PunkBuster Services, developed and published by Even Balance, Inc., is a computer program designed to detect software used for cheating purposes in multiplayer online games. In simple words, it has been designed to bust those players who cheat since it’s not fun to be stomped in an online game by someone who’s cheating. Its most used version is 0.993. A computer, identified as using cheats, may be banned from connecting to the protected servers. Thus isolating the cheaters and preventing them from disrupting legitimate online games. This software installer includes 227 files and is usually about 75.06 MB in size.
PunkBuster Services software runs in the background on your PC and scans your PC’s memory for any evidence of known “cheat” or “hack” programs while playing online games. It has an automatic update feature that enables the download of a database of new definitions of known cheat programs. It functions as an antivirus, except that the PC checks ransomware and not malware to cheat programmes. PunkBuster searches for ‘aimbots’, ‘map hacks’ and anything else that gives you an added unfair advantage by breaking the rules of a multiplayer online game. It also checks if you have modified the game files. However, it does not work in the case of single-player games. It is available on Mac, Linux, as well as Windows and, has been widely used in many popular online multiplayer games.
What Are The Punkbuster Services?
This program was developed by Even Balance founder, Tony Ray after he was fed up with cheating in Team Fortress Classic. The program was readily used in many popular titles, including some Battlefield, Call of Duty, Far Cry games, Assassin’s Creed 3, and many others. However, PunkBuster hasn’t been used in any game after Battlefield Hardline, which was released in 2015.
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Effects Of PunkBuster Services On Your PC
Once PunkBuster is installed, it will always run in the background on your PC. That is why you will see the ‘PnkBstrA.exe’ process in the task manager and the ‘PnkBstrA’ service in the services application. However, it only starts working when:
- You are playing an online game that integrates with PunkBuster.
- You are playing on a PunkBuster-enabled server.
If you do not satisfy the above-given conditions, then PunkBuster would not do anything more than downloading the definition updates. Often users are concerned about whether PunkBuster Services is safe to use or not. Firstly, PunkBuster Services is not a virus or malware, which means that it will not cause any harm to your PC. It’s the only task is to scan cheating software on your computer when you are playing multiplayer games online. Thus, it is completely safe to have the PunkBuster Services program installed on your computer and use it. PunkBuster services don’t use a lot of resources and it is not mandatory to keep it installed on your computer.
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How To Uninstall PunkBuster Services?
If you don’t actively play a multiplayer online game that requires the PunkBuster anti-cheat software, you can uninstall it as it has no use in that case. Also, if you want to uninstall PunkBuster Services on your PC, you can follow the steps mentioned below:
- Step 1: First you need to press the ‘Windows+R’ keys on your keyboard to activate the ‘Run dialogue box’
- Step 2: Now you need to type ‘appwiz.cpl’ in the Run box and press the ‘Enter key’.
- Step 3: Then from the programs list, you need to scroll down to find ‘PunkBuster Services’ and right-click on it.
- Step 4: After that, you need to select the ‘Uninstall’ option.
- Step 5: Next, you need to follow all the on-screen prompts to uninstall the PunkBuster Services program.
- Step 6: Then you need to close the window.
Please Note: If you do need the PunkBuster program for any reason after uninstalling it, you can easily download it from the ‘official PunkBuster download page’.
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Another method that you can try for uninstalling the software is:
- Step 1: First you need to head to ‘Control Panel’.
- Step 2: Then, you need to select the option of ‘Uninstall a Program’.
- Step 3: From there, you need to select ‘PunkBuster Services’ from the given list of ‘installed software’.
- Step 4: At last, you need to click on the ‘Uninstall/Change’ option.
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Also, PunkBuster Services is not used in the newly released games, so as long as you are not playing the older games, you can remove it from your PC.
Conclusion
So dear readers, this was all about PunkBuster Services and how to uninstall them. We hope you found this useful. Stay tuned to TechSunk for more of such topics.
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