Yet another reason Starforce sucks.

[Golgatha]

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1968997,00.asp

Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
The latest stealth action thriller from Ubisoft doesn't work in Vista, but it's probably not any fault of the application itself ? it's the StarForce copy protection. StarForce installs a low-level (ring 0) driver to access your optical drive, and this driver has not been Vista certified. So Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory asks you to reboot after installing, which you do, and then upon reboot Vista informs you that it won't load the driver due to "compatibility problems." The 32-bit version of Vista will allow unsigned kernel-level drivers if installed from an account with admin privileges -- as ours was. We were unable to find any sort of workaround or Vista-ready driver on the StarForce site.

What's worse, the StarForce driver will try (and fail) to load every time you reboot, even if you uninstall the game, and the removal tool doesn't work properly by default. It doesn't give you any indication that it didn't work, however. You have to run it as an administrator by accessing the Compatibility tab in the removal tool's Properties menu. Visually, it looks like it's doing the same thing as when you don't run it as an admin, but it will at least get StarForce off your system.

What I read here is that if you buy a game and upgrade your OS, you're going to be dependant on Starforce's good grace to update their copy protection scheme for free to get your old games running under the new OS. Also, what happens when the company who made your game decides to discontinue support, but the OS gets a service pack that breaks the copy protection scheme? I'd be pretty miffed if my $50 game turned into a worthless coaster, wouldn't you?

No other copy protection schemes install drivers onto your OS, so the worst case scenario for a game is that it won't run. However, with Starforce the worst case scenario is a hosed or insecure system.

 

[KLin]

wrong forum

 

[0roo0roo]

yup, boycott starforce.

 

[mzkhadir]

Like I said in the other thread. Ubi needs to find better copy protection.

 

[fustercluck]

I was going to get Splinter Cell CT for PC, as i played the previous 2 on my PC, but i heard all the problems people were having trying to play it because of starforce, so i got it for PS2 instead.

 

[Cooler]

For second there i read Yet another reason Starbucks sucks

 

[BrokenVisage]

Damn Starforce, such a pain unplugging and plugging IDE cables just to play the games they protect!

 

[Jikininki]

When I first saw this thread I thought it said "Starbucks". Now I'm craving a caramel frappachino.

 

[Yossarian]

Originally posted by: mzkhadir
Like I said in the other thread. Ubi needs to find better copy protection.

they have. they don't use starforce anymore.

 

[Eddieo]

They need to do away with Starforce.

 

[PingSpike]

There's no good reason a game needs to install a ring 0 driver anyway. I'm with microsoft on this one.

 

[ryan256]

Well what do you expect? Windows XP has been out since 2001 and they have just now gotten their driver XP certified. Not that it will make any difference.

 

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: Yossarian

Originally posted by: mzkhadir
Like I said in the other thread. Ubi needs to find better copy protection.

they have. they don't use starforce anymore.

i was just going to say that also, i thought someone made a thread on here or in the software forum (where this should be) that said they stopped using it.

 

[hg321]

CDV Software has also dropped Starforce