I have been a happy user of CIS for around 1 week now. But today something really bad happened.
I did some backup up drivers with driver magician and uninstalled a few minor programs I never used anymore.
Around the same time I did some benchmarking on my HHD’s with AS SSD benchmark and crystalmark. When doing some tests with AS SSD bechmark it suddenly would not give any results and I had to kill the process for it to stop. I did not think more about it and later I did a restart for some reason I cant remember, but I did not expect anything to happen.
When I started up again CIS did not start, Spotify could not access internet, Internet explorer could not access internet, Firefox could access internet, I could not find any HDD’s with partition manager, right clicking my computer to access properties did not work, task scheduler gave some error messages and a lot of other strange things happened or did not happened.
First I thought it was a virus/malware attack but I did some quick tests and nothing was found. I tried to start CIS from install folder but when I clicked CIStray.exe nothing happened. Finally I manged to open to CIS user panel. It said “At Risk” so I clicked “Fx It”. Nothing happened, but after a few clicks it launched antivirus signature update but said error. I then tried to install CIS again ontop of old CIS and now after a restart CIS launched with icon in systray. But it came popups of everything from dllhost.exe to all other kind of programs/windows process that have worked before with no warnings. There was more than 300 blocked intrusions all from safe and friendly processes/software. Even CIStray.exe and cis.exe was blocked but later allowed.
After doing a partition backup I allowed all popups and things started to work normal again, but still there is a lot of strange things going on that is causing my computer to barely work. Many things still seems to be blocked/limited and there don’t seem to be any way to allow more things to run. Still CIS keep spamming popups about DLLhost.exe and Werfault.exe every time I try to update comodo antivirus and when I do other things also. Also firefox ask every time to be default browser but it is not saved so it just continue to ask. Also DLLhost.exe just keep poping up even when Im sitting and writing this. I can disable Antivirus, Sandbox and Firewall, but HIPS is not possible to change status on or disable, so it run in safe mode. Also right now 83 intrusions is blocked but only a few things in the list so i cant allow anymore.
Hi ToreAA,
Reinstalling on top of an existing copy could cause issues, to me it sounds like some form of corruption has occurred to CIS.
I would consider a fresh uninstall/reinstall of CIS following the advice posted by Chiron in the link below. Most Effective Way to Reinstall/Update CIS to Avoid/Fix Problems
I tried to uninstall with a bought version of “Your uninstaller”, a similar and even better product, will some say than Revo. Anyway, halfway through the uninstall process I get this message:
Please follow exactly the advice I give in this topic:
Just skip the step where it asks you to use Revo Uninstaller or an alternative. You will likely need to boot into Safe Mode and use the indicated removal tools.
Ok I will do. I made a system image a little after this problems started so if something goes completely wrong I can always go back.
After using Uninstaller Tool v0.3b in step 3 I lost internet and was not able to get it back so I had to use image to get back to start. Trying again now.
If you lose internet again check manually and make sure that the Comodo Firewall driver was removed. If that is still there you should remove it manually.
Ok here is my final rapport, thanks captainsticks and Chiron for helping me out
Results so far:
I finally managed to finish step A1 to A4 and B1 - B3 in Chiron’s great Reinstall/Update guide.
I cant seem to find anything leftover from CIS but Im not sure what to look for except the files, services and processes running, and I cant see anything there.
So everything seems ok for now atleast, but I fear that I will find more things that dont work as it should after more time, but thats just a feeling.
Conclusion about using CIS on bad day:
This is the day with the biggest computer problems I have had since I installed current version of windows 7 for more than 2 years ago. I Have been running my computer without any antivirus, firewall or other kind of protection except from “spybot search & destroy” immunizing and “No script” in firefox for soon 2 year without any problem. I almost dont download anything except things I buy, software I want to try and mods/addons to software and games. Also Im not running wild on internet visiting all kind of strange places. so I guess that make me pretty safe on internet.
The reason I installed CIS a week ago was that I was in half daze when I downloaded a mod to a game. When I tried to use it I got some kind of malware infection. The infection was fixed quickly with a guide from http://www.techsupportalert.com that also recommended CIS for increase protection. So after this I installed CIS, but considering that I today had more problems than the malware infection gave me, I have to reconsider my security strategy. To be honest if something like this can happen out of “the blue” Im officially scared away from some time at least. I also read about many other people having issues with security software, both running and removing, so I’m questioning if this kind of security is worth it even for free.
My new security strategy:
I think a better strategy is to take 5-10 min each day and do a complete system backup/system image/partition backup of windows than to micro-manage something like CIS. With the backup image I can just restore the whole windows partition if something goes to hell. It takes only 5-10 min to make a backup and 5-10 min to restore everything. I think the time saving is huge with such a strategy compared to something like CIS where you have to micromanage and research popups and control things that happens, and when things goes to hell spend a lot of time removing virus and fixing things. Maybe I will use windows firewall but not sure yet.
I don’t know how often things like I experienced today is happening and maybe I’m guilty of doing something stupid, but if I have to be an expert to get security to work then it wont last because I will ■■■■■ up sooner or later
Here is an event list of all I can remember I did before the bomb went off:
Removed 3 programs - had not used any in ages and did not found them useful anymore. Uninstalled with Your Uninstaller.
EasyBCD
EST online scanner
Explorer suite III
Used Crystalmark and AS SSD benhmark to compare some old drives to a new drive.
During the testing AS SSD stopped responding and I had to kill the process. No idea why and I have not seen anything like that before, but I thought it just was some irregularities. Could maybe have been heat or something that happened with the disks but I only tested storage disks, not windows disk.
Used Driver magician for the first time to backup all my drives and downloaded some drives, but did not instal anything, wanted to check first.
Some this 3 episodes in combination with CIS caused CIS to see windows activities and even it self as questionable or as some kind of threat stopping many key processes.
After I uninstalled and removed CIS from my system it continue to shows up in “installed programs list” when I open up “Uninstall a program” from control panel.
Even if I uninstall it/remove it again it come back on the list after some time (pop up in the list :P).
