EXE is gone after update

[NewsArchive]

Sometimes - at one customer site only - they call me and tell that the exe
has dissappeared after updating our program. It has happened twice now. I
have ticked 'Skip if file does not exist on target machine' so each time I
have to create a new installer for them.

My question is: what can possibly cause this?

I suspect a network setting or - more likely - a user error of some sort.
What can I do to prevent this situation?

Thanks
Peter

[NewsArchive]

Peter,

> Sometimes - at one customer site only - they call me and tell that the exe
> has dissappeared after updating our program. It has happened twice now. I
> have ticked 'Skip if file does not exist on target machine' so each time I
> have to create a new installer for them.
>
> My question is: what can possibly cause this?
>
> I suspect a network setting or - more likely - a user error of some sort.
> What can I do to prevent this situation?

What would you do without SetupBuilder to prevent this kind of things?
Well, you can't do anything <g>

If you do not remove the .exe then I think it's something the user is doing
or it's his wonderful (buggy) protection software product (anti-virus or
anti-spyware). For example, you update an .exe and the virus scanner
protects the system and simply removes the file. Why? Because the
heuristic rules decided that your .exe is a dangerous program. All this is
done completely silent behind-the-scenes ;-)

With luck, this is logged in the scanner protocol :)

Hope this helps.

Friedrich

[NewsArchive]

BTW, this can also happen if you make a modification to a specific folder.
Just touching a .exe (without doing any modification, just check if a file
is there) can be enough. Then the anti-virus or anti-spyware technology
scans the folder again and bang, the heuristic scanner (with "learn" mode)
decides that it is time to remove the .exe.

Friedrich

[NewsArchive]

What an almighty nightmare. Is there no law against these damn programs?
<vbg> The world has gone quite mad.

J André Labuschagné

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Hi Friedrich,

Well, although I don't really like your answer <g> it's more or less what I
wanted to hear.

I was afraid that I inadvertedly could have caused that thing to happen. But
now I can approach the customer with my head high although I'm not quite
sure what to tell them to do in order to prevent this. Gee, life is
complicated!

Thanks a lot
Peter

[NewsArchive]

Hi Peter,

> Well, although I don't really like your answer <g> it's more or less what
> I wanted to hear.
>
> I was afraid that I inadvertedly could have caused that thing to happen.
> But now I can approach the customer with my head high although I'm not
> quite sure what to tell them to do in order to prevent this. Gee, life is
> complicated!

:-)

I would suggest to upload your application .exe (if possible and if this is
not a security risk for you) to http://www.virustotal.com/ to see if one of
the listed security products have a problem with it. But even if your .exe
is "clean", you are still not on the safe side <g>. The heuristic virus
detection systems have their own lives. What can help in such a case is to
code-sign the .exe (but I think you already code-sign all your application
files).

Then ask your customer to check the .log of his real-time protection system.
It's possible that the remove action is logged in that file.

Good luck!

Friedrich

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Peter - don't forget about the Bruce Johnson rule; customers lie. <g>

Tony

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They sure do. We actually caught an IT guy on the client site trying to
sabotage our software. He was in bed with the crowd that wrote the previous
software they were running. We put a few traps in place and he was fired.
Management was shocked beyond belief and so were we. I never thought I
would live to see the day that someone risked their career by trying to
deliberately wreck a software implementation. But I did. Customers can and
do sometimes lie......

J André Labuschagné

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was it because he was in bed with a crowd that got you shocked and you
choked on the sight ? <vbg>

--
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Cordialement - Best regards
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ROFL!

Good one JP. Because he was prepared to risk his career for the previous
programmers. The bed thing did not really worry us <vbg>

J André Labuschagné

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Tony,
> Peter - don't forget about the Bruce Johnson rule; customers lie. <g>

Very true! That's why I have remote access to their server and I saw for
myself before bothering Friedrich<g>

Peter