Banish Smartware and reclaim your computer

So you’ve installed Smartware and now your computer is useless due to its constant monopoly of resources?

The uninstall from the control panel will probably not work, so here’s what to do:

Go to your start menu and type MSCONFIG, press enter.

Select services tab and sort by company name. At the end of the list are three services listed as WD*, deselect these from starting and reboot.

You should be able to remove the files manually on the next startup.

Good luck.

The uninstall from control panel WILL work …

uninstalling Smartware will not work whenever you have a broken installer package.

then your method can be used… but I will always just try the regular method first and avoid messing up the computer if you are a noob

Uninstalling from the control panel did not work for me and a perusal of the forums will show that its not an uncommon complaint.

Of course uninstalling the easy way is preferred. My directions were for people who were having the same problems that I did.

As far as a broken installer package goes, that’s WD’s issue.

 

As far as a broken installer package goes, that’s WD’s issue.

mmm… eh… well… nope 

The installer package can crash due to a lack of necessary components on the OS

 

Of course uninstalling the easy way is preferred. My directions were for people who were having the same problems that I did.

 

 

thanks for clarifying that this is not standard 

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Going to have to agree with you on this one, Wizer. Antithesis_of_Support is not addressing the real issue here; the OS. He has an answer but not the reason “why”. I won’t elaborate “why” that is, but rather “why” this may have occurred, and how to possibly prevent it. I refuse to apply shortcuts and workarounds to situations, even if they save time, because they don’t always address future problems or current issues beyond the quick-fix.

SmartWare is based on the .NET Framework 3.5. If your OS is not completely up to date with all of the Microsoft components, including .NET 4.0 Client & Extended with any applicable patches from Windows updates included, and you are still having issues, the MSI package may have been corrupted beforehand by the OS. The .NET Framework 4.0 has the ability to repair and improve on flaws within the previous versions, and if your .NET 3.5 has issues, so will an installation of SmartWare. You don’t think Microsoft released .NET 4.0 and the applicable patches because .NET 3.5 was perfect, did you? Plus, if you don’t have them installed, your OS isn’t up-to-date, which may affect a large number of programs that are or will be installed on your system at some point in time.

Sure disabling any program of your choosing from auto running alleviates it from automatically kicking off when the OS boots, and is a nice workaround for someone that doesn’t want a number of programs running unless indicated by the user. But the MSConfig method is merely a band-aid solution for a problem that still isn’t being addressed, which is that the program isn’t running or removing correctly, due to an OS-related issue. Sweep it under the rug and maybe it’ll either take care of itself by “going away”, or someone else will clean it up for you. The latter would most likely be achieved by contacting their support team, if you are experiencing a technical issue that’s beyond your know-how, experience, or abilities. But you can also try to repair your system first by performing the .NET updates in their entirety, including all applicable Windows Updates for said Frameworks. If this was done proactively from the get-go, who really knows if the issue wouldn’t have presented itself to begin with.

Microsoft .NET 3.5 Framework SP1 updater

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=21 

Microsoft .NET Framework 4 (Standalone Installer)

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=17718

Microsoft Windows Update:

http://update.microsoft.com

WD Support:

http://support.wdc.com

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WD_Guru wrote:

Going to have to agree with you on this one, Wizer. Antithesis_of_Support is not addressing the real issue here; the OS.

 

 

 But the MSConfig method is merely a band-aid solution for a problem that still isn’t being addressed, which is that the program isn’t running or removing correctly, due to an OS-related issue. Sweep it under the rug and maybe it’ll either take care of itself by “going away”, or someone else will clean it up for you. The latter would most likely be achieved by contacting their support team, if you are experiencing a technical issue that’s beyond your know-how, experience, or abilities. But you can also try to repair your system first by performing the .NET updates in their entirety, including all applicable Windows Updates for said Frameworks. If this was done proactively from the get-go, who really knows if the issue wouldn’t have presented itself to begin with.

 

Sure, the OS did it. If only there were a way for the installer to check for dependencies…

My posted solution was intended to remove misbehaving software that would not uninstall politely. I certainly don’t need Smartware to backup, there are plenty of backup programs available that work without the need for three computer zombifying services.

The computer was fully up-to-date with all .NET updates via Windows Update. I also tried manually installing the two updated .NET packages prior to the Smartware update, as per the instructions from the WD support article. I was informed by the .NET installer that the software was already up to date. So, yes, it would appear that being proactive did not prevent the issue from occurring.

As far as your attempted witticism of  “Antithesis_of_Support”, it is non sequitur seeing as my solution was viable. If you are attempting to use words that  are beyond your know-how, experience, or abilities you may want to contact a supporting English dictionary and update your mental definitions.

Attencion! There’s an English teacher providing tech support. You have been warned by a rather extensive and sequitur vocabulary.

WD_Guru wrote:

 

SmartWare is based on the .NET Framework 3.5. If your OS is not completely up to date with all of the Microsoft components, including .NET 4.0 Client & Extended with any applicable patches from Windows updates included, and you are still having issues, the MSI package may have been corrupted beforehand by the OS. The .NET Framework 4.0 has the ability to repair and improve on flaws within the previous versions, and if your .NET 3.5 has issues, so will an installation of SmartWare. You don’t think Microsoft released .NET 4.0 and the applicable patches because .NET 3.5 was perfect, did you?

 

I know this is 4 weeks old but this is just so wrong on so many levels that I have to say something.

There are fundamentally only 3 Dot Net versions - 1, 2 and 4. Versions 3 and 3.5 were a small collection of files that ran on top of the 2 runtime and extended it in various ways. Any updates to 4 will not affect any other runtime version apart from 4. If Smartware (sic) runs on 3.5 then the installation of 4 or indeed any patches to 4 are completely irrelevant and will have absolutely zero bearing on any application based on 3.5. The frameworks are designed to be mutually exclusive (to the best they can be in the cases of 2, 3 and 3.5) and for very good reasons.

Windows Installer is a completely separate application and is supported and updated by Microsoft completely separately from the Dot Net framework. If you’re running Win7 it will be v5 and only v5, there has been no other version for Win7.

And finally, if you read through this forum, you’ll see that Smartware doesn’t work because it is badly written software that is not fit for purpose and has been like this for several years. A new version has come out so maybe this has changed. I’ve moved on to Genie Timeline and will not be installing the new version, I’ll leave it up to others to risk it and see.

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ok

CaphWD

you don’t like… me neither

move on … get another software

Enjoy your weekend :smiley:

1 Like