Just a little rant on software that installs other stuff

[Synapse]

Ok, i've had it. so sick and tired of these software companies that auto install hidden crap behind the users back.

Some friends and I tried out a demo multiplayer game, no where on the page did it say it was going to auto install anything. so after we're out of game my computer feels diffrent, so i reboot still same problem, so i shutdown completly wait 5 minutes and come back on.. same thing... finally fired up Vision from Foundstone. (same people that made Fport.. the dos port monitor). anyways.. i find an entry for:

"StarForce Protection Enviroment Driver" and "StarForce Protection Helper Driver"

apparently the game installed that. I even uninstalled the game, deleted the files, rebooted, checked (they were gone), reinstalled the game (i hate blaming software for something it didn't do), and it was back again.. so just did everything again, and its gone. and my comp is back to normal.

but just kinda makes me wonder whats going to happen later with computers.. i mean they installed Copy Protection software WITH A DEMO. OH NO! I'm gonna burn a DEMO to a CD!!! someone come sue me!!.

yeap.. not much of a rant, but its a rant. and i don't expect anyone to reply. lolz.

[wizardofwindows]

i feel your pain.Thats happen too me more times than i care to remember.so remember people dont download any free xmas screensavers there the worst.Always winrar it look inside first. Edited November 11, 2005 by timeless

[Zxian]

Yeah... I understand what you're saying. That's why I always install all software to VMware first and then make sure that I can uninstall it properly afterwards. Unless its clean (no addons) and it uninstalls nicely, I don't use it.

[mjc]

starforce is a real (expletive deleted). The best thing I can suggest is to use a utility that monitors installation processes to show you exactly what was installed. Similar to the sony spyware, starforce drivers cannot be easily uninstalled while the system is running. I believe it may patch the system call table in a similar manner.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/StarForce has some information on how to remove it.

[Synapse]

thanks all. glad to know i'm not the only one lol.

mjc, thanks for the link. was able to send the starforce remove tool to my friends so they got rid of it as well

[dcyphure]

i use ms antispy and it monitors any changes made to anything on ur pc, so if i install something and see something else pop up as well i can block it.

freeze.com screensavers suck, but i worked around that...one time before i formatted, i installed a bunch of those, what they do is the first download is the spyware, the second download is the actual screensaver so i set the screensaver exe aside and burned it to disc, so now they dont install spyware when i run them...not sure if all work like that but the few i downloaded did.

[suryad]

This is exactly the reson why cracked software is so much better! Find a good crack and what you see is what you get!

[keytotime]

Lol, there been times when my friend's have bought games for 40 and never used the cd's. This $#!^ just's mess's up your computer. That's why i stopped playing games.

[suryad]

Well I like games too much to stop playing them. You know Starforce has been a pain for a lot of people except for me. I mean I dont try and tweak anything when it comes to game setups. I just install and game and then boom uninstall it. I didnt even know about Starforce until a bunch of people at Ubi forums were complaining about how it jacked up their hard drives or something when they were tying to install Splinter Cell Chaos Theory! I just hope after playing and then removing the game I dont have cruft left over. I think it is time lawmakers stepped in and talked to the software manufacturers about coming up with DRM that does not hurt the end user. This is just getting ridiculous. Good people who buy every piece of software legitimately are getting screwed because of a few rotten apples.

Edited November 14, 2005 by suryad

[HyperHacker]

Yeah, Starforce has actually been around for a while now and it does indeed blow. Also, I hear a lot of stories of copy protection on game demos and movie trailers. I dunno what genius decided it's necessary to prevent something from being copied when they give it away for free. I suspect it's just to get the DRMware onto your system.

Truly this is (and has for a while now) going way too far, when copy protection lingers after uninstallation and screws up your system. I've said it before and I'll say it again - each new copy protection system accomplishes only 3 things:

1) Angers end-users by screwing up their systems or just making things that much more difficult. You buy a DVD player and find you can't hook it up through your VCR like you do everything else. You buy a CD and can't copy it to your MP3 player or hard disk or play it with your favourite media player (no playing it during games that use the CD-ROM or while away from the computer) or even half your CD players. And now they're installing viruses. Where's it going to stop? Is the next system going to use our webcams to look for blank CDs and blow up our hard drives when it finds them? It sounds crazy, but so do a lot of things that are being done to protect "fair" use.

2) Kills compatibility that much more. Some copy-protected CDs and DVDs won't play on older equipment. I've heard of DVD protection systems which will require you to buy a new TV to use the disc!

3) Makes piracy that much nicer. As much respect as any given person has for the law, there is a line, and when that line is crossed they begin to prefer the risk of being caught pirating over buying the product legally. Pirates are still free to do whatever they **** well want with their music/movies/etc and don't have to have their computers messed with to do so (unless they're using IE to download cracks ).

There are different kinds of pirates, and these systems do little to affect the worst kinds. They stop Average Joe there from burning a copy of a CD for a friend using Windows Media - that prevents one single lost sale if his friend was planning to buy the CD in the first place. They stop the shady guy on the street who knows little more about computers than how to burn CDs - saving maybe a few dozen sales. They temporarily stop the nerds who rip, download and distribute copies over the Internet, but eventually they find a workaround. They do little if anything to the major pirates in countries with loose copyright laws who make their living from piracy. So what good does this do? They've stopped maybe a few thousand illegal copies, while not having any significant effect on the remaining several hundred thousand, and in the process ticked off a lot of potential customers.

[suryad]

Agreed. There have been a lot of statistics out showing that the music industry is still making a lot of money. So is the movie industry. It is just that the numbers are down becuase of the lackluster movie releases lately. I think corporate executives would like to blame it on the audience resorting to downloading movies before they come out which I dont think is entirely accurate.

[Jeremy]

I just research and read opinions of software before I use them, so I know that if the program tries to be sneaky, hopefully someone else before me has experienced it, let everyone else know so I can be aware of it beforehand. I have... roughly about 80-85 programs on my FTP and all seem to be just fine.

[breadandbubbles]

zxian, whats VMware?

[oioldman]

so, you guys been reading the deal about sony and it's dodgy rootkit then.

Also, why do companies feel the need to decide i must need and want a search toolbar, or is it they think people are to lazy to open a search engines homepage.

[eidenk]

whats VMware?

VMware is a virtual PC and Google is your friend.

Edited November 15, 2005 by eidenk