Starforce and Virtual PC
Pennyroyal
I bought *The Black Mirror* before I realised it contained Starforce
and, since so many seem to have had serious problems with this driver,
I havent yet installed it.
It ocurred to me that this may be a good use of Virtual PC and I could
install the game without risking screwing up my actual machine.
Does anyone know if this is actually safe or if Starforce is so
insidious it would still wheedle its wormy way into my real actual
machine?
I know the whole point of virtual machines is that whatever you do is
isolated from your real PC and that the only PC I am risking is the
unreal one which I can junk, but I'm still struggling with my belief
systems and hesitate just a little when it asks me to *Format the C:
drive?* so I thought I'd ask first.
Murray Peterson
news:knlcq25m71k8cqmjg...@4ax.com:
> Hi
> I bought *The Black Mirror* before I realised it contained Starforce
> and, since so many seem to have had serious problems with this driver,
> I havent yet installed it.
Others have had no problems at all, so you may be worrying about nothing.
If nothing else, you can alway uninstall the starforce drivers if they
cause problems. Many of the copy protection schemes install hidden
device drivers; it's not a problem restricted to starforce. For example,
the Tages copy protection drivers caused checkdsk on my machine to start
reporting "minor inconsistencies". Uninstalling the game (and the
drivers) fixed up everything.
> It ocurred to me that this may be a good use of Virtual PC and I could
> install the game without risking screwing up my actual machine.
>
> Does anyone know if this is actually safe or if Starforce is so
> insidious it would still wheedle its wormy way into my real actual
> machine?
It can't get outside of the virtual machine, so you can rest easy on that
point. However, that doesn't mean that it will work either; you will
have to actually try to install and run the game under Virtual PC to find
out if the copy protection is happy inside a virtual PC.
You can always use an backup/restore utility on your real PC to get the
same safety net. Save an image of your system before installing the
game. You can then restore your PC back to the original state if
anything goes wrong.
I haven't tried it, but XP's build in "System Restore" may even be good
enough to do the job.
--
Murray Peterson
Email: murray "dot" spam3trap "at" shaw "dot" ca
URL: http://members.shaw.ca/murraypeterson/
Murray Peterson
news:euncq2t7afos3hvas...@4ax.com:
> This is not quite true... Many others have had severe starforce
> related problems that no "restore" will cure...
If I take an image of my hard drive using Ghost, I can (and do) guarantee
that a restore will fix up any problems. I don't know about XP's built
in restore points; I was merely speculating that they may do the job.
> Starforce is a different animal, and can cause permanent problems. You
> apparently were not one of the people who had starforce related
> harddrive failures. I was...
Yes, I was one of those people that had problems. Read my review of
Black Mirror: http://members.shaw.ca/murraypeterson/BlackMirror.txt
> All too frequently, the Starforce uninstall does not work.. Just
> uninstalling the game(s) does not remove the starforce drivers. This
> is especially true of earlier versions of Starforce (such as are
> packed with "The Black Miirror". Even the Starforce "cleaner" does
> not always remove the drivers.
The removal tool always worked for me. The trick is to make sure you get
the removal tool that matches the drivers that were installed.
MP
> If I take an image of my hard drive using Ghost, I can (and do) guarantee
> that a restore will fix up any problems. I don't know about XP's built
> in restore points; I was merely speculating that they may do the job.
Murray, I have found that the "Official" Starforce Removal Tool does not
remove all the drivers. pointers, and "placeholders". Some are left in your
registry (as you may well be aware). And MS XP's "Retore Point" doesn't "get
it all". It'sd really noit ment to be an eact "mirror Image" of your Hard
Drive (C:/, or whatever).
The best solution I have found before installing a Copy-Protected game (no
matter if its "Secur-ROM", "StarForce", or "Tages" - is to get a copy of the
Acronis Tru-Image software and after having your C:/ drive (or whatever
drive you deem fit) exactly where you like it - make a backup via Acronis
Tru-Image.
Put your new "mirror image" on another Hard Drive. Or put it in a partioned
area of your single C:/ drive (if you have room). Burning to a DVD disc is
going to take a quite a few discs - depending on how much is on your Hard
Drive.
It is easy, relatively inexpensive, and will restore every smidgen of your
hard drive(s) (Virtual or Physical) exactly the way you had them (and liked
them that way) before installing a Starforce copy-protected game.
In othe words, no need to even download, install, and utilize the "Official"
Starforce Driver Removal Tool.
Case-in-point: even after using this (ahem) "tool" from StarForce - there
were still Registry Entries placed by StarForce which, needless to say, were
quite a tedious affair to remove. Jenny100 has previously asked me what they
were exactly, but I remember just removing them or changing their values in
RegEdit. Sorry, Jenny.
With Acronis, it was as if nothing had been modified whatsoever. Your
"Restore Point" is exact. Not so with the the Windows XP "Restore" utility.
No. Only certain things are restored with this MS XP utlity/app/whatever.
Acronis makes a "mirror image".
Heck, if you have enough server space in hyperspace - upload the Acronis
Tru-Image copy you made and park it on a server until you are ready to
download it to "revert" to a non-infiltrated Hard Drive - your pre-StarForce
"infection".
Hope this helps, because Acronis has saved me many hours of
clean-up-detritus time after playing CP (Copy-Protected) games - the smell
of which lingers long after they leave the room.
Mark
Pennyroyal
Just in case anyone is interested Black Mirror does run under Virtual
PC, with guest OS Win98SE, but it ran unplayably slow. (Its a 3+ Ghz
Celeron - Not the greatest machine but not the worst either) Is there
anything to be done to speed up Virtual PC's performance? I cant find
anything significant. Anyone know how VMWares virtualisation software
performs?
Thanks for your comments. I dont think I'll bother with the game
until I can set up a dedicated games PC which I dont rely on for
income. It may work but I cant afford to risk my machine. I have a
DVD and a CD burner and various bits of software I have read that
Starforce objects to. The best I can say for the copy protection
system is that it has a seperate install process so you know what
youre getting. Just not until you open the box.
Regards
Mary
news:1oqgq29ob35ki5393...@4ax.com...
Hi Penny, Just to let you know, I played Black Mirror in Win 98SE when it
first came out and had no problems with either the game or Starforce but its
your decision. I didn't use Virtual machine. Just the usual way of
installing :)
Mary
E-Cie
"Mary" <n...@invalid.ddd> schreef in bericht news:eobc8t$rn7$1...@aioe.org...
on a Win98SE machine and it ran fine. No known S*force problems after
deinstallation of the game. Am I lucky or is it just the good old Win98SE...
;-)
Ciao, E-Cie
Mary
news:45a969fc$0$12703$ba62...@nova.planet.nl...
I ran Nibiru and Syberia 2 also on Win 98SE and had no problems with
Starforce. I doubt it was because of running it on Win 98SE, though I can't
say for sure.
Mary
Jenny100
> On Thu, 11 Jan 2007 09:40:43 -0600, Pennyroyal
> <pennyroy...@bellsouthUPPERCASE.netWORDS> wrote:
>
>>Hi
>>I bought *The Black Mirror* before I realised it contained Starforce and,
>>since so many seem to have had serious problems with this driver, I
>>havent yet installed it.
>>
>>It ocurred to me that this may be a good use of Virtual PC and I could
>>install the game without risking screwing up my actual machine.
>>
>>Does anyone know if this is actually safe or if Starforce is so insidious
>>it would still wheedle its wormy way into my real actual machine?
>>
>>I know the whole point of virtual machines is that whatever you do is
>>isolated from your real PC and that the only PC I am risking is the
>>unreal one which I can junk, but I'm still struggling with my belief
>>systems and hesitate just a little when it asks me to *Format the C:
>>drive?* so I thought I'd ask first.
>
> Just in case anyone is interested Black Mirror does run under Virtual PC,
> with guest OS Win98SE, but it ran unplayably slow. (Its a 3+ Ghz Celeron -
> Not the greatest machine but not the worst either) Is there anything to
> be done to speed up Virtual PC's performance? I cant find anything
> significant. Anyone know how VMWares virtualisation software performs?
VMWare wouldn't be any faster than VirtualPC. VMWare is better than
VirtualPC for networking apps, but not as user friendly if all you want to
do is run games. VirtualPC is better for older games.
> Thanks for your comments. I dont think I'll bother with the game until I
> can set up a dedicated games PC which I dont rely on for income. It may
> work but I cant afford to risk my machine. I have a DVD and a CD burner
> and various bits of software I have read that Starforce objects to. The
> best I can say for the copy protection system is that it has a seperate
> install process so you know what youre getting. Just not until you open
> the box.
>
> Regards
You might use the NoCD crack (Google for it). You have to apply it before
the first time you run the game. S***Force installs the first time you try
to run the game (at least it used to, and since Black Mirror is an older
title, this is probably still true for this particular game). Note that
the English NoCD has two parts because the first time they cracked it they
misnamed a file, so they had to patch their NoCD.
Jenny100
Mary, the North American versions of Nibiru and Syberia 2 did not use
S***Force. Nibiru had no copy "protection" and Syberia 2 used SafeDisc. I
think the only S***Force game you've played is Black Mirror, which uses
the older version of S***Force which is less picky about IDE drives
(though it has a problem with USB drives).
Mary
news:pan.2007.01.14....@nospam.com...
E-Cie mentioned above that he ran Nibiru and Syberia2 on Win 98SE and had no
Starforce problems. He's in Europe I think so which country and which games
had Starforce problems? Murray had problems with Starforce when he played
Black Mirror, as it caused a problem with his USB drive and I think you had
a problem. What game did you have a Starforce problem with.? I don't know if
I played any other game besides Black Mirror which used Starforce. What
other adventure games in N. America used Starforce?
Mary
E-Cie
"Mary" <n...@invalid.ddd> schreef in bericht news:eocb14$ujp$1...@aioe.org...
games I mentioned had S*force on it. What S*force will do with a XP-machine
I don't know; I'm a little bit afraid to try it on my new PC. No, I'm not
really a hero of some sort... ;-)
Ciao, E-Cie
Lithurge
news:45aa13c6$0$16949$ba62...@nova.planet.nl:
> Mary, you are right. I live in The Netherlands (thought you
> knew?) and the games I mentioned had S*force on it. What
> S*force will do with a XP-machine I don't know; I'm a
> little bit afraid to try it on my new PC. No, I'm not
> really a hero of some sort... ;-) Ciao, E-Cie
>
>
>
Can't speak for every version of Starforce, but I installed
both Black Mirror & Moment of Silence under XP and
experienced no problems (on the assumption the UK release of
these also used SF of course, it was a while ago).
E-Cie
"Lithurge" <bogor...@bogoff.net> schreef in bericht
news:Xns98B8BB5C1...@212.23.3.119...
If you do want to know, you can have a look at:
http://www.boycottstarforce.net/?page_id=3
or: http://www.glop.org/starforce/list.php
or: http://www.daemon-tools.cc/dtcc/gamedb.php?letter=A
I'm not sure if everything there is really true but it's worth a look.
Ciao, E-Cie
Jenny100
I had a problem similar to what's shown in the video on this website
http://www.glop.org/starforce/
only instead of rebooting like his XP computer my Win 98 computer would
have a hard freeze at that point where S***Force is checking. I've never
had that problem with any other copy "protection" besides S***Force.
E-Cie
"Jenny100" <nos...@nospam.com> schreef in bericht
news:pan.2007.01.14....@nospam.com...
Can't say I have, Jenny. But after a hard think (and read) I did experience
the CD-DVD burner slowdown thing then, after using S***force. This was on my
old machine with Win98SE on it. Then I never knew how this
burnspeed-slowdown could happen, but now it sounds familiar to me!
The drive never performed well again. Do you think we can 'see them of
S***force in court'? ;-p
I don't think I'll sacrifice my new PC to S***force. I also think about
setting up a (older) machine if I want to play these copyprotected games.
Ciao, E-Cie
Jenny100
And don't put a burner in it. S***force will slow down plain CD drives
too, but they don't cost as much to replace.
E-Cie
haha!
Ciao, E-Cie