How to Secure SeaMonkey During Repair Visit

User Help for Seamonkey and Mozilla Suite
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Dritz
Posts: 126
Joined: April 27th, 2010, 4:57 pm

How to Secure SeaMonkey During Repair Visit

Post by Dritz »

Hi,
I have a relatively new laptop PC with Windows 10 (using SM 2.46), 3 months old, and am having problems with the monitor. Sadly, I have to ship it to Acer for warranty repair. I'm concerned with security and am thinking I should somehow defeat SeaMonkey so they won't have access to my bookmarks etc. which would take them to places like my bank, places I do business with etc. I was thinking perhaps I could leave the profile file there but copy the contents somewhere else and then delete the contents from the file. Would that work? I just don't want to screw myself up to where it gets corrupted and I lose everything. Maybe there's a better option for securing my information while at the same time allowing Acer to work on it? Or, am I worrying for nothing and shouldn't bother? Maybe if I unpin SM from the task bar and remove the shortcut from my desktop that will keep them from opening it. I have Chrome on there as a backup and it has little on it so if they need a browser open, that one would be okay. I'm not sure what is best. Now I just have to figure out how to image my computer. What a pain this is! :?
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Frank Lion
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Re: How to Secure SeaMonkey During Repair Visit

Post by Frank Lion »

Dritz wrote: What a pain this is! :?
It'll take 5 minutes. Go to your profile and navigate up a couple of times until you're in the Mozilla folder itself (to preserve the profile.ini, file structure and profile, etc) and then copy that onto a flashdrive and, just to be safe, copy that onto another PC.

Then delete the original Mozilla folder and send your PC off for repair.

A wise precaution, considering that all your Emails are in that profile as well as everything else.
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil, is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke (attrib.)
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Dritz
Posts: 126
Joined: April 27th, 2010, 4:57 pm

Re: How to Secure SeaMonkey During Repair Visit

Post by Dritz »

Thank you! So, just to clarify, I delete the whole Mozilla folder rather than the contents of the profile file, thinking I would just leaving the folder of the profile file? And, when I get it back, just copying the Mozilla folder back before starting SM?
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Frank Lion
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Re: How to Secure SeaMonkey During Repair Visit

Post by Frank Lion »

Dritz wrote:Thank you! So, just to clarify, I delete the whole Mozilla folder
I personally always move/copy/etc whole Mozilla folders around (easier to rename i.e. Mozilla-9.17, file structure intact, no confusion with multiple profiles, etc) but, that's up to you.
Dritz wrote:... And, when I get it back, just copying the Mozilla folder back before starting SM?
Yep.

To sum up -

#1. Copy the Mozilla folder and paste it twice (flashdrive and another PC).

#2. If there is to be a long delay, then also rename those Mozilla folders, to remind you what they relate to, i.e. Mozilla-2.46 (or the date)

#3. Either Delete the original Mozilla folder or Rename it to, say, Winamp. - only you can judge the level of risk you are willing to accept, but renaming there is a valid option. The folder would just hide away with the rest of the folders there and I reckon no one would ever find it.

If while it was in for repair, someone stated up SeaMonkey then a new blank Mozilla folder would be auto-generated and they would get a blank default profile.

#4. When the PC returns, then either copy back the whole Mozilla folder to its original location (making sure that it's just called Mozilla, if you renamed it......or....if you took the other route, then just rename your fictitious 'Winamp' folder back to Mozilla and you're good to go.

Either way, always make sure that you have at least one recent copy of your Mozilla folder around somewhere - makes things so much easier, generally.
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil, is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke (attrib.)
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Dritz
Posts: 126
Joined: April 27th, 2010, 4:57 pm

Re: How to Secure SeaMonkey During Repair Visit

Post by Dritz »

Thank you for the detailed instructions! I periodically just back up the profile file to be safe and then rename it with the date. I figure if worse comes to worse and something happens to my computer, I can always download SM again and copy in the profile contents to the new profile file name. I guess I need to get busy!
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