Windows XP SP2 breaks our software

[Julian]

A user of our donation-supported freeware Tech-Pro Utilities reported
that the utilities stopped working after Windows XP SP2 RC2 build 2149
was installed. The problem was an inability to load a third-party
component we use called VDSPOPUP.DLL, which generates nice-looking
popup menus for system tray icons.

Upon investigation I found that the problem could be resolved by
renaming the DLL to something else and then recompiling the program
that used it.

Am I to believe that the level of sophistication in SP2's much vaunted
popup blocking technology is to refuse to load anything with "popup"
in the title? How easy life would be if the solution to the virus
problem was to make it impossible to run anything named "worm" or
"virus".

I hope Microsoft can change this behaviour before the final release of
SP2 because the work of recompiling all of our applications and
dealing with the support calls is going to be a headache, and the all
the extra downloads as everyone is forced to upgrade will probably
make our web host demand extra money from us. If anyone from Microsoft
reads this and wants to download the software and see for themselves,
they can do so from http://www.tech-pro.net/utilities.html.
Alternatively, perhaps Bill Gates would like to make a donation to
cover our increased costs?

Julian Moss
Chief Developer
Tech-Pro Limited
http://www.tech-pro.net/

 

[DaddyBob]

Per most published reports, if your software doesn't work with the new SP2,
then it was probably unsafe to use before. AND, I doubt that the simple
changing of a name had much to do with fixing your problems. Most popup
don't have the word popup in their name so your reasoning is erroneous.


A user of our donation-supported freeware Tech-Pro Utilities reported
that the utilities stopped working after Windows XP SP2 RC2 build 2149
was installed. The problem was an inability to load a third-party
component we use called VDSPOPUP.DLL, which generates nice-looking
popup menus for system tray icons.

Upon investigation I found that the problem could be resolved by
renaming the DLL to something else and then recompiling the program
that used it.

Am I to believe that the level of sophistication in SP2's much vaunted
popup blocking technology is to refuse to load anything with "popup"
in the title? How easy life would be if the solution to the virus
problem was to make it impossible to run anything named "worm" or
"virus".

I hope Microsoft can change this behaviour before the final release of
SP2 because the work of recompiling all of our applications and
dealing with the support calls is going to be a headache, and the all
the extra downloads as everyone is forced to upgrade will probably
make our web host demand extra money from us. If anyone from Microsoft
reads this and wants to download the software and see for themselves,
they can do so from http://www.tech-pro.net/utilities.html.
Alternatively, perhaps Bill Gates would like to make a donation to
cover our increased costs?

Julian Moss
Chief Developer
Tech-Pro Limited
http://www.tech-pro.net/

 

[Julian]

Well, I don't see what could be unsafe about a DLL that displays
pop-up menus. And renaming the DLL plus recompiling the program to use
the new name WAS all that was required to get it working again. If
there was something wrong with the code that SP2 objected to, it would
object to it whatever the name was, wouldn't it?

Julian Moss
Tech-Pro Limited
http://www.tech-pro.net/