All of a sudden today when I created a new install using Setup Builder, the icons didn’t show up in the start menu. I have Digital Wrench, then the folder Digital Wrench which is under start menu/programs, and the shortcuts are in the folder, but they’re not showing or working right in the start menu. Digital Wrench is the only one that works. I got a new windows update this morning, and wondering if anyone else is having that issue. I went to Frederichs forum at Lindersoft and it said it was under a ddos attack. Very weird.
I think I narrowed it down to a new update from Windows and my Start11 software that I use for my start menu. I turned of start11, rebooted, reinstalled, and all was well. If Start 11 was on, installed and my folder in the start menu showed up incorrectly, even though the shortcuts were all where they should be. So, I have a support ticket into Stardock and see what happens there.
Our old vBulletin forum is currently being heavily targeted by AI crawlers, scraping bots, and automated scanners, which creates very high server load and can temporarily make the forum unavailable.
As this legacy platform is already approaching retirement, we are focusing our efforts on preparing a completely new Lindersoft support and community forum instead of heavily modifying the old system.
The new platform with improved performance, security, and reliability will open soon.
Friedrich
BTW, at peak times, the system records up to 40,000 simultaneous accesses, creating extremely high server load and causing temporary instability or outages. We are still trying to find a workable solution for this old legacy technology.
Friedrich
Its not perfect because I get treated as a bot by Cloudfare but…
Cloudfare Free plan & enable Bot Fight Mode globally might be of interest.
More info from different source.
Counter arguement / point
https://www.flyingpenguin.com/can-someone-please-explain-whether-cloudflare-blackmailed-canonical/
I think @seanh was having similar issues with his Clarion.help site.
He has been indeed. Not as bad, but I run a much smaller server because it’s a bit niche.
But the effect is the same. It’s almost, but not quite, DDOS attack.
Thanks Richard.
Yesterday, we implemented a number of protective measures on our old vBulletin forum infrastructure. These changes have already reduced the server load by approximately 80–95%, and the system is currently operating much more stable again.
We intentionally did not move to Cloudflare at this stage because a large portion of the traffic — roughly 50% — was coming through direct IP access, while the forum is also reachable through multiple different domain names. This would have required a much larger infrastructure restructuring for a platform that is already close to retirement.
I hope the current measures will keep the old forum stable until our completely new Lindersoft support and community forum goes live very soon.
Unfortunately, the automated crawler and bot traffic targeting our old vBulletin forum has increased again today. We are continuing to adjust and improve our protection measures to keep the forum stable and available.
Okay, let us see how smart the bots are 
Clever 
Hopefully the bots can’t read very well