Component data not being cleared?

Help for v2
#1

Apologies if this has been posted before, I couldn’t find it when I looked.

From what I can see CPF uses the Registry to store information relating to rules
created and components it finds:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Software\Comodo\Personal Firewall

I noticed that after I uninstalled an Antivirus app that I was testing, CPF
retained a complete list of the components related to this app, even though it
has been completely removed, that is, the path to which CPF continues to point no
longer exists and with the exception of the registry entries that CPF retains,
all others have been removed.

I have selected and removed these entries from CPF and even after a reboot, the
entries remain. Basically CPF is not cleaning up correctly.

As a matter of interest, why does CPF use the registry to store this
information? It already stores some data in an Microsoft like extended
database file (data.edb) file. Would it not be better to store all configuration
data in a dedicated database, which could be backed up more easily and would
lend itself to better report writing?

#2

Unwanted components or entries can be removed from CPF. Just go to Component Monitor rules, select those components you wish to remove from the rules list, click on the “Remove” button at the top of the list, then click on the “Apply” button at the top of the list to save your settings after removing those components.

Hope this help.

#3

Thanks for the reply tajiux, but as I stated in my previous post,

I have selected and removed these entries from CPF and even after a reboot, the entries remain. Basically CPF is not cleaning up correctly.

Even after selecting remove and apply within CPF the entries remained. I only managed to remove the entries after manually deleting them from the registry.

#4

After you make the deletions, you must click on “Apply” or the changes will not take. Hope this fixes the problem. CHUCK

#5

Hi Chuck, sorry to be pedantic, but:

Even after selecting remove and apply within CPF

Leaving that aside for one moment, I have to say, that in my opinion, it should not be necessary for one to have to manually remove old component entries for applications that no longer exist.

If an application has been removed from ones hard disk, along with all traces of said application, then CPF should automatically update the component database (the registry in this case) to remove out of date entries.

Just my opinion

#6

You know, after upgrading to a new build of Thunderbird and having to go into component monitor and delete by hand all of the “old” components, I am must say that I agree with you. I will guess, however, that others would say “so what if unused components show in the list, it won’t hurt anything…”. I also know that other firewalls do the same thing. And, they’re probably right. Sigh… CHUCK (:KWL)

#7

I am obviously not the first to think about that idea. But for this to be possible CFP will have to perform additional checks everytime software is uninstalled or we will have to manually click on new button to do this. This may be a bit beyond the scope of the Component Monitor since its main purpose is to monitor/add objects to the list whenever applications connect to the internet. I could be wrong, though :THNK. Perhaps the next version 3.0 will have better handling of obsolete data with HIPS implementation.