Comet Technologies Inc

[Terry B]

Whenever I run the system scan it identifies Comet
Technologies Inc as high risk, so I chose to remove it.
This works fine, but, there is only one problem. If I
remove this threat, it also removes my grand sons
game "Castle Strike" by Witt Interactive, or should I
say, it removes enough of the game that I have to run
a "repair" on it to make it run again.
I have put Comet in the quarantine list for now so he
can continue to run his game.
It seems to me that either the game has some real
strong bonds to Comet, or maybe the scanner is removing
something it is not supposed to.
Please advise.
Thanks

 

[Bill Sanderson]

My thinking so far is that this may well be a false positive--I'm
downloading a demo version from:
http://myhpclub.gamezone.com/topframe/extlink.htm?Link=http://castlestrikeusa.com/catalog/

to see whether I can get a first-hand look at what's identified.

 

[bill sanderson]

I can't tell--I downloaded and installed the demo
version, and scanned with 5685 definitions, and didn't
get any alarms. Is only one item found? Can you post
either the details of the item, or the description, or
both?

 

[Alexander Suhovey]

I can't tell--I downloaded and installed the demo
version, and scanned with 5685 definitions, and didn't
get any alarms.

How's the game anyway?

 

[Terry B]

I don't know if it would make any difference in what you
experience, but his game requires the cd to be in the
drive.
When I select the delete, the desktop icon is removed,
and also the info in the "All Programs" list is removed,
although when I go into Windows Explorer, the program and
floder remains intact. His saved games appear to be
removed as well, unless they get removed when I run
the "repair", not sure which.

 

[Terry B]

He just loves it... Lots of excellent graphics, fine
detail. If you play it, make sure you chose 32 bit
graphics not 16.

 

[Terry B.]

The history shows the following items infected:
(BTW F: drive is my system drive)
(It is very odd (to me) that these would affect the
game the way it does)

Infected files detected
f:\windows\downloaded program files\cc.inf
f:\windows\inf\cc_43.pnf

-----Original Message-----
I can't tell--I downloaded and installed the demo
version, and scanned with 5685 definitions, and didn't
get any alarms. Is only one item found? Can you post
either the details of the item, or the description, or
both?

 

[Lula]

When we install some programas like Kazaa they install some other "partners"
programs nad they say that on the Licence and if you try to remove any one
of these programs Kazaa needs to be unistalled also.

This may be your problem.

 

[Bill Sanderson]

I didn't get that far. The download is 160 megs, and I did it on my desktop
only to discover that it wants to unpack the compressed executable to temp
on the boot partition, and I don't have enough free space. So I did another
download to a laptop (yeah, I could have moved it between them, but I'd
already turned off the desktop for the night. Installed the demo and
scanned with Microsoft Antispyware, but didn't actually try playing the
game!

Not a good test really, but I ran out of time. If you want a review, I've a
16-year old son who would probably be interested, but right now he's too
concerned with the fact that our (american) football team is in the
superbowl.

 

[Bill Sanderson]

I thought about this issue, and one thing that I looked at carefully with
the demo version that I downloaded, was the EULA. It seemed very
straightforward and didn't mention any tie-in adware. Of course, if there
is such a tie-in, and it isn't in the EULA, that would be behaviora grounds
for Microsoft Antispyware removing the item. So all in all, my test wasn't
very satisfactory. I'm going to try googling on the filenames given and see
if I can learn anything useful.

 

[MSM1]

My question is this:

Is this game software associated with Comet SYSTEMS? And is Comet
Technologies associated with Comet Systems?

I have used 4 different anti-malware programs tell me that just about
ANYTHING with the name "Comet" in it is immediatly tagged malware.

I (unfortunately) installed and use the Comet Cursor on my old Pentium, and
granted, I even did this without a firewall.(shoot me!) Included, I was
using the Marketscore "accelerator" at the same time. My entire system
crashed so bad until I had to completely rebuild the OS with Win 95
(downgraded from 98).
Point-in-case, I am not too sure that Comet Technologies is the actual fiend
here. It very well may be a false positive.
Comet Systems and the Comet Cursor ARE the real enemies, unless you like
your hard drive data compromised.

Mark
UOP- BSB/IS

 

[Bill Sanderson]

I can't tell. The demo I loaded didn' t raise any alarms, and the EULA was
simple.
I think we need a look at the actual items detected.

 

[Ron Chamberlin]

Bill,

Not a good test really, but I ran out of time. If you want a review, I've
a 16-year old son who would probably be interested, but right now he's too
concerned with the fact that our (american) football team is in the
superbowl.

At least until the kickoff.

Ron

 

[Ron Chamberlin]

Hi MSMI,
Comet Cursor is probably one of the grandfathers of spyware IMVHO.

Ron Chamberlin
MS-MVP

 

[Terry B]

The only other company names I have come across is "Data
Becker". Does that ring any bells for anyone by chance?
I did a search for the word "comet"on my HDD and came
across a file " f:\WINDOWS\inf\perm2.inf" which does have
the word comet in it. When I did a google search for
permedia (which is mentioned in this file), it appears to
be something to do with anti spy ware. Does MS ASW have
any association with this?

 

[Bill Sanderson]

http://www.gamespot.com/news/companies/databecker/

I haven't dug into this at all, but some "free" software, is, in fact, ad
supported. If this is entirely aboveboard and revealed in the EULA, thats
all well and nice, but apparently there are still some folks out there who
don't read the EULA, can't imagine why.

 

[Terry B.]

No this is not "free" software, it was purchased from a
local software retailer, in the original box, so yes the
game is entirely "above board".

 

[coolbreeze]

having problems with comet systems also. antispyware
identifies & remves it, only to have it come back again
on resart it tries to locate itself in
c:\windows\cc_rem.inf

 

[Bill Sanderson]

The stock advice for something which Microsoft Antispyware says it has
removed, but which "comes right back" is:

Restart your system in safe mode by pressing the F8 function key before the
initial Windows screen comes up.

Do full scans in safe mode until the system comes through clean--probably
two scans.

In addition, it'd be nice to do a Tools, suspected spyware report (before
you do the above!) and report that this is still in place and isn't getting
cleaned by the product.

If that operation fails (the suspected spyware report) don't worry about
it--just go on with the safe mode and cleaning.

 

[Bill Sanderson]

Actually, even I stuck around until the end of the game. Pretty good game,
even though it didn't come out the way we'd hoped.