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[Nanta]

Heroes of Might and Magic V is coming out (although delayed), but will have the starforce protection. I hear from everyone that it installs a hidden driver that's impossible to uninstall and all that malware yadayada..but is it really true?

The reason for this thought was cuz of this contest that the Starforce company is holding:

http://www.star-force.com/protection.phtml?c=261&id=707

 

[8bit]

Cory is a nutjob, but Mr Starforce seems slightly more insane.

http://www.boingboing.net/2006/01/31/starforce_threatens_.html

 

[Jerkface]

They threaten to sue anyone who says they suck! http://www.boingboing.net/2006/01/31/starforce_threatens_.html (BEATEN! )

Personally I've had numerous problems with their shitty protection system from complete inability to boot after install, vanishing hard-drives and games taking several minutes to boot because I have a DVD burner in my system. All of these problems vanish after using a Starforce removal app.

 

[Error Macro]

yes

starforce placed it's hand on my special area

 

[emomoonbase]

Do yourself a favor and don't buy games with this type of crap and then send an email to the company telling them why. It's the only way they'll stop using this type of crap.

 

[White Man]

Can someone give a list of games that used Starforce over the past year? Did Civ4? Would Starforce explain why Civ4 performs like ass on my machine?

 

[8bit]

Released Starforced games:

7 Sins
American Conquest: Divided Nation
Anstoss 4
Bandits: Phoenix Rising
Bet on Soldier
Beyond Divinity
Black Mirror
Blitzkrieg 2
Blitzkrieg: Rolling Thunder
Breed
Brian Lara International Cricket 2005
Broken Sword 3: The Sleeping Dragon
Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood
Chaos League
Chaos League: Sudden Death
Codename: Outbreak
Codename: Panzers - Phase One
Codename: Panzers - Phase Two
Cold War
Colin McRae Rally 2005
Cossacks II: Napoleonic Wars
Cross Racing Championship 2005
Curse: The Eye of Isis
Cycling Manager 3
Cycling Manager 3
Cycling Manager 4
D-Day
Dead to Rights
Demonic Speedway
Desert Rats vs Afrika Korps
Domination
Emergency Fire Response
Enigma: Rising Tide
Etherlords II
Fire Chief
Fire Department
Freedom Force vs The Third Reich
Gangland
Garfield
Gooka: The Mystery of Janatris
GT Legends
GTR: FIA GT Racing Game
Heroes of Might and Magic V
Horse Race Manager
Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter
Keepsake
Kicker Manager 2004
Kill Switch
King Kong
Knights of the Temple 2
Korea: Forgotten Conflict
LMA Professional Manager 2005
Lock On: Flaming Cliffs
Medieval Lords
Namco Museum 50th Anniversary
Neuro Hunter
Nibiru
Obscure
Pac Man World 2
Pac Man World 3
Pariah
Pax Romana
Perimeter
Perimeter: Emperor's Testament
Pferdehof - Pferd und Pony
Pop Star Academy
Postal 2: Apocalypse Weekend
Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones
Pro Rugby Manager
Psi-Ops
Pure Pinball
Rally Championship Xtreme
Restaurant Empire
Restricted Area
Revolution
Runaway: A Road Adventure
Scrapland
Second Sight
Silent Hunter 3
Silent Storm
Silkolene Honda Motocross GP
Singles 2: Triple Trouble
Singles: Flirt Up Your Life
Sniper Elite
Soldiers Heroes of World War 2
Sommerspiele 2004
Space Rangers 2
Splinter Cell 3: Chaos Theory
Star Wolves
Steel Saviour
Still Life
Street Racing Syndicate
Sudeki
SuperPower 2
Syberia II
The Fall: Last Days of Gaia
The Moment of Silence
The Suffering: Ties That Bind
The Westerner
TOCA 2
TrackMania
TrackMania Nations
TrackMania Sunrise
Traitors Gate 2: Cypher
UFO: Aftershock
V8 Supercars 2
Virtual Skipper 3
Virtual Skipper 4
Vivisector
Wildlife Park
World Racing 2
World War II: Frontline Command
Worms 4: Mayhem
X2: The Threat
X3: Reunion
XIII
Xpand Rally
Xuan-Yuan Sword 4

http://www.glop.org/starforce/

 

[Funky Papa]

Would Starforce explain why Civ4 performs like ass on my machine?

Yes. Starforce is well know as a resource hog and overall bad SOB. That's why I only buy second hand Starforce protected games (and with caution, mind you)

 

[jipe]

I hear from everyone that it installs a hidden driver that's impossible to uninstall and all that malware yadayada..but is it really true?

It does install a hidden driver, but it can be removed using this tool.

Can someone give a list of games that used Starforce over the past year? Did Civ4? Would Starforce explain why Civ4 performs like ass on my machine?

Civ4 uses Safedisc, not Starforce. This site has a list of games using Starforce (at the bottom of the page), but it's probably not complete.

 

[Funky Papa]

Oh, Safedisc blows too, many games run much better after you crack them. Fortunately it won't mess with your system.

FEAR was the latest Safedisc protected game to fuck with me.

 

[thetrin]

Starforce killed my father, and raped my mother!

 

[Dr Zhivago]

Starforce also gets put on demos for some reason.
I found it on my work PC, and I never install full games on it. I'm wondering if it came from the King Kong demo.

 

[Danj]

Starforce also gets put on demos for some reason.
I found it on my work PC, and I never install full games on it. I'm wondering if it came from the King Kong demo.

Interestingly enough (as mentioned above) Trackmania Nations comes with StarForce but doesn't actually seem to use it - I removed StarForce using the removal tool but the game still works.

 

[Deg]

Yep it prevented me from playing FEAR when it released. Worked fine on another pc however so i got to play one of the best fps made.

Seems like luck but is it worth ignoring the games it comes with? I think not.

 

[bee]

Yep it prevented me from playing FEAR when it released. Worked fine on another pc however so i got to play one of the best fps made.

Seems like luck but is it worth ignoring the games it comes with? I think not.

FEAR uses securom 7 not starforce.

 

[maxmars]

Interestingly enough (as mentioned above) Trackmania Nations comes with StarForce but doesn't actually seem to use it - I removed StarForce using the removal tool but the game still works.

Lock-On silently re-installed the SF driver in case you removed it. Are you sure it didn't happen to you, too?

 

[DopeyFish]

Released Starforced games:

so many games i will never buy, thanks to starforce

 

[Chittagong]

i was thinking

 

[Danj]

Lock-On silently re-installed the SF driver in case you removed it. Are you sure it didn't happen to you, too?

Crap, you're right! I'm sure I checked in Device Manager after playing the game, and didn't see it, so I assumed it was gone, but it must have come back after I rebooted. Damn, that sucks

 

[Deg]

FEAR uses securom 7 not starforce.

Oh ok. Its easy to blame issues on stuff you dont know about

 

[Funky Papa]

FEAR uses securom 7 not starforce.

Neat, another copy protection to hate then

 

[maxmars]

Crap, you're right! I'm sure I checked in Device Manager after playing the game, and didn't see it, so I assumed it was gone, but it must have come back after I rebooted. Damn, that sucks

Sometimes I wonder if the SF guys started their career as virus coders. They certainly share some of the mindset.

 

[gblues]

Ugh.. have you done any reasearch on what StarForce does? Asking "Is Starforce really that bad?" is like asking "is prison anal rape really that bad?" OF COURSE IT IS YOU DUMBFUCK.

Nathan

 

[Crazy Harry]

I see a lot of complaining about starforce protection. But I still have to see any file names from those drivers that seems to be installed.
I have the game GTR for over a year now but only encounter a Starforce protection installation with Trackmania Nations. And I still have to encounter any problems with it...
My drive still seems to use its original drivers and nothing from starforce but ofcourse I could be mistaken because I know very little about it.

 

[FoneBone]

Starforce also gets put on demos for some reason.

I'm not an expert on this stuff (nor am I excusing it), but I believe it's because otherwise, it's possible to hack the demo exe file to run the full game without the protection. At least, I believe that has been done in the past with some games.

 

[jooey]

i was thinking

me too, and it's not that bad!

 

[VibratingDonkey]

I recently got a blue screen of death that may or may not have been caused by this Starforce crap. I believe the blue screen then caused Battlefield 2 to not start.

 

[mosaic]

You know, I always had high opinions of the members of the Star Force.

Nova was hot. And Wildstar... I'd want him in the middle of any fracas. Who's with me?

 

[Zensetsu]

Released Starforced games:

X3: Reunion

THAT would explain a lot of the weird thing my computer has been doing lately.

 

[joshschw]

speaking of FEAR, I installed the single player demo when it came out and I can't uninstall it. I get this error when i try:

any suggestions?

 

[Gattsu25]

THAT would explain a lot of the weird thing my computer has been doing lately.

No, that would be the trojan I injected in that

Spoiler

InfantRaper2005.exe

I gave ya

 

[:Motorbass]

I haven't experienced any problems. And none of the people I play(ed) Trackmania with, either.

 

[Dave Long]

I've had Starforce on my PC for the last two years. I get games to review that have it all the time. Blitzkrieg 2, Codename Panzers, TOCA Race Driver 2, Perimeter, etc. I have yet to have any problems with my PC because of it.

If you're a pirate, use things like Daemon Tools or you use a lot of different software to burn CDs, then that seems to trigger some of the issues. I don't. No problems.

 

[ELS-01X]

I got Chaos Theory and so far I haven't had any problems with SF. You guys are just paranoid.

 

[Tain]

I have three seperate Starforce games on two of my machines. They haven't had any negative effects on either, other than making for long game startup times on one of them.

My conclusion is that, yeah, most people are paranoid when it comes to it. I don't like Starforce. I wish these games didn't use it. But it isn't spyware. It isn't a virus. It's a very annoying copy protection scheme that goes a bit far.

I'm not going to avoid playing some of the greatest games developed because of it, especially when it isn't effecting my machine or performance of the games that are using it.

 

[Nanta]

Ugh.. have you done any reasearch on what StarForce does? Asking "Is Starforce really that bad?" is like asking "is prison anal rape really that bad?" OF COURSE IT IS YOU DUMBFUCK.

Nathan

Research? Sorry, was I supposed to beforehand? Thought it would've been easier if I let people answer it for me.

 

[Boards of Canada]

I think most of the people complaining about StarForce use pirated software or have Daemon Tools/Alcohol installed. Face it, the only reason Daemon exists is to mount downloaded images.

 

[Wafflecopter]

I got Chaos Theory and so far I haven't had any problems with SF. You guys are just paranoid.

Uh....no there are genuine problems. Sorry. No paranoia here.

 

[Anthropic]

I think most of the people complaining about StarForce use pirated software or have Daemon Tools/Alcohol installed. Face it, the only reason Daemon exists is to mount downloaded images.

I suppose then, you haven't seen how Microsoft is distributing legitimate Windows Vista betas then.

 

[Error Macro]

I think most of the people complaining about StarForce use pirated software or have Daemon Tools/Alcohol installed. Face it, the only reason Daemon exists is to mount downloaded images.

The only reason I use Daemon Tools is to mount a small DVD image of Battlefield 2, so that I don't have to insert the DVD everytime I want to play it.

Guess what, you have to log in to EA's servers right when you start up the game. I bought the fucking game the day it came out. I don't use Daemon Tools for illegitimate purposes.

 

[Stinkles]

MISLEADING THREAD TITLE!

 

[Parallax Scroll]

I bought Trackmania Sunrise a while back, then found out that it uses Starforce, so I haven't actually installed the game. If you use the Starforce removal tool, it prevents the game from working, doesn't it?

 

[Tain]

Yeah.

 

[glaurung]

Two words to answer that question:

Fuck yes.

 

[xabre]

Starforce made me impotent and gave me bowel cancer.

It isn’t worth it gentlemen.

 

[Deg]

speaking of FEAR, I installed the single player demo when it came out and I can't uninstall it. I get this error when i try:

any suggestions?

Funnily i have never had problems with Starforce but FEAR gave me a ton of issues.

 

[Vormund]

Does Trackmania Nations really have StarForce? I question this because:

1) I haven't seen any trace of it.

2) I ran the removal tool anyway and I can still play it.

 

[Borys]

Imagine if WoW had SF.

 

[Danj]

To find out if you have StarForce on your machine, go to the System control panel, Hardware, Device Manager, then click View, Show hidden devices, and scroll down and see if you can see this:

If you see that, you have StarForce installed.

Reasons why StarForce is bad:

For example, here's one of the common problems brought by Starforce: under Windows XP, if packets are lost during the reading or writing of a disk, XP interprets this as an error and steps the IDE speed down. Eventually it will revert to 16bit compatibility mode rendering a CD/DVD writer virtually unusable. In some circumstances certain drives cannot cope with this mode and it results in physical hardware failure (Most commonly in multiformat CD/DVD writer drives). A sure sign of this step down occurring is that the burn speeds will get slower and slower (no matter what speed you select to burn at). Starforce, on a regular basis, triggers this silent step down. Until it reaches the latter stages most people do not even realise it is happening.

Moreover, the Starforce drivers, installed on your system, grant ring 0 (system level) privileges to any code under the ring 3 (user level) privileges. Thus, any virus or trojan can get OS privileges and totally control your system. Since Windows 2000, the Windows line security and stability got enhanced by separating those privileges, but with the Starforce drivers, the old system holes and instabilities are back and any program (or virus) can reach the core of your system by using the Starforce drivers as a backdoor.

Basically, the poster who said it isn't malware is wrong; it's a rootkit just like the SonyBMG one.

 

[Sh0k]

I installed the Trackmania Sunrise demo and it also installed the Starforce drivers in my computer. I don't know if it is a coincidence, but my DVD Burner is having a hard time accepting blank DVD-Rs. Everytime I tried to copy something, I have to go through a full stack of blank DVDs for my computer to recognize one, sometimes I even have to restart my computer just to burn something. I'm having the same problem even with music CDs, my drive takes a long time to recognize one.

I was wondering if that's a sign that StarForce is messing with my PC or that my DVD burner is dying. I would try to remove the drivers before buying a new DVD burner. Is that StarForce removal tool safe to use ?