Having given up on Symantec’s “Norton” products for protecting my PCs against malware, I’ve been casting about for another vendor of security software. Tracie’s Dell laptop came pre-loaded with some anti-spam/anti-virus stuff from Trend Micro. It seems to work fairly well, so I purchased a three-seat pack of their current Internet Security 2007 package and installed it on the Paper Jade corporate computer and my other main PC. All seemed well at first, and I noticed in particular that its spam filter was quite effective.
Unfortunately it doesn’t get along well with the Microsoft debugger. This tool is essential for my Audio Damage work; if I can’t use the debugger, I can’t get my job done. So I sent the following message to Trend Micro’s support department via their web form:
I installed your product on my main PC and it seems to interact badly with Microsoft’s Visual C++ debugger. Your product seems to generate an endless stream of spurious log events when I use the debugger. Is there are workaround for this issue? I have been forced to remove your product since it makes me unable to do my work, but I would like to resume using it because I have been pleased with its performance on my other machine. Thanks for your assistance.
I’ll admit that this is not the most complete and detailed problem report that one could write. However, I figured that this is a known problem–I can’t be the only one who’s trying to run their software and Microsoft’s development tools at the same time–so I assumed that someone would see it, go “oh yeah, the debugger problem” and send me the appropriate canned response. Here’s the respose I received:
Dear Adam,
A pleasant day to you!
Thank you for contacting Trend Micro Technical Support. I have carefully read your email and I understand that you may seems to have issues with firewall.
If I misunderstood your concern, please feel free in replying to this email with more information. If I was able to determine the problem properly, kindly refer to the information I have provided below:
For PC-cillin Internet Security 2007.
Kindly do the following to change the Personal Firewall Profile…
1. Open the PC-Cillin’s main console and then click on Personal Network and Firewall Controls.
2. Click on Personal Firewall, then click on the Settings button.
3. Click on Home Network then click on Activate this Profile button.
4. Click OK.
Note: The Knowledge Base is a depository of information allowing users to get help in resolving any issue that may arise in using Trend Micro products. You can visit knowledge base web site at this link: http://kb.trendmicro.com/solutions/solutionSearch.asp
Please try the suggestions above at your earliest convenience. Should you have further concerns, please do not hesitate in sending us an e-mail. It is always our pleasure assisting you.
If ever your issue has been resolved, please email us back with a simple “close case” message so that we could formally close this case.
Thanks for choosing our product!
Best Regards,
Karen Martin
Consumer Support Team
TrendLabs HQ, Trend Micro Incorporated
Obviously this response is of no use to me. To point out the obvious: I didn’t say anything about the firewall, and she didn’t say anything about the debugger. Ever-so-slightly less obvious is the point that I can’t “try the suggestions above at [my] earliest convenience” because even if they were relevant, I’ve already removed the software from my computer. (Yes, I did visit their Knowledge Base; I did so before filing the support request.)
I assume that somehow someone (or something) didn’t have a ready response to my inquiry and grabbed one of the canned responses at random, hoping I’d give up and go away. Instead I replied as follows:
To whom it may concern,
Your reply has nothing at all to do with the problem I’m having with your product. Please re-read my original query and answer it. Thank you.
–Adam
I’ll post their response when I receive it. I’m not holding my breath. Meanwhile I’m giving the spam filter by PC Tools a try. Their Spyware Doctor (now available free from Google) seems quite good.
Hi,
I have had this one with Delphi. What you need is a thing called tmas35-oe.exe (Outlook express). The problem in my case was caused by the antispam toolbar code. With this .exe you can install the toolbar and then uninstall it, and Delphi gets back to normal. Not having the anti spam toolbar was not a problem because my ISP filters it first automatically.
If you have procmon.exe you can watch TM wasting your time…
HTH
Richard
Wow, thanks a bunch for that. You’re right, it’s the Outlook toolbar that’s causing the problems. (In the version of the software I have, you can turn the toolbar on and off from the “Main Console”.)
Hi Adam,
It is couple of weeks ago that I did this but my recollection was that the was somewhat resistant to my efforts to suppress it.
After I wrote my suggestion I had a look in Msconfig and in the startup section there is an entry for TMAS_OEMon. Disabling that is probably a more elegant way to do it, if doing it from the main console does not suppress it. The Procmon utility will show if it is still making a nuisance of itself.
I would have to say that the 2006 version of TM seemed to work reasonably well but the 2007 has been a big disappointment. But then the older I get the more I feel I am living in the movie Brazil, where technology just gets crappier and harder to use and more fragile, and, dare I say it, just a little bit fascisty. In fact from what I remember of the film, (seen 20+ years ago), it was remarkably prescient.
Richard
Hi Adam,
Thank you for posting your problems with Trend Micro’s product, and thank you, Richard, for the useful response. I had the same problem using Visual C++. The debugger would record the loading and unloading of a Trend Micro dll, apparently for every Windows message to the program, including mouse motion events, of which there can be thousands. Everytime I moved the mouse over my window, the debugger produced hundreds of messages.
I use Outlook instead of Outlook Express. In Trend Micro, I turned off Anti-Spam for Outlook, which did not help. Then I turned it off for Outlook Express, which fixed the problem. Then I turned it back on for Outlook, which so far seems to be ok. So I still have Anti-Spam in Outlook and I can now use the Microsoft debugger.
Thanks again to both of you for your help.
Robert
That’s exactly the same behavior I’m seeing: hundreds of messages in the debugger, including ones triggered by mouse-move events. Unfortunately the Outlook Express trick you describe doesn’t help; I don’t even have Outlook Express installed on my PC, and as far as I can tell there’s no application-specific switch for the Anti-Spam toolbar in the version of Trend Micro’s product that I’m using. Trend Micro wrote and wants me to provide them with a debugger log from their debugging mechanism but I haven’t gotten around to doing it. I really have my doubts that gathering this data will produce a tangible result from them.
To call Trend Micro’s Customer Support a “service” would be a joke. Every number one calls funnels them back to the same recording. Does anybody actually work at that company. They will automatically renew your subscription even after you cancel it and it is hell to get in touch with someone to reverse the charge. DO NOT BUY ANYTHING FROM THIS COMPANY. They are no better than a phishing expedition!
There’s an easy solution if they charge your card without your permission, and you can’t get ahold of anyone to issue a refund: call your credit card’s issuing bank and file a complaint. If you tell them that you’ve attempted to resolve the issue yourself with the merchant and they aren’t responding to you, they’ll side with you. Then you’ll get your money back and Trend Micro will get to deal with a chargeback, which will cost ’em $25 or more and (if it happens often enough) hurts their relationship with their merchant-account bank.