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Incredible_Marvel0D44
Inspiring
August 29, 2012
Answered

Removing a Pirated (Portable) Software

  • August 29, 2012
  • 1 reply
  • 9038 views

Not long ago, I needed to use After Effects and Premiere Pro for my college course. So I went and looked for the cheapest deal I could find.

I stumbled upon this shop who said that he sold AE and PP for an extremely dirt cheap price and they weren't counterfeits. The shop owner told me that these were extremely old stocks therefore the price. Upon telling him I use a Mac, he told me to bootcamp my computer and he will install AE and PP for me, because he only has stock left for Windows.

After using it for a while, I realised that the software was not performing up to par. It lags. PP doesn't export media at all. AE doesn't even run sometimes. Then my PP doesn't even run.

I tried to check my program files to see if there was any error there, and to my horror... there isn't anything there. After hours of googling, I realised that my software is a portable software, something I never heard about. And it's pirated, too.

Since google said that portable softwares can be uninstalled by just deleting the folder it is in, I did that exactly. But I still see that there are some cache folders lying around, and I deleted those too.

However, I'm still worried if there are any remnants of the software left in my Windows partition. I understand the software could have written into certain folders or made new folders on my computer, so I want to know how do I remove them all completely?

I already bought my genuine copy of Production Premium CS6 for the Mac, btw. But I'm a little paranoid to install it. Will any of the pirated files from my Windows partition somehow corrupt or unlegitimize my legit software on the Mac partition? Or should I just install my legit software now without any fear, and deal with removing the folders/files that were generated by the pirated copy at a later time?

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Mylenium

Mac partitions are HFS formatted. Without help, Windows can't read them much less write to them, including any malicious tools. And even then the code would not be executed. It would simply not be binary compatible or fail terribly with 'NIX based security management. You're worrying over nothing. The worst thing that could happen is some fishy JavaScript in your browser cache, but that most definitely would not come from the Windows side of things... If you're realyl that worried, simply nuke the win partition with Bootcamp and reinstall it.

Mylenium

1 reply

Mylenium
MyleniumCorrect answer
Legend
August 29, 2012

Mac partitions are HFS formatted. Without help, Windows can't read them much less write to them, including any malicious tools. And even then the code would not be executed. It would simply not be binary compatible or fail terribly with 'NIX based security management. You're worrying over nothing. The worst thing that could happen is some fishy JavaScript in your browser cache, but that most definitely would not come from the Windows side of things... If you're realyl that worried, simply nuke the win partition with Bootcamp and reinstall it.

Mylenium

I
Incredible_Marvel0D44Author
Inspiring
August 30, 2012

thanks mylenium. I know I'm just being paranoid, but I've done many computer mistakes when I was young and now I'm extremely, overly careful with everything. Either ways, thanks. =).

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