StarForce Revisited
Sunday, February 12, 2006
I just found 2 interesting articles that related to StarForce:1. Game Overdrive has begun boycotting publishers (and in some cases, developers only) because of their choice to use the Starforce anti-piracy software, which is installed without permission on a user's PC when installing a Starforce-protected game. (you can see the detail at http://game-overdrive.com/site/modules/sfblacklist/)
2. StarForce Reviewed by Aaron McKenna at TomsHardware (http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/2006/02/11/starforce_revisited_uk/)
Also, someone has tried to use StarForce Removal tool for Windows XP 64 bit, but unfortunately, its fail. Luckily, there's Simon that told us that we can remove this manually (http://www.photogabble.co.uk/2006/01/31/starforce-copy-protection-remove-tool-dont-work/). But, remember, always to backup your system first before tried this method:
This is the official response:
1. Remove these files:
%SystemRoot%\system32\drivers\sfsync03.sys
%SystemRoot%\system32\drivers\sfhlp02.sys
%SystemRoot%\system32\drivers\sfdrv01.sys
2. Remove these registry keys:
HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\sfsync03
HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\sfhlp02
HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\sfdrv01
This is the method I found to work:
1. Device removal
Go into the device manager and show non-plug and play devices. There will be three Starfoce items.
Select the first one and Uninstall -> Are you sure -> YES -> Do you wish to restart -> No.
Select the second one and Uninstall -> Are you sure -> YES -> Do you wish to restart -> No.
Select the third (final) one and Uninstall -> Are you sure -> YES -> Do you wish to restart -> YES.
*computer restarts*
2. File removal
open the search window (F3) and look for any of the following files on ANY drive:
sfsync*.sys, sfhlp*.sys, sfdrv*.sys
When you find any of them, remove them.
3. Registry cleanup
open the windows registry (Start -> Run -> Regedit) and look for any of the following items:
sfsync
sfhlp
sfdrv
Again, remove anything even related to any of these items. be sure to search for KEYS, VALUES and DATA. You will get more hits then just the ones given by the Starforce crew.
