Someone reviewed v on Jul 5, 2022

Pros: 555

Cons: 555

Bottom Line: 555

CyberDoc999 reviewed v7.0 Build 5521 on May 21, 2014

this is soo yesterday.... it prevents nothing

OK_IT reviewed v6.0 Build 2019 on Oct 26, 2010

This software has a HUGE hole in it. All you have to do is hold down the WINDOWS + F key combination for longer periods of time (~30 seconds).

This issue has been known since 2001/2002 and they reported it fixed. I purchased the software in early 2010 and believed the software secure. Then I started having issues on my production floor being reported and discovered that the same issue remained.

When I reported it to Fortres Grand Technical support they told me they would get back to me with a fix. I pursued a solution all the way to the VP of Marketing (Patty Grobe) and in the end, she told me that it would be as long as two weeks before a possible patch would be possible, because her developers were at a conference. I explained to her that my company was heavily impacted as the word was spread on how to bypass Fortress 101, but she only apologized.

I would not recommend this software, nor the company.
1. Because the problem is reoccurring and they cannot be depended upon to not let it happen again (assuming they fix it again).
2. The company is not responsive to helping its customers (not a priority)

Version: 6.5, build 2207, installed on Windows XP SP3

From: Patty Grobe [mailto:patty@fortresgrand.com]
Sent: Tuesday, October 26, 2010 8:29 AM
To: Paul
Subject: RE: Fortres 101 bypass Patch

Hi Paul,

I am terribly sorry for the huge inconvenience. I certainly understand your frustration.

The timing is bad. Our developers are all out this week for a Microsoft developers conference. I did speak with the lead Fortres 101 developer. He said the fix you need is his first priority when he returns next week.

I am confident the fix will be available soon. Thank you for your patience.

Sincerely,
Patty Grobe
Fortres Grand Corporation
PO Box 888
Plymouth, IN 46563
Ph: 800-331-0372
Fx: 800-882-4381
www.FortresGrand.com

dirkdirk reviewed v5.5 Build 1725 on Feb 4, 2007

iamtux can you tell how you do it ?i cannot disable fortres
thx

iamtux reviewed v5.5 Build 1722 on Nov 9, 2006

Back in high school I devised a clever way to get around this, it was really extremely simple. It didn't do it's job well anyway IMO.

SheeEttin reviewed v5.0 Build 1067 on Oct 26, 2005

My school has Fortres 101 (I think), and like someone else said, it's a b**** to get around. However there seems to one vulnerability never corrected: the ability to right-click in an Open dialog and select the "Open" (Not to open with the program) or "Explore" options. Once you have an Open dialog (Word works well), you can navigate to C:\Windows\system32\command.com or cmd.com and run one of these. Presto--instand DOS prompt. The only challenge here is to turn off Fortres 101 itself. Edit seems promising, though autoexec.bat and system.ini are inaccessible. Also, no Fortres directory appears in Program Files.

All in all, it only requires clever workarounds to defeat.

m940822 reviewed v4.1 Build 503 on Aug 20, 2001

This product is a waste of time, i had to administer a system with 101 installed. it's security leaves much to be desired, its so easy to hack and gives a false sense of security for people like me who have to administer. although i must say that fortres grand' new application, cleanslate is much better

litoby reviewed v4.1 Build 503 on Aug 18, 2001

actually, at my high school, five years ago, i have found ways around fortres since version 2.5! then 3.0 and 3.5. i have an entire list of hacks and i learned that by hex editing the program in an earlier version, there was a universal program (getting at the files so i could hex edit it alone was quite a task involving some good thinking) and it was incredibly hard then too, because a boot disk was not an option as our administrator used a program that disables the system from booting from ANY floppy other than a master key floppy that had a signture on it that it recognized. that was the biggest b**** to get around. i suggest you mention that to your administrator. i don't recall the name of the program now. in my opinion, i believed 3.5 was the best version. 4.0 just made things more complicated and got a little buggy. that was around the time that they still used a logo of calvin from calvin and hobbes on their manuals and diskettes. those copyrighting bas****s. haha. by toying with fortres back then ieven learned of a disable the ctrl-alt-del function that was built into windows by adding a line to system.ini. i had no idea.

Y2kFox reviewed v4.1 Build 503 on Aug 18, 2001

You do not have an appropriate license to use this functionality in modBKIdentityCompress:Identity_Compress at line 30

We need to pay just to try it out? No thanks.

quackhead2002 reviewed v4.1 Build 495 on Jun 3, 2001

My high school network administrator put this program on every computer there. It does it's job well--keeping people who know just enough about a computer to screw it up from doing just that. But it also keeps people who know what they are doing (like myself) from fixing the computer. People (like myself) who do not have administrator rights or the password for the program are slowed down by this. But I have found that I can disable the program by using a boot disk and using a DOS editor on autoexec.bat and config.sys.
Note to the maker of this program--You might want to fix this in future versions if not already in place.