View Full Version : Opera Immunization Broken
I have the cookies4.dat and urlfilter.ini files in the %AppData%\Opera\Opera\ directory (where Opera 10 and later actually use them), in the %AppData%\Opera\Opera\profile directory (where Spybot normally looks for them, along with the plugin-ignore.ini file), and in the %ProgramFiles%\Opera\defaults directory (where Spybot has also looked for a plugin-ignore.ini file), and I even tried the %ProgramFiles%\Opera\ directory...
...but starting with today's detection updates, Spybot immunization doesn't seem to detect cookies4.dat (Cookies) or urlfilter.ini (Content) anymore, although it does detect plugin-ignore.ini (Plugins) in both places.
Is this an error, or is Spybot no longer immunizing Opera against bad content? If it's neither, where is Spybot now looking for cookies4.dat and urlfilter.ini?
I'm following up on lewisje's post because coincidentally I was about to ask the very same question. I noticed that Spybot would not detect and immunize Opera 10.xx if its files (cookies4.dat, urlfilter.ini, etc.) were located in the default location:
C:\Windows\Application Data\Opera\Opera
However, on my laptop which had been updated to Opera 10.xx from an earlier version (9.64), the same Opera files were located in a different location:
C:\Windows\Application Data\Opera\Opera\profile
and Spybot was able to detect and immunize Opera as a result. Is there any way to force Spybot to detect the existence of Opera with its files in the former (default) location? This certainly is a bug that should be easily fixed, IMO. Thanks for any help or advice.
spybotsandra
2010-07-15, 10:31
Hello,
This seems to be a common problem where no solution is present at the moment. With the new version Opera has made some changes, that affect the immunization. Please deactivate the cookie immunization of Spybot-S&D, to complete the immunization. Please note that after undoing the immunization of Opera 10 a re-immunization of Opera 10 currently may not be possible, even if Spybot-S&D shows a success.
We are working on this item to solve this problem as soon as possible.
Best regards
Sandra
Team Spybot
The "Cookies" section doesn't even show up; nor does the "Content" section, and it worked continuously until last week, and ever since I upgraded to Opera 10 back in September I noticed Spybot was still looking in the old places for the urlfilter.ini and cookies4.dat files, so I kept them there and copied them over to the new places whenever they were re-immunized.
I have attached a screenshot showing the results of running the scan again, and also showing that the necessary files are in both the spot where Spybot used to look for them and in the spot where Opera uses them; in case you're wondering, I also have two copies of plugin-ignore.ini, one of which was actually made by Spybot in the defaults directory of my Opera program directory and the other of which is visible in the screenshot, and I have two different user accounts, both of which are variations on my real name (which I have erased), and I keep ol' Netscape 9 around so I can test sites in a browser that still uses the Firefox 2 engine, even though I fully realize that it went EOL almost 2 and a half years ago.
It's not a result of upgrading to Opera 10: I have upgraded as soon as the new stable versions were released and Spybot had no problem dealing with the old versions of the files kept in the places where Opera 9 had used them, and I even had the exact same version (10.6) last week (using the update from 7 July 2010) when Spybot successfully detected the urlfilter.ini and cookies4.dat files in %APPDATA%\Opera\Opera\profile; absolutely nothing changed about my setup in the past week except for downloading the 14 July 2010 update yesterday.
In case it helps, you may notice that the "Plugins" sections were marked as "Opera 4+"; meanwhile, back when Spybot still detected the cookies4.dat and urlfilter.ini files, the respective "Cookies" and "Content" sections were marked as "Opera 7+"
so maybe when the update was packaged, the "Opera 7+" part of the immunization code was unintentionally omitted...
Yeah I don't think they get it either, lewisje. So if I understand you right, you keep copies of Opera files in the \profile subdirectory where Spybot apparently looks for them, and this has successfully worked until the latest update yesterday?
Yeah I don't think they get it either, lewisje. So if I understand you right, you keep copies of Opera files in the \profile subdirectory where Spybot apparently looks for them, and this has successfully worked until the latest update yesterday?Yes; Spybot would detect those files and update them, and then I'd just copy the re-immunized files to the place where Opera actually looks for them now.
That's a good idea. I just tried it and confirmed that Spybot didn't detect Opera. I assume the only two files required are cookies4.dat and urlfilter.ini. I didn't mention that coincidentally or not, I just had to move all Opera system files on my laptop from the \profile subdirectory up to the new default \Opera\Opera directory after Opera suddenly stopped detecting them and went back to its base configuration. I still have no idea why that happened.
Edit: I should clarify. I had to move those Opera files right before the latest 7/14/10 Spybot update so I don't know if Spybot would've detected and immunized Opera as it normally did up to that point.
I just tried it on a Vista machine and it worked on that...I wonder why
same basic file structure by the way
Hmm that's interesting. I don't have a Vista machine to test but I did move all Opera files on my other computer to the \profile subdirectory and Spybot still didn't detect the Opera installation as you stated. I still have the previous week's definitions update file and I may load it to see if Spybot will detect Opera with it.
I'm not a programmer but it seems like it would be a fairly trivial matter to change and expand the default location(s) where Spybot looks for Opera system files to detect its installation.
I'm guessing that instead of using %APPDATA% Spybot used more specific paths, and the code for looking in C:\Documents and Settings\ was dropped in favor of exclusively using C:\Users\
I'll see tomorrow morning when the new updates are posted.
...and it turns out it does still fail to detect Opera's configuration files.
ok, I have discovered the problem...apparently Spybot only looks for three things:
1. a plugin-ignore.ini in the defaults directory of the Opera installation
2. a plugin-ignore.ini in the profile directory of the Opera application data directory
3. urlfilter.ini and cookies4.dat, but only if there is an opera6.ini file in Opera's program directory...and it appears as if Spybot defaults to looking for them in Opera's program directory.
and I am perfectly willing to bend over backwards to accommodate Spybot's oddities, as long as I know how:laugh:
Good work, lewisje! I first verified that Spybot still didn't detect Opera after the latest 7/21/10 definitions update with all of the configuration files in the \profile subdirectory. I then confirmed that Spybot did indeed detect Opera if there was an opera6.ini file in the main \Program Files\Opera directory. However, I found that the urlfilter.ini and cookies4.dat files also had to be in the same \Program Files\Opera directory in order for Spybot to immunize Opera. It wouldn't do it if those files remained in the \profile subdirectory as before. Very quirky.
So, something's definitely changed with Spybot after the recent definitions update as you initially noted. The opera6.ini file is a holdover from the Opera 9.xx days and is no longer used AFAIK. And it normally resides in the \profile subdirectory along with urlfilter.ini and cookies4.dat. At any rate, whatever the reason for this new strange state of affairs, I can now get Spybot to immunize Opera by Mickey Mouse-ing around with the config files and locations. Thanks!
BTW, I do not have the plugin-ignore.ini files you mentioned.
Normally Opera uses the plugin-ignore.ini file in Opera's defaults directory
Also I found that if there is an opera6.ini file in the profile directory, Spybot will look for urlfilter.ini and cookies4.dat there too...so the root of the problem is that Opera moved from using opera6.ini to operaprefs.ini and Spybot never learned to look for operaprefs.ini instead
Hm, that's interesting but it's not the root cause of the problem since as you initially stated in posting this thread, Spybot was still able to detect and immunize Opera until the July 14 definitions update. I already suspected and agree that Spybot does look for the outdated opera6.ini file but it was working fine until that update, at which point we now have to place the opera6.ini file in the \Program Files\Opera directory where it never resided before.
It also appears that some major changes in the definitions update file occurred around that time as I suddenly noticed that Spybot was loading much faster. It used to take around 4 to 5 minutes to load, but now it seems to be under 2 minutes.
BTW, I finally understood what you meant by the defaults directory and I did locate the plugin-ignore.ini file. I was looking for it in the \Windows\Application Data directory instead of the main \Program Files directory.