Webroot/Prevx history
Has anyone assembled a history of everything that's known?
I know it's going to sound like brown-nosing - posting this on the Webroot forum, identified as a Webroot Community Guide - but I think it's a really interesting business story. Webroot saw what PrevX was doing, something completely different, and in the end dropped all its consumer products in the belief that PrevX was the right path. It's not often you'll find a company that will replace the core tech it has been building for a decade with that of a small team's from another country.
Prevx Pro 2005: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,1879976,00.asp nice GUI at the time! LOL
Prevx1: http://www.2-spyware.com/review-prevx1.html
Prevx2: http://www.5star-shareware.com/Windows/Utilities/SecurityApplications/prevx1-screenshot.html
Prevx 3.0 http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2346861,00.asp
Prevx 3.0.5 with SafeOnline: http://www.softpedia.com/progScreenshots/Prevx-SafeOnline-Screenshot-143278.html
TH
Awesome find
Thanks!
Thank you, Dermot, for your post talking about Wayback (search engine for older versions of webpages and deleted webpages) which I only knew vaguely about, and your little mention of Trustcorps (predecessor to Prevx) of which I knew nothing.@ wrote:
The earliest online reference to Prevx I can find is on "Wayback Machine", from December 2003, following transition from Trustcorps. I may be over nostalgic, but I have the installation files for both Prevx 1 & 2, which I'm keeping for posterity!
So I did some digging, using Wayback, and discovered quite a few things I hadn’t known before:
- Prevx did indeed exist in another form (Trustcorps) for a whole two years before Prevx came into being. This seems to have consisted of an international team of security programmers who came together spontaneously to do research into a new kind of HIPS-based antimalware approach http://wayback.archive.org/web/20031223014223/http://www.prevx.com/news_brand.php – para. 1 http://www.2-spyware.com/review-prevx1.html – para. 1 http://wayback.archive.org/web/20040407132114/http://www.prevx.com/PREVX_Company_Overview.pdf – para. 5
- I assume that, even in those early research stages, they must have been offering some kind of beta version security software to individuals and to companies as, by 2005 when Prevx1 was released, they already boasted half a million users!! http://www.2-spyware.com/review-prevx1.html – para. 1 (Incidentally, can anyone provide an exact or exactish date for the release of Prevx1??)
- Reading the above review, it sounds remarkably similar in architecture to today’s Webroot SecureAnywhere. It feels almost as if you could be reading a review of WSA when you read it. It just goes to show how revolutionary Prevx was at the time … (and still is!!)
- Interestingly, at the very beginning (2003) Mel Morris was not the CEO of Prevx. Another chap, Nick Ray, was. Mel Morris was a non-executive director. Has anybody heard of Nick Ray? If so, can they provide more information on him? http://wayback.archive.org/web/20040403164615/http://www.prevx.com/the_team.php
- When Mel Morris bought exclusive ownership of Prevx, he did this through a company that he had set up called Retento Ltd. http://wayback.archive.org/web/20070707165008/http://www.prevx.com/aboutprevx.asp http://www.percipient-capital.co.uk/index.php?cat=6&rec=1
http://wayback.archive.org/web/20061215191309/http://info.prevx.com/onetutorial.asp?st=1
http://wayback.archive.org/web/20070723050235/http://info.prevx.com/tutorialp2.asp?profile=PINNACLE&LANG=english&pageno=1
EDIT: As for Prevx3: http://info.prevx.com/help.asp
And for anyone who is interested in obtaining copies of the Prevx1 and Prevx2 installation files for sentimental reasons, have a look at these two links:
http://www.tucows.com/preview/385216/Prevx1
http://www.5star-shareware.com/Windows/Utilities/SecurityApplications/prevx1-download.html
Care should perhaps be taken with these last two links as the Prevx1 installation file is being flagged by Nod32 as a threat, however that is possibly/probably because it is very old now and therefore simply unknown?
EDIT: Also, as of today you can amazingly still obtain copies of the Prevx3 Home, Business and Enterprise installation files: https://my.prevx.com/downloads.asp
Please, of course, feel free to correct me if I have made any errors in my above conclusions.
EDIT: URL link updated (incorrect address) and two new URL links added
In my opinion this humble webpage, which I recently discovered, best explains the curious origins of Webroot’s anti-malware technology (though the numbers are a bit out of date!): https://joejaroch.com/
Looking through my pictures again and I found a Prevx 4 Alpha before it became Webroot SecureAnywhere and I guess I was reporting a bug. I guess it was a build before this one:
https://community.webroot.com/tech-talk-7/webroot-prevx-history-42258?postid=320480#post320480
Click on picture to see full size!
Incredible!! What a trip down memory lane!!@ wrote:
EDIT: I found the original Prevx Home that I first used in 2004!
The first dealings I had with Prevx was in late 2006 with Prevx1. Never looked back since. Unfortunately, I don't have any screenshots (or any of those early installation files - Dermot) but I do still have the original mail with the receipt of purchase (I generally keep all my mails).
Interesting that even back then it was cloud-based: see the link TH gave us to the Prevx1 review. I remember well: they would talk about the power of the Prevx collective "community intelligence" (Those were the days before the word "cloud" became common parlance).
Daniel
That's so awesome to read about Joe and his accomplishments! Yes! Indeed a great find! I've bookmarked that information/articles.
Thank you
That is some talented guy, very impressive at that age.
At any age (let alone his, shall we say, relatively tender years )!*
-----------------------------------
*As a musician, I could not fail to notice among his many , many other talents: composer of symphonic music, chamber music and quartets
Thank you
My God do I miss the communication with him about the Webroot Software we use to have on the Wilders Forum. Nothing would go unanswered. Joe was nice to everyone and answered every question that was given to him. Seems like this man never slept. So much for the “Good Old Days”.
My God do I miss the communication with him about the Webroot Software we use to have on the Wilders Forum. Nothing would go unanswered. Joe was nice to everyone and answered every question that was given to him. Seems like this man never slept. So much for the “Good Old Days”.
Quite...
.
I think that would be really interesting! I second your suggestion.@ wrote:
Webroot's and PrevX's history apart and together are a very long story. Many, like me, know parts of it. People from the Wilders Security Forums know most of all (where power-user TripleHelix hails from.)
Has anyone assembled a history of everything that's known?
You are all making me feel like quite the newbie here.... 🙂@ wrote:
Yes 2006 that's when Joe started at Prevx and the forum was at CastleCops and when they closed down then Joe got the forum at Wilders. ;)
Daniel
Triple do you have any of the manuals/help files for the old Prevx?
I did not realise that you were around though Daniel when CastleCops was operating, that seems like a long time ago now, it was one of my "earlier" sites.
Daniel
Would Joe happen to still have them backed up?@ wrote:
Unfortunately not. 😞 I only have the last version of Prevx 3.0.5.220
Daniel
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