dumping USB Safety Remove users to try to get new licensees. (I’ve been a victim of that for another ‘lifetime license’ product by another company)
But after I took the time to read the philosophy behind this new product, and the commitment Crystal Rich has made towards the continued development of USB Safely Remove, it made a lot of sense to me. I bought USB Safely Remove previously for my dad, as he wasn’t very tech savvy and did not enjoy wrestling with Window’s own unwieldy ‘safely remove’ feature. If USB Safely Remove became more bloated and complex as time went along, I would have counted it as another license wasted.
Best to think of USB Safely Remove as a simple, quick utility with a small footprint, and Zentimo as an all-in-one tool for the power user!
Hello, I installed and applied the new license received just now.
The program boots fast as predecessor.
Impressions:
1) I discovered that Zentimo is the equivalent of cents word in basque country. But I don’t understand the connection with this program.
2) The Z desktop and systray icon is ugly. Sorry if I offended anyone.
3) About the implementation of security features inside Zentimo I’m not so convinced because always more antivirus products are implementing
new autostart protections.
There is the concrete possibility of multiple conflicts.
I’m sure that Drive speed test feature will be much appreciated in this new brand.
Best regards.
Max
Ditto! I agee and posted my sentiments regarding the name and the systray Icon! Both need to be changed!
However, since Zentimo is a new product in Beta form, I’m quite certain that many changes and improvements will be made in due time!
Looks very promising so far!
Thanks a lot for your notes!
We didn`t give a lot of attention to the main icon of the program. We will change it by all means in one of the closest beta-testing version of the program.
Good to know that you’re listening to us, anton! Thanks! :)
Ps: This is the result of my speed test wizard with a formatted pen drive:
http://j.imagehost.org/0066/usb_1_9GB.jpg
I can presume to have an usb 2.0 flash drive in good status.
Thanks for providing Zentimo as a beta version. Can Zentimo interfers when a new lets mp3 player (or other usb device) is connected and to instal the right drive or forward it to the required page to download the drive. Can Zentimo gives diagnstics so that to find out why that specific usb card reader is not recognizde by windows and also can Zentimo correct it by forced recognition. Also when we configure the same rule to be applied for all usb key inserted such as use the antivirus to scan or open in total commander.
nice result you have Max Pizzi
Hi
Here is speed/write test for Sandisk U3 cruzer titanium 4go
http://i866.photobucket.com/albums/ab225/hovsep014/u3cruzer.jpg
For those who use Zentimo in Traditional Chinese environment, I have made a updated locale file: http://Jedi.org/p4/l10n/Zentimo/Chinese-Traditional.lng
I also mailed it to Igor. So I presume that the final “Release” version of Zentimo will contains updated Traditional Chinese locale file too.
Note: Please do not open the .lng file directly in your browser. My webserver is configured as UTF-8, but the .lng file is in BIG5 encoding.
Just right click on the link and “Save As.”
Just updated and all strings are translated into Traditional Chinese now.
Hi Jedi,
Many thanks for the updated language file! We didn’t plan to include language translations until the final release as we may change significantly language phrases, therefore we didn’t notify you about the availability of a new release for the translators. However many thanks for your effort and we will include your translation in the next beta-release.
Yet again Crystal Rich is indulging in cynical crowd
surfing in an attempt to gain, at no cost to themselves,
intellectual property for a new product which they will
later charge for – with no recognition or compensation
to those who have contributed ideas or tested the beta
releases.
I quote from the auto-reply received in response to a
request to be licensed to use the beta product …
“Congratulations, you are now an owner of the free
one-year license for Zentimo! Your license is valid
until: 2011-03-28.
Given license allows you to use beta-versions of Zentimo,
get all upgrades for beta-versions of the version 1.0.
This license is not eligible for final versions of
Zentimo 1.0 and above …”.
WHAT A JOKE!!
Hello Dr Bruce,
Thanks for taking your time to write your feedback!
Yes, we really want to get a feedback from our future customers. Exactly “customers” – the people who will use the program in everyday life and who is ready to pay for the program as they get real benefits from using it. For this beta-testing period we will try to make the product even more suitable and feature-rich for our future customers. And I do not see anything bad for the customer to purchase a great product with the features made conforming with his own suggestions and notes rather than to purchase the product created by developers’ vision only.
Anyway we are open to any ideas, so any your suggestions on how we should change our license policy or policy for people who beta-test the program are appreciated.
Hello Zentimo team,
I have problem with Zentimo 1.0 bata
when i plug in USB HDD period time, Zentimo can’t safe remove USB HDD device, even i use force stop process it still not working, and after that happen
any other USB device can’t work anymore.
so i guess USB HDD can’t remove safely because svchost.exe ?
@Barnet…
I’ve had that happen using USB Safely Remove and plugged in my Seagate FreeAgent Go on occasion, but the solution is simple.
Reboot your PC and unplug your USB HDD during reboot and that should solve the problem.
No such error so far with Zentimo, but should it happen, I can always blame it on the program being a Beta! :)
I installed Zentimo in Windows 7 x64 and it is working fine so far. I had been using USB Safely Remove and I appreciate the extra information that Zentimo provides. Regarding security, what I would suggest is something like Panda USB Vaccine which disables the autorun.inf on USB flash drives. Seems like that would be easier to implement then a full AV and would not conflict with the primary AV installed on the system.
Please!!! Anything but Panda! Their software is atrocious at the least! There are way better AVs available and considering that everybody has an AV of some sort on their system, there’s no need to go overboard!
Should you take your Portable device to be plugged into a foreign PC, just make sure that the PC in question is protected!
There are portable AVs, just in case and Panda is not one of them!
Initial reaction: I like it. Not sure why the negativity in some of the other responses. Don’t know what pricing will be like, but I wouldn’t pay a whole lot for this as handy as it is. My own opinion – wouldn’t pay much more than US $10 probably. I’ll let you know if I run into any bugs or have any ideas on improvement. Thanks for the free license.
Good evening… program works as well as the one its on track to replace… I’m finding the speedometer a bit redundant… perhaps a bit monitor that can look at the data volume or speed on the fly as it crosses the usb bridge might be more useful… I would loose the Zentimo moniker as well as the “Z” icon… the name is guttural and the icon is ugly… I prefer the old name and look… the old name accurately describes the programs use and the old icon somewhat mirrors the XP system icon… there’s an old saying that if Bill Gates made cars the steering wheel and brakes would be in a different place in the car every time you got in to go somewhere… don’t be like Bill Gates… instead, model USB Safety Remove to be THE “Swiss Army Knife for the management of external storage devices.”… model it the best you can and people will continue to buy it… it won an award in 2008, no reason USB Safety Remove can’t win one in the future… none of this is a criticism, just an observation, good luck…
I translated and updated the Polish language file and I sent it to Igor. I hope it will be included in next beta
Thanks for your help!
We surely include it to one of the next beta-testing version.
New name? How about
USB SafeRemove Pro
USB SafeRemove Plus
or variants thereof?
New moniker? the “Z” symbol must go, it is already in use by the long established Zotero research Firefox Plug-in, thereby causing some conflict and potential confusion. Suggest adding a bold + sign to the old icon.
Just keep it in the family.
As for rewarding us BETA testers (those that actually contribute) how about extending the free license to cover first year of final release and then a generous discount thereafter for those that renew? :)
Thanks a lot for your notes!
We will consider to rework the main icon of the program, but we won’t change the name of the program for sure… sorry who doesn’t like it :) Also, the active beta-testers who contribute to the project will be awarded by us. We will publish more detailed information on this later.
Every hard drive partition now has a ZentimoSettings.ini file in it. EEK! Please get rid of them and put them all in one place, logically with the program. Having initiation files scattered around my computer looks very untidy (and unnecessary).
Thanks for a great program and the chance to try out the beta versions.
Not just the hard drive partitions, but every Portable device, including flash sticks have the .ini file on them!
Kinda annoying, but no cause for concern!
Hi John!
Many thanks for your note!
The ZentimoSettings.ini contains all settings of device. We will add an option to cancel saving settings in one of following beta-testing versions of the program.
This funny file brings my bootable USBsticks to become unusable. After deleting,booting is sucessful,but after restarting windows same procedure as every year.
I’m not sure why, but Zentimo opens it’s tray pop-up message every time I start Firefox. It gets a bit annoying. Is there a configuration option I can use to turn this off? (I’m using Vista)
I just installed Zentimo, and my first impression is that it’s pretty good. But I hate the name! I have a few suggestions for a better one: USB Commander, USB Controller, USB Control or something similar.
Will the Zentimo beta keep changing as you modify it prior to its final release?
Zentimo will keep your changes. But some options we may change for final release.