Program running. Or not...

Discussion in 'Software' started by JimLL, Mar 18, 2012.

  1. JimLL

    JimLL I can't follow the rules

    XP Pro, SP3, current updates, Comodo firewall, A^2 AV, Lenovo T60p Dual CPU - 2.1 ghz, 15.6" screen, 3 Gb computer memory, 3 cent operator memory

    I have a desktop carousel called Menees Background Changer.

    3 times in several years I have started it running and later found it running BUT the system tray no longer shows it and Task Manager > Applications says it's not running.

    Still it changes screens normally until the machine is rebooted.

    Impossible?
     
  2. Major Attitude

    Major Attitude Co-Owner MajorGeeks.Com Staff Member

    According to the documentation:

    "DBC runs as a “tray icon” application in the Windows System Tray. If you want it to run each time Windows starts up, you can drag a shortcut to it into your Startup folder."

    Have you done that?
     
  3. JimLL

    JimLL I can't follow the rules

    Well, as I've said, when this happens it is gone from the system tray.

    No. I definitely do not want or have the carousel running all of the time. It sounds like your answer is to the opposite of my OP question. I run it now and then. This is about it running when it isn't running.

    According to Sysinternals Autorun, there is nothing related to DBC normally running after boot up.

    Of course it seems SOP for some crummy software developers to sneak all kinds of crap into your autoruns, but that would show up at next boot up.

    No biggie. My main thing was curiosity. It happens rarely and has never seemed to have any ill effects on other operations. I assume some level of software engineer guy could tell me why a program that isn't running is running. There must be a process running, but I don't know the name of it so I can turn it off.
     
  4. Major Attitude

    Major Attitude Co-Owner MajorGeeks.Com Staff Member

    Another choice is to check your services and have it set to manual so it runs when you want it to. That said it is an older program plus Windows XP so it's no surprise that it has some issues especially since their answer is to run it as a startup item, which you don't want to do. Sounds like a limitation to the program in other words, sorry.
     
  5. JimLL

    JimLL I can't follow the rules

    Just a note from my previoius post.

    "According to Sysinternals Autorun, there is nothing related to DBC normally running after boot up."

    DBC does not do autostarts.
     
  6. DavidGP

    DavidGP MajorGeeks Forum Administrator - Grand Pooh-Bah Staff Member

    Hi

    At times the system tray stops showing applications running as they are not up the % scale of running more often than other applcations but you can see if its listed as a tray icon and its status in the System Tray Properties HERE

    Autoruns will generally show all items, so MAs suggestion to deleve into Services is a good one as it could be a Service, if this apps starts running maybe a route to use is in Process Explorer as it may help you narrow down the apps name and any other processes/dlls its hooked into.

    In Autoruns, check the Boot and Execute and Logon list for anything linked to this app, if you have checked those areas forgive me for mentioning them again.

    Task Scheduler is potentially another area to check as its like udpaters, pop up then go (well you'd hope).
     
  7. JimLL

    JimLL I can't follow the rules

    Perhaps this has gotten a little off the track. DBC always shows in the system tray when running - EXCEPT THAT - once every year or so the tray icon that _was there_ just disappears.
     
  8. plodr

    plodr Major Geek Super Extraordinaire

  9. JimLL

    JimLL I can't follow the rules

  10. BillMenees

    BillMenees Private E-2

    I know this is an old thread, but I stumbled across it through a web search. I'm the programmer of the Desktop Background Changer (DBC) app that the original poster referred to, and I know what's going on.

    DBC runs as the DesktopBackgroundChanger.exe process, which will always show up in Task Manager's Processes tab when it is running. However, DBC only displays a tray icon normally, so it won't show up in Task Manager's Applications tab, which only shows applications with a top-level window or a taskbar entry. (The Processes tab will always show more things running than the Applications tab.)

    When a Windows app uses a tray icon it has to register and update that icon through Microsoft's Shell_NotifyIcon function. That causes the icon to be loaded into the Windows Explorer process, which shows up in Task Manager's Processes tab as explorer.exe.

    If the explorer.exe process crashes, then the tray icon will disappear. In Windows XP, Explorer wouldn't automatically restore a tray icon after Explorer crashed and restarted, so it was possible for the original process to keep running and think its tray icon was still being displayed. In Windows Vista and up, Microsoft has done a better job of making Explorer restore any previously registered tray icons after explorer.exe crashes and restarts.

    You can do a web search for "explorer crash tray icon" to see that this problem was widespread for tray icon apps. DBC wasn't doing anything special. Its tray icon was just a victim of an Explorer crash that XP didn't restore everything from. So the DesktopBackgroundChanger.exe process continued to run but without a visible tray icon hosted by explorer.exe.

    The problem fixes itself after a reboot because explorer.exe starts first, then Explorer runs the apps in its Startup folder. So when DBC is launched from a shortcut in the Startup folder, it registers its tray icon with Explorer and things display normally from there... at least until explorer.exe crashes.

    Hopefully this info will get to the original poster and satisfy his curiosity.
     

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