Today I decided to install the Diamond 5.0 demo bundle I downloaded from the Waves website. First time running the installer, it soon exited with a request to restart Windows. This made me anxious as this was an indication that it had installed some low-level service most likely related to its copy protection mechanism. On Windows restart the installer started again, and then presented the blue-screen-of-death with a message saying: “An attempt was made to execute non-executable memory”. Unbelievable! 👿
I can then power-off/on to reboot without the installer starting automatically, but running the installer manually again results in the same BSOD. This is on a standard Dell PC, 2GB memory, running XP Pro. The PC has never had a USB-dongle inserted, and there has never been any warez or cracked software installed. I now have to live with the uncertainty that Windows stability on my PC may have been compromized by this installer.
I experienced something similar many years ago (on an older PC), also with a plugin demo that installed some protection software. This is why I since have stayed away from any Pace/iLok kind of protection. But I figured that they would have got it working after so many years. I’ll try to download one of the other Waves bundles, to see if I can get something installed that will allow me to test the WaveShell implementation in Podium.
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