Win8 Surprise

[Kapitan Klaffmuschel]

Recently replaced my desktop from XPsp3 to Win8. Installed SH4 to 1.5 and plugged my mods in (RFB, RSRD, plus some others). All appeared well.

Two weeks into a campaign, running it DAILY, SecureROM pops up on start and says I can't run the software in a virtual machine.

Anyone experience this? Any workarounds? I haven't been able to find anything on this and I haven't seen any posts from anyone whose experienced this.

Two weeks mind you. Not 20 minutes. Not A day. Two weeks. I've since wiped it off the machine, but it's all there for a reinstall if I can get past the surprise element.

[Rockin Robbins]

Hi, from your old pals at Sony! Everybody needs to remember this when they look at that shiny new Blu Ray piece of trash on the shelf. The company that gets perfectly good game companies to pay for installing malware on our computers needs to pay and it needs to pay by none of us ever buying another Sony product again. I do not care how much I like one of their products, I'll find something made by someone else that works good enough and buy it instead.

Sony is a company without morals or respect for its customers, whose only allegiance is to the dollars in your pocket, which it will stoop to any measure, right, wrong, by force if necessary to obtain them. Sony has no problem installing malware on our machines to deny us lawful use of both the machines themselves and the software we legally own. I have no problem starving Sony to death.

SecuROM is a Sony product. It victimizes the game companies, who paid probably millions for its use, and then acts as a piece of malware on a million machines. We don't have to allow it to happen. We can kill Sony by starvation. Sony richly deserves it.

We need to insist and we need to enforce that corporations had better be something more than money machines or we will terminate them by starvation.

[Admiral Halsey]

Ok I didn't understand a single thing you just said.(Mainly due to the fact I have no clue what SecureROM is.)

[Kapitan Klaffmuschel]

Ok I didn't understand a single thing you just said.(Mainly due to the fact I have no clue what SecureROM is.)

Copy prevention scheme employed by software vendors. Sony made a big fuffle when they pushed it onto CDs and "infected" any PC that ripped the CD. They then put out a "patch" that made things worse.

I believe that SH4 1.5 implements the SecureROM scheme from reading a few posts here where users were surprised to see it back on their systems after removing it.

In any case, I got two weeks into a campaign before this thing refused to let me boot the game any more.

Rockin Robbins seems to still harbor some resentment over that.

I believe it's a glitch that can be overcome, but I haven't been able to do it. The game is legal and has run for years on XP.

[Peter Cremer]

I have played the 'Gold' version of SH4 on my laptop with Vista 64 bit and on my desk top computer with Win7 64 bit for several years and don't have a SecureRom problem. Although the package says (in incredibly small print) that it has some form of copy protection, I have not had a problem (yet).

[Rockin Robbins]

It's possible that SecuROM is not active on the SH4Gold disk. It was VERY active on the original 1.0 release of SH4 and remained so until the 1.3 patch, which eliminated SecuRom alltogether and incorporated a no CD patch. We thought we were free of the SecuROM curse forever.

Until the release of SH4UBM (1.5) when SecuROM reared its ugly head again. Every time SH4 is started it scans running processes for a blacklist of forbidden software. If it finds a process from the blacklist running or registered and not running you get a cryptic error message saying that SH4 is unable to run.

http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa293/RockinRobbins13/SecuROMSH4UBMmessage.jpg

In my case the offending software is Microsoft's Process Explorer, a completely innocent program which is nothing but a task switcher enhancer. However, its author, Mark Russinovich was the one who blew the whistle on Sony's infamous rootkit trojan horse.

Sony published music CDs that played normally in CD players. But if you played it in your computer (you didn't have to rip it, all you had to do is play it), it installed a trojan horse that permanently deactivated your ability to write to CDR, CDW, or any writable DVD disk. This was done unannounced, without the knowledge or consent of the user. It rendered the user's machine partially inoperable forever. There was no uninstall procedure at all. The rootkit was cloaked so that it did not appear in any windows explorer window, would not be reported as a running process in task manager and the resources it used would not even be reported as in use. Since it was cloaked, any viruses or malware that took advantage of the cloaked area could hide there and do even more malicious things without possibility of being found or eliminated by any anti-malware software. In fact this actually happened.

The whistle blower was Mark Russinovich of sysinternals.com. He showed the world what the rootkit was, how to detect it and how to eliminate it. His work resulted in prosecution of Sony and Sony lost many millions in the debacle. This put Mark Russinovich in their crosshairs and got his work, no matter how harmless, on their SecuROM blacklist. Microsoft was so impressed by Russinovich's work that they hired him and his sysinternals.com website is now part of Microsoft's realm, along with all Russinovich's software.

However to this day, SecuROM is scanning my machine every time I start SH4 and if I have not shut down Process Explorer, it refuses to run SH4, making me a pawn in Sony's slimy retribution against the man who dared call them out for their criminal behavior. The damage they did was greater than the sum of all the damage done by all the hackers and viruses in the history of computers. It is satisfyingly ironic that I have to cloak Process Explorer to keep SecuROM from discovering it and denying me lawful use of software I bought.

And here is Process Explorer, happily running concurrently with SH4 and reporting SH4 as a running process. So not only was Sony's blacklist stupid, it was completely ineffectual. Except that Ubi probably paid at least hundreds of thousands of dollars to use it. Ubi is their worst victim.
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa293/RockinRobbins13/ProcessExplorerSH4UBMprocesseslist.jpg

Of course I still hold a grudge. Sony still holds a grudge every time I play SH4. Not one penny for Sony. No Playstations. No Blu Ray. No Sony movies. Ever again. We get the kinds of companies we're willing to support. Every penny you spend for a Sony product is a vote for their unprincipled criminal behavior to continue. That money you send them says that you value a little fun mashing buttons on a console more than you value the preservation of your property and you smilingly give them the right to wreck the stuff you own. Not me. I remember a LONG time.

A pretty good summary (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BMG_copy_protection_rootkit_scandal) of a gangster company making Al Capone look like Billy Graham.

[aanker]

I wonder if changing the start shortcut to point to sh4.exe in the install folder rather than gu.exe (which is default) will fix this problem. gu.exe phones home to check for updates then calls sh4.exe. sh4.exe just starts the game.

I've never had a problem with XP or Windows 7 - ever (after 1.3 that is) and have always started with sh4.exe

Happy Hunting! . . . (hope this helps)

Art

[Rockin Robbins]

Thank you aanker. That's CRUCIAL!! Awhile back Ubi issued an announcement that would prevent many game malfunctions.

Everyone should change their SH4 shortcut to point to SH4.exe.

[Kapitan Klaffmuschel]

Recently replaced my desktop from XPsp3 to Win8. Installed SH4 to 1.5 and plugged my mods in (RFB, RSRD, plus some others). All appeared well.

Two weeks into a campaign, running it DAILY, SecureROM pops up on start and says I can't run the software in a virtual machine.

Anyone experience this? Any workarounds? I haven't been able to find anything on this and I haven't seen any posts from anyone whose experienced this.

Two weeks mind you. Not 20 minutes. Not A day. Two weeks. I've since wiped it off the machine, but it's all there for a reinstall if I can get past the surprise element.

Thanks to those who took time to post.

Since no one has reported the same error (Can't run in a VM). I'll consider this an issue of configuration and regard the matter closed.

[merc4ulfate]

https://support.securom.com/removaltool.html

While this removal method is for a bioshock demo it can give you information on removing securom from your system.

Like many others I installed the Bioshock (http://www.ebay.com/sch/Consumer-Electronics-/293/i.html?_nkw=bioshock) demo, played it and then later uninstalled it. Much to my horror I later discovered that even the demo installs Sony's Securom DRM sh*tware and, whats worse, leaves Securom on your system even if you uninstalled the Bioshock (http://www.ebay.com/sch/Consumer-Electronics-/293/i.html?_nkw=bioshock) demo! http://m.bestofmedia.com/sfp/images/design/usr/smilies/fou.gif

This is a security risk! http://m.bestofmedia.com/sfp/images/design/usr/smilies/non.gif

So without further ado:

Securom uninstallation instructions for Windows XP SP2

Disclaimer 1: Only attempt these uninstallation instructions if you are reasonably computer literate and have backed-up your entire system.
Disclaimer 2: Only attempt these uninstallation instructions if you have no games installed which require Securom to be present.
Disclaimer 3: Only attempt these uninstallation instructions if you previously had to authorised your PC (http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/98241-13-remove-securom-malware-uninstalling-bioshock-demo#) with Securom before you could play a game and that game is now uninstalled.

* Step 1: Uninstall the Bioshock demo.

* Step 2: Remove the Securom registry entries.
The Securom registry entries are deliberately made non-removable by default. In order to remove them download (http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/98241-13-remove-securom-malware-uninstalling-bioshock-demo#) the http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/Miscellan... (http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/Miscellaneous/RegDelNull.mspx) RegDelNull registry editing utility from Microsoft and install it on your C partition.
Run the following two commands from a Windows command prompt: "C:\regdelnull HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SecuROM -s" and "C:\regdelnull HKEY_USERS\<Computer specific key>\Software\SecuROM -s" where "<Computer specific key>" can be determined by searching the registry for the "Securom" directory key. This "<Computer specific key>" typically has a form like "S-1-5-21-2052111302-1757341266-724545543-500". Once these two RegDelNull commands have been successfully issued the registry should be checked to confirm that these two keys have been deleted. If they are still present they will now be removeable due to the action of the RegDelNull utility.

* Step 3: Removal of the Securom service and related utilities.
Open a Windows command prompt and change directory to "c:\windows\system32". Type "uaservice7 /remove". This will stop the Securom user access service, and clean up its relevant registry entries. On the Windows command prompt type "regsvr32 /u cmdlineext.dll". Reboot and then manually delete the files "uaservice7.exe" and "cmdlineext.dll" from "c:\windows\system32". Note: Both of these files are Securom installed files which can be verified by checking their file properties (Right click - Properties).

* Step 4: Removal of Securom files under "C:\Documents and Settings".
Securom installs a hidden directory with 6 files under "C:\Documents and Settings\<Your Administrator name>\Application Data\Securom". The first 4 ordinary text files can simply be manually deleted once Windows explorer has been configured to show hidden files and folders. The two remaining malformed nominally unremoveable files require a special method to delete: Invoke a Windows command prompt with full Administrator privileges by typing the following into a Windows command prompt: "at <your current time + 1 minute> /interactive %systemroot%\system32\cmd.exe" e.g. "at 9:02pm /interactive %systemroot%\system32\cmd.exe". This will open a new Administrator command line when the time set has been attained. In this new command prompt change directory into the Securom folder e.g. "cd C:\Documents and Settings\<Your Administrator name>\Application Data\Securom". Issue the following command to show the two remaining hidden malformed files: "dir /A". To delete the two remaining hidden malformed files issue the following command: "del /F /AH *". Confirm "yes" for each of the two file deletions of the malformed files. Finally, the directory "C:\Documents and Settings\<Your Administrator name>\Application Data\Securom" can be deleted as per normal practice from within Windows explorer.


Why are people even getting this garbage on their system in the first place? I downloaded SH4 from UBI ages ago and I do not understand why people go to steam and other web sites of that nature to get products that can be had straight from a manufacture or at least buy the disc off EBAY.

This list shows the securom is asking for a disc check on silent hunter 4.

http://www.reclaimyourgame.com/content.php/19-SecuROM-7-List#DC

Known issues for PC gamers as found by RYG:

Earlier versions of SecuROM 7+ can have hardware-binding capabilities, which will affect activation limits;
Will install hardware-binding drivers;
Will reinstall problematic and specific registry keys (http://www.reclaimyourgame.com/showthread.php/1262-For-Anyone-Who-Has-Ever-Said-quot-I-ve-Never-Had-Issues-w-SecuROM-quot) if not removed properly;
Can blacklist certain diagnostic softwares;
Can blacklist certain disc-emulation and/or disc-copying softwares;
Can reconnect to in-house servers upon each game launch even after a successful online activation has been made;
Later version of SecuROM 7-8+ will perform dual online activations: 1) to determine the validity of the game's executable and 2) to determine if the game was purchased before the general release date;
Will leave activation information on users systems, even after a successful deactivation of the game itself;
Known to have performance-degrading issues (http://www.en.thewitcher.com/community/entry/35/) in comparison to a DRM-free copy of the same game;
Inconsistent support pages, particularly if developers and/or publishers opt to implement their dedicated SecuROM-support pages;
Inconsistent customer / technical support
If this was a legitimate disc with the activation completed before the two week period I do not think you would be seeing the message.

These are known DRM FREE games from UBISOFT

Blazing Angels 2: Secret Missions of WWII
Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood
CSI: NY
Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2
Far Cry 2 [patched]
Heroes of Might and Magic V [patched]
Lost: Via Domus
Prince of Persia
The Settlers: Rise of an Empire [patched]
Shaun White Snowboarding
Silent Hunter IV: U-Boat Mission
Tom Clancy's EndWar
Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X.
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent [patched]
World in Conflict [patched]
World in Conflict: Complete Edition
World in Conflict: Soviet Assault


Silent Hunter 4: Wolves of the Pacific looks like it may have had SecuROM patched out in v1.3.

You can find the GOLD edition of the game on amazon for $11.59.
http://www.amazon.com/Silent-Hunter-Wolves-Pacific-Edition-Pc/dp/B001BBS8B0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1378053789&sr=8-1&keywords=silent+hunter+4+gold

[Rockin Robbins]

Thank you for giving me the chance to sound the alarm, which hasn't been clanged in quite a while. It is Sony who is denying you the use of the game you bought. If you're not running SH4 Gold, you should try it. SecuROM may be gone from it there. If you are already playing SH4 Gold please say so so we can include it in the warning that buying anything from Sony is you paying them to cheat you.

You also never said outright whether you were running SH4 in a virtual machine or not, only that SecuROM said you were. Either way, a piece of trash company is denying you lawful use of your computer and the software you purchased in good faith. It is not a bug, it is a purposeful act with malice by people who feel that if you are stupid enough to buy their product, you deserve it.

[merc4ulfate]

AS TO THE VIRTUAL MACHINE ISSUE

I would try this first every time:

Right click the Programs EXE file and go to PROPERTIES
Click the COMPATIBILITY tab
CHECK the box next to Run this program in compatibility mode for: and use the drop down arrow to set it for Windows XP SP2
Check the box next to Run this program as administrator

Click Apply, click OK reboot and run the program

You might have to adjust which compatibility mode works best for your system.

you might also have some luck reading through this:

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=133290

and remember there are others who are running windows 8 and using the simulation.

By the way when you installed 8 did you notice whether you installed it as a virtual machine or not and are you using HYPER V? HYPER V doesn't include an XP mode.

http://www.labnol.org/software/install-windows-8-as-virtual-machine/20919/

[ETR3(SS)]

My .02 on the SecureROM and other DRMs. Many people don't realize you have the legal right to make a backup copy of whatever media you have. Be it a game, DVD, or CD. Doing so saves your original media from damage as you're not using it, but are instead using your backup copy. All my games for PC are backed up. The aim of the software companies like Sony using or producing these programs is to make you wear out your original and then buy a completely new one again, putting money in their pockets. Some of these programs by definition are malware. To this day I no longer have SH3 on any of my machines because of starforce. Sure I can "remove" starforce after installation but it never should be installed in the first place without my consent and being made aware of what is being installed.

[Kapitan Klaffmuschel]

Thank you for giving me the chance to sound the alarm, which hasn't been clanged in quite a while. It is Sony who is denying you the use of the game you bought. If you're not running SH4 Gold, you should try it. SecuROM may be gone from it there. If you are already playing SH4 Gold please say so so we can include it in the warning that buying anything from Sony is you paying them to cheat you.

You also never said outright whether you were running SH4 in a virtual machine or not, only that SecuROM said you were. Either way, a piece of trash company is denying you lawful use of your computer and the software you purchased in good faith. It is not a bug, it is a purposeful act with malice by people who feel that if you are stupid enough to buy their product, you deserve it.


Not using the Gold version.

Original 1.0 CD, patched to 1.5

And that concludes my participation in this thread.

[BigWalleye]

ETR3(SS), may I suggest you go to Amazon (use the link at the top of the page) and buy a DVD of SH3 v1.4. NO STARFORCE. No other DRM, either. It'll set you back less than dinner for two at Mickey's, and you will again be able to enjoy a great game. I commend you for standing by your conviction to not reward publishers for their use of obnoxious and intrusive DRMs. You are fighting the battle for all of us. (I only wish some of the Steamfans understood what it is they are supporting.) But there is no longer a need. Ubi has done away with Starforce and you can again enjoy this game without abetting their bad behavior.

[Rockin Robbins]

Can anybody state for sure if SH4 Gold is entirely free of SecuROM? Can the only way not to be punished be to steal a pirated copy of the game? That is one thing I will not do, even if that were the only way I could play SH4. And of course I have reduced the effect of SecuROM to amusing nuisance, so I really don't need to do anything.

[CapnScurvy]

I broke down and bought a copy of SH4 Gold Edition DVD a year ago, just to shelve my original DVD SH4 version 1.0 because I was tired of fooling around with the Direct2Drive "upgrade" of the U-Boat Missions that brought the game up to version 1.5.

What's the best way of checking if SecuROM is running on your system? Would it show up in the registey?

I'm like aanker, I never use the gu.exe "shortcut" to start my game. I always go directly to my Silent Hunter Wolves of the Pacific folder and use the sh4.exe icon file to start the game. There are two .exe files for starting the game, I only use the sh4.exe file.

http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w132/crawlee/ScreenShot020copy_zps793f28c9.jpg

[Rockin Robbins]

hehehehehe! Sure fire way. Load up a program by Mark Russinovich! Go to Microsoft's http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx and download and install Process Explorer. (Look it over closely--there's a lot of stuff built into it that you'll like a lot if you enjoy figuring out why things don't work right on your system, and I'll bet you do).

Now start Process Explorer (red meat for SecuROM--may Mark Russinovich burn in Hades says Sony!) then start SH4. If you don't see.
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa293/RockinRobbins13/SecuROMSH4UBMmessage.jpg

And you can do this
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa293/RockinRobbins13/screenshot176.jpg

Running Process Explorer and SH4 concurrently would definitely show that SecuROM is not working at all.

[CapnScurvy]

Ok, I'll check Process Explorer.

I followed the registry folder hierarchy of "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\" and "HKEY_USERS\<Computer specific key>\Software\" and found no SecuROM listed on my Win XP game machine. Guess the little bugger hasn’t gotten onto my machine!?

So, I'd say that a DVD SH4 Gold Edition like mine, and using the proper .exe file, will keep the bogeyman away.

I do read on the back cover of the DVD box, UbiSoft states:

Notice: This game contains technology intended to prevent copying that may conflict with some disc and virtual drives.

I don't know exactly what this statement means, but apparently just installing the game, and playing using the sh4.exe doesn't rear an ugly head.

I also checked my laptop too, and I did find it there.....but I've never installed SH4 on it. Must have come from some other software. I may try to use the advice of merc4ulfate and see if I can remove it. I've never been afraid to do a complete reformat of my computer's, building them back up from scratch (goes back to my DOS days with a computer....when they needed an "attitude adjustment" about every 6 months!).

I will use Process Explorer and see what it says.

[CapnScurvy]

Ran Process Explorer, then started the game. No problems!!

Although I don't run the game in a "Window" mode, I used Alt-Tab (which I never do anyway) to return to the desktop to see what Process Explorer was doing.

http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w132/crawlee/ScreenShot021copy_zpsc5c90646.jpg


The game and Process Explorer were getting along just fine. So there is some hope of finding a SH4 Gold Edition DVD that won't have SecuROM crap on it. Just lucky, but I bought my DVD for less than $8.00 bucks last year at iNetVideo. From what I've seen lately, the game isn't offered on their website now. :wah:

As you said Double R, Process Explorer seems to have a lot of good features in it. I'll be figuring out it better as I go along.

[Rockin Robbins]

And there is the answer to the OP's OP, just after he announced his withdrawal from the thread. Have you ever noticed how many times we succeed immediately after we give up? It's a recurring story that's never been told!