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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for uninstalling Folding@Home
(Last updated
August 23, 2004
)
What is Folding@Home?
Folding@Home is an example
of a distributed supercomputer, like SETI@Home, United
Devices,
Entropia, Distributed.net,
and many others. Distributed computing allows individuals to
donate their computer time to build supercomputers 100 to 1000x
greater than by traditional means.
How does Folding@Home work?
From the point of view
of the computer, Folding@Home acts exactly like a web browser.
It downloads files from the
internet
(with
security checksums to ensure that they came from the official
site). Indeed, it uses only port 80 (or 8080 if available) and
talks to the servers via HTML, just like a web browser. From
here, Folding@Home is different: it
performs it's scientific calculation
and then
resends
the
data
back. If you are running Folding@Home, you will see network traffic
on port 8080 or 80. Only idle CPU time will be used by the
client.
Can I run Folding@Home on a machine I don't own?
One is only legally
permitted to install Folding@Home on machines one either owns
or on which one has the permission
of
the owner
to run the Folding@Home software. Any other
use of Folding@Home violates our license
agreement.
What does Folding@Home do about illegal installations?
We have taken swift action against illegal installations (such
as Jethroted and Dales Kid) and are prepared
for immediate
action
in
case
of other similar infractions. See below for 3rd party uninstallers.
We have remotely terminated any further calculations for these
clients so they will no longer use any significant CPU
time
or bandwidth. In addition, these accounts have been zeroed,
no more
points
will be
added,
and investigations
are on
going.
One
cannot stop someone from installing software in an illegal fashion,
but we can and have removed all incentives to do so and are investigating
additional prosecution of the offenders.
Has this ever happened to other distributed computing projects?
Yes. SETI@Home has lead the way in many areas of distributed
computing, including illegal installations:
http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/virus.html
How do I uninstall Folding@Home?
For
the Windows GUI version of Folding@Home, if Folding@Home has been
installed using
the official installer, there will be
an "Uninstall" option available in the Folding@Home
tab under the start menu. This will completely uninstall the software.
For the console version of the software, you should be able to
search for the FAH binary (called FAHConsole4.exe ) and delete
the Folding@Home program.
For the screen saver version, selecting
another screen saver will stop Folding@Home from running.
What if the suggestions above do not work?
In this case, you have
an unofficial installation of Folding@Home violating our license
agreement. Someone has gained access to your machine and decided
to run Folding@Home. Hackers hack machines to run tasks they
are interested in running (eg web servers, ftp sites, etc) and
can make life very difficult for users to remove this hacked
software. If your computer has been hacked, please contact your
ISP security officials to report this illegal action.
Isn't there some way to automatically delete Folding@Home
when it's been installed without the owner's permission?
If
our client has been installed on a machine you own, without your
authorization, Stanford
University had nothing to do with the installation. We will aid
the authorities in taking strong action against any hacker that
does this without your knowledge or permission.
Unfortunately, unauthorized installations
intentionally make it difficult to uninstall software and install
in new and different ways every day. Thus, there is
no way to automatically account for this, just as one must update
virus filters frequently for each new virus. The best defense
to any hacking is strong computer security.
However, here are some suggestions for thwarting those who have
tried to obscure a Folding@Home installation:
- Use your OS's file search utilities to look for files with filenames
like "FAHlog.txt" or "FAHCore_*.exe".
- If you find these files, look for executables in the same
directory that look unusual and delete them
While this is a cumbersome
process, this will remove the files involved and thus stop Folding@Home
from running.
What can I do to improve my computer security?
The first step for computer
security is to consider anyone who might have used your machine.
Most installations are done by someone with physical access to
your machine. We strongly suggest
that you use a firewall (such as Zone
Alarm's free firewall for Windows PCs) and anti-virus
software. Also, it is important to keep your machine patched
to the latest
OS version (especially for Windows machines).
I am very familiar with Windows. Can you give me
more specific, technical information on how to remove Folding@Home?
There are
basically three things to remove, assuming there isn't some underlying
virus which will try to rebuild them:
- Executable and work files. Use Windows Explorer to look for
a directory containing files beginning FAH or Fah. Other files
in
that directory
might be WinFAH, MyFolding, client, queue, and unitinfo. There
should also be a subdirectory named work containing files with
names beginning wudata, wuinfo, wuresults, logfile, current, and
core78. Any such files can be deleted, and if deleting them all
leaves a directory substantially empty, that is, with nothing remaining
which looks useful, then those remaining files and the directory
itself should be deleted too.
- Scheduling and startup files. Remove shortcuts in any startup
folders or desktops which refer to files deleted in step 1.
- System information. Use regedit to remove the PandeGroup keys
in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE>Software group.
This might fail to remove
the main executable file if its name has been changed to make it
hard to find, but most likely it will be in the same directory
as the other files. This procedure also might still leave behind
a few icons and other display information, and potentially some
third-party software, but it should substantially eliminate the
Folding@home client from the machine. Thanks to Richard Howell
for the part of the FAQ.
Where can I learn more?
Please check out our
main web site as
well as our main
FAQ. Also, you can post questions
at the official discussion
forum.
There are 3rd party removal tools for unauthorized installer
versions as well (these links are provided for completeness,
and Stanford University does not provide any warranty for these
removal tools):
http://www.buzoo.co.uk/folding/index.html
http://www.vendomar.ee/~ivo/ufold/
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