How do you repair PhotoPlus8 after a malware hack hit?..

[donaldj]

I'm Running W98se in an old PC
I'm using 30 of MetAt's "free nudie samples", to practice and learn photo editing...
I sent MetAt some super-edits which took me several hours.. which made their girlie-pix look three-times better, and much more marketable...
As reward, someone started including undetectable malwares, in free sample pix, which totally trashed my PC's OS the next AM... I had a little soft flame-battle with them, after I finds the culprit pix, and they tells me they are clean.. but now, as the latest MetAt downloaded pix are loading in PP8's import files, PP8 is suddenly disabled, and crashes... just like last month, and the month before...

Several uninstalls, and installs, didn't fix it...

I contacted MetAt in an earlier such matter, and they complained that I was "stealing free samples".. and stated that they didn't do anything bad.... I asked them "how can I be stealing "free samples" if they are free samples?.. plus, given that my forums and blogs steer thousands of people to their links.. they should be thanking me for the extra business, not damaging my computer!.. They didn't respond...

I informed them that I would continue informing the thousands of readers to my computer help and photo edit threads, that their site is clean, if it is clean... And visa versa if it is dirdy...

The pix bullying suddenly stopped.. but its back again, for Christmas.. and now some computer whiz just nuked my PC's OS again, with a nasty in a downloaded pix...
I believe something in a MetAt pix caused this problem in PhotoPlus8, because it happened immediately after I downloaded those ten MetAt free sample pix, to do a little photo editing practice... intending to forward them any copies of any of my works that deserve being part of a model's resume...
I get the practice, the models get free photo editing, and MetAt sells more lovely pix... It was a gem quality three-way "win/win/win" scenario... Now it's only a lose/lose/lose scenario.. cuz of a bully havin' fun hurtin' people... oh yay... Did you get a lovely salty rush, bully, by wrecking my computer..? How much money did it earn you?.. How much did it lose you..? How do you sleep at nights..?

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PP8 freezes, and the pop-up reads:

"PHOTOPLS caused an invalid page fault in module MFC42.DLL at 0167:5f4012a1.
Registers:
EAX=00000000 CS=0167 EIP=5f4012a1 EFLGS=00010246
EBX=5f4d0008 SS=016f ESP=00e4faa4 EBP=00e4fad8
ECX=00000000 DS=016f ESI=019b9cf0 FS=3e7f
EDX=00000004 ES=016f EDI=00d2055c GS=3e5e
Bytes at CS:EIP: 8b 71 04 85 f6 57 74 26 8b 7c 24 0c 33 d2 8b c7
Stack dump:
019b9cf0 5f405921 00000d74 00d2055c 5f4d0008 00d20490 5f476d0a 00000001 00d20490 00d20490 00e4fe28 5f492a76 00000000 00e4fafc 5f4066cb 00d205ac "

I click OK, and PhotoPlus8 crashes...

Is there a simple way to restore PP8's functionality, without the need to uninstall/reinstall?..

Is there a way to protect W98se and PP8 from download photo software-vandalisms?..

In a download sample pix, I blended the orangish/red velvet-couch into the background, to soften the presentation into a more pleasing pix.. and suggested MetAt forward the edit to the model for her files...
The response I got the next day was someone put a nasty undetectable malware in a free sample pix, which totally destroyed my PC's OS... or they got into my PC while I was downloading..?

I suggested that it's not good for business to bully prospective clients...
Too bad too, because they were the best and "cleanest" nudie pix source out there, in "hell on earth"... which doesn't say much for the others...

Only PP8 crashes when loading these pix... IrfanView doesn't crash...
What's in InfranView that PP8 doesn't have..?

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In my ongoing project to get this PC working, without having to format-C.. I just did a Spybot update, and the scan found no-threats, and popped-up a warning:

"Error.. Access violation at address 0065391A in module 'SPYBOTSD.EXE'. Read of address 63736564"...

Is there a chance that my PhotoPlus problems have something to do with that error message?..

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I uninstalled PhotoPlus8, went to "C:\Program Files\Common Files", and renamed the "Installshield" directory to "Installshield Old".. and did a registry backup restore.. and a lot of cleanup work with Uninstaller, Nod32 AVS, Spybot, Regedit, CCleaner, CM DiskCleaner, EasyCleaner... and rebooted... and switched off the AVS, and reinstalled PP8... and still it crashes when loading the new MetAt pix file...

I downloaded, and installed: "http://www.microsoft.com/windows98/downloads/contents/WURecommended/S_WUFeatured/Libraries/Default.asp"

It didn't help... PP8 still crashes...

I applied a clean previous registry backup, from a clean fresh new systems reload..
didn't help...

Last few times this happened, I had to format-C to get things working again...

I am out of ideas to try.. except to post the details in the MajorAce computer help forum...

I'm wondering if reinstalling W98se over the system will fix it..? But it would probably just mess-up the whole thing, forcing me to format-C anyway...

It's sure weird how some folks, surviving on Internet businesses, haven't got the slightest
clue that if they damage people's computers, they lose clients, credibility, business, and almighty money... and all that's left for them, is to graze in them thar greenbags at the curb, and in farmer's orchards and fields, at night... Being nice to people earns more dollars, in priternear what ever business yer into...

I suppose this bit of Internet bullying, is someones little black Christmas-gift to the world...
Those who abuse the Internet just gotta know.. that what they are doing now, will definitely lead to the Internet being extremely legislated and policed, and thousands of weird court cases.. and Everyone paying per email, to pay for the legislating, and policing, and court casing, victim's services, and imprisonments.. and new mops for the inmates to keep the cold cement floors clean and pine freshly nauseous...
And years of peanut butter'n strawberry jam, as evening-treats, in place of beer, babes, and tokes...

Right now it's only brown-bubbles, issuing from the surface of the great abomination's cesspool of Internet bullies... But when it gets to be a Storm whatz splashing the pool's contents all over us.. then all the Internet bullies will be splashing-around in it too same as everyone else.. All of us paying per email.. all of us scratching our heads in wonderment, over emptier bank accounts, and wondering why it happened to us, that we now have to pay for sending out those millions of scammer emails, and why forums cost $hundreds to join..? duhh... You bullies are making it go this way...
The Internet was built to be one of War's tools... We are playing in one of War's toys...
There's a little hate war going on in the Internet... We must rise above the warish personality of the Web.. and grow it into something that respects life... or we will have dragged the Internet into hell, and our electronic communications age of fun with it, right down the toilet... The Internet will turn into Shit like everything else humans touch...
Who did it.. Coke head People abusing People via the Internet, did it... When did it happen.. Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow...
Same as it's coke heads who are driving this world war three towards a nuclear exchange.. after which, the floating radioactive dusts will fall all over the planet, extincting all this planet's fragile pollinators... We run out of food a couple years after that.. then the earth evolves into a global dessert... That is what our hate is leading us to.. and much sooner than you think...

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Anybody got any ideas to try to fix this PC, without needing to format-C..?

And it happens on my day off.. just when I was primed and ready to practice some good ole photo-editing... I supposes I gotta go back to Gimp and PP6.. oh sigh... oh well... oh no...

And I shouldn't "steal" anymore "FREE samples" from that crazy website... thht!..
I heard that "nothing is really free".. but I didn't really grasp it this much before... Free means, "Watch out for its freely given stinger, whilst us little fishies take the bait"...

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[burgkamp]

...Macs don't suffer with this sort of problem!