Casino's running when they are closed

[liquidsoap]

I just ran a program called Hijackthis on my computer. I usually check for viruses every once in a while, and I found that 2 casinos that I have deleted were running while I ran the virus software.
I deleted all the files of the casinos that were running over 2 months ago.
Both casinos were microgaming.
Anyone else have this problem???

 

[happygobrokey]

maybe hjt identifies all the registries/processes, and lists some that are now defunct but their registry entry or whatever remains from when it made that path for the game before.

but i'm crap with computer tech and make neither head nor tail of the hjt report. i had to paste it to some nerd back when i had a bad malware and he told me what to delete. anyhow, my thought is it is just a remnant pathway not in use, but i can't visualise what you are looking at to tell you it is running. good luck nonetheless

 

[liquidsoap]

I am sure it was nothing, it actually said the name of the casino in the file.
I deleted the files, I was just wondering if it was normal.

 

[vinylweatherman]

I am sure it was nothing, it actually said the name of the casino in the file.
I deleted the files, I was just wondering if it was normal.

Microgaming casinos leave behind the registry entries when deleted. Sometimes they levae behind the whole set of registry data, not just the master key, and this might be interpreted as the application still "running".
If you want to clean these entries, and try again, look for the key "microgaming", and above it the other key "MGS". Enter these and you will see "casino" and within this all the names of the Microgaming casinos you have ever installed, even flash ones!.
You can delete the keys for the casinos no longer installed, although should you reinstall them again they will forget you already have an account and trigger the new account registration screen (remember the accounts, as a mistake here could breach multiple account rules).
If you have removed ALL Microgaming casinos, including Flash shortcuts, you can delete the pair of master keys altogether "Microgaming" and "MGS".
It would be wise to create a restore point beforehand if in any doubt (XP) or at least back up the entries before deletion in case some other casinos have problems. Microgaming poker rooms ALSO USE THESE KEYS!!!

 

[Nifty29]

You're such a geek Vinyl

 

[vinylweatherman]

You're such a geek Vinyl

If you think I am bad, just take a look at my Nephew. He can play most of the games like World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy etc, knows several cheats, and has a few contacts. He is not so hot on programming though, and I made him pay dearly one visit not so long ago for spending 80 hours solid on MY PC, then complaining when I dared play a Casino Action tournament when he went for a nap. Still, I got the washing up done for me

 

[Zoozie]

Actually a lot of windows programs does this and not just MG casinos. The windows 'registration entry database' is one of the worst architectual computer designs ever and I would not mind spending an entire day of my life doing nothing else than kicking the 'mastermind' behind this in his nuts. It does not scale at all and it is messy.

The idea behind the "registration database" was to give programmers/software developers easy access to storing application data and also user-specific data. For
user-specific data it does makes a little sense, but for general application data it is a mess. The problem is all programs then fill this database up will all
kind of crap. The right solution for applications would be to store the 'settings/configuration' for the program in a file(XML, property-file etc) WITHIN install
folder for that program. Many programs do this at least, but a lot does not! The only property I can see that would make sense in the registration database is
the install path. Then when you update a program you would not have to point to the install folder.

So because the windows API makes it easy to store data this way a lot of lazy/unskilled/retared programmers actually does this. And the result is a massive accumulation of crap that makes your Windows running slower and slower over time and also boot slower. Besides some wrong entries here can make Windows unstable and crash even though the data put there was by a program you never use. Also read/write access to important window system data is not restricted in anyway so viruses etc. just changes
the windows startups entry so the virus program also are started.

Millions of windows users have had to reinstall windows over and over because of this design.

That helped, I feel better now.

Zoozie

 

[vinylweatherman]

I've only had to reinstall mine twice since 2000, but a third is due

This design has lead to a great earner for programmers with a whole legion of registry cleaners, compressors, strippers, etc.

In the case of Microgaming though, it's damn useful they have put so much "crap" in there in plain view. Helps with diagnostics because it is in "plain geek" rather than encrypted within files like the other stuff.

 

[me_and_ed]

I have been having problems with some of my M/G's, I posted a thread about not being able to install BigDollar, I just saw it running in the processes and it is not installed, I cant run CasinoUS, I can run Grand Bay, I cant install BigDollar, it downloads but then disappears, the same with CasinoUS, I have tried evereything but nothing work????

 

[KasinoKing]

So because the windows API makes it easy to store data this way a lot of lazy/unskilled/retared programmers actually does this. And the result is a massive accumulation of crap that makes your Windows running slower and slower over time and also boot slower. Besides some wrong entries here can make Windows unstable and crash even though the data put there was by a program you never use. Also read/write access to important window system data is not restricted in anyway so viruses etc. just changes the windows startups entry so the virus program also are started.

Millions of windows users have had to reinstall windows over and over because of this design.

Thanks for that very interesting info!
That probably explains why my PC's are getting slower & slower no matter what I do.

So is there any way of clearing out all this unwanted crap without re-installing Windows?

Cheers!
KK

 

[Zoozie]

So is there any way of clearing out all this unwanted crap without re-installing Windows?

There are several programs out there that tries to delete all the crap in the registry. How much it improves is hard to say. Theoretically there is chance they remove too much so you have to install a program over, but that is unlikely. I have never tried the programs myself. I just reinstall windows every year or so. I have 4 harddisk in my computer and one of them runs windows and only windows and I do not install anything there. Whenever I install programs (casino, games) I always use one of the other disks. So I never install into C:/program files/ etc.. But D:/program files/ on a seperate drive.
All 'static' files music, movies etc. I have on another drive. (E).

Most programs/casino/games survives a new windows install on my c-drive so I do not have to start from scratch every time.

Here is a link to a safe site I googled with a registry cleaner program.

Old / Expired Link

Zoozie

 

[vinylweatherman]

I have tried several, and some are indeed over enthusiastic in their cleaning. There is also a program to clean old and abandoned DLL files from the system directory. The best are those that look for "dynamic" as well as static loading references, and that allow the archiving of the DLL files to be deleted. This archive should be kept for long enough for you to try all the software you have installed.
Finding good utilities such as this can increase the intervals between full OS reinstall, just like using a quality oil in a car can extend the intervals between services, but never eliminate them altogether.

I will try this one mentioned by Zoozie to see how it performs on this old Win98 PC (which I have set to back up the registry every day). I like the fact it allows the user to review before cleaning up.
Another good one is "Registry First Aid", however the free trial version only scans, and will only clean 10 faults at a time (out of hundreds possibly detected). It supports user checking, grades the entries to be fixed according to how dangerous it would be to get it wrong, and has both a preprogrammed and user defined exclude list.
The problem with these cleaners is that some programmers deliberately put "invalid" entries into the registry for their own purposes that don't obey the rules.
One common fault is "registering" files that are not either DLL or OCX. Some put help files in, the problem being the block used to store all these entries is limited to 64K, and once full, nothing more can be installed on the PC (and the reason is not at all obvious to the user). I had this happen once.

If I didn't have those "geek" qualities, this Win98 PC would be long dead, and would be so much landfill (or in Nigeria having all my personal info stripped from the hard drive).