Wierd Pandasoft Problem

[annihilator_god]

Yesterday a customer brought in his win98 machine which was having problems with pandasoft's combo firewall/av product, "platinum internet security". His problem was with a botched install, but that's not what this thread is about.

This product has the wierdest little quirk that most people probably never encounter. It requires that the main program window and installer be run with a screen resolution at at least 800x600 with 16bit color. What is up with that? I couldn't run the program in safe mode because it defaulted to 16 or 256 colors. Then upon rebooting to normal full-feature mode i had to reboot again to get to 16bit color mode.

So my question is... WTF is with that? Is it that important that you show me the pretty splash screen picture? Is there any real functionality that requires a high-graphics mode? Has anyone else had this wierd problem? Really, what annoys me is that I couldn't run the scanner inside safe mode. (well, maybe using some command line thing that I don't know about).

[nihil]

Hmmmm,

That is odd. I haven't run Panda Platinum for about two years now, but I distinctly recall being able to run the AV in safe mode. As I recall the OS was Win XP Pro.

Is it just the installer that won't run in safe mode? I can sort of understand that, but the AV should run.

After you re-installed did you reboot and try to run it in safe mode. Perversely it might also want you to update the definitions first as well?

Was that Win 98 or Win 98SE?

I have an SE box right here, so I can give it a try with the trial version if you like?

Cheers

[annihilator_god]

Well, I didn't really have a lot of time to play around with it. This was only my second time installing the program (on XP before), and the store was busy so I didn't have the time to play around (such as having to restart the slow pII machine 3 times and waiting for the compressed installer to expand itself 5 times).

This was just one of those things that kind of annoyed me. Forcing a display type for seemingly no reason was quite strange. I'm sure they paid some graphic artist nicely for the pretty slash screen and icons, so maybe they just wanted to show something for their money.

nihil-
The machine was win98 (standard, not SE). The installer would run in safemode, but it would throw up the "not at this resolution/color depth" message and end the installing program. When I finally had the program installed and booted into safe mode, the program didn't start automatically (which I guess would be correct), and when I attempted to start the program (start menu, desktop, and installed folder) it would throw up the resolution/color message again and not run.

Also, I'm not sure if it was a Retail or OEM copy of the program since it was being distributed as an "Internet Security" special through Staples (an office supply store in the United States).

[nihil]

OK I think I understand.

Firstly, it is not a good idea to INSTALL Windows software in safe mode, as it is not the natural environment in which it is expected to run, and a variety of services and devices are not available. This may foul up the installation.

Win98 is a DOS based OS, and I suspect that the Panda installer is also DOS based.

In 9x/ME if you boot into safe mode and try to run a DOS program you get a standard error message something like:

"DOS programs should not be run in Windows safe mode, it might screw up your video and display"

(not quite so elegant but that is the general gist of the warning)

I suspect that Panda have hijacked this message and replaced it with one of their own. What it is really saying is "you should be running this in normal mode" it would be interesting to see what happened if you ran it in normal mode but with a different resolution.

You are right in that booting into safe mode will stop AVs, Firewalls and the like from loading. You then have to start them manually. This is because you bypass the startup files.

I'm not sure if it was a Retail or OEM copy of the program

I don't think there is a difference. OEM copies are generally just bundled versions of the retail ones, without the packaging etc..........otherwise they would have two product lines to support instead of one?

My conclusion is that your problem was running a DOS program in Windows safe mode. Windows doesn't actually stop you.............it just gives a warning.

Cheers

[annihilator_god]

Actually, it does stop under normal windows mode if the color depth and/or resolution is not what they want. The computer didn't recognize the monitor and defaulted to 640x80 w/256 colors, guess what happened when i tried to install it. Yep, "Must be run with higher resolution / color depth" message and the installer exits automatically.

After getting the computer to recognize the monitor (just set to default 1024x768 monitor) I was able to get the installer to run correctly.

[nihil]

Hi,

Many thanks for the update. So Panda have really messed around with their installer..............well, I never had a great experience with either platinum or titanium which is why I haven't used them for a couple of years

Can you run the properly installed version in safe mode?...................if not they go on the "uninstall on sight list"

Cheers