Program compatibility assistant starforce protection

StarForce offers FREE re-protection for all the developers and publishers of the programs that utilize version below 5. Please contact your sales manager for re-protection and further details. If you've followed the instructions here and used the "5. Supposedly 5. That would be my suggestion at this point. Most probably this application is protected with too old protection system version and, generally speaking, won't run on Windows 7 in its original state. If this doesn't help, then you should contact your product customer support service and ask them to make a patch, which will either update protection system version or remove protection at all.

Unfortunately, we can't build such a patch on our side since we neither have legal authority to produce any patches nor original application files required for that. In order to solve compatibility issue on your PC you can uninstall the drivers but note that if the protected application requires a StarForce driver, this driver will be re-installed as soon as you launch the application again.

The following procedure will ensure that all StarForce related components are completely removed from your system. I tried all the above with no result. Each time I run the program it corrupts windows 7 and i have to run Windows Restore. Not much can be done then - you have one of those rare apps due to the DRM driver, of course that just isn't going to run on Windows 7, and given the driver being so old, probably won't run on Vista either. You need to be a member in order to leave a comment. Sign up for a new account in our community.

It's easy! Already have an account? Sign in here. Windows 7 Existing user? MSFN is made available via donations, subscriptions and advertising revenue. If you have problems with running a protected application, driver update can solve the problem in some cases, as well as it can improve the interaction between the protected application and the drivers in programs from other vendors.

There are two ways to update the driver; these methods depend on the current version of protection installed for the software in use. How do I know which protection version is installed for the application I use? In version 5. The file can have any name as specified by the publisher. EXE for earlier versions. This file is in the root folder of protected application. Check driver status - check if the protection driver is installed for the application. PCA tracks this issue to give users a chance to run their app more reliably.

So, the function call into the DLL by the app will work, preventing the app from crashing and allowing it to continue to function properly. When such apps are installed, the app has both an older copy of the DLL in its own folder as well as the latest version of the DLL that is in the Windows system folders. Since the app is generally not aware of the newer versions of this DLL, it fails to work properly.

When PCA detects that the DLL failed to load properly, it will applies a compatibility setting that allows Windows to load the latest version of the DLL from the Windows system folder so the app can run properly. At the end of the first failed run of the app, users will see the PCA dialog that notifies them of the applied setting as below:. On bit version of Windows 8, a new exception was enabled to the message loop callback mechanism.

While this exception was first introduced in Windows 7, it was not mandatory to handle this error. In Windows 8, apps that use message loops must handle this new exception.

If they do not, they will crash. Apps designed for older Windows versions may not be aware of this exception, and hence may not handle this error exception properly. After the setting is applied at the end of the run, the user is notified as below.

The app will get the mode on the next run, and will be able to avoid this error. Some apps designed for Windows XP and prior assume that they usually run with full administrative privileges. As a course of normal app behavior, they may try to delete protected non-Windows files either in program files or Windows folders. When the delete operation fails many such apps can crash. PCA detects these apps that fail to delete protected files and crash, and provides a recommendation to the user.

As a course of normal app behavior, they may try to modify, delete or write Windows protected files either in program files or Windows folders or Registry keys owned by Windows. When any of the write, delete or modify operation for a file or a registry key fails many such apps can crash or fail badly.

PCA detects these apps that fail to write to protected Windows files or registry keys, and provides a recommendation to the user when the app quits. As in any of the scenarios, the user can tell PCA that the app ran correctly, or opt out of the recommended settings by clicking the Close button. Lower color modes are now simulated. Many older apps and games designed for Windows XP or before use 8-bit or bit color modes. With no mitigation, these apps could fail to execute on Windows 8.

However, when these apps enumerate or try to use any of the 8-bit or bit color modes for display, PCA immediately identifies the issue and with the help of DWM, ensures that the app will work properly with the simulated color mode. Note that this happens as soon as the app requests the low color modes and is transparent to the user. The user does not have to restart the app to get this mitigation because this fix is always needed to ensure that the app works properly.

Among the common problems that can occur due to this mismatch in settings are clipped UI elements or text and incorrect font size. For more details on the issues, see this link here. PCA will then inform the user about this as shown below:. Some apps depend on Windows features that have been removed since Windows Vista. PCA detects apps when they try to load the missing Windows features, and provides a recommendation to download these components and install them after the app terminates.

If needed, the user can choose to do nothing by clicking Close. However, older apps designed prior to the release of Windows Vista shipped drivers that were not digitally signed. If such an unsigned driver is installed, Windows will not load them. In rare cases, it is possible that Windows will not start if such drivers are marked as boot-time drivers. Some older apps install drivers that are not signed on bit Windows.

Any device or app that tries to use this driver may fail or result in a system crash. To prevent such a scenario, PCA detects apps when they install unsigned drivers, and disables the driver it is marked as a boot-time driver.

It also instructs the user to acquire a digitally signed driver for the app to work properly. The message is shown as a result of the installation of the driver, and as a result of the installation of the app. If another app installs the same driver, that app will get the same message as well. When an installer fails, PCA helps the installer with various compatibility modes depending on the type of failure. Once the installer succeeds with compatibility settings, PCA will track the shortcuts that the installer added.

This is done to track if the apps that were installed may also need the compatibility settings applied to their installer. When a user launches such an app, PCA prompts the user to ask if the app worked properly. Apps sometimes launch child programs that need to run as administrators. This is typically the case when an app tries to launch its updater software to check and install new updates to the app. When apps directly run such child programs, the child program can fail to launch because the app itself did not have administrative privileges, or because the child program was not properly marked for elevation with the UAC manifest.

When the app launches the child app on subsequent runs, the user will see a UAC dialog for the child program. Installers of Windows desktop apps require administrative privileges since they write files, folders, and registry entries to protected system areas.