Is it possible to stop the portable scanner from expiring after a week?

[mattisdada]

Im a long term SAS user, i used to always have the SAS Portable Scanner v4 on my USB whenever i have to fix a friend/familys machine. Super handy to have on me at all times.

But since v5 has came out, the portable scanner expires after a week or so, it gives an error message saying its out of date. This is a real pain for me, as i usually update to the latest version of the scanner if possible whenever it gets used. But sometimes the machines i'm attempting to fix doesn't have the internet and means im SASless! Oh-Noes!

So is there any known method of over ride this in anyway? I can appreciate and understand the reason for having this. But it does prevent me at times from using SAS. Possibly a cmd param? Eg /noupdatecheck or something like that?

Thanks in advance!

Sidenote: I know i can just have the setup on the USB, but thats all kinds of annoying, and means its MORE out of date than the portable scanner would be to.

[SAS Customer Service]

The portable version is a stand-alone scanner with the latest definitions at the time of download. It is meant for use-cases where you need to run a scan on a computer that doesn't have internet access; you can download the scanner, copy it to a USB drive or CD, then copy it to the infected computer. You want to download the newest version each time, otherwise you will be using out-dated definitions.

[mattisdada]

Im ok with using slightly out of date definitions, as before i go to their house i dont KNOW that they have the internet or not. And its a pain to download on to the USB before hand.

My problem is, the scanner doesn't let me start it if its old. Im happy to click the update button if they have the internet, and update the base portable client every now and then. But is there a way to prevent the portable scanner from stopping to start up if its older than a week. Because at the moment im resorting to using the setup version, which is far more out of date on a machine with no internet.

(And yes, i'm well aware that the definition updates used in the portable version are only temp saved in the /appdata and are not carried back once removed from that machine, but thats fine)

EDIT:

The behavior of the old portable version is it would alert that it was out of date, but allow for updating the client once the application had started. (Which is how the new version should work in my opinion)

[D0UG]

The Customer Service post implies that it is better to perform no scan at all than one with a definition file a few weeks old. Perhaps Customer Service should visit the real world more often.

The technician version has the same problem.

[SAS Customer Service]

The Customer Service post implies that it is better to perform no scan at all than one with a definition file a few weeks old. Perhaps Customer Service should visit the real world more often.

The technician version has the same problem.

It's better to download the latest version and copy it to a usb drive, it doesn't take long.

[mattisdada]

It doesn't take long if one remembers, or has the opportunity.

Real life scenario:

Its 1:00, im on my lunchbreak, my cousin rings up complaining about computer issues, they live on the opposite side of the city to me, it would take an extra 40 mins to go home and go to their place, but from the cafe I'm at currently at, it takes 10 mins to get to their place. I go to their place and i've found they've been going to many dodgey sites and has an infected computer. I plug in my usb, and oh-no, i've forgotten to update my SAS recently, and it just happens that Dodo as always is having connectivity issues. I install the setup version of SAS and its very out of date, with no way to get updates. It turns out that 2 months ago, a definition file was updated to get the main baddy. But the only SAS i had was the out of date installer thats roughly 5 months out of date. But the 2 week old portable scanner would have been able to pick it up and fix it, although it was slightly out of date.

This happened (and what caused me to actually seek an alternative). Whats the point of the portable scanner if I cant use it frequently....

Im happy for it to spam me saying "definitions require updating" but i see no point for it to force close if they are out of date. I can do a "state update" if they have internet once the application is loaded (definition updates would go to the temp appdata that the portable scanner generates).

If there's no inbuilt work around, i may have to resort to trying to hex it. And in my experience hex updates are annoying to do on a randomly generated file if the structure changes slightly between updates....

EDIT:

I work as a soft developer on my free time, but i mostly do web design. But this sort of thing just screams UXD fault to me....

A simple fix would be to add a param that allows noupdate. Eg, "K:\SAS.EXE" /nocheckupdate.

Default functionality will remain, but users can over ride if required.

[mattisdada]

A very hacky work around:

-Run the portable application

-Once the prompt appears, dont press anything!

-Press CTRL C + CTRL V +ESC, click Process, right click PROGRAM64.COM(/PROGRAM.COM if your on 32) and select "Go to file" (the file can be found in Appdata/local/SAS_SelfExtract)

-Go up one folder and CTRL+C, then CTRL+V the folder, it will create a copy.

-Go back to the prompt and select cancel, open up the copy folder and double click the PROGRAM.COM you saw in task manager

SAS will come up, it will let you update, and scan as needed. Yay.

But crappy process when it could be oh so much more simple.