Windows 2003 Server R2 will not extract or run pchelpware

[bevtech]

Another user and I confirmed that if you have a self extracting exe made from pchelpware you can not extract it nor will it open..

[McClane]

Hi,

I also had a Windows 2003 Server which could not start even the extracted pchelpware.exe. Also a Windows XP SP2 had this problem.
But I had other server which don't have the problem.
I don't know what the difference between this computers is to help to solve the problem.

[Peter Marchert]

Hello,

I can confirm this bug on a SBS 2003 (German) with SP1 an all Updates.

Peter

[bevtech]

McClane,

I only have an issue with 2003 SBS I have not had any issue with windows XP sp2 at all..


Looks like we have 3 confirmed cases of pchelpware not working on windows 2003 servers so yes I would believe we have a bug with that..

[Peter Marchert]

May be this could be another issue with SBS 2003 but I didn`t confirmed it: No uppercase characters are possible.

Sorry, I must be a little bit more specific.

I had a remote control with pcHelpWare to a XP Desktop and from this a Windows Remote Desktop to the SBS Server. With this configuration no uppercase charachters could be entered. With the UltraVNC it is possible.

Peter

[bsmith]

The problem that people are seeing with Server2003 MAY not be on extraction, but on execution of the PCHelpWare.exe file that is contained within the zip.

I have tested this on 5 different SBS2003SP1 machines, and it only failed on two of the servers. I tested manually extracting the zip and running the PCHelpWare.exe that way. The EXE started and immediately ended. I am not sure what additional tools there may be to debug this.

I will check the servers in more detail to see if I can find any other common points between the two servers that had problems, which may be different from the three machines that did not have any problems. If I find anything I will post it.

[Rudolf Bargholz]

Hi,

I have been able to reproduce this problem on two Windows 2003 Servers (not SBS) at two different sites.

Posted the following before I became aware that this was a Windows 2003 problem.

[topic=9506][/topic]

Is there a method to create a server.exe without packing the exe with upx?

Regards

Rudolf Bargholz

[bsmith]

Unfortunately this does not appear to be a extraction problem. I have verified the problem to be in the 1SCDLL.dll file. I have determined this two different ways:

First I manually extracted all the files from the exe and tested running the server exe manually.

Second I have written my own .NET app that calls the StartServer method the 1SCDLL.dll. I ended up with the exact same results as with the PCHelpWare_Server exe. No errors are thrown, the dll just unloads.

If there was a way to run the server exe in a "debug" mode that would either report or log any errors rather then just closing when an error occurred we would have a better way of telling what was actually failing.

I understand from programming work that I have done that it can be difficult to debug a problem that a user is having when you cannot duplicate the problem on your own equipment. A debug mode would allow us to give the developers of this project more exact details of where in the program execution the error is occurring. Because the DLL's code is closed sourced I cannot test it any further.

This problem is being reported by several users and multiple machines I think that it would be appropriate for the PCHelpWare developers to at least acknowledge the issue. Even it they can't duplicate it, or do not have a solution. This is what the open source community is here for. Let us at least collect the debug information for you. You can then attempt to find a fix and still keep your source code closed.

[bevtech]

The Main Developer for PChelpware will not be back until the 12th or a day later he is out of town and does not have intenet access and has been for a few weeks. This is why you are not seeing messages for him

[scottjb78]

I can confirm that it will not work either on my SBS 2003 R2 with all updates. You click on the exe and it just does a quick hour glass and then never opens anything.

[McClane]

Has anyone a solution for this problem yet? More and more servers do not start the PCHelpware.exe which is quiet annoying.

[eddymicro]

I agree, from my testing the problem has nothing to do with extraction. I have seen the problem on 2003 R2 and some XP PC's, In one case it work on an XP PC then stopped working. I have searched thru this forum and cannot find a work around. Does anyone have a solution or work around for this problem!

Regards,

Ed Schwartz

[eddymicro]

One additional point I forgot to add. the PCHelpware_view.exe has the same problem as the standard (compressed and zipped) client

Regards,

Ed Schwartz

[GF]

any update on this ? tried to connect to a client with SBS 2003 and he had the same problem. The .exe doesn 't even run.

as a good guess , tried running in compatibility mode (Windows 2000) . That did not work either

[redge]

what the software zip/unzip do you use ?
some software know is 7-zip file self-extrator and open as zip and don't execute the file.

[GF]

what the software zip/unzip do you use ?
some software know is 7-zip file self-extrator and open as zip and don't execute the file.

i assume you mean the 7z.exe file that creates the self-extrator? yes, this is what we used to create the .exe file...it was done automaticaly

[GF]

2nd Windows 2003 R2 server machine that it wouldn't run. Guess this software isn't compatible with 2003 Server R2?

[redge]

third zip file manager unzip file and leave as is.
Maybe try 7-zip 4.47 beta for better compatibility with new OS and service pack

[jkuijt]

third zip file manager unzip file and leave as is.
Maybe try 7-zip 4.47 beta for better compatibility with new OS and service pack

Hi Redge,

Running PcHelpWare_server.exe on Windows 2003 SBS SP2 also doesn't work. The same problems as described in the previous messages.
I just downloaded the latest versions of UPX.exe (3.00w) and 7z.exe (4.47 beta), created a new PcHelpWare_server.exe, but still the same problem:
A window with "extracting 35%" and after that: NOTHING!

Perhaps can Rudi Vos tell us what's wrong under Windows 2003?

Best regards,

Jeffrey

[shoman100]

Hello,

Stumbled upon this post googling.

There is a bug in regards to zip files and 2003 sbs. Here is my observation.

I am working on a newly installed server with 2003 sbs (fully patched). It is going to be an Oracle server. I downloaded my Oracle files (.zip format). Go to unzip them and did so with no errors.

When I browse the extracted folders, not a single .exe file has been extracted. Lots o othre files, just no .exe's

Seems the OS has a problem unzipping the .exe files out of a zip file. Nice.

I loaded winzip 8.1 and the .exe's got extracted just fine.

Microsoft is notoriously bad about fixing bugs, i am not even interested in reporting this to them. I suggest finding a workaround.

[molson]

This is an issue for me as well. Works great 99% of the time... but on direct connection to 'some' 2003 sbs servers the program just flashes and disappears. So far I've been able to initiate the session on an XP client and use Remote Desktop to access the server. Hope this gets fixed soon.

[GF]

I had same problem using Windows 2000 SP 4

[linoter]

I ran into this problem as well (Win 2003 Server, Win Vista and Maxdata computers).
As much as I can tell, the initialization of the 1SCDLL.dll fails and program closes immediately. Therefore, I don't think it an issue of the used compression software...

[jtbutcher]

I had this same problem, I was unable to get the full executable to work, but you can get the uncompressed program to run. Its a DEP problem. The steps I took to get it working:

1. Create your server as usual.
2. After the script has run find the "create_server\server" directory and zip the following files:
1CHATDLL.dll
1SCDLL.dll
background.bmp
config.txt
helpdesk.txt
icon1.ico
PcHelpWare.exe
SCHook.dll
(I am pretty certain these are the files needed, correct me if I am wrong.)

3. Copy the zip file to the 2003 server and extract to a known location.
4. Right click "My Computer", and click "Properties" then click on the "Advanced" tab.
5. Click on the "Settings" button under the "Performance" heading.
6. Select the "Data Execution Prevention" Tab.
7. Click the "Add" button, navigate to the extracted folder and select the "PcHelpWare" executable.
8. Click "Ok" back through to the desktop and try running the "PcHelpWare" executable and it should work fine.

In my case I intend on using this on terminal services servers, so I will extract to a directory in program files and drop a shortcut on the all users desktop with the icon1.ico.

Hope this helps people, it would be nice to be able to run the normal executable if anyone finds a solution ( i have tried running the full executable after adding to the dep but it still hangs ). Some people may be able to disable DEP but unless you are well aware of the implications, I would not suggest disabling it.

[bevtech]

We will have to just have to wait until they complete uvnc before any work is done with pchelpware..;(

[SwissBeekeeper]

Thanks for the hint about Data Execution Prevention

Wikipedia specifies a link in
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Execution_Prevention
to a article from Fabrice Roux. Hardware DEP has a backdoor. Retrieved on March 22, 2007.
indicating that:

Also note that Windows silently disables DEP for certain executables, such as those packaged with ASPack.

[GF]

what works with pcHelpware:

Turn on DEP for essential Windows programs and services:

What fails:

Turn on DEP for all programs and services except those I select:

So it looks like those pcHelpwares that fail to run are all on machines where the 2nd option is enabled.

anyone else confirm?

[mstorman]

The solution that GF posted worked for me. Here is what I did.

1. Right Click on My Computer > Properties > Advanced > Performance > Settings > Data Execution Prevention Tab

2. Check: Turn on DEP for essential Windows programs and services only

3. Reboot

Matthew.