DXO Warning!!!

[jeffcable]

Good catch, Paul! Thanks for the heads-up.

I am the only person with access to my computer and anything that sits on my hard drives only does so with my explicit permission.

Hidden software that is installed without my knowledge on my computers is defined in law as hacking. It is a malevolent practice and has no place in a civilised society.

Producing software does not bestow on the developer, the right...
1. to subvert and control any computer which I own
2. to control the use of software for which I have paid the full license fee.

Installing secret software, after failing to notify the users of the hack, which is designed with the sole purpose of circumventing the security of personally owned computers, is a deeply objectionable and deliberate criminal act and it should be punished with the full weight of the law.

I will NEVER buy software from a company that believes it is has any right to control the use of my computers. I do not buy anything from the SONY corporation after their attempt at installing secret rootkits.

So long DXO. As a company, you deserve to go out of business.

[jeffcable]

DxO Labs

From the horse's mouth, so to speak...

"DxO products use a software protection system to prevent malicious users from installing the software in many locations as would be the case if unlicensed copies were made. This protection system works by leaving some hidden files and keys behind. None of this should interfere with other programs running on the machine. Registry Crawler is known to report errors in the registry. These errors do not prevent any other programs from functioning."

So if you bought DXO, they know you must be a malicious user

[Dennis_Vied]

If it's lens and perspective distortion you want to correct, PTLens does a great job, and it's only $15 from epaperpress. I've used it for years, and I understand that DXO is it's prime competitor.

[Noel_Carboni]

Well said, Jeff!

"None of this should interfere with other programs..."

Hogwash! Just by its presence it consumes system resources.

By the way, there is, of course, the Lens Distortion correction feature in Photoshop.

-Noel

[jeffcable]

As far as I can see, various countries consider secretive computer hacking to be an illegal activity, according to their legislation. In this case, I think DXO have arrogated an authority to themselves, which they have no right to hold.

Brazen hacking (ostensibly to protect their software from being copied) is unjustifiable just because they happen to believe that their clients are malicious. Charging reasonable fees may be one way to ensure that people pay rather than copy software. Limiting functionality is another method of ensuring payment.

Perhaps DXO should be supplying a pair of handcuffs with each copy of their software. Any customer who gets the urge to be malicious could then report themselves to the appropriate authorities, handcuff themselves and await the arresting officers who will arrive to cart them off to jail.

[jeffcable]

Originally Posted by sjprg

To remove Pro Tools:
1) Go to the "Control Panel" on your computer and open "Add or Remove Programs".
2) Locate "Digidesign Pro Tools (version)" and select "Remove".
3) Select the third option from the top "Pro Tools, Device Drivers, Preferences, Databases and MIDI Device/Patch Names", and continue through the uninstall process.
You DO NOT need to reboot your computer at this time. Rebooting your computer is one of the last steps.
4) Locate "Interlock Driver Kit" in "Add or Remove Programs" and select "Remove" and continue through the uninstall process.
5) Locate "PACE System Files" in "Add or Remove Programs" and select "Remove" and continue through the uninstall process.
If you do not see "PACE System Files" in "Add or Remove Programs" then you will need to delete the "PACE Anti-Piracy" folder located in C:\Program Files\Common Files.
6) You need to make sure "TPkD" is removed from "Non Plug and Play Devices" from Device Manager. To do this, follow the steps below.
*If you are already able to "Show Hidden Devices" in Device Manager, then skip to Step 8.
1. Press [Windows]+[Break] to bring up the System Properties dialog box. Or, right click on "My Computer" and choose Properties.
2. Select the Advanced tab and click the Environment Variables button.
3. Click the New button below the System Variables panel.
4. In the New System Variable dialog box, type devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices in the Variable Name text box and 1 in the Variable Value text box.
5. Click OK to return to the System Properties dialog box and then click OK again.
6. Select the Hardware tab and click the Device Manager button.
7. In Device Manager, go to View | Show Hidden Devices.
8. Expand the branch of "Non Plug and Play Devices" in the device tree locate "TPkD"
9. To remove the "TPkD" device driver, right-click the icon and select Uninstall.
You should also make sure the PACE files have been removed from the Registry. To do this click on "Start" and select "Run". Type "regedit" and hit "OK". Click the "+" sign next to "My Computer" to reveal it's contents, if the contents are not already revealed. Then, click the "+" sign next to "HKEY_Local_Machine", then click on the "+" sign next to "Software". Locate the "PACE Anti-Piracy" folder and delete it. Now, restart your computer.

additional note: This is one workaround if you want to continue to trust DXO software and you still want to use the application...

if you don't want the TPkd driver running in the background all the time then show the hidden devices as in the instructions above and set its Startup Type to Demand so it'll only run when you actually launch DXO.

Jeff

[JeffJohnson]

Does anybody know how to remove Interlok from a Mac? Will DXO still work? I have the new version installed on my Mac. I'm a quite disappointed to find it installed this Interlok program and am also quite disappointed that the file selection process in the program does not give me a way to see images at more than thumbnail size before converting them.

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