Hard Light Productions Forums

General FreeSpace => FreeSpace Discussion => Topic started by: TORRaven on September 06, 2008, 04:12:34 pm

Title: Windows Vista Support...
Post by: TORRaven on September 06, 2008, 04:12:34 pm
Turns out a few friends of mine whom ive known a couple of years, played Freespace way back when it first came out.

They had not heard of the SCP, so i turned them on to it.

They both have Windows Vista, but I am running XP 64-bit.

Both of them say that they were able to play the game for a while, but then Windows said that Freespace SCP was infected with a Virus, and shut their computer down.

Now, neither of their PC's will boot up at all.  Could it be that someone may have laced the SCP downloads with a Virus, or is this just a Windows Vista issue?
(again, I have no issues running it)

Thanks!
Title: Re: Windows Vista Support...
Post by: Jeff Vader on September 06, 2008, 04:15:07 pm
No one has ever complained that there'd be viruses in anything FreeSpace-related. And if you've managed alright, it would suggest that the issue is within Vista.

I assume they have some means for a system restore usable.
Title: Re: Windows Vista Support...
Post by: TORRaven on September 06, 2008, 04:29:40 pm
Yeah, I know one of them has done system restore.

They both installed it at the same time - however one guy couldn't get it to run at all, and it alerted to a Virus right away.
The other guy could play a little bit, but then it did the same thing.

In both cases, it said that FreeSpace was infected, the PC rebooted, and would not boot back into windows until they did a system restore.
Title: Re: Windows Vista Support...
Post by: FUBAR-BDHR on September 06, 2008, 04:33:41 pm
Where did they get FS2 and were they running FS2_Open or Freespace.exe? 
Title: Re: Windows Vista Support...
Post by: Jeff Vader on September 06, 2008, 04:34:36 pm
Yeah, I know one of them has done system restore.

They both installed it at the same time - however one guy couldn't get it to run at all, and it alerted to a Virus right away.
The other guy could play a little bit, but then it did the same thing.

In both cases, it said that FreeSpace was infected, the PC rebooted, and would not boot back into windows until they did a system restore.
Hmm. Well, they could use one or more antivirus softwares to sweep through their FreeSpace installations to see if they pick up anything. If there doesn't seem to be anything, I suppose shutting down Windows Defender might help. Someone could confirm this, since I have little experience with Vista.

Where did they get FS2 and were they running FS2_Open or Freespace.exe? 
That too. Hopefully not a too shady source.
Title: Re: Windows Vista Support...
Post by: TORRaven on September 06, 2008, 10:09:19 pm
They got it from FSOInstaller.com

They did not have FS2 installed at all, so they did a full download of the entire thing.

Not sure about which exe they are running, i'll have to find out.

And I will have them try that Windows Defender thing, as well as run a scan on the install files.

Title: Re: Windows Vista Support...
Post by: Droid803 on September 06, 2008, 11:47:31 pm
lol Vista overreacted. There's really no need to kill itself even if there's a virus. Just freaking quarantine it. Its rather counter-intuitive how it mimics actually being infected by a virus in response to detecting a potential one. :lol:

Sry, that was a bit OT but I found that amusing.
Title: Re: Windows Vista Support...
Post by: TORRaven on September 06, 2008, 11:54:05 pm
lol Vista overreacted. There's really no need to kill itself even if there's a virus. Just freaking quarantine it. Its rather counter-intuitive how it mimics actually being infected by a virus in response to detecting a potential one. :lol:

Sry, that was a bit OT but I found that amusing.

I couldn't agree more.  They called me up all mad thinking I did it on purpose!  I was like, guys - i don't know what to tell you except that either it has Got to be a Vista issue.. Or there is a very small chance someone snuck a virus into the FSOInstaller, which I doubt.

Vista is Stupid.
Title: Re: Windows Vista Support...
Post by: McMad on September 07, 2008, 11:09:58 am
I've been running FSO on Vista a few months now without any problems. I hope it doesn't try any stunts like that with me. :shaking:

What program exactly went crazy? I'm not using any of the default virus programs, so it's possible one of them is the problem.
Title: Re: Windows Vista Support...
Post by: IceFire on September 07, 2008, 10:56:06 pm
Vista Home Premium 32bit.  No issues at all with FreeSpace 2 SCP.
Title: Re: Windows Vista Support...
Post by: eliex on September 08, 2008, 12:57:29 am
I've been running FSO on Vista a few months now without any problems. I hope it doesn't try any stunts like that with me. :shaking:


I'm been using FSO  on Vista HP 32-bit for about 3 years now with nothing really happening. Seems like an unfortunate happening.

Never use Windows Defender. A waste of RAM and pretty much useless.
Title: Re: Windows Vista Support...
Post by: Aquazorx on September 08, 2008, 02:51:54 am
what antivirus are they running, it doesnt sound like a vista thing. ive been running SCP with vista for a good 6-8 months now
Title: Re: Windows Vista Support...
Post by: S-99 on September 08, 2008, 06:02:06 am
I'd be curious if the person who was transporting the files may have had the virus. Such as a person who had a virus on their vista installation and then burned fs2 scp onto a dvd for their friends.

Reminds me of backing up files for my customers. They come in with pc's and want me to backup their data to external drives they own. Sounds pretty easy, but not. Got to wipe out the viruses on the computers first before i do the backups of course. One reason why i prefer backing up to dvd's if the customer doesn't have that much data to backup. That way they can't do something like plug the external drive into another computer that does have a virus and start the spreading all over again; a dvd-r is read only and novices understand that...a virus can't possibly spread to a dvd-r, but a virus can spread from a dvd-r if a virus accidentally got burned onto it.

In other words it can be a sucky situation backing up for novices, and even transporting data.

Anyway, the scp is not virus laden itself, everyone here in the hlpbb can attest to that including me. If you want a good simple and good way to get rid of viruses, you can use the port of clamav for windows called clamwin (http://www.clamwin.com). Clamwin scans, it quarantines or deletes infected files depending on the user preference. It autoupdates and requires no registration or money at all to use. I just set it up on my friends mom's computer to do an automated scan every week, and it's a heck of a lot easier to use than avast or norton or whatever. To check the effectiveness of the antivirus, i get to see that the computer is running smooth, and i can check the virus scan reports. It works like a charm.
Title: Re: Windows Vista Support...
Post by: Jeff Vader on September 08, 2008, 10:04:08 am
and it's a heck of a lot easier to use than avast
Hey, avast! isn't hard to use. Apart from registering it every 14 months, it's pretty much install-and-forget.
Title: Re: Windows Vista Support...
Post by: TORRaven on September 08, 2008, 11:45:05 am
I'd be curious if the person who was transporting the files may have had the virus. Such as a person who had a virus on their vista installation and then burned fs2 scp onto a dvd for their friends.

Actually, thats not an issue here.  They both downloaded the files individually.  one did not DL it then save it for the other.  They both downloaded it using the FSOInstaller
Title: Re: Windows Vista Support...
Post by: Jeff Vader on September 08, 2008, 11:48:02 am
Actually, thats not an issue here.  They both downloaded the files individually.  one did not DL it then save it for the other.  They both downloaded it using the FSOInstaller
Oh, the waste of bandwidth...  :(

You could have just copied a working installation to other computers.
Title: Re: Windows Vista Support...
Post by: S-99 on September 08, 2008, 07:22:26 pm
Hey, avast! isn't hard to use. Apart from registering it every 14 months, it's pretty much install-and-forget.
Avast can be surprisingly hard to use for people when those 14 months run out if the user isn't terribly smart. They claim that it stopped working and that avast is a pos. I go in and show them how to reregister, and then they're all good. It's why i'm glad something like clamwin exists. Clamwin you can just install, schedule it to do scanning, and you can truly just forget about it running. It's not for all computers though. I install different software for peoples different uses, but it's really looking like i'll stop installing avast for people in favor of clamwin. Clamwin really does make a computer easier to use without having to pay attention to the antivirus more so than avast.
Title: Re: Windows Vista Support...
Post by: Kosh on September 08, 2008, 07:39:19 pm
Vista Home Premium 32bit.  No issues at all with FreeSpace 2 SCP.


Your version isn't 1337 enough to commit suicide when trying to run updated 10 year old 32 bit software. :p
Title: Re: Windows Vista Support...
Post by: LuaPineapple on September 10, 2008, 08:38:47 am
They both have Windows Vista.

Both of them say that they were able to play the game for a while, but then Windows said that Freespace SCP was infected with a Virus, and shut their computer down.
IRONY LEVELS CRITICAL!! EVACUATE!!
Honestly though, other then the pretty GUI (which you can get for free and make it look even better) Vista is as a load of bull****ted chips (as Yahtezee would say). I got it with my laptop and played with it for a few months. Got feed up and uninstalled it when it started saying no one, not even the root super admin God had authority to delete a folder containing M$ advertisement. Honestly, get XP, it's faster, smaller, neater, cheeper, more stable, more reliable, has more hardware support, requires lower specs, looks just as good or better with a few tweeks (go look at my desktop) and doesn't have all the DRM crap requirements in it. (Or at least, not as much.)
(http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t139/LuaPineapple/tmp-1.png)
Title: Re: Windows Vista Support...
Post by: Mars on September 10, 2008, 01:17:44 pm
Vista Ultimate, no issues with SCP...

And it runs just as well as XP on my computer.
Title: Re: Windows Vista Support...
Post by: Aquazorx on September 16, 2008, 06:12:51 pm
They both have Windows Vista.

Both of them say that they were able to play the game for a while, but then Windows said that Freespace SCP was infected with a Virus, and shut their computer down.
IRONY LEVELS CRITICAL!! EVACUATE!!
Honestly though, other then the pretty GUI (which you can get for free and make it look even better) Vista is as a load of bull****ted chips (as Yahtezee would say). I got it with my laptop and played with it for a few months. Got feed up and uninstalled it when it started saying no one, not even the root super admin God had authority to delete a folder containing M$ advertisement. Honestly, get XP, it's faster, smaller, neater, cheeper, more stable, more reliable, has more hardware support, requires lower specs, looks just as good or better with a few tweeks (go look at my desktop) and doesn't have all the DRM crap requirements in it. (Or at least, not as much.)

sadly XP is very slowly becoming redundant, SP3 of XP was M$ Last update almost. soon people are gunna have to move over to Vista. I remember what dad had said to me about XP, everyone was hesitant to move from 95/98/2000/ME(well maybe not ME) to XP because thay heard that it was full of bugs and it doesnt run right (sound familiar) honestly give it time and if ur so concerned about the security popups, turn them off its not that hard
Title: Re: Windows Vista Support...
Post by: blackhole on September 16, 2008, 06:18:22 pm
Vista works for me. Norton, however, is going to get hanged soon.
Title: Re: Windows Vista Support...
Post by: S-99 on September 16, 2008, 08:31:36 pm
How good does vista's anti-malware app work? Windows defender it is. The term malware encompasses viruses, trojans, worms, etc. Technically vista has it's own antivirus. Check it out, maybe you can hang norton in favor of an integrated vista program so that way you wont have redundant anti-malware apps with the other not even in use.

WRONG!!! W1ND053 7UZ3RZ use windows defender as the only and first anti-malware apps for windows by ms included...and it only guards against spyware and popups! YEAH you vista users got BF'd.

Basically uninstall windows defender while you're hanging norton and start sleeping around with a superior anti-malware program.
Title: Re: Windows Vista Support...
Post by: blackhole on September 16, 2008, 08:43:12 pm
Me? Trusting a Microsoft product to protect my computer? Uh, no, that's why I use Norton in the first place, but my subscription ran out.
Title: Re: Windows Vista Support...
Post by: S-99 on September 16, 2008, 09:20:13 pm
But, somehow you think that an ms product is going to let you boot up your computer?
I'm just joking, but for alternatives to norton.
avast, clamwin, avg.
Free all of them they are.
Title: Re: Windows Vista Support...
Post by: eliex on September 17, 2008, 02:27:37 am
My bet is that the virus-writers think that the majority of the computer-users have Norton installed so they write viruses specifically designed to get past Norton anti-virus software. It pays to use not-so-common (and less expensive) anti-virus software like AVG.

And once again I say, Microsoft tries to have a hand in everything computer-wise, but is never really good at anything, apart from operating systems.
Title: Re: Windows Vista Support...
Post by: S-99 on September 17, 2008, 07:40:55 am
Such as there anti-spyware only app. WTF is the good in only offering that protection only?
Title: Re: Windows Vista Support...
Post by: blackhole on September 17, 2008, 09:16:46 pm
AVG is first on my list, yes, so when I go re-installing my compy soon I'll use that.
Title: Re: Windows Vista Support...
Post by: Jeff Vader on September 18, 2008, 02:37:14 am
avast! is also good. And has many localizations.
Title: Re: Windows Vista Support...
Post by: pecenipicek on September 18, 2008, 03:53:27 am
clamwin rulz. and sadly enough, one of the rare av's that work with vista x64...
Title: Re: Windows Vista Support...
Post by: S-99 on September 18, 2008, 06:13:57 am
Yeah, install clamwin, set it up to scan your **** once a week or more, set it up to delete all malicious stuff. Then you can just literally forget about it. Clamwin autoupdates itself and scans in the background.

It doesn't require any more user input after it's been setup.

EDIT: of course everyone in here is dumb as **** if they don't have an antivirus running along side a firewall
Title: Re: Windows Vista Support...
Post by: pecenipicek on September 18, 2008, 07:21:19 am
Does having IPCop set up on an old PC count as "firewall" ? :p
Title: Re: Windows Vista Support...
Post by: Jeff Vader on September 18, 2008, 10:14:13 am
Yeah, install clamwin, set it up to scan your **** once a week or more, set it up to delete all malicious stuff. Then you can just literally forget about it. Clamwin autoupdates itself and scans in the background.

It doesn't require any more user input after it's been setup.
I, for one, don't believe in scheduled scans. I find background scanning to suit all my needs. If, for some reason, I doubt that there is an infection, I'll run a full scan manually.

But I know, I know. I'm a weirdo. Roughly 60% of the people I know have called me a weirdo on at least one occasion.
Title: Re: Windows Vista Support...
Post by: S-99 on September 18, 2008, 04:52:38 pm
I was just mentioning that benefit of clamwin because most computer users not on this forum live in computer-noob-ridicuality. In which they like everything being automated for them to a ridiculous degree. Such as users thinking that typing out a report on a word processor is going to make their paper have perfect grammar :lol: The people over the years that i have run into. Clamwin is truly forgettable for them at least. Good thing for you because clamwin is all about manual scanning and automated scanning.