# Has anyone heard of...



## anno (Aug 28, 2006)

...*Puzzl'Em 1.0 Beta2* or *Crush'Em 2.0*?

An Win XP computer I use has these two programs in the control panel add/remove list, but they cannot be removed. The owner of the computer has no idea where they came from. 

A Google search for *Puzzl'Em 1.0 Beta2* only brings up 12 results, and the majority of the results are from malware forums. No one in these forums has identified either of the processes as harmful and in fact they weren't even the reason for posting in many cases, but were brought up as part of a HijackThis log.

Scans have been run with the latest versions of F-Secure, AVG Anti-Spyware and Ad-Aware, but they all came up negative. If anyone has any comments or suggestions, I would be very grateful!

Thanks for reading.


----------



## guiblum (May 26, 2006)

Many years ago I had a Diamond1200Plus scanner (HP, i think) and I made the mistake of installing the bundled photoeditor prog which was a very poor and old version of an Ulead prog., and IT contained a screensaver called Crushem in which a bunch of rabbits were chased around by a hammer.
Have the PC you are looking at ever had a Diamond 1200 scanner or an old Ulead prog.
I seem to remember that although all the drivers etc and other software uninstalled ok when the scanner came to the end of it's days, these stupid Crushem rabbits hung around like a bad smell.
Had to go into regedit and hack them out.


----------



## anno (Aug 28, 2006)

Interesting. He had recently installed an A3 scanner... I will check that theory out, thanks guiblum. 

Not looking forward to getting rid of the rabbits if that is the case though! :grin:

---

EDIT: 

Yep, ParaSaver and PuzzSaver both appear in the list of screensavers. Ah well, I'd rather it was a badly designed piece of software than spyware or something worse. Thanks again guiblum.


----------



## Glaswegian (Sep 16, 2005)

Hi

Have you tried in Safe Mode?


----------



## anno (Aug 28, 2006)

Seem to have found the cause now, thanks Glaswegian! Now I just need to get rid of the things...


----------



## anno (Aug 28, 2006)

That was easy. It seems as if they have improved their uninstallation program at least, they both came off fairly easily when the scanner software was removed. 

So if you have a *Mustek ScanExpress A3 USB* scanner beware!


----------



## guiblum (May 26, 2006)

Glad you are sorted out, Anno.
What did the rabbit stew taste like ??


----------



## anno (Aug 28, 2006)

I couldn't tell you, but it smelt like victory.


----------



## CharlieBear (Jul 22, 2008)

CRUSH'EM 2.0 and PUZZLE'EM 1.0 BETA 2 are both games!! They were installed on MY computer as part of the software for a MUSTEK A3 USB large format scanner. I have found the same scenario - you can't individually uninstall them. . . and I haven't tried getting rid of them by uninstalling the scanner. Anyway, the programs don't do anything or cause any problems - at least not in my case.


----------



## saggman54 (May 4, 2012)

yes... I didn't like the software that came with the mustek a3 scanner when I first go it... but I like the way it integrates with PSP xii after I finally figured out how to use it. Anyway the parasaver and puzzsaver are do it yourself screensavers... I haven't figure out exatly how to use them but there is a happy face button on the "panel" control for the scanner. that is the one that usually opens up on the desktop when you lift the lid of the scanner. somehow when you click the happy face button you can create wallpaper or puzzles that are screensavers. never had any time to totally figur it out


----------

