3.13.121240.574 update craters comodo

Comodo Internet Security - CIS Firewall Help - CIS
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I have Windows 7, 64 bit with 6GB memory on a ASUS G71gx notebook and today, Comodo Firewall said that there were updates available and should it download them. One note here is that I have UAC set to one notch higher than out of box, and that I only have the firewall installed.

Sure, I said, and clicked on yes to download the update. It then downloaded for what seemed like forever, then asked to reboot. No problem I said. Then the troubles started. First, the system BSOD on the shutdown and caused a forced reboot. This is the first BSOD I’ve gotten on windows 7 in the two months I’ve used it.

Now when the system comes back up, comodo is unable to initialize and says that “Framework.dll” is not the correct one for this system and should be reinstalled.

Okay, I thought, I’ll just download the exe and reinstall it. Oh, I wish. Once I go to run the program to update, it says “Comodo is already installed, do you want to add/remove components?” I clicked yes. That was the end of it. The installer then just closed and nothing happened. Great, now I can’t change things. I tried going into the control panel and uninstall it there in the Programs and Features. No such luck. The uninstaller just ends, no warnings, no messages, no application running in the background.

Wonderful. Restore point time. At this point I’m using colorful metaphors and things directed at Comodo that shouldn’t be repeated in polite company. So, I luckily have a restore point from yesterday and reset the system. I then re-download the Comodo installer and go to upgrade. No dice. The installer just ends, just like before.

Thankfully, this time I was able to uninstall Comodo, reboot, and install the new version. Only 3 hours of my life wasted because someone can’t make a simple installer work correctly.

The moral of the story? You cannot trust Comodo to be able to upgrade anymore. Download the installer, uninstall the old version and install the new one. Or, go find another firewall, which is what I’m seriously considering doing after this little debacle. I’m not impressed that such a thing as an installer should be a problem.

EDIT: I’d also like to point out that with this new version, the tops and bottoms of some of the dialogs are cut off/invisible. The “Define a trusted” and “Define a blocked application” window is most notable. I attached a alt-printscreen of the window in question as an example.

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The moral of the story? You cannot trust Comodo to be able to upgrade anymore. Download the installer, uninstall the old version and install the new one.

This is a good idea with every program, not just Comodo. Before uninstalling take screenshots of all configuration windows and in the new version re-do the settings manually. Although it sounds inefficient, sticking to this philosophy will save you lots of grief and some early grey hair.

Another idea you should consider is to forget about restore points, they are unreliable. I turned off that Microsoft creation years ago, it’s just a waste of disk space. Instead, find a reliable disk imaging program. I use Acronis True Image Echo Workstation installed as a BartPE plugin on the bootable flash drive, it’s a bullet proof solution (TrueImage wouldn’t work under Windows XP on my system that’s why I put it on BartPE media).

After my latest Comodo upgrade from v2.4 to v3.13 and trying out some other applications, I wiped out and then restored partition C three or four times. All it takes is about 3 minutes to restore drive C from the disk image.

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Catch is is that the latest version always gets later at the regular download site. To download the latest get it from here or use the updater. The forums are always the first to get a new update.

In case of problems with uninstalling you can also use this clean up tool.