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

Comodo Internet Security - CIS Install / Setup / Configuration Help - CIS
81

Chiron “advised to use the [CIS+Removal+Tool+2013.bat] batch file to remove CIS”. I needed to remove CIS. I took Chiron’s advice by downloading and running the batch file. That batch file is named “[b]CIS+Removal+Tool[/b]+2013.bat”. Interesting filename, yes? Oddly enough, when the batch file runs, its title is “Comodo Removal Tool 2013”. What exactly, captainsticks, are you missing here? Why do you think anyone is using the tool for any other purposes? I used it to remove CIS and nothing else. But it removed important parts of LibreOffice as well.

Also to any user it should come as general practice to use any batch file with caution and at their own risk, regardless of the creator.

Nice disclaimer. I understand that I should also use CIS itself “with caution and at [my] own risk”. In fact, Comodo explicitly “DISCLAIMS… FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE” in the EULA’s for their products. So what? Please don’t expect that such disclaimers will result in me or anyone else withholding our criticisms when CIS renders our computers unbootable or CIS+Removal+Tool+2013.bat damages unrelated applications while using it for its declared purpose of removing CIS.

Also please note: Us Volunteer Moderators are not Comodo Staff, we are general users like yourself. We do offer help and advice, with only good intentions in mind.

I know that. I appreciate that. Chiron responded positively, but I suggested that the batch file is far too important to get rid of, especially when it could be fixed so easily. Unfortunately, less understanding moderators piped up with suggestions that I didn’t witness what I witnessed, that the .tmp files were a figment of my imagination, with implications that the LibreOffice developers are to blame because of their use of the .tmp extension, etc. I don’t know why a pack of other moderators felt the need to jump in, shove Chiron aside, and circle the wagons, but very little of their input was constructive, whereas I’d hoped I could encourage Chiron to fix the batch file’s bug so that the next victim of an unbootable CIS bug-afflicted computer could also save his system but without the unnecessary collateral damage I experienced. Sooner or later Comodo will fix the CIS bug that rendered my system unbootable. In the mean time, it appears that you folks may have buried the only repair tool that worked for the scenario I found myself in. On behalf of the next guy who needs it, uh, thanks? :-\

And, Chiron, I still really appreciate your concern :-TU

82

This is a geekbuddy .bat file. Can you please let me know which of the 5 options inside of it you used? Only 1 and 2 should be used, but I did not make that clear in the earlier version of this topic. It’s very important that you let me know about this.

Just FYI, to any developer tmp means temporary files. Programming logic dictates that the removal of these sort of files should not have any permanent affect on the installed program, hence the tmp (which always stands for temporary) file type. I’m not sure what happened with your installation, but I strongly worry that it may have been a combination of this .bat file and the issues which already existed on your computer.

This is not my batch file, but one unofficially created by GeekBuddy. We only recently discovered it and asked for permission to use it. However, the only reason the other moderators jumped in was because after your post I asked them to test it and see what issues they could find with it. Their tests have thus-far shown no issues with using only options 1 and 2, hence the responses in this topic claiming that there may be something wrong with your system which caused the problems. This is a valid possibility.

Thank you, and I do want to make it obvious that all of the other moderators also feel bad for what has happened with your system. We just need to figure out whether the .bat file actually caused it, or was only able to cause further problems because of all the other issues your system already had.

Please answer my question above about which options you chose with the tool.

Thanks.

83

Perhaps I’m not the right person to answer this but in his first post on page 5 of this very topic (Repyly #70) he mentions option 3 which would be “3. REMOVE TEMP FILES”

If you are interested in patching up the batch file to fix this, all you have to do is scroll down to the bottom of the code and remove the


[at]echo Deleting all .tmp files...
del /f /s /q %systemdrive%\*.tmp 
[at]echo .
[at]echo .
[at]echo -----------------------------

Or perhaps since you mention that only option 1 and 2 should be used, then the remaining options could be deleted all together in order to save users from confusion.

84

I used 1, 2, and 3, which I’d thought apparent when I’d stated so quite explicitly in the first line of my original post. When I saw step 3 was deleting stuff from LibreOffice, I aborted it. Since I was looking at a screen entitled “Comodo Removal Tool 2013” and 1 and 2 even mentioned Comodo by name, I took the list as being a sequence of steps for removing Comodo. If this is not what that menu list is for and if this batch file serves some purpose other than removing Comodo, may I ask why it’s called “Comodo Removal Tool 2013”?

It sounds like the fix is very simple. Get rid of everything in the batch file that isn’t about Comodo, which apparently includes step 3 through 5. It surely would’ve been nice to know up front that the Comodo Removal Tool was more than its title says.

Just FYI, to any developer tmp means temporary files.

Clearly that statement is not true. LibreOffice developers are developers too.

Programming logic dictates that the removal of these sort of files should not have any permanent affect on the installed program, hence the tmp (which always stands for temporary) file type. I'm not sure what happened with your installation, but I strongly worry that it may have been a combination of this .bat file and the issues which already existed on your computer.

As a programmer and embedded system developer, I disagree with aspects of your logic. It is only usually true that deleting temporary files should have no permanent affect on the installed program if and only if the intended temporary duration has expired. That duration of significance is application-specific. It may be for the run-time of the application or much shorter. It may also be longer. For example, the application may have an associated service and the temporary file may need to last for the run-time of the service. Alternatively, the application may have something like a system tray applet that serves a quick-start tool for the application and the temporary file may need to last the duration of the system tray applet’s run-time, which could span an indefinite number of application runs. In truth, you can assume nothing about a temporary file until you are told what the developer’s definition of “temporary” actually is. And it should be obvious that a blanket deletion of all *.tmp files without regard to where each is in its life cycle is a recipe for potential disaster.

I would also suggest to you that “[.tmp] always stands for temporary” is a dangerously absolute assertion. For example, when swapping the filenames of two files, a temporary filename is required. I have seen this done by renaming the first file to <original_filename>.tmp as an intermediate step. Is it okay to delete the intermediate .tmp file if you happen upon it during the renaming process? No, because it is the filename that is temporary, not the file content. Another example I’ve run across is email users being advised to rename *.zip files to *.tmp for the purposes of emailing them through corporate mail servers that would otherwise block the attachments. Now, if you were to delete all .tmp files from the user mailbox system, you could potentially annihilate reams of email attachments (depending on the particular mailbox system in use), and earn the wrath of the email admin.

FWIW, I would also remind you that the world is not limited to Windows and Windows developers. LibreOffice, for example, is available for a variety of OSes, most of which assign little or no significance to file extensions, and certainly do not trust them. Have a look at a Linux or BSD-based system drive and you will see that a large percentage of the files have no file extensions - file type identification is done by looking at the first few bytes of a file. A temporary file may well have no extension at all. LibreOffice developers are not constrained by the oddities of DOS that have been inherited by the Windows world, and you should not expect all developers to march to the Microsoft drum.

85

I think you gravely misunderstood our posts…

At no point in time was anyone suggesting that you didn’t witness what you witnessed, nor were the .tmp files a figment of your imagination.

We were simply trying to reproduce your findings, which we were unable to. This does not suggest that we don’t believe you, merely that we cannot reproduce the issue.

I do use LibreOffice, but I don’t use extensions. I did install a few to test with (as did Eric) and none of them produced any .tmp files, hence my question asking how these .tmp files are created.

I apologize if you got a different view of our posts, but we were only trying to better understand the issues at hand so we could help…

86

Thank you very much for pointing that out. I had missed that.

I’m very sorry for what has happened. However, I would rather not have a long drawn out discussion about programming etiquette. I apologize for commenting on the .tmp extension.

The main issue is that option three appears to sometimes be able to harm computers, at least in some circumstances. That’s the take-home message. Thus, I’ve added the .bat tool back into my advice, but with strict instructions about which options to run.

I’m sorry for what happened to your computer, but with the wording of it now I’m confident it won’t happen again.

Thanks.

87

I don’t know how to install LO extensions for multiple users. Is that an option the Extension will give and are not all extensions set up like that? Or does that depend on whether LO as a whole is installed for one multiple users?

I am mystified by your position. Is it just that you aren't taking care to read what I posted? I never installed anything called Geekbuddy Cleaner. I don't even know what Geekbuddy Cleaner is. This discussion topic was initiated by Chiron who included [url=https://server.backup.comodo.com/json/direct/default/CIS+Removal+Tool+2013.bat?key=515acba7-7208-4fc3-9b54-eb5d079de7d1]this link to `CIS+Removal+Tool+2013.bat`[/url] as the one and only means I found that could remove Comodo so that my system would boot again. I used that batch file, not Geekbuddy Cleaner. And [b]I actually witnessed that batch file's output scrolling up the screen explicitly telling me that it was deleting specific LibreOffice `*.tmp` files![/b] To "conclude" that I did not would be to call me a liar. Seriously, EricJH, that's not acceptable behaviour. Please don't respond until and unless you first go back and read what Chiron and I wrote in this topic
You don't run this place.

I never said it did not delete the temp files. Don’t put words in my mouth. I have been trying to reproduce the problem as it occurred strange to me that deleting .tmp files would destroy whatever things those extensions are. But since it appeared to have happened I wanted to see for myself because if what you said was true that would have implications.

Now to address HeffeD's response...

When you install a shared extension it creates the *.tmp files, of course 88) And if you were to actually try any of this yourself you would soon realize that the *.tmp files have what appear to be randomized file names. Therefore, when I had uninstalled LibreOffice and then reinstalled LibreOffice+extensions without first manually cleaning out the old damaged extensions, the new *.tmp files ended up with different randomized names. But, HeffeD, you are (for reasons I don’t understand) chasing after a red herring. The problem is not how to repair a LibreOffice installation damaged by Chiron’s CIS+Removal+Tool+2013.bat batch file. Instead, concern yourself with why any Comodo removal tool would ever be designed to delete files that belong to LibreOffice or any other non-Comodo product.

Red herring? You came in screaming from the top of your lungs like many many hours of hard work had gone into smoke. You sent us on a wild goose chase from the very beginning.

I am still trying to reproduce but I am not convinced yet that LO got damaged by clean up tool. What extensions did you have installed that caused damage? Will they ask install for single or multi user?

I know that. I appreciate that. Chiron responded positively, but I suggested that the batch file is far too important to get rid of, especially when it could be fixed so easily. Unfortunately, less understanding moderators piped up with suggestions that I didn't witness what I witnessed, that the .tmp files were a figment of my imagination,
I never stated the.tmp files were not deleted. I was not immediately convinced deleting those files was the cause of your problems. However the issue is important enough to get to the bottom of it.
with implications that the LibreOffice developers are to blame because of their use of the .tmp extension, etc. I don't know why a pack of other moderators felt the need to jump in, shove Chiron aside, and circle the wagons, but very little of their input was constructive, whereas I'd hoped I could encourage Chiron to fix the batch file's bug so that the next victim of an unbootable CIS bug-afflicted computer could also save his system but without the unnecessary collateral damage I experienced. Sooner or later Comodo will fix the CIS bug that rendered my system unbootable. In the mean time, it appears that you folks may have buried the only repair tool that worked for the scenario I found myself in. On behalf of the next guy who needs it, uh, thanks? :-\

And, Chiron, I still really appreciate your concern :-TU

We’re all concerned. That’s what our replies all have in common. When something serious happened we try to reproduce it. That way we make an informed decision. We do not want to make a fool of ourselves if it turns out we fell into a well know logical fallacy (Post hoc ergo propter hoc).

HeffeD, if you can point me to the international body that regulates, imposes, and enforces standards for file extension definitions, then we can check with their regulations to see if `.tmp` is a universal extension limited to temporary files. In the absence of that, please don't make ridiculous claims of that sort. Any developer can define file extensions for his application in any way he sees fit. For whatever reason, the LibreOffice/OpenOffice.org folks decided that they would use the `.tmp` file extension as part of their extension management scheme.
I agree with HeffeD. As end user I know .tmp files as temporary files that when not in use can be removed to clean up hard drive (space). The clean up tool will not delete files that are in use.

Can you prove that the LO devs made that decision? You seem to be comfortably close to the very source.

I don't know what they're for and I don't particularly care about the details. You may be personally offended by developers that do that and were it my decision I'd steer clear of using `.tmp` for anything but temporary files too, but neither you nor I belong to the LibreOffice team so we have no say in the matter. All I know is that they use `*.tmp` files for a purpose that does not seem to tolerate unrelated applications arbitrarily deleting them, and that they very wisely did [u]not[/u] locate their extension-related `*.tmp` files in any of the common Windows temporary file directories.
Now you say you are not related to LO dev team where in the previous paragraph you did while making an authoritative statement about .tmp files.....
88

Thank you very much, Chiron. Your efforts are very much appreciated :-TU :-TU :slight_smile:

And I’m “not the boss of you” either. You can rest easy now though. Chiron has come up with a compromise solution that certainly would have made my day a lot better and ensures that other folks struggling to remove a defective CIS will still have this important tool at their disposal.

89

I sleep fine thank you.

However. in the light of a potential danger it is good to take a precautionary measure in case the problem turns out to be as it has been asserted.

Mine and other mods radar went up about the wild swings being taken .tmp cleaning being the cause of your corrupted Libre Office extensions. It is not what one would assume to be the cause in the first, second… or twentieth instance.

Your system crashed which is the most likely reason why your LO extensions/installation got damaged; the file system got damaged by the crash.

Your decision to import the v 5.12 config in 6.x was unfortunate and not something we would recommend but not your fault in first instance. Then you installed 6.1 which has, a soon to be fixed bug, with XP where it will prolong boot with multiple minutes. Very unfortunate and not your fault for not knowing upon installation.

You used the Geekbuddy Tool to get rid off 6.1 in Safe Mode. Which was successful. So far so good , it got you back on the rails thanks to the script.

Things then took multiple paths. First action is to call CIS malware and take serious swing at the clean up script accusing it of messing up Libre Office extensions in this topic. Second action you posted in the Help board and get word from Dennnis2 that importing v5.x config in v6 is unfortunately, and beyound your knowledge, not a good custom. Third step is filing a solid looking bug report.

Several mods looked seriously but sceptically into your claim it was the clean up tool that damaged your Libre Office extension. During our inquest you have been continuously hostile and aggressive to our efforts to reproduce the problem taking various swings at us with unsubstantiated claims. As stated before we do not take measures on uncorroborated, and in our view, possibly unreproducible, claims.

I take the fact that you are not answering my questions about specifics of Libre Office very serious. Please answer my questions about single/multiple user installation of extensions so I can test. Or is that another red herring that you are feeding us and will later accuse me or my fellow mods of chasing it?

Although we all very much regret the hardship you have been through, we are not amused with your aggressive and ill manners toward us when scrutinizing some of your assumptions. Let alone manipulating us into believing by your attitude alone that you lost many hours of work to get customizations back where they are publicly available extensions.

Until further notice, with the lack of corroboration staring me in the face, I believe that a corrupted file system is the more likely cause of the grief you had with Libre Office extensions being corrupted rather than the clean up tool.

We make our inquiries into cases that matter to get to the bottom of them.

90

I found a little “bug” with the second uninstaller, the one which I think was developed by GeekBuddy.
On line 128 and 129 it says

cd "%Program Files\COMODO\COMODO Internet Security\"
IF EXIST "cistray.exe" RD /S /Q "cistray.exe"

Instead of “%ProgramFiles%” they’ve written “%Program Files” notice the space and lack of %.

However I don’t know why lines 128 and 129 exist, because 125 and 126 removes the folder of which 128 tries to move to.


cd "%programfiles%\Comodo\"
IF EXIST "COMODO Internet Security" RD /S /Q "COMODO Internet Security"
91

Regardless of any other code within the script, this line of code has to be useless rubbish

IF EXIST "cistray.exe" RD /S /Q "cistray.exe"

That line will never achieve anything, unless “cistray.exe” is a folder.
To zap a file you need

DEL /F "cistray.exe"
92

I have a feeling Geekbuddy made this in a hurry or did not review the code 88)

93

how d you disable security programs like malwarebytes, sas, and norton?

94

Good Day;

To disable them; the easiest step is to actually make sure they are not running in the notification area, if they are simply right click them and they should have a “Exit/Close/Disable” Option available.

Thanks…Jake

95

hi jake, im still confused/
Is the notification area, the area by the windows clock?
If so, i see the icons, and when i right click mwb, or sas, I dont see a disable button, just a button that says enable or disable REAL time protection.

96

Yes; I’m sorry.

When uninstalling CIS you should disable these temporarily until next reboot.

Thanks…Jake

97

disable what? as i said, i only see disable real time protection, but not to disable the security software as a whole? real time protection is only active when connected to internet.

98

Hello COMODO !
Please stop suggesting users to download adds releated applications (first post: “Download and install Revo Uninstaller Free from this page.”). We use antivirus and firewall to remove these not to download more of them. I simply am having probem to uninstall your product from my PC due to Windows 8.0 and Windows 8.1 incompatibility. Suerly if you have time to create such vast of different tools you can aford to create simple remover for your users and you don’t need to suggest users to use third party tools to deal with your own bugs. Thank you !

Edit: I got here from this topic https://forums.comodo.com/empty-t98902.0.html just in case you want to use very popular argument ‘this is wrong topic’.

99

From what I can gather from your reply, you have not yet tried to use this approach. Therefore, I am not understanding why you have a problem with the approach. Also, just FYI, the main removal tool I advise users to use was created by GeekBuddy, which is part of Comodo. Thus, I do not know if it should be considered a third-party tool.

Also, I don’t understand the problem with Revo Uninstaller. Did you run into problems with Revo Uninstaller? From what I have seen it is a very good start to use a general removal tool like that. My main goal with this topic is to help users who have run into problems with CIS, regardless of where the problems came from. Thus, I will link to whichever programs I believe are safe and can help get users computers back up and working. If you have any suggestions please let me know. I am very interested in helping users get their computers back into working order should something go wrong.

By the way, I do not work for Comodo. I am a volunteer Moderator, and thus my advice should not be interpreted as the official advice of Comodo.

Thank you.

100

In the taskbar right click and exit them if available. If you can’t exit, open them and disable real time protection. IF you still have problems right click the taskbar, go to task manager and try to force kill the process. Just dont forget to re-enable real time after the restart.