Its main strength lies in wrapping executable and DLL files using byte-code interpreted through its own virtual machine.
StarForce is believed to operate by measuring the physical angle between the first and last written sector on the CD. This will be identical on all copies pressed from the gold master but is at present difficult to reproduce when burning a duplicate CD.
In addition to this, StarForce, along with SafeDisc and SecuROM copy prevention systems, uses blacklists of optical drive emulation programs such as Daemon Tools and Alcohol 120% (at time of writing StarForce cannot detect these programs), as well as blocking the use of SCSI optical drives when IDE optical drives are present in the system. The latter measure is due to the fact that many optical drive emulation programs appear as SCSI drives. If no IDE drives are present, however, SCSI drives will function normally without interference from StarForce. In layman's terms, this simply means that unplugging the CD reader and running the protected game from an image made previously bypasses the copy-protection mechanism.
...we turned to CGW's own desktop administrator, Nick Kalister, for a full technical of what StarForce can (and can't) do to your PC. "Starforce doesn't diretly trash your drives or your IDE controller channels," he explains. "It can, however cause Windows to step down to programmed input/output [PIO] mode, which could possibly damage some optical drives if they are run in that mode for an extended period of time.
Sure enough, an extended test using a 4x Memorex DVD-RW drive and a retail copy of Ubisoft's Splinter Cell Chaos Theory proved it, as the drive's burn speed eventually dropped to a paltry 1x - only to return to its original speed once we removed the StarForce program.
StarForce Technologies, for its part, often takes extreme offense to negative comments... ...When questioned, Zhidkov [SF's PR manager] told us, "The issue on StarForce is obviously sponsored by our competitors or organized crime groups that run CD/DVD piracy [operations]. We are now in close coopreration with [US and Russian officials] investigating the matter and trying to find out who stands behind the boycott campaign.
Now, Futuremark has uncovered a very dangerous anti-piracy system Starforce is now using. This copy protection system installs a driver that runs at the highest level of access on the system, which gives it low level access to the PCs hardware and any drivers and processes. This driver runs regardless of whether the game runs; keeping an eye out for any suspicious activity such as attempting to copy a protected disc. If something suspicious is detected, it forces the PC to make an immediate reboot, regardless of any other applications running and whether or not the user has any unsaved work.
erik a écrit :je ne crois pas que ça de désinstalle comme ça. Du moins tant que le jeu qu'il protège est toujours installé. Le seul jeu starforce que j'ai c'est Sudeki, et je n'ai jamais eu de pb (ou peut être au début mais je n'en suis plus sûr. En tout cas rien de grave)
J'ai installé plusieurs jeux qui utilisnt Starforce, et je n'ai jamais eu de problèmes, mais il y a quand même une question qui me taraude : est ce qu'il existe un moyen de le desinstaller (si j'ai bien compris, SF s'installe "séparément" du jeu) ? Et est ce que c'est bien légal (de le virer) ?
nuitn0ire a écrit :
les données semblent être corrompues m'empêchant tout simplement d'installer mes jeux.
aktus a écrit :
je ne crois pas que ça de désinstalle comme ça. Du moins tant que le jeu qu'il protège est toujours installé. Le seul jeu starforce que j'ai c'est Sudeki, et je n'ai jamais eu de pb (ou peut être au début mais je n'en suis plus sûr. En tout cas rien de grave)
Partageons notre expérience
Écrire dans un français correct et lisible : ni phonétique, ni style SMS. Le warez et les incitations au piratage sont interdits. La pornographie est interdite. Le racisme et les incitations au racisme sont interdits. L'agressivité envers d'autres membres, les menaces, le dénigrement systématique sont interdits. Éviter les messages inutiles
Commentaires