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Also, I understood that Starforce can also physically harm your Hard disk, is it true?

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I haven't seen any posts (that are credible) showing that StarForce physically damages hard disks, although I have seen some (possibly credible) that suggest it may harm optical drives. Most of the problems appear to be software conflict related, with occasional corruption of files. This isn't unlike many other types of software that may be incompatible with existing products on the system.

The likelihood is (IMO) very low that StarForce would physically damage hardware since it is a software product that installs low-level drivers, and these drivers are (intended only) to enable or disable your ability to run the game based on the checks it does. Of course, because it is a very low level driver, if it is badly written, it could potentially cause what seem to be hardware problems, but some of these have been resolved simply by reinstalling the OS, with no permanent damage to hardware.

The reason I'm suggesting people install the game on a completely separate OS is to avoid major problems should they occur on their primary OS/partition. With a dual-boot system, once you reboot to the original (standard use) OS you have no problems because the StarForce drivers will not run.

Here's a very informative post from UBISoft from last October. It details the types and percentages of problems they documented from games that have used StarForce. One thing to keep in mind is what I've already pointed out; a lot of users never knew StarForce was installed on their systems, so they probably didn't know who to complain to about problems that occurred.

Making a new partition is very easy using Partition Magic, and installing a new OS isn't hard or time consuming. Probably the most time-consuming part of such a project is adding the service packs and patches. I recommend making a slipstreamed version of Windows XP if possible, which makes the process faster, expecially if you rebuild your PC more than every year or two.

You can also create a custom, modified version of Windows XP to install by using nLite, also a very useful thing to do.

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This is really OT for this thread and this thread is pretty important, actually.

However, to your point:

New Windows OS's are generally quite compatible with recent software products and games, so I'd guess there would be no problem. However, that' really a question for Microsoft, since they are releasing their OS after R&F is released. You can't promise to make current software (R&F) compatible with something that hasn't been released yet (Vista). Unless of course, you're a Microsoft developer.

[This message has been edited by The_lucky_man (edited 06-08-2006 @ 12:45 PM).]

[This message has been edited by _o0XxX0o_ (edited 06-08-2006 @ 02:30 PM).]

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The beauty of Partition Magic is that you can completely reorganize a hard disk at any time without having to rebuild your system from the ground up. Take your existing system, which may have a single 60 GB partition and make it into two logical 30 GB drives, for instance. The primary limitation is how much free space you have on the physical drive, as you don't want to have PM move data around while it's repartitioning.

You can create a new partition and install a new OS in about 45-60 minutes if you know what you're doing.

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Optical drives are CD and DVD drives, which use optics (lasers) to read and write data, unlike Hard drives/disks which use "heads" to transfer data.

He also said that if there is a program already installed on your computer that is like Deamon, one that copies an image of the game to your hard drive for the purpose of emulating the disc, that StarForce will get pissed at it, and will do bad things.

*added later*

After looking around, it looks like bypassing earlier versions of StarForce copy protection is easy. But later versions are more suited to handle Daemon tools. That is exactly why there have been a lot more problems with later versions(as mentioned to me by the computer specialist).

StarForce is an extremely intrusive program. I don't want to pirate their game, I just want to protect my optical drives from it. There is a program called StarForce Nightmare that hides your cd/dvd drivers from their program. By itself that would not be enough to come even close to playing the game without the CD(or dvd). But it would possibly prevent StarForce from affecting the optical drivers will the game is not running. Or at least the ealier versions. The later versions may be a problem.

[This message has been edited by _o0XxX0o_ (edited 06-08-2006 @ 04:09 PM).]

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It's important to remember that StarForce does not harm most computers it is installed on, and that no one here should get hysterical about the fact that it's bundled with R&F, unless they have a bunch of pirated software on their system, or cracking tools, or imaging tools which StarForce may not like. Users who have the highest risk certainly know who they are, and frankly they also should know how to partition a drive and reinstall a second OS to avoid problems with StarForce. If not, this would be a good time to learn.

If you're running a second OS, StarForce will have zero effect on your optical drives on the first OS. That's why I am running the game that way. That's not to say that I fall under the category mentioned above; I don't have any pirated software or anything that StarForce would take issue with. And so far, no problems at all, btw. I do have to protect my system though, since I run my business from it on one partition/OS.

http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/13212

SCARRY!!! I don't want some piece of CR*P program like this on my computer!

Besides partitioning the HD costs MONEY!!!!

Going out and spending $20-$60 for a partition program and installing OS is way, way too much trouble.

Besides, as it stands I don't know how to do all those things and I'm sure a lot of casual computer people don't either.

All this for 1 game? BOYCOTT, BOYCOTT, BOYCOTT!!!!

[This message has been edited by _o0XxX0o_ (edited 06-08-2006 @ 04:59 PM).]

The support forum at StarForce has several threads like the one you mention. To their credit, the mods there allow such postings and they respond to them regularly (although as I've noted, the repsonses have not always been what we would call "professional" or "courteous"). I chalk a lot of that up to the fact that these guys are Russian programmers, probably former hackers, and not PR guys by any means.

There are a lot of accusations about StarForce, and while a few are credible, I do not believe this product is going to be a problem for the vast majority of R&F players. I am always cautious personally because of what I use my PC for, and because I actually find it interesting to have a system that is built the way it is. It was fun setting it up. Your mileage may vary.

Also it seems there is a lot of talk about how very few cracks are availible for StarForce games.

I just wish they would make a seperate version with no copy protection for people like me. People who actually buy the game, and never give it away for free, or for any amount of money.

[This message has been edited by _o0XxX0o_ (edited 06-08-2006 @ 07:36 PM).]

i don't take risks, no starforce in my system.

not buying the game, so frustrating.

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LoL, every time you install a hotfix for Windows you're taking a risk. Every time you install a new piece of software you take a risk. Every time you open an email attachment you're taking a risk. Every time you browse an unknown web site you take a risk. The list goes on and on.

We all choose our risks based on the rewards we want. I'm willing to take the risk of installing StarForce because the reward is to play Rise and Fall, and it has been a blast playing the full version of the game! Too bad some people are too intimidated by internet heresay to give it a try.