What to do with "This program has been damaged" messages when starting Paessler programs

If you receive the message "This program has been damaged, possibly by a bad sector of the hard drive or a virus. Please reinstall it." when starting IPCheck Server Monitor, PRTG Traffic Grapher or Webserver Stress Tool then you either have a virus or trojan on your computer or a malfunctioning anti-spyware software.

Option A: You have a Virus or Trojan

One reason that can cause the message above can be some malware on your system that compromises the EXE files of our products. Everytime you start one of our products the EXE file checks itself against a checksum and if this test does not pass the programs  automatically shut down for security reasons and show this message.

Option B: Buggy anti-spyware software

If you run a anti-spyware software on your computer then try to disable or deinstall the software. In winter 2006/2007 we know of some versions of AOL Spyware Protection, AOL Safety and Security Center and CA Pest Patrol that contain bugs. These cause our products (as well as other software products) to believe their files have been tampered with and they automatically shut down for security reasons.

If even the latest version of your anti-spyware software does not cure the problem, then deinstalling/deactivating the software may be your only choice.