Hi Gents,
I've been making use of Giveaway for years now.
But as from the 1st time a .gcd file was included I have NOT been able to INSTALL ANYTHING again.
I have Windows 7; m I doing something wrong?
Thanks.
Installing with .gcd file
(13 posts) (7 voices)-
Hi, DickT,
as I don't know what you are doing, I can't say if you are doing something wrong.
The only thing you have to do with the .gcd file is not to do anything with it.
Unpack the downloaded .zip file which includes the .gcd file into a folder and install as usual. The installation file will use the .gcd file without your help.
SetUp and .gcd have to be in the same folder.Please read the blog for more info:
...PS: starting now an extra .GCD file is included in every download archive. It is essential for correct installation and activation. If you experience any difficulties, please make sure to extract all files in a separate folder before start.
graylox15.09.2012
Posted 11 years ago # -
calinal
MemberHi All,
I am also having problems since the .gcd file.
I unzip the 2 files to the same folder.
When I ask the .exe to run, the app installer comes in my screen but after a few minutes it just blink and disappear. I receive the pop up saying "successfully activated", but nothing happened.
My operating system is Win 7 Home Premium 32 bits.
Any help??
CalinalPosted 11 years ago # -
Hi, calinal, welcome to the forums.
I had the same glitch once and I found that IE was set to off-line.
That can happen when Windows installs the patches.
IE has to be in on-line mode even when you only use Firefox or Chrome or whatever browser.Another possible reason can be your antivirus programme. The new wrapper needs a rule for the AV software; check in the log files if the .gcd file has been deleted during setup.
Run setup with the right-click-administrator.Good luck.
graylox28.09.2012
Posted 11 years ago # -
calinal
MemberHi Graylox,
My IE is online, I stopped my AVG, I have both .exe and .gcd in the same folder and I ran as admin.
Nothing changed, except that now I cannot even see the app installer. It goes direct to the "successfully activated" popup.
Very strange.
Thanks anyway and please let me know if you have another clue.
CalinalPosted 11 years ago # -
Nightflower
MemberTo all you experts.... I'm just a pc user... I don't understand any of this .gcd...I don't understand how to put anything in one folder... Would someone try to walk us dummies through the process please. I have Win 7
Posted 11 years ago # -
mikiem2
ModeratorI'm just a pc user... I don't understand any of this .gcd...I don't understand how to put anything in one folder... Would someone try to walk us dummies through the process please. I have Win 7
The way it works, or the way it works for me anyway :) , is I have 7-Zip installed [ http://www.7-zip.org/ ], so I right click on the .zip file I downloaded from GOTD, & select 7-Zip -> Extract to "NameOfTheFile\", which extracts everything in the .zip file to a folder with the same name as the .zip file, for example today's GOTD was LasesoftDataRecovery.zip, & I extracted the files to a new folder named "LasesoftDataRecovery".
Inside the folder "LasesoftDataRecovery" there were 3 files: setup.exe, readme.txt, & a .gcd file -- sometimes there's a .exe setup file, the readme.txt, a .gcd file, & a 4th file called Activate.exe. Readme.txt always includes directions on how to install & register the app or game -- sometimes it lists a serial number or key, sometimes a name to use registering the app to go along with that, sometimes a web site to visit & fill out a form etc... You run setup.exe to install the app or game itself, then as needed, to register the software enter the key & optionally the name if you were given one, for example giveawayoftheday rather than your given name. When there's an Activate.exe present, you run that, usually after installation to register the app. Sometimes, like with today's GOTD, all you have to do is run setup.exe, & it's already registered. Again for me at least, that really is all there is to it. :)
----
What to expect when installing a GOTD...
Now, when you run a GOTD setup.exe file -- or the activate.exe file if/when there is one -- a message window opens as the software phones home to make sure it's still the right day... if you run today's GOTD setup.exe tomorrow or any other day than today the date won't match when it phones home & the software will not install or activate. Once it confirms the date the software will load the stuff it needs into your system's memory, then either start the software installation, or if you ran activate.exe, make whatever changes are necessary to register the app. Some people are having problems with things not going as they should.Problems & Possible causes...
One possible problem is that setup.exe or activate.exe may not be able to phone home to confirm the date -- elsewhere on the giveawayoftheday.com site there are tips etc. on where to look, what to look for if that happens to you. Another possible cause of problems is the AV [Anti-Virus] software that's been installed... GOTD is able to offer software for free in large part because they only offer it one day -- many companies don't want free copies of their software circulating forever, but see a one day, limited release as a way to attract new customers. To make sure that software can only be installed & registered the day of the giveaway, GOTD encrypts the actual setup files [or the files needed by activate.exe]. Since AV software can't break this encryption, it doesn't *know* if you're trying to install an app or game or if someone tricked you into installing mal-ware that'll infect your computer -- since it can't tell if it's OK or not, some AV software will automatically quarantine or delete the files that the giveaway needs. That's what's led to an awful lot of angst IMHO...Why people talk about .gcd files & such...
In life everything comes with pros & cons -- if you bar & chain the door when you get home, you're more secure but you have to undo all of that before you can leave, which can be a minus if/when you have to leave in a hurry. If you have AV software that very aggressively blocks anything that *might* harm your PC/laptop, it'll block some things that are really OK too. I strongly suspect that AV software is at fault for those folks who can't get any GOTD offers installed/registered -- to prove me right or wrong someone having problems would have to completely remove their AV software & give it a try, which AFAIK no one has been willing &/or able to do. IN & of itself the included .gcd files are meaningless -- rather than have one large setup.exe or activate.exe the GOTD team splits that file into 2 pieces, the .exe & .gcd. Splitting the files up into 2 pieces is rather new, so that just attracts attention.Why all the complaints?...
GOTD originally had a very simple setup where the actual install or setup files were placed temporarily in the Temp folder & run -- anyone wanting the actual setup file, that could be run any day, any time, just had to copy that setup file from the Temp folder & rename it. There were lots of posts on-line, Youtube videos, & even apps you could download, all for the purpose of making sure a GOTD wasn't. Obviously developers were aware of this, feeling that once something was on GOTD, unless it was a special version, they just gave it away to the world for free. To turn that around, & hopefully get better software they could offer, the GOTD team came up with a process that was much more bulletproof, so you couldn't just grab the temporary file & install it whenever. Some people complain because they can't get unlimited copies of apps featured on GOTD, though they might be too polite to come out & say so. Others complain because with the new setup GOTD apps won't install, often they're hesitant to accept suggestions that their AV software is to blame, some attempt to turn off their AV software & still have problems -- I don't think there's any way of telling whether their AV software is actually turning off or not short of backing up, Totally Removing the AV stuff [not just running uninstall], optionally adding something like MS Security Essentials if/when that's the only way you feel comfortable, & running whatever GOTD setups. I haven't seen anyone post that they're having problems And Not running AV software. Calinal is running AVG -- maybe it would be worthwhile to start a thread where people list what brands they're using that work with GOTD? I know McAfee Total Protection & Microsoft Security Essentials are all right with it.Posted 11 years ago # -
Nightflower
MemberThank you miklem2 I changed over to 7-Zip, printed your instructions and looking forward to a giveaway to try out. A Genius and Philosopher... Wow! Nicole
Posted 11 years ago # -
Nightflower
MemberOK People, If I can do it, anyone can.... Follow Mikiem2's instructions, It's all good.... Thank you again, Nicole
Posted 11 years ago # -
Bazza
MemberI too have not been able to install any GOTD software where a .cgd file has been required.
Running setup.exe (or activate.exe) from the same folder containing the .cgd file with admin priveleges and even dectivating my anti-virus (Symantec EndPoint) the installations fails with the following indications.
1. Popup window tells me that the application is phoning home.
2. The popup window closes.
3. Nothing else happens.
4. An inspection of processes running on the system shows that original setup.exe is still running.
5. The inspection also shows that another (and different) hidden application also called setup.exe is running in the users\temp\folder.
6. Closer inspection of this second setup.exe indicates a comment including the name of the GOTD application being installed and details of a security certificate referred by GOTD.
7. Left alone these two different copies of setup.exe continue to run on the system until until its next reboot or shutdown without the user being aware.
8. If the user attempts to run the the original setup.exe from GOTD again because he has seen nothing other than the original phone home popup all he sees is that popup again but inpection shows that he will now have not two copies of a setup.exe running on his system but four copies. So five attempts will leave ten copies of setup.exe running until the system is rebooted.
9. Using task manager to forceably close any of the hidden copies of setup.exe results in the GOTD popup window informing the user that the application has been properly installed although in fact nothing has been installed and no changes have been made to the system.So I would think that the basic problem is that any good anti-virus program and any good security aware operating system (mine is Win7x64) is going to be very suspicious of any executable that generates and executes an apparent and hidden clone of itself that is in fact quite different to itself. It is a typical signature pattern for so many viruses, trojans and others nasties.
Consequently if your system doesn't install GOTD applications feel satisfied you are perhaps a little better protected than those who can install GOTD applications and accept the notion that GOTD will eventually get around to developing a more stable way of delivering their excellent service.
Posted 11 years ago # -
Anonymous
UnregisteredSymantec is bad news it will not work with most setup not like encryption Symantec will stop its, it or say may be bad and tell you 50% say it bad
1. Popup window tells me that the application is phoning home. to GOTD to see if the right day you need to say it ok to Symantec
I get to # 7 and it all good for me on XP & Windows 7 [64-bit]
Posted 11 years ago # -
mikiem2
ModeratorPURELY FWIW...
"4. An inspection of processes running on the system shows that original setup.exe is still running.
5. The inspection also shows that another (and different) hidden application also called setup.exe is running in the users\temp\folder.
6. Closer inspection of this second setup.exe indicates a comment including the name of the GOTD application being installed and details of a security certificate referred by GOTD.
7. Left alone these two different copies of setup.exe continue to run on the system until until its next reboot or shutdown without the user being aware.
8. If the user attempts to run the the original setup.exe from GOTD again because he has seen nothing other than the original phone home popup all he sees is that popup again but inpection shows that he will now have not two copies of a setup.exe running on his system but four copies. So five attempts will leave ten copies of setup.exe running until the system is rebooted.
9. Using task manager to forceably close any of the hidden copies of setup.exe results in the GOTD popup window informing the user that the application has been properly installed although in fact nothing has been installed and no changes have been made to the system."With the exception of 25 Clips on GOTD Saturday [where I think the GOTD setup.exe might have been slightly broken], the GOTD setup app closes when the installation is complete, this triggers the message window, closing that triggers the GOTD page opening in your default web browser. Once you've completed all that there's no GOTD processes left running, though if the GOTD used an .msi installer, one or more Windows Installer processes may continue to run -- that can happen with any .msi file, regardless. It seems the nature of the DRM that portions of the GOTD setup may remain in memory until a Windows re-start, but that 1) shouldn't hurt anything, 2) won't be visible in Task Mgr. etc., & 3) is not unlike many other apps/processes that remain in memory once they're closed. OTOH if something prevents the GOTD setup routine from running properly, it's only logical that things may not happen normally. :)
"So I would think that the basic problem is that any good anti-virus program and any good security aware operating system (mine is Win7x64) is going to be very suspicious of any executable that generates and executes an apparent and hidden clone of itself that is in fact quite different to itself. It is a typical signature pattern for so many viruses, trojans and others nasties. Consequently if your system doesn't install GOTD applications feel satisfied you are perhaps a little better protected than those who can install GOTD applications and accept the notion that GOTD will eventually get around to developing a more stable way of delivering their excellent service. "
I politely & humbly disagree with your characterization &/or definition of "Good". :)
I also disagree as far as the source of any fault being with GOTD... GOTD provides a service, the terms of that service are clearly spelled out, & of course most anyone is free to choose whether they want to take advantage of that service or not. In the past GOTD used much less secure DRM that was taken advantage of, & in many [most?] cases might as well have not been there at all. Developers saw that & many wouldn't put their products on GOTD because of it. Assuming like the rest of us you want more, better software on GOTD, the answer then isn't less DRM, because that's already been tried. You could possibly require every developer to come up with a unique version of whatever app that could only be registered that day, but if they were willing to perform that amount of work GOTD would never have gotten off the ground in the 1st place. As it is now the GOTD DRM works well, but as is the nature of any DRM, making a copy of the protected content is prohibited. Protecting a setup or installation file yet allowing it to run normally requires hiding &/or encryption -- mal-ware setup apps work the same way to escape detection. Some security software prevents Anything like that from happening -- you decide for yourself whether that's an attempt to be more secure, or if it's just being too lazy [or greedy] to spend the time & resources needed so that their security software doesn't block GOTD's setup.exe. :)
Consumer security software generally works 2 ways -- pattern matching of known mal-ware components, & by monitoring app/process behavior. Pattern matching works obviously when the pattern's known -- when/if it's not that's where the monitoring part comes in. However one big problem arises when you monitor software behavior -- almost 100% of the time there's nothing that mal-ware can do that legitimate software can't, the exception being zero day exploits. According to their blogs etc., Kaspersky Labs automatically collects reports/data from installed copies of their software on newly infected machines, & that data gets incorporated in updates so their software knows to look for it. But the fact remains someone(s) gets infected 1st.
Not every company goes to those lengths [I only know Kaspersky does because I like/read their blogs]. Many set hard-wired rules & if an app/process violates them it'll be blocked or deleted. If/when those rules are overly strict, resulting in high numbers of false positives, companies may carve out a market niche, with claims [often parroted by users] that these higher numbers of false positives are proof it's working very well. And yes, blocking more behaviors does prevent more threats, but how far do you go? Running *nix is more secure than running Windows, in part because like those running Apple PCs/laptops, there's less software, so fewer opportunities to get infected by installing a bad app -- they also represent a smaller target than the number of people running Windows. So you could decide to run *nix, or you could buy an Apple product, or better yet you could never install any software. The majority of serious infections & compromised networks seems to be caused by phishing exploits, so you could stop using e-mail entirely, & that no doubt would make you more secure. There are also exploits that rely on you visiting a web site, & there's mal-ware that spreads via a network -- do you disconnect too? Even that's not 100% foolproof BTW -- there are all sorts of exploits that have been performed by hacking authorized users, by gaining unauthorized physical access, by authorized users intentionally doing bad stuff.
Win7 is more secure than previous versions, but it Is Not secure, & is not as secure as *nix -- Microsoft limits quite a few security-related features, does not include many in Windows, because they need the OS to be generally usable by vast numbers of people, & those users have been very vocal on the degree of usability they'll accept. Major brands like McAfee & Microsoft [& several others I don't have] take a similar approach, striking a balance where usability is as important as security. After all, everyone that has a PC &/or laptop & such has that hardware to use it -- Not to spend all their time & effort trying to protect it... if that were the only goal they'd all be stored in vaults. :)
Posted 11 years ago # -
@ All who still have problems to install/activate a GOTD with the new wrapper:
Please go to the BLOG and post your problems there too, with some info about your system, AV programme, firewall, anti-malware and of course your OS.
The more info you provide, the greater the chance to get help.http://blog.giveawayoftheday.com/gotd-wrapper-is-updated/
It's easier for the team to find all the problems in one place.
Thank you.
graylox
08.10.2012
Posted 11 years ago #
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