WinTrust.dll (?)
Posted by: daveshoe <daveshoe@...>
I learned something yesterday, (who says you can't teach an old dog new
tricks!) and I wanted to pass it along.
A client of mine had loaded some proprietary software used in my client's
business. The software publisher is absolutely paranoid about security,
and as a result, the software loading made several significant changes to
the Windows 98 operating system.
The first symptom was that the system REQUIRED a password to boot up, and
it TIMES OUT with inactivity of 10 minutes -- NOT user configurable, and
effects the entire system -- not just the software. This is a real pain,
as you can imagine.
The next thing it did was to prevent accessing ANY secure web site. You
can get to a regular site, but once it takes you to a secure page, the
"page cannot be displayed" screen came up. That's when I got the call, as
my client does a lot of on-line banking and stock trading -- all secure
sites. First thing I did was change all the IE security settings to "Low"
to see what would happen. No change. Then, just for ducks, I tried to get
to the Windows Update screen, and got a different error message telling me
that the ActiveX settings would not allow access. After an hour of
fritzing with it, and after doing an overlay re-install of W98 with no
change, I got on the phone to the software publisher. Of course they
immediately sent me to my client's ISP. We played around, and still got no
change.
I got angry, and called back the software publisher. After insisting on
speaking to a supervisor -- a major problem, including two hang-ups! -- I
finally got someone who knew something.
"Against their better judgment", they advised me that they had replaced ONE
dll file, called WinTrust.dll. They told me that it was THE only way to
make a system "secure" -- so secure it can't even be used! They wouldn't
tell me what to do next, so I went on a hunting expedition. The Microsoft
KB was useless. However, I got an idea. I found the WinTrust.dll file in
the Windows directory, and it was of a different date and size from the
WinTrust.dll in another identical machine that did NOT have this awful
software loaded. I copied the file from one machine to another (in DOS, as
Windows locked it up during the session).
All works well now, but it was about 7 hours of frustration on a Saturday.
Keep this in mind if you ever suddenly have trouble getting into secure web
sites. I know I'll never forget it!
Dave Shoemaker
mailto:[email protected]