Announcing betas: TeaTimer / Updater / Vista integration

[PepiMK]

@bitman: I can't repeat it here Changed my startpage a dozen times at least :D
Could you give me the exact file version?

[bitman]

TeaTimer.exe

Size: 1446040
Version: 1.5.0.2
MD5: 00FA9709FB98A5F58EC6D4B3F2265C09

Have the same Home Page looping notification with both W2K and Vista RC2. Tried complete Spybot uninstall/re-install on Vista with no change. I was running the manual install 1.5 files (less SDHelper, which I'd reverted to 1.4 original) before the internal update was provided and installed.

Can't imagine what I might have installed that would cause this on two such different OS versions. Vista has virtually no additional apps except Office 2007, Windows Live OneCare and Adobe Acrobat 7.0.8.

[Reggie Stry]

You guys might want to take a look at my thread:

http://forums.spybot.info/showthread.php?t=10505


For the last few days, I've been getting this message every time I boot up (Win 2000 Pro):

Teatimer has detected an unauthorized database change (RegGBTB2-Global.reg) This could be the result of a system crash or of manipulation. Do you want to verify each possibly affected registry key (if you do not feel up to that, press NO and do a full system scan)?

I also updated about a month ago with the beta version because of the "allow button" problem.

I have the file in two places:

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Spybot - Search & Destroy\Snapshots
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Spybot - Search & Destroy\Snapshots2

To summarize my thread, it started soon after I edited my registry, closed a few services along with some ports that didn't have to be open.

[PepiMK]

We could finally reproduce bitmans problem, which happens only if TeaTimer starts with the Snapshots2 folder being empty... and that's where I rememberred your problem as well, could quite well be related.

I've planed hunting this down for tonight, already made sure there's enough coffee and cider

[FAUST]

already made sure there's enough coffee and cider

what a strange mixture.

[Reggie Stry]

We could finally reproduce bitmans problem, which happens only if TeaTimer starts with the Snapshots2 folder being empty... and that's where I remembered your problem as well, could quite well be related.

I'm not sure if you're referring to my RegGBTB2 problem, but I'm going to uninstall Spybot tonight, clean the registry with Regseeker by searching for all Spybot and Teatimer references. Then I'll unplug from the net:

a) reinstall Spybot 1.4
b) reboot
c) connect to the net and update the definitions and
d) reboot again, and see if there's a message. Finally, I'll
e) reinstall the Beta upgrade and reboot.

I'll report the results on both the thread I started and this one.

[PepiMK]

I was working on both problems, and they were probably related
Could you please close TeaTimer and replace the executable inside the C:\Program Files\Spybot - Search & Destroy\ folder with the one from this teatimer1503.zip, and try again?

[bitman]

We could finally reproduce bitmans problem, which happens only if TeaTimer starts with the Snapshots2 folder being empty... and that's where I rememberred your problem as well, could quite well be related.

Though the 1.5.0.3 TeaTimer version linked in your post fixes my issue on Windows 2000, the SnapShots2 folder wasn't empty. I can also return to the 1.5.0.2 version and again reproduce the looping prompts issue with Browser page Value changes, while using 1.5.0.3 will always fix it, with no other changes being made (renaming TeaTimer files only).

I don't know what the difference is, but at least the problem is fixed on W2K, I'll have to test Vista tomorrow, but wanted to at least report this tonight so you can move ahead.

< EDIT > Patrick, Would it be possible to add the TeaTimer File Version (Compile time variable?) into the TeaTimer Notification Tray Icon, About Information dialog? This would help a lot in support, with so many different versions of the file running around via so many deployment methods.

Thanks for considering this. Bitman

[Reggie Stry]

I was working on both problems, and they were probably related
Could you please close TeaTimer and replace the executable inside the C:\Program Files\Spybot - Search & Destroy\ folder with the one from this teatimer1503.zip, and try again?

I must apologize. I reinstalled Spybot S&D 1.4 along with the Beta upgrade before I had a chance to read your reply. I rebooted after reinstalling v1.4, started Teatimer, and rebooted again, and the Teatimer RegGBTB2 file alert didn't appear. Nor did it appear after upgrading to the Beta version and rebooting. I made a copy of the old Spybot program file directory and the Applications/All users Spybot directory in the event you had some further information on the clsid I found in the Global-reg file or wanted to see other files in the Snapshots2 directory, which I also don't think was empty when the problem existed.

Bitman's suggestion about adding the file version when you right click on the Teatimer tray icon and select "About" is a good one. I had to check the Teatimer.exe file by opening Windows Explorer and right clicking to select properties and see the version number.

I am currently using Teatimer.exe version 1.5.0.0. Would you suggest that I upgrade to version 1.5.0.3?

One other thing - when I first activated Teatimer, the icon stated that about 1100 processes were blacklisted. Only when I rebooted did it change to its current total of 26,087 blacklisted processes. Is this normal?

[PepiMK]

@bitman: while we could reproduce it with no snapshots existing, that wasn't the source of the problem, so it may well be that on your machine it didn't work even with snapshots.
There's a small bug with the Manifest still, and with adding the version number to the dialog (good idea ) it'll be another version still, so I may change that to 1.5.0.4 yet before putting it into the updates.

@Reggie Stry: if you rename the TeaTimer.exe to TeaTimer.bak, you can try out the new one, and step back quite easily by deleting the new and renaming the old one back. It would be very helpful if you would try the new one, so that I know if it helped or not!

About the number of processes blacklisted - the first one probably was before downloading updates? TeaTimer comes with a small list, and when you update, it'll use the regular detection updates as well (1.5 and newer does).