Remove AlienSense facial recognition (best way)

Navigate to C:\Program Files\Alienware\Command Center\AlienSense.

The last file in the folder should be named something like "uninst-aliensense.exe". Running that removes the entire AlienSense with all its services nice and clean, removes the icon from Alienware Command Center and most importantly prevents those files and services from starting ever again!

I tried removing it the old fashion way msconfig+disable service but somehow it got resurrected until I made the killing blow today.


"I love the smell of new Alienware in the morning.... it smells like.... Victory."

 

can someone else confirm?
nothing against this simple uninstall, but I heard a few stories of people messing with AlienSense and they got log on problems, etc.

Thanks~

 

so you would do this if you didn't want to just "disable" it. I disabled it, first thing I did. But I will have to look at your way about removing it, seems useless to me.

 

My point is I did disable it. But I change my lighting scheme every so often (I have special one that's on when I'm in the bed) and it kept either (a) enabling itself, just to have me redisable it again or (b) popping up that annoying window whether I want to use it like the first time I started Windows. I don't see what's useless about uninstalling programs you don't use - I don't keep stuff on my hard drive I don't plan to use...

 

Low level format will cure all the pain

 

the file I found is called "uninst-fastaccess.exe"
Is this it?

 

The best way is put on Windows 7 a fresh OS and never install it to begin with.

 

Yes, that is the one.

 

Yeah, there are few problems with doing fresh install on m11x:
- the installation comes on DVD and there is no DVD drive (fail...)
- it doesn't come with m11x drivers (they need to be downloaded)

Plus, on m11x there were only few "bloatware" programs that I uninstalled, besides this I think Dell backup and maybe something else. The other things like disabling certain services you'd have to do anyway.

I mean..... say you got your MS Office installed with 1 extra component. Are you going to do low level format, reinstall windows, install everything again, and then install ms office without that component? Or ...... OR..... simply uninstall that component with an uninstaller that will cleanup everything else like registry entries etc.

 

YEP..ahaha

I like to make sure everything is installed the way I want it.. To all their own but I have always found that my systems run better if I install the OS, drivers, apps ect myself rather than just taking the system from the builder.

 

I meant the software seemed useless, not your way of doing it. Sorry, was in a hurry to write that.

I have yet to see mine renable. If it does I will probably go your route of removing it all together.

 

Theres no need to uninstall it or stop the services on a computer that fast, its not really going to slow it down. On a basic computer ya, but not an Alienware M17x-R2 maxed out in specs.

 

is there a way to remove the whole alienware control suite or isn't it recommended, i figured that alienfx lite would probably be the only one necessary if anything.

 

does uninstalling aliensense get rid of FAservice ..? can anyone check for me because I need it for RDC D:

 

It removed it for me; it should clean up the entire AlienSense folder if you chose to remove settings. How does that have anything to do with Remote Desktop Connection? (=RDC?)

I don't use that, so I can't say. (Ultra)VNC works fine.

 

yea for some reason.. when i disabled FAservices (to disable aliensense) RDC stopped working... it crashes.. but once i turned it on again it started to work again :/ odd i know.. lol and the reason i rather use that is cause it's fast and it's already installed in both my machines.. no need to deal with other programs X_x.
mmm i'll see if i get bored.. maybe uninstalling it will not cause me the same problems.but for now, i don't mind keeping it @_@ but thanks for checking!

 

IMO you all are crazy to remove it, however, to each their own.

pshh, uninstall the facial recognition? no way! I am loving every moment of it!

 

Well:

1. It uses system resources.
2. It takes forever to log in compared to what it takes me to type my password. For the same reasons I found useless the fingerprint reader I have on XPS m1330.
3. Apparently it can be easily faked! (there was a mention of it in some thread)

Oh and I just reinstalled Windows and I found no way not to install it (to answer other people who posted before, obviously without actually trying it) when you're installing Alienware Command Center. So I removed it again with the same procedure. You can reinstall it by reinstalling the Command Center. It really doesn't take that long. (~2 mins?)

 

Agreed.

Facial recognition is purely a gimmick and serves no purpose, for me at least.

 

Ok, I'm going to show and explain exactly how to disable the Alien Sense thing. I have tried it and it works!! First type in msconfig in the search or run bar, then find where it says FATrayMon in the Startup Item column and disable it. Dont restart right away though. After that open up the task manager and go to the services tab and click the services button found in the lower left corner of the window. Click anywhere in that window and type the "f" key until you see the FAService under the Name column. Right click the FAService and go to properties, then where it says Startup Type in the middle of the window, change it from automatic to manual or disable. Apply and restart. This should completely disable the Alien Sense. To check, open the Alien Command Center and choose the Sense tab. If it does nothing you were successfull. It should NOT do anything when you click the tab. It usually opens up the Alien Sense facial recognition settings. If it doesnt, then it works. Please let me know if this worked for you and hopefully you can see the image i posted, if not let me know!

 

As I said (2 times so far I believe ) I did exactly this and it worked only temporarily. The service and the startup file came back after I played a bit in Command Center - without messing with the AlienSense tab... I don't see what's the big fuss about uninstalling it completely, takes 2 secs to reinstall the entire Command Center if you really want it back.

 

Unreal, is it real using up that much resources and causing that big of a slow down when its installed? I dont experience a slow down at boot or anything as long as I go into the command center and set it as disabled in the setting. But thats with my M17x-R2 with the 920XM, I didnt notice you had the M11x, so maybe it would benefit you to uninstall it on your m11x since its alot more likely to see slow downs from such applications as to where the m17x-r2 doesnt.

 

I have followed Batboy's instructions for the disabling of AlienSense since way back when I had an R1, and now with the R2, it never comes back either even if I play around with the Command Center. I am not sure why it comes back for you.

In any case, I would give the uninstall a try but since it is completely disabled I am gonna skip, at least until (if) it comes back.

And yes, AlienSense sucks.

 

Yes I keep mine disabled.. I didnt like how it redid the login in prompt since I always have press ctrl alt del ect..

I had no use for the software.. It also seemed to delay more at bootup when starting that service and connecting to video cam.

 

1. Don't notice the system resources it uses. My laptop boots up just as quick as without facial recognition.
2. You must have a really short simple password, not a good way to be "secure". Also, you have to make sure it learns the different lighting conditions so that it will recognize your face next time.
3. I searched the forums and found out that NONE of the DELL facial recognitions were hacked, only Asus, Lenovo, and Toshiba. Apparently Dell uses a different Facial recognition system as it was not mentioned at all in the post/thread.

My password is easier typed by Facial Recognition than actually typing it out. Works great for me, doesn't slow down boot up one bit.

You may as well start changing your wallpaper to solid black background and remove aero as it too will use "a lot" of resources on your computer.

 

My password is actally 11 characters long, and contains both numbers and letters. Google password check described it as "strong".

I'd like to see how you login with your AlienSense since by the time it takes to boot up camera I already typed in my password. Or you're typing like a snail.

Others have noticed system resources, hence the need for removal. As on 10-15% CPU usage. Aero doesn't use any extra system resources. Any neither does any other Windows component -- it can be easily checked in either Task manager or Process Explorer.

 

Apparently not according to this site:

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/disable-aero-on-windows-vista/



And I quote "For those worried about performance, sometimes squeezing every last drop requires disabling Aero."

 

I just realized you have an M11x. It might affect you worse than me. Otherwise, if you are really concerned about getting as much performance out of the laptop, you would end up disabling a lot of items in windows on top of Aero.

 

Thanks Unreal, don't need useless fluff on my laptop either.

 

I agree to the fact that it's mostly a gimmick, however it's still useful.
As my computer is almost always in the same place and I usually start it up around the same time, the lighting conditions are fairly stable (the comes up and goes under at the same time every day) and logging in with facial recognition is a breeze. It logs me on instantly.
I can imagine that it's not the same for everyone, though. If it were faster to type in my password I would disable it as well, but as long as it makes things easier for me, I'll keep it on.

 

Just a problem with that "maybe", i just installed skype and found out the camera does not work unless i have the aliensense enabled (atleast on "Face Logon").

So far i have not been able to figure out how the heck the webcamera can be turned on without Face Logon which i dont want to use.

Maybe you guys have a tips on how to enable the camera?

EDIT: strange, in the test skype test utility it dont work but when i started the chat with a friend it suddenly worked. Very strange!

 

My Skype (and any other program that uses camera) works just fine. In either test, video chat or anywhere else..

 

Same, I've had no problem with it. Could've just been a random glitch, perhaps trying to test skype without rebooting after removing AlienSense.

 

Happy to try to help.

How the integrated camera and the "virtual camera" created by Aliensense behave is somewhat dependent on the AlienSense security mode that you're in combined with the camera that Skype is trying to use.

In brief, when attached to the camera, AlienSense creates a fake or "virtual" camera so that other video applications still have a camera to attach to. When the virtual camera is active, Skype will likely use it automatically. Without the virtual camera, Skype should use the integrated camera automatically. If it's failing at either of these, you may manually tell Skype which of the two to use.

• FaceLogin mode: When AlienSense is in FaceLogin mode, it disconnects from the integrated camera about 45 seconds after login. When this happens, the virtual camera becomes unavailable. In this case Skype should either automatically or manually end up using the integrated camera driver.
• User Switching and Continuous Security modes: In these modes, AlienSense connects to the integrated camera 100% of the time in order to provide real-time protection features. In this case Skyp should end up using the virtual camera (called "FaCap", by the way).

I hope that this helps.

 

Ah. Then it wouldn't have happened had he removed it the way I described. ^^

 

So what's the problem with AilenSense anyway? Is it just bloatware-ish?

 

http://wintoflash.com/

I carry Win7 on one of these in my wallet:
8GB Class 6 MicroSDHC Card
Kingston MicroSDHC Card Reader

 

Yep same. Still they could've thrown in a small USB extra...

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=472940

 

Thanks for the help and the explanation "svrep". I think it must have been a glitch as well.

I kind of like the Aliensense feature but still i find it simpler and quicker to just log-in manually. But when i have friend coming over i show-off with the feature

One question though, i did a complete re-install of windows7 and used the drivers from dell but there are no driver specifically for the camera and when i check in device manager i see it is using Microsoft driver v6.1.7600.16385.
Just wondering if you guys have the same driver on your system? if not could you please let me know where the more updated drivers can be downloaded from?

cheers

 

Yep, I have exactly the same ones and works very well for me.

 

Thanks again unreal25

 

No problem. Glad that you got it working. In the next release there will be a few additional features (most notably automatic web login, but only when your face is visible) that should make it even more useful.

Sorry, but I can't answer the question about the camera drivers themselves. I'm sure that updated driveres can be dowloaded from Dell, but I don't know exactly where. Sorry that I can't help more.