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[Demophobe]

A word about Starforce CD protection software.

I recently 'aquired' a copy of Flatout 2, a racing game for the PC. I didn't know it used Starforce, a Russian-based copy protection scheme which is under great debate these days.

I installed the game, then realized it was Starforce protected, and there is no way I am going to go to the great lengths nedded to circumvent it and play the game. I quickly uninstalled it, then realized what I had done.

Starforce installs some pretty hardcore stuff on your system, similar to Sony's rootkit that would be installed had you used a Sony music CD. I wanted to get their drivers from the Flatout install off my system, so I got a copy of Starforce Clean from their website, which removes all the drivers.

I then inserted my legit copy of Splinter Cell: Chaos theory, which also uses Starforce. (I was worried about a Starforce driver version conflict with Flatout 2, that's why I removed the drivers from that install right away)

After I put in the CD (required for Starforce games - there is no "no-cd" patch possible) and had the CD tell me that the "Copy protection drivers were installed successfully: Would you like to reboot the computer now?".

Right. With Starforce clean, I had removed the Splinter Cell drivers as well. Ok. I reboot.

After the boot, Zonealarm asks me if I want "service.exe" to access the internet. No.

I play for a while, quit, and the computer is completely sluggish, and I have a Windows memory warning. I open the taskmanager to see what's eating my memory, and the "service.exe" program is at over 400MB and rising fast!!!

I reboot in safe mode, thinking it's a trojan, clean the file, clean the registry and reboot again. Then I realized that this little program was part of the Starforce install and it was trying to call home!

Usually, it would be hidden with the game .exe file, and after giving the "Splinter Cell.exe" file permission to access the net, "service.exe" would hum along in the background without the user noticing. When I deleted the Starforce drivers, it separated itself from the game .exe and showed up as a separate entity, thus I was alerted to it. Not allowing it to get out to the net caused it to begin eating memory, basically grinding the computer to a halt.

Is it a trojan? Is it spyware? Malware? Or just part of the EULA that nobody reads when installing a game?

Whatever...avoid Starforce protected games for this and a host of other reasons outined here

Here is a list of current titles with Starforce protection. Avoid these games...Starforce is going to be in court over this soon enough. It will make Sony's trouble look pale in comparison.

[Bulsajo]

Same problem with Space Rangers 2, a game that got great reviews, yet none of the reviews I read mentioned anything about Starforce. I found out the hard way too. Didn't even play the freakin game, can't return it- it's garage sale fodder now.

[Demophobe]

I forgot to add the real kicker....after cleaning the computer of the "service.exe" program, the game still works fine.

The program was not needed for functionality of neither the game itself, nor Starforce. So why was it there in the first place?

As I said, I am all for anti-piracy measures - it's their product - but what Starforce are doing is just over the top. Is this parallel to how out of control they see piracy? "They" being the devs and feeling that something so intrusive and underhanded as Starforce is justified. Is this the state of things to come?

[mindmetoo]

I like how if you do a googlebar search... this is the first suggested search topic:

[cubanlord]

ahhhh. I remember reading about the sony problem. I almost fell out of my chair on that one. Once Sony saw that their sales were plummeting, they removed that crap and recalled their products with the quickness.

[Demophobe]

Unfortunately, with Starforce, the devs don't care all that much. Starforce are being made out to be the bad guy here, not the devs for choosing to use that protection.

It's a quandry for the devs. On the one hand, Starforce is one of the few protections that actually works, or one of the few that requires the user to go to great lengths to use a pirated copy. So, the devs are really happy with it, and Starforce only seem to answer to them, not the customer.

Starforce figures that the complaints are all coming from the pirates anyhow. They say that the protection from a legit CD causes no problems (and indeed, I had no issues with it, until I found the backdoor program calling home), and anyone who has an issue can't go to the authorities because they themselves are on the wrong side of the law.

Time will tell. Until then, it seems a reasonable solution is to install the SF protected game, run Starforce Clean, then insert the CD again, have the drivers re-installed (this should allow you to see the "service.exe" program asking for internet access separate from the game .exe file, and delete it. Safemode isn't necessary...you can shutdown the service from the task manager, then delete it. Apparently (after I repeated the experiment again) it makes no registry entries.

I haven't done a fresh install to see if the "service.exe" can be deleted right away afterwards. Probably can. My way is probably the hard way. Install the game, delete the file, then enjoy.