Most Effective Way to Reinstall/Update CIS to Avoid/Fix Problems

[Guest]

[grahamcopley]

I think it does: http://filehippo.com/download_Comodo/7708/ .

I've downloaded several "old" versions of CIS 5.0 from here, but all the downloaded files' properties have shown version number CIS 5.3.x.x - so I don't think that thay are actually CIS v5.0.

Can't versions of CIS 5.0 be obtained from Comodo. Comodo should make them readily available, as an easy way to recover from CIS 5.3 problems.

Many users may not be able to afford the delay in waiting for a fix from the devs (and/or they may not have the time - or knowledge - to help the devs in identifying the problem).

[Melih]

You can always use www.geekbuddy.com . They are experts and ready to help...its Live Remote Help by experts.. for free for 60 days!

[grahamcopley]

Thanks for your reply. Yes, GeekBuddy is another alternative, but reinstalling the old version may still be the easiest solution for some people.

If the latter were the case. where can v5.0 (or previous versions in general) be obtained from?

Maybe the CIS installer/updater should backup the old version of CIS, and the installer have the option "Revert to Previous Version".

[EricJH]

Try http://filehippo.com/ .

[SilentMusic7]

Try http://filehippo.com/ .

Perhaps Eric is suggesting to contact File Hippo and see if they can correct the links for the old 32-bit versions, and also start providing the 64-bit versions.

[grahamcopley]

CIS is Comodo's software - they must still have the old versions. I don't understand why they won't supply links to them, even if just for forum users.

Comodo's link to v5.0 is in the forum thread http://forums.Comodo.com/news-announcements-feedback-cis/Comodo-internet-security-501626361135-released-t61661.0.html - but it just downloads v5.3. Surely FileHippo just get the links from Comodo. If Comodo can't maintain their own links, why should they expect a third party like FileHippo to.

Please Comodo - is it too much to ask for you to provide a link to v5.0 for those who need to revert back to it?

[Alan Borer]

5) It's probably also a good idea to also clean your computer with a registry cleaner. You can use the registry cleaner in Comodo System-Cleaner if you like. Whichever registry cleaner you choose you should make a full registry backup before removing anything. After restarting the computer you can now try downloading, and installing, the newest version of CIS.

ERUNT is a good and quick way to create a registry backup that can restore the entire set of registry hives with all their idiosyncratic permissions.
It may be the only way to reboot the P.C. if the registry is trashed so bad that Windows stops working.
Whilst I prefer to restore the precise *.REG backup that was created before breaking Windows,
it is comforting to know that when Windows loses the ability to merge *REG keys, I have an ace up my sleeve.

[ritchie58]

Hello CIS, I just wanted to post, that about a month ago, when updating through the system tray icon it would not install the updates. So I manually downloaded the latest x64 installer and ran that. I got an error message stating that my older version was not compatible. Not compatible? I then uninstalled the old version and then ran the installer and got yet another error message (error 1601 I believe it was) and was unable to complete the installation. So what I did was use regedit.exe and hunted down all the registry key remnants that was left over from the uninstall. Lo and behold that worked! I was able to install CIS (firewall & Defense+ only). When I was having difficulties I switched to ZoneAlarm for about a month but I really missed CIS since your software is SO MUCH BETTER! I decided to give it one last shot by seeing if there were any remaining components left over in the registry. My perseverance paid off ladies and gentlemen! I hope this post helps anyone who encounters the same problem as I did and is not afraid to muck about in the registry. I hope you guys can fix this update problem before the next build is released. That would be cool!   OS: Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 x64

[captainsticks]

Hi Ritchie. Please use Caution inside the registry, this community based product might be a safer alternative. Thanks for the information and feedback you have given. Kind regards.

[Chris6815]

Thank you.This did the trick.I now have CIS Pro 6.0 reinstalled.

[bgx4exfjumrf]

 

3. Clean Up Any Remnants Left of Comodo

Once Comodo is uninstalled, or at least removed as much as possible, you should run the Uninstaller Tool for CIS, which can be downloaded from this page (although I would advise not running it on computers with Windows 8, as problems have been reported). Note that it is most effective when run in Safe Mode. Therefore, if you run it in normal mode and find that you still have problems when re-installing CIS you can go through these steps again, only this time run it in Safe Mode. You may also want to run yet another removal tool. This one can be downloaded from this link and should work fine on Windows 8. Once you're done running these you should restart your computer. Then run the uninstallers again, just to make sure that they got everything. After that restart your computer once more.

Please, please, please do not tell people to run CIS+Removal+Tool+2013.bat without warning them that using its #3 menu item can be very damaging to their system! That item is entitled "REMOVE TEMP FILES", but it doesn't tell you what that means. What it means, among other things, is that it deletes ALL *.tmp found anywhere on your system drive. The author of that batch file apparently doesn't understand that there is no universal law reserving that file extension to mean "temporary" nor even imposing a definition of "temporary" that means "can delete without consequence at any time". So, if you are unfortunate enough to have unleashed that batch file on a system where important *.tmp files exist, you will have a bad day. For example, if you have LibreOffice installed, then the *.tmp files associated with LibreOffice extensions will be deleted and you may have to uninstall LibreOffice completely, manually delete the leftover damaged extensions folders, and then reinstall it all from scratch. I know this to be true because that's what happened to me 

I don't know who wrote CIS+Removal+Tool+2013.bat, but it needs fixes to be safe. That said, it was the only tool I found that saved me from the nightmare known as Comodo V6.1. Neither Revo Uninstaller nor Uninstaller Tool v0.3b would work in Windows XP Safe Mode because both complained that the Windows uninstaller service isn't available in that mode. I had set up a new Windows XP system, installed Comodo Firewall v6.1.13008.2801, and then imported a backed up configuration that I've been using with Comodo v5.12 and many versions prior to that. The result was that rebooting the system brought me to a permanently blank screen instead of the welcome login screen - I had a working mouse cursor, but that's all. All I could do was reboot to safe mode. If the definition of malware is damaging software you do not want that refuses to uninstall, then Comodo V6.1 is malware, but perhaps I should just assume that its developers screwed up rather badly, don't adequately regression test their work, and that I fell victim to a variation of the bug reported by lepota here.

[Chiron]

Please, please, please do not tell people to run CIS+Removal+Tool+2013.bat without warning them that using its #3 menu item can be very damaging to their system! That item is entitled "REMOVE TEMP FILES", but it doesn't tell you what that means. What it means, among other things, is that it deletes ALL *.tmp found anywhere on your system drive. The author of that batch file apparently doesn't understand that there is no universal law reserving that file extension to mean "temporary" nor even imposing a definition of "temporary" that means "can delete without consequence at any time". So, if you are unfortunate enough to have unleashed that batch file on a system where important *.tmp files exist, you will have a bad day. For example, if you have LibreOffice installed, then the *.tmp files associated with LibreOffice extensions will be deleted and you may have to uninstall LibreOffice completely, manually delete the leftover damaged extensions folders, and then reinstall it all from scratch. I know this to be true because that's what happened to me 

I don't know who wrote CIS+Removal+Tool+2013.bat, but it needs fixes to be safe. That said, it was the only tool I found that saved me from the nightmare known as Comodo V6.1. Neither Revo Uninstaller nor Uninstaller Tool v0.3b would work in Windows XP Safe Mode because both complained that the Windows uninstaller service isn't available in that mode. I had set up a new Windows XP system, installed Comodo Firewall v6.1.13008.2801, and then imported a backed up configuration that I've been using with Comodo v5.12 and many versions prior to that. The result was that rebooting the system brought me to a permanently blank screen instead of the welcome login screen - I had a working mouse cursor, but that's all. All I could do was reboot to safe mode. If the definition of malware is damaging software you do not want that refuses to uninstall, then Comodo V6.1 is malware, but perhaps I should just assume that its developers screwed up rather badly, don't adequately regression test their work, and that I fell victim to a variation of the bug reported by lepota here.

Thank you for warning me about this. I have removed it from my advice.

I'm very sorry that this happened to your computer. Please let me know if there's anything I can do to help.

Sorry.

[bgx4exfjumrf]

Thank you for warning me about this. I have removed it from my advice.

Thanks for the prompt action, Chiron, but I don't think that's the right approach. If it weren't for that batch file, I'd be totally screwed because I found no other way to get rid of Comodo v6.1. Without a removal method, I would have had to wipe and reinstall Windows    It would be much better if you could fix the batch file. Simply limiting the deletion of *.tmp files to paths where you know Comodo writes its own *.tmp files should be sufficient, right? After all, why would you need to delete *.tmp files for unrelated applications?

I'm very sorry that this happened to your computer. Please let me know if there's anything I can do to help.

Much appreciated, Chiron. My biggest concern now is whether the damage was limited to LibreOffice. If it was, I should be fine now. All I could do was look at another WinXP-SP3 system I have to see where it had *.tmp files and I didn't see any other that appeared critical.

[EricJH]

I did testing with option 3 from the clean up tool trying to recreate and reproduce your findings. I did not run into trouble with Libre Office on Windows 8 and Open Office on Windows XP both on my Netbook.

First thing I did is clean up with CCleaner making sure that %temp% and %windir%temp were empty.

I made sure I had three documents open in Libre Office. One in Text, one in Spreadsheet and one in Presentation. Libre Office made a folder with seemingly random name in %temp%\temp\ with three .tmp files for the three documents.

When running option 3 from the tool. It could not access the three temp files. There no entries made to %windir%\temp\ folder so nothing to be deleted there.

In the last stage it will remove everything .tmp from the system drive. I had Opera browser open and it started cleaning out Opera's browser cache. I closed the tool and closed Opera.

Started the tool again and chose option 3. It could again not delete the .tmp files still in use by Libre Office. It then went searching any .tmp at the system drive. It could not erase .tmp files in  %windir%\installer\ folder as access was denied.

I closed down and restarted Libre Office. It did not complain about anything. When looking at extensions assigned to Libre Office it had 57 out possible 65.

I did the same with Open Office on Windows XP on my Netbook. Same result except the script could delete tmp files in %windir&\installer folder. Open Office opened normally after I had closed it down. Everything seemed normal.

I don't know what went wrong with bgx4exfjumrf's Libre Office installation but for as far as I can tell it has nothing to do with the script.

Wasgij6 reports he also has used the tool to remove remnants of CIS 6 and has Libre Office installed and has seen no adverse reactions.

At bgx4exfjumrf. Did you try to run the Libre Office installer and let it repair the installation?

[bgx4exfjumrf]

I made sure I had three documents open in Libre Office. One in Text, one in Spreadsheet and one in Presentation. Libre Office made a folder with seemingly random name in %temp%\temp\ with three .tmp files for the three documents.

I did not have LibreOffice running at the time - all applications were closed. Remember, I was in Safe Mode desperately trying to get rid of Comodo so I could get the system bootable again. As I said, the *.tmp files in question are related to installed extensions, not open documents. In my case these files are found beneath C:\Program Files\LibreOffice 4.0\share\uno_packages\ because I've installed a set of extensions for all users rather than specific accounts. I find these *.tmp files in the same location on all our LibreOffice systems.

In the last stage it will remove everything .tmp from the system drive.

And that is very wrong. One cannot conclude that the TMP extension means a file can be deleted at any time for any reason without conditions no matter what application or person may have created it. You can't even conclude that TMP necessarily means "temporary" at all.

I closed down and restarted Libre Office. It did not complain about anything. When looking at extensions assigned to Libre Office it had 57 out possible 65.

   Are we talking about the same thing here? You have 57 extensions installed for LibreOffice?!? 

Libre Office on Windows 8
...
It then went searching any .tmp at the system drive. It could not erase .tmp files in  %windir%\installer\ folder as access was denied.
...
I did the same with Open Office on Windows XP on my Netbook. Same result except the script could delete tmp files in %windir&\installer folder.

Okay, now I'm suspicious that you ran the batch file with non-administrative privileges on your Windows 8 system. If so, it's no threat to anything under Program Files.

I don't know what went wrong with bgx4exfjumrf's Libre Office installation but for as far as I can tell it has nothing to do with the script.

Wasgij6 reports he also has used the tool to remove remnants of CIS 6 and has Libre Office installed and has seen no adverse reactions.

Look beneath C:\Program Files\LibreOffice 4.0\share\uno_packages\ for *.tmp files on your system BEFORE unleashing the batch file. If you don't have any there, then of course you won't have the same problem as I did. But all of my LibreOffice systems have them. They have something to do with extensions. I explicitly saw them being deleted during the batch file's temp file deletion stage. And when I was uninstalling LibreOffice from the affected system, all the alphabetic characters in the progress dialog boxes had been replaced by little squares - it was pretty clear to me that at least something related to the UI language selection had been damaged by the loss of those *.tmp files. I don't remember the details now, but just prior to that I also found that at least some of the extensions no longer worked. When I reinstalled LibreOffice plus extensions, I found that they were stilll broken. It was then that I realized that uninstalling LibreOffice does not remove the previously installed extensions. Since those old extension installs were still there AND damaged by the *.tmp deletions, I needed to uninstall again, manually delete the leftover C:\Program Files\LibreOffice 4.0\share\uno_packages\ directory tree, and start over. This time everything worked. I am absolutely convinced that you can't simply delete *.tmp files from LibreOffice without negative consequences.

At bgx4exfjumrf. Did you try to run the Libre Office installer and let it repair the installation?

No, I did not. That may or may not have worked, but that's a distraction. LibreOffice+extensions worked, then I watched the batch file specifically delete LibreOffice *.tmp extension files, and then LibreOffice+extensions no longer worked properly. Not surprising, not good, and pretty definitive, IMHO.

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