FIX BUILD of BOClean 4.21 has just been released (4.21.002)

A FIX BUILD of BOClean 4.21 has just been released - this "fix build" addresses two problems in the original release. New copies of the "002" began delivery a few minutes ago.

The first problem required replacement of the BOClean DLL file to solve a problem on some machines where bootup time was excessive and caused BOClean's DLL to load before its kernel driver had been loaded, resulting in it being unloaded by the system. This resulted in 100% CPU and lockups under certain conditions. In addition to a new DLL, we reverted to the original kernel driver. The second problem involves a bug in the BOCEXC.EXE "excluder" module which would write out its data to a BOC420.DAT file instead of the correct BOC421.DAT file, making exclusions impossible. Finally because of complaints that the unaffected BOCLEAN program file itself was not changed to reflect changes to other modules, the BOC421.EXE file was retagged as 4.20.002 even though no changes were ever made to that file. Synopsis of files are as follows:

BOCDRIVE.SYS 8,477 05-01-05 3:22a (reverted to original)
BOC4UPD .EXE 46,592 02-25-06 6:46a (no changes)
BOC421 .XVU 200,951 02-27-06 11:35a (no changes)
BOSETUP .EXE 159,744 02-27-06 8:48p (no changes)
BOCORE .EXE 69,632 02-27-06 3:00p (no changes)
BOCLEAN .DLL 81,920 03-01-06 1:17a (fixed kernel loader time in 001)
BOCEXC .EXE 118,784 03-01-06 8:53p (fixed incorrect 420 with 421)
BOC421 .EXE 196,096 03-01-06 9:09p (changed version number only)

On the first replacement, we automatically resent the files to all who had received the earlier file. We are not going to do so this time - you will need to request the upgrade again. This is necessitated by some rather nasty people who put in "spamming complaints" against us for trying to do the right thing. "No good deed goes unpunished." Therefore, there will be no automatic resends except to our corporate/governmental/institutional customers who have already received their replacements.

 

I'd say this was "unbelievable", except that it isn't. Does anyone actually know what "spam" is? I have been reported to SpamCop.net for making newsgroup postings that were critical of Microsoft. That was fun.

BTW, I received the first resend automatically, and I appreciated it. Oh well.

To the people who complained about "spam": I'm holding up my hand. Pick a finger.

 

Thanks for the official word Kevin. I agree with nameless in that people complaining about spam is just plain ridiculous.

I was quite happy that after the first upgrade was sent, the second one came without me having to request it.

Like I stated in the other thread, I e-mailed last night to receive the upgrade for the new 4.21.002 build pointing to your post here on Wilders last night.

Thanks again for fixing this problem so quickly. It's much appreciated and goes a long way with me. Your customer service level, as always, is quite high.

Cheers.

 

Thanks, folks!

Well ... been 30+ hours now, 27,600 or so emails, and ONE complaint about the 002 build which pretty much demonstrates that the one person with a problem has something entirely else going on that we'll figure out with a bit more back and forth with them.

Looks like the 002 is the *final* build (faster than ever before on any prior releases) and so the world is a happier place, the sun is fundamentally better and brighter. Heh. So for those who have been hanging on, "come and get it!"

One thing that I'd been too busy to remember until now is that the PRIMARY reason for the 4.21 build is that the old BOClean 4.12 will expire in another day or two once it hits the limit for how many it could handle. While there is no fixed number of trojans in any prior version of BOClean, there was a hard limit on how much memory we would allocate and then protect against being "injected." As of 4.20, our design changed to reflect recent history of "who can tell?"

So the REAL issue here is that 4.12 is about to die off, and while 4.20 has been doing yeoman service since November when it was released, we thought it "good design" to release a 4.21 including all of the features we ANTICIPATE will be needed "going forward" and timed the release of "what we had" so that folks migrating from 4.12 would be able to get a bit ahead of the curve. And naturally, since upgrades were free, figured we'd invite those with 4.20 along for the ride as well. While 4.20 will continue to be supported for a while though, there are a number of improvements in 4.21 (as well as some entirely new directions) which are worth having in ADVANCE of the need to "click them in" on our side as required in the future.

Now that we're CERTAIN that 4.21 is finally "stable" and there's no more surprises that weren't found in pre-testing, the invitation is there for anyone with an earlier BOClean to come and get 4.21.

I'd also like to explain what's going on here so folks can understand the seemingly "erratic" nature of their receipt of the new version. We stopped distribution a couple of times over the past few days when we discovered that about 90-100 people were suffering "common problems" with the original build, and then we learned that the wrong "excluder" had found its way into the "personal" version of BOClean and that required the 002 "fix." From time to time, we encounter literally "one of a kind" problems that almost always turn out to be something unrelated to our products which we eventually figure out, walk the customer through, and they get their problem fixed once the REAL problem is discovered when it isn't our doing. Multiple reports of the same problem will cause us to shut down delivery so as to affect as FEW people as possible with one of OUR design flaws. Once the problem is solved, we began delivery with the FIXED version. So that caused QUITE the pileup earlier in the week as requests came in and we weren't sending them out until we'd fixed the problem. We fell 36 hours behind at one point.

We have about 750,000 *personal* customers. We have THREE people allocated to upgrades since upgrading people for free is a substantial money-loser for us. No income, all cost. Thus THREE people is all we can afford to dedicate to the task of "free upgrades" ... when folks originally purchase BOClean, Digital River (our e-commerce partner) offers the option of "Extended download" which means that you don't HAVE to wait for us to email it to you, you can just go download the new version instantly. Most folks however, don't want to pay Digital River for that ability, and thus the limitations of "you got what you paid for." Hope no one takes offense at this, but costs is costs and there are limits to what we can afford to provide for free. Just wanted to explain the "bigger picture" as to WHY we're dancing as fast as we can for folks who want their upgrade and try to define the reasons why it might take a few hours. It's not like we're charging again like many other software people for a "new version." If *I* had a nickel for every time I bought somebody's software and there was a new version the next day that I COULDN'T HAVE without paying for it AGAIN two days later, well ... I'd have a LOT of nickels.

We don't play like that.

Sooooooooo ... 4.21.002 is *STABLE* and reliable, we've got it and it's good, come and get it! Just please forgive us if it takes a few hours to get you yours, and please forgive ME if you send an email and it also takes a few hours. Once we get everybody swapped out, THIS whizbang might be good for another year or more without anybody having to go through this again! And I might actually have time to come out and play and provide interesting and humorous commentary again. (grin)

 

Believe me, all of us WILL be looking forward to THAT.

Acadia

 

Thanx Kev! looking great again, keep it up!

 

I sent a request for version 4.21 upgrade via email a few days back when 4.21 was released. At the time, I didnt know that 4.21.002 was released immediately afterwards and so I wasnt sure which version I would receive so I sent in another request today to be sure that I would get the latest version.

In the email, it still says version 4.21.001. So is that an automated message that somebody forgot to change or am I still getting the older version?

 

You can check. After you decode it, cancel BOClean setup, if it launches (I say "if" because sometimes for me, it does, other times, it doesn't). You'll be left with a file named BOC421.EXE, which is a self-extracting archive.

Change the file name to BOC421.EXE.zip, temporarily*. Assuming you have an archiver that can handle the format (WinRAR 3.51 works, if nothing else), extract the BOC421.EXE inside that archive, and check its properties. If it says version 4.2.1.2, and BuildNumber 002, you have 4.21.002.

* You can also use your archiver's shell extension to extract BOC421.EXE directly, if your archiver has such a feature, and it's enabled.

 

yea, the file that is sent for build 421.002 is still labeled build 421.001.. after you install it, if you open the "control panel", you should see that it says that it is build 421.002..

the email itself mentions build 421.001, but there is one place in the email where it mentions build 421.002..

 

Thanks for clearing it up for me.