Delphi Expired? O.S. Hosed!

  • Thread starter Thread starter James Lysaght
  • Start date Start date
J

James Lysaght

On Windows 2000, every time I try to open Internet Explorer, Windows
Explorer, Control Panel, and other similar features I get an error that says
"This module was compiled with a trial version of Delphi, the trial period
has expired" This began immediately after allowing windows update to
install the latest "fixes". I tried uninstalling all the hot-fixes on the
computer but that did not help. I also ran McAfee VirusScan to check for
virus' and found none. I reran the latest service packs as well. All with
no effect.

I am able to boot the computer and run programs that do not use explorer.
Interestingly, I can use the internet Explorer features in Outlook 2000
without trouble. The computer continues to share it's internet connection
to my network but printers shared through this computer now only operate in
draft mode.

Any one experienced this? Anyone have any ideas? I fear I am looking at a
complete reinstall. Fortunately, all data is backed up.

James Lysaght
 
I'll quote Kent England:
Post entitled: "Some bug uses expired trial version of Delphi"
Posted in: microsoft.public.security.virus
Posted on: 11/29 @ 1409hrs
~ ~ ~
Many users are reporting the error message "This module was compiled
with a trial version of Delphi. The trial period has expired" when their
computers startup.

Borland has traced this to a %windir%\system32\cpr.dll which appears to
be some kind of malware. I would suspect that a registry run key is
starting cpr.dll or some .exe file which is starting cpr.dll.

If anyone has this problem on their computer or knows someone who does,
direct them here so we can diagnose it. The bug was apparently released
26 November or the software trial expired on that date. I've searched
various spyware forums and googled the error and haven't found any
bulletins about this bug, although someone reported that Ad-Aware
removed it, so it might already be a known bug, just news that the trial
software has now expired.

--
Kent W. England, Microsoft MVP for Windows Security




~ ~ ~
Dave




| On Windows 2000, every time I try to open Internet Explorer, Windows
| Explorer, Control Panel, and other similar features I get an error that says
| "This module was compiled with a trial version of Delphi, the trial period
| has expired" This began immediately after allowing windows update to
| install the latest "fixes". I tried uninstalling all the hot-fixes on the
| computer but that did not help. I also ran McAfee VirusScan to check for
| virus' and found none. I reran the latest service packs as well. All with
| no effect.
|
| I am able to boot the computer and run programs that do not use explorer.
| Interestingly, I can use the internet Explorer features in Outlook 2000
| without trouble. The computer continues to share it's internet connection
| to my network but printers shared through this computer now only operate in
| draft mode.
|
| Any one experienced this? Anyone have any ideas? I fear I am looking at a
| complete reinstall. Fortunately, all data is backed up.
|
| James Lysaght
|
|
|
 
Hi James - AdAware, updated, will reportedly remove this parasite. First
you might wnat to try the following:

From: http://bdn.borland.com/article/0,1410,31856,00.html


"This problem shows up because someone used a trial version of the
programming tool Delphi to write some software. They then published that
software and it ended up on your computer. Now that this person's trial
period of Delphi has expired, so has the software on your computer.
Unfortunately, this software appears to be what is called a "Shell
Extension," which is a piece of software that Windows loads and talks to
whenever you click on a file, open Internet Explorer, and in some other
situations as well. We have been able to determine which program is causing
this error, however we are still not quite sure how it is finding it's way
onto customers' computers.

Note: If you believe that this an application you should not remove please
use your own judgement of what you should do.
To remove this software, open up Control Panel via the Start Menu. Some
users have reported that the error prevents them from doing this; in this
case you will need to boot your computer into Safe Mode. To do this, reboot
the machine and press F8 as it is starting up. You will be presented with a
list of options, one of which is "Safe Mode." Once you have the Control
Panel open, select "Add/Remove Programs." You will see a list of
applications installed on your machine. One of these should be called "CPR."
Remove this application with the Add/Remove Programs window, and you should
see these errors go away. The users that we have spoken to have all reported
that this CPR application was not something they intentionally installed,
and have not reported any negative side effects from the removal of it.

On rare occasions, using Add/Remove Programs is not enough; a reference to
this software is still left on the machine and the error will persist. In
this case, you need to delete the offending software manually, and you will
need to log back into Safe Mode to do it. Once in Safe Mode, open the Start
Menu and select "Run…" In the Run dialog, enter "cmd." This will take you to
a DOS window. Navigate to the c:windowssystem32 like so:


cd \windows\system32

and then remove the file manually by typing

erase cpr.dll

Reboot into normal mode and you should see the error go away."


--
Please respond in the same thread.
Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP



In
 
You're welcome. I'm glad it worked as advertised.

Thanks for the feedback.

Sparker9
 
So, does anyone as yet know where this
crap came from? And what its nasty purpose was?
 
Hi Vance - I, at least, haven't seen anything definitive on it yet.

--
Please respond in the same thread.
Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP



In
 
Thanks for the help. The information provided in the link to Borland solved
the problem in a minute or two.

Incidentally, the CPR program that causes the problem appears to be a
commercialy available typical Spyware/Adware package that keeps a log of
everything you do for retrieval by the advertiser, "to deliver targeted
advertising to enhance the internet experience".

I think my internet experience is targeted and enhanced enough thank you
very much! Now let me go load my latest security patch from Microsoft.

Thanks

James
 
What have you updated?

If you're having the same problem, have you tried the fix outlined in the Borland link?

The OP has already stated that his problem is now fixed using the info provided via the link.

Please clarify your follow-up.
 
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