If you've tried Windows 11, you may have noticed that the usual
proportion of ancient apps stop working, for me it was EncSpot, a
utility that reveals very detailed info about MP3 files. Still worked
under Win10, but I had to sacrifice it to continue running 11, in
2021. However, just now it occurred to me I should still have a copy
of the installer, so I gave it a shot under current generic Wine, and
it works fine. One up for Wine over the current Winblows.

--
Joel W. Crump

On 11/22/2023 9:12 PM, Joel wrote:
> If you've tried Windows 11, you may have noticed that the usual
> proportion of ancient apps stop working, for me it was EncSpot, a
> utility that reveals very detailed info about MP3 files. Still worked
> under Win10, but I had to sacrifice it to continue running 11, in
> 2021. However, just now it occurred to me I should still have a copy
> of the installer, so I gave it a shot under current generic Wine, and
> it works fine. One up for Wine over the current Winblows.
>
What did your technical analysis show ?

Virustotal ?

For your EncSpot.exe , do a SHA256 and post the string.

*******

I got a false positive the other day, on a LAN scanner.
So I had to hide the damn thing, by zipping and encrypting,
so Defender would leave me alone.

Paul

Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote:

>> If you've tried Windows 11, you may have noticed that the usual
>> proportion of ancient apps stop working, for me it was EncSpot, a
>> utility that reveals very detailed info about MP3 files. Still worked
>> under Win10, but I had to sacrifice it to continue running 11, in
>> 2021. However, just now it occurred to me I should still have a copy
>> of the installer, so I gave it a shot under current generic Wine, and
>> it works fine. One up for Wine over the current Winblows.
>>
>What did your technical analysis show ?

It's a file I've had archived for many years, used many times under XP
through 10 (not successfully executing after installation under 11,
while still being supported as I mentioned by Wine).

>Virustotal ?

https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/7ac25e86df14f476510d5851bd3276d9e309e0bba770607e4daee9f980321239

>For your EncSpot.exe , do a SHA256 and post the string.

58cbd90661738f0066aee866343d4944f785cf94cc6971c458b3aa5429b5c4ed

>I got a false positive the other day, on a LAN scanner.
>So I had to hide the damn thing, by zipping and encrypting,
>so Defender would leave me alone.

I have zero security software other than a firewall if it's even
turned on. I should check, actually.

--
Joel W. Crump

Joel <joelcrump@gmail.com> wrote:

>It's a file I've had archived for many years, used many times under XP
>through 10 (not successfully executing after installation under 11,

I should clarify, I am sure it was already installed in Win10 before
the 11 upgrade, but failed to run under 11.

>I have zero security software other than a firewall if it's even
>turned on. I should check, actually.

It was not turned on, I changed that, but running Linux behind a
router is pretty safe, anyway.

--
Joel W. Crump

On 11/22/2023 10:28 PM, Joel wrote:
> Joel <joelcrump@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> It's a file I've had archived for many years, used many times under XP
>> through 10 (not successfully executing after installation under 11,
>
>
> I should clarify, I am sure it was already installed in Win10 before
> the 11 upgrade, but failed to run under 11.
>
>
>> I have zero security software other than a firewall if it's even
>> turned on. I should check, actually.
>
>
> It was not turned on, I changed that, but running Linux behind a
> router is pretty safe, anyway.
>

TrID Inno Setup installer (81%)

That is an installer, so you'd have to use an unpacker to take it apart.
The unpacker I've got, there is one version it won't open.

*******

If you want to test Windows Defender, it has a detection type of
"Hackerware" for this. Of course there is nothing wrong with this
program, but somebody at Microsoft doesn't like looking up the
license key, so this detection is included. Nir Sofer is a prolific
programmer (just like Mark Russinovich), and some of the staff at Microsoft
hate prolific people.

https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/product_cd_key_viewer.html

The file might appear in your Downloads folder, then immediately
disappear. And then there should be a toast telling you about
the new "hackerware" they've put in quarantine. And if you
take it out of quarantine, they will only pester the living
hell out of you.

*******

OK, this seems to be your file.

https://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Audio/Other-AUDIO-Tools/EncSpot.shtml

Name: setup.exe
Size: 560243 bytes (547 KiB)
SHA256: 7AC25E86DF14F476510D5851BD3276D9E309E0BBA770607E4DAEE9F980321239

C:\Program Files (x86)\GuerillaSoft\EncSpot\EncSpot.exe

Name: EncSpot.exe
Size: 622592 bytes (608 KiB)
SHA256: 58CBD90661738F0066AEE866343D4944F785CF94CC6971C458B3AA5429B5C4ED

It installs on Win11, but it does not uninstall cleanly.
I cannot figure out what it is talking about, as the
Program Files folder is gone.

It may have tried to open a network connection. Just a guess.
The Behavior section of the Virustotal report, can help with that.

Presumably something could not handle the AppCompatibility issues
during the W10 to W11 migration. I didn't have to fiddle the Properties
and the compatibility field to get it installed.

Paul

Joel <joelcrump@gmail.com> wrote:
> If you've tried Windows 11, you may have noticed that the usual
> proportion of ancient apps stop working, for me it was EncSpot, a
> utility that reveals very detailed info about MP3 files. Still worked
> under Win10, but I had to sacrifice it to continue running 11, in
> 2021. However, just now it occurred to me I should still have a copy
> of the installer, so I gave it a shot under current generic Wine, and
> it works fine. One up for Wine over the current Winblows.

Did you try to set the 'Compatibilty mode' on the .exe file to some
older Windows version?

I have several very old, XP era, programs and until now they all keep
working, also on Windows 11, and only a few need setting 'Compatibility
mode'.

On 11/23/2023 9:15 AM, Joel wrote:

> Win11 wouldn't load and execute it, I don't know if there might be
> some solution to that, I took it as a very old app not working with
> the latest and greatest.

I notice once it is uninstalled, the Context Menu entry it created
did not get removed. That could be what the uninstaller was complaining about.

You can set compatibility on the installer.exe or set
compatibility on the program once it is setting in Program Files (x86).
A compatibility setting, adds subsystems to make the application feel
comfortable for the epoch it is from. If the version came out during WinXP,
you could set the compatibility to WinXP SP3 or so.

Really, if it installed in W10, the W11 migration logic should have
been able to move it to the W11 C:\Windows folder.

Paul

On 11/23/2023 9:11 AM, Joel wrote:
> Frank Slootweg <this@ddress.is.invalid> wrote:
>
>>> If you've tried Windows 11, you may have noticed that the usual
>>> proportion of ancient apps stop working, for me it was EncSpot, a
>>> utility that reveals very detailed info about MP3 files. Still worked
>>> under Win10, but I had to sacrifice it to continue running 11, in
>>> 2021. However, just now it occurred to me I should still have a copy
>>> of the installer, so I gave it a shot under current generic Wine, and
>>> it works fine. One up for Wine over the current Winblows.
>>
>> Did you try to set the 'Compatibilty mode' on the .exe file to some
>> older Windows version?
>>
>> I have several very old, XP era, programs and until now they all keep
>> working, also on Windows 11, and only a few need setting 'Compatibility
>> mode'.
>
>
> I'm not sure I realized I could try that. I hadn't had a need to
> experiment with that since multiple Windows versions ago.
>

You sometimes need that for Windows version of Audacity.

The namespace of the audio interfaces may not be correct, and
setting the compatibility to another OS, changes the namespace the
program sees.

For an end-user, it's pretty hard to figure out what to do.
The OS has a subsystem, and the staff at Microsoft examine
samples of materials, so that there is a rule set for quirky stuff.

Paul

Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote:
>On 11/23/2023 9:11 AM, Joel wrote:
>> Frank Slootweg <this@ddress.is.invalid> wrote:
>>
>>> Did you try to set the 'Compatibilty mode' on the .exe file to some
>>> older Windows version?
>>>
>>> I have several very old, XP era, programs and until now they all keep
>>> working, also on Windows 11, and only a few need setting 'Compatibility
>>> mode'.
>>
>> I'm not sure I realized I could try that. I hadn't had a need to
>> experiment with that since multiple Windows versions ago.
>
>You sometimes need that for Windows version of Audacity.
>
>The namespace of the audio interfaces may not be correct, and
>setting the compatibility to another OS, changes the namespace the
>program sees.
>
>For an end-user, it's pretty hard to figure out what to do.
>The OS has a subsystem, and the staff at Microsoft examine
>samples of materials, so that there is a rule set for quirky stuff.

There's nothing EncSpot does that should depend on something like
that, just storage and CPU. It would be worthwhile to try to run it
again in Win11, though, but I don't want to run Windows at all now.

--
Joel W. Crump

On 2023-11-23 17:05, Paul wrote:
> On 11/23/2023 9:15 AM, Joel wrote:

Joel post has been removed from News.Individual.NET, probably victim of
some spam filter at the server. I could only see the header in TB, but
TB said the post had been purged and deleted upstream.

I see he uses a gmail address, but he's not posting through google.

>> Win11 wouldn't load and execute it, I don't know if there might be
>> some solution to that, I took it as a very old app not working with
>> the latest and greatest.
>
> I notice once it is uninstalled, the Context Menu entry it created
> did not get removed. That could be what the uninstaller was complaining about.

....

--
Cheers,
Carlos E.R.