A Brief History of the d7 Product Family
d7: PC Technician’s Multi-Tool The original d7 (or “D7” at the time) was born in a small company (just me, actually not yet a ‘company’) and became hugely popular as a free PC repair tool, working its way into the virtual tool bags of techs across the globe. It wasn’t long before the idea came to me to sell a ‘branded’ version of d7, where a company could purchase it to replace my logo and name with their own!
d7 Premium: As d7 was rapidly growing in both lines of code as well as global popularity, techs were flocking to request new features and report minor issues, a trend that continues to this day! The influx of requests and resulting development sparked the formation of Foolish IT LLC, and the fully featured version of d7 was sold as a ‘Premium’ edition, with the ‘Free’ edition split many newer features added were reserved for Premium users.
d7 Integrations with other software: Some time after Foolish IT LLC was formed, d7 started to catch the eye of other vendors in the industry and integrations were sought out with ticket system software specifically for repair shops such as RepairShopr and PC Repair Tracker (PCRT) which have some integrations for d7’s reporting features. Later, v6.7 of the d7 source code was contracted to RepairTech, Inc. to bundle in their “TechUSB” product, a linux boot environment designed to use free tools such as HDD/memory testers and virus scanners on offline systems, where it quickly became the center piece of their software suite! It was later dubbed “TechSuite” with the d7 component renamed to “TechWARU” and given a UI makeover to differentiate it from Foolish IT’s original d7. Later d7 received yet another full integration with the remote support software “Instant Housecall” which still carries the final version v10.4.35 minus a few key features, where it may now be referred to as “Auto PC Repair” or similar.
The Last d7: The original d7 came to an end of life cycle by it’s v10.4.35 release, when it was determined that it could no longer be maintained without a rewrite of most of the core functionality of the software, as the existing functionality was too limited for the ever-evolving PC repair industry. It was such a large project, and the original d7 being a one-time purchase from a small company (just me) wearing all the hats, the next generation of d7 was born in d7II, which debuted for a subscription fee instead of as a one-time purchase, in order to support continued development and upgrades. (The original d7 actually went to a subscription fee basis about a month or two before it was discontinued; those who subscribed received their d7II subscription as a complementary upgrade.)
d7II: PC Tech Productivity Software
The first d7II debuted as a full rewrite of the original d7 Premium’s core functionality, to address some crippling issues that couldn’t be fixed reliably with simple patching/updating. Designed with speed and reliability in mind, d7II was far superior in these areas as the original d7, and operational results were far more consistent, thorough, and accurate. The subscription platform of d7II also paved the way for the first Foolish IT LLC employees, actual PC techs with over a decade of experience each, available to assist our subscribers while the next generation d7x Platform code has been in development! d7II’s unparalleled features and functionality support a strong and ever-growing following in tech shops across the globe, which is why d7II remains the flagship product of Foolish IT, even through the success of our wildly popular CryptoPrevent Malware Prevention and Anti-Virus Supplement!
d7x: (Current/3rd Generation)
Ultimately, our plans for d7II grew so wildly based on the great ideas and contributions from our expert technician customers, that just like the original d7, we had to face the idea that even the d7II code “base” (the core code routines for which the special features and functionality of d7II were built upon) was not enough to support all of the innovations we had planned. Instead of a d7II v4.x release, we decided it would be best to discontinue the current code base in d7II, and start with a blank page – a project that would take much time and require halting development of new features in the current generation d7II, until the project could be completed.
Now armed with some great new supporting talent on our team, we’ve planned a whole new d7(x), chock full of new functionality and worthy of a new name! d7’s newest incarnation dubbed “d7x” will feature a redesigned graphical interface and simplified workflow, new configuration and customization options with new default templates to get you started quickly, capabilities for server side support of client side copies, new cloud and config storage features, new multiple user features, new management features, a new focus on internal tools for repair and malware fighting functionality, and of course I can’t leave out the obligatory “MUCH MORE!” Under the hood d7x is lean, mean, efficient, and more effective than ever!