Software Issues

Hi, I'm new to the forums, and I have some software issues I'm seeking help with. I just completed the whole malware cleaning process. First, I continually get an Ink Monitor .exe error message (see screenshot below) when starting up my computer. I have tried to uninstall Ink Monitor in Control Panel, but it won't remove. Second, Hitman Pro keeps coming up with a Suspicious Program message (see screenshot below). I am wondering what this means. Third, the folder containing my wireless adapter keeps opening up on startup (see screenshot below). I have tried deselecting that program in msconfig, but then I get no Internet connection.

Besides those three issues, Internet Explorer still loads very slowly, as do some other programs when I open them, like Jasc Paint Shop Pro 8. I'm basically just trying to get my computer in better running shape. I realize it's an older system, but it seems that overall, things should be running a little bit more quickly. I know some of these issues are probably hardware-related, but I'm just trying first to get the software issues out of the way. I am a very responsible computer user, and I take every piece of advice I get in this forum very seriously. I appreciate everyone's help, and just want to continue learning how to keep improving my safety, security, and efficiency on the computer. Thanks to everyone that helps out!

P.S. I tried updating the drivers on my wireless adapter, but I don't know if I was successful. The most recent version on Dlink's website is different from what I have (and dated later), but when I install it, it seems I keep the older version. I am having problems connecting to the Internet at times, because of it. I will be surfing for a while, and all of a sudden I lose the connection and have to repair the adapter to re-establish the connection.

 

Thank you. I did go back and view Kestrel's response and finish the process. The main problems I'm having now are that I keep losing my Internet connection on my D-Link wireless adapter, and Internet Explorer and some other programs like Jasc Paint Shop Pro 8 seem to load very slowly. Overall, things are much better. What should my next steps be?

 

There are some very smart geeks who will read your post and you need to help them help you. You can do that by providing a bunch of important information about your computer, the programs you're running, hardware settings, etc. To do this, just follow along and I'll walk you through it.

OK, first I need you to download a program called Speccy from the following page:

http://majorgeeks.com/Speccy_d6358.html

Install the program and don't change any of the settings. Just leave them at their default settings
Run the program and let it analyze your system (takes less than 30 seconds). When it finishes click FILE >>Save As Text
Save the text file to your desktop.
Go to your desktop and open the text file with notepad (just double click on it). Edit out any personal information including serial numbers, then save it.
If you know how to archive files using the ZIP or RAR format then go ahead and archive the text file. If you don't know about ZIP and RAR, then don't worry about it, just leave the text file as it is.

Then go to http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=86880 to learn how to attach a file to your post.

Post another message in this thread with the aforementioned text file attached.

That will give people here something to work with in diagnosing your problem.

 

It's a Dell Dimension 4700. 32-bit. I have Internet Explorer 8 installed, because one government/public documents web site I use only supports IE 8 or older. It's a D-Link DWL-G132 wireless adapter. I downloaded and ran Speccy. The log is attached. I did my best to edit out my name and all serial numbers, but the log is so long that I might have missed one here or there. I hope not, though. Thanks again for all of your help, "Geeks", and Merry Christmas!!!

 

I wanted to add something to my previous post, but the option linked to the "edit" icon only offers "quick reply. What I wanted to add is that when I say IE 8 is slow, I mean it is slow to load everything after the new web site in your browser appears, and that there is a few second pause until it finishes loading the whole site, and then will allow me to start scrolling down. I don't know why the delay; it seems it may be security related, as I sometimes hear blips as my computer apparently blocks some things the web site is trying to run. So I don't know if it is a setting I have to change, or something that is wrong with my computer, in addition to the problems with the quirky behavior of the external wireless adapter.

 

Hi, I'm still hoping someone can help me with my software issues. I posted my log from Speccy (below) about a week ago. I'm still having the same issues: losing my wireless connection to the Internet, etc.

Two new notes: first, every time I start the computer now, it recognizes the ethernet adapter I have and goes through the setup new hardware dialog, I don't use that adapter; I now use the wireless one.

Second, I had a "serious error" yesterday, when I was shutting down my computer, and mistakenly clicked to go to "standby". The error said, to the effect: "problem detected, windows shut down to prevent damage, check for adequate disk space, disable or update driver, change video adapter, check BIOS updates, disable caching, shadowing, start in safe mode to disable components, dump of physical memory, STOP 0x0000008E. (0xC0000005, 0x8056FAC6, 0xF7666074, 0x00000000)

Thank you very much! I appreciate the help of this forum!

 

First off, you never have to apologize about wanting to keep XP. Lots of XP fans in this crowd.
I don't quite understand about the driver versions. Are DLink website drivers older or are your drivers older? Well, I suppose it doesn't matter seeing that you've already (?partially) removed/replaced the drivers on your system.

You might try cleaning your system fully of both sets of drivers before installing the newest drivers from DLink's website. You can do that with this app.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/driver_fusion_(driver_sweeper).html

Just download, install and run. Remove all of the drivers associated with that particular piece of hardware. Then reinstall the ones that you got from the DLink website.

 

AloisD...

Congratulations for getting so much out of that old machine. Looking over your Speccy report, you have alot happening on a P4 PC.

Just one thing about the ethernet adapter. Have you checked in Network Connections to see if the ethernet connection is disabled? Maybe that will get rid of the pestering new hardware message on boot.

The error you got when sending your PC to standby seems to me to indicate that there could be some poorly written (and other than MS) software someplace. Of course you have mentioned Ink Monitor as something you can't seem to rid the PC of. I don't see the Ink Monitor process listed in the Speccy processes list (not sure of the name of the process, so it could be there), but are any of the other processes listed as on your PC in the Speccy report unfamiliar to you (look for the processes list)?

I wonder if the blips you have been hearing have to do with your use of Advanced System Care? Could ASC have removed some elements of IE 8, causing the blips. It's typical for there to be pop up warnings and advisories when using IE 8, such as "You are leaving a secure network for an unsecure network. Do you want to proceed?" or the standard old "IE is not currently set as your default browser. Would you like to make IE the default?" When a pop up menu is missing, I seem to recall noticing the type of blip I think you are referring to...

If you have an opportunity, look in your Windows folder for a folder called Minidumps. If you could zip the folder and attach it to your next post, perhaps someone will come along who can get to the next level with your PCs issue(s)...

 

Forgot to mention...you are running Hitman Pro and Advanced System Care Anti-virus at the same time. Perhaps someone could say if those are compatible for use together.

Also, I am curious to know if something could be conflicting with an anti-virus or other IE 8 browser plug-in and causing the beeps. Maybe it would help if you could list your browser add-ons. To do this in IE 8 go to Tools->Manage Add-ons and make a list of what is listed there...

 

Hey AloisD, sorry about the delay but it's the holidays, so be patient. Thanks for the Speccy log. I have a few questions about your previous posts. You make reference to a pair of error messages involving "Ink Monitor" and "Suspicious Program" message but you posted only one picture of "AirPlus ExtremeG" folder. Could you see if you still have those screen caps and attach them to your next post.

Are you holding back on updating MSIE or is that the current version for Winsows XP?

I'm not sure if you've gone to this part of the forum, but here's a page I'd like you to check out:

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=147935

OK, I researched the error codes you listed and it appears to have something to do with memory. Here's the link. I'll look into it more tomorrow:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315335

Lastly, if I were you I would just do the shotgun all-in-one fixer approach (and have done so several times in the past). Here's a link to a program from the guys over at Tweaking.com. Just download it, install it, and run it. The program will walk you through the fixing of the most common computer problems (along with some oddballs). Using the program, you will create a Restore Point and Registry backup so that you can reverse ALL of the changes made during the procedure (should you end up worse than you are now, but I've never heard of that happening):

http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/tweaking_com_windows_repair.html

Remember to report back to this thread with the outcome. Good Luck!

Addendum: It's getting late and the repairs require at least 2 hours to complete, just so you can plan accordingly.

 

AtlBo, I know that Hitman Pro is a stand-alone scanner only (no real-time monitoring) so it shouldn't cause a problem except for the 30 - 60 minutes that it takes to finish a scan.... and that would be a problem only if IObit's scanner is real-time and I'm pretty sure it's not. From experience, I've found this "only one scanner at a time" rule to be prudent but blown way out of control. I've been mixing and matching real-time antivirus scanners for a couple of years and have found combos that work just fine. I no longer do since I started disk imaging because I don't think I would have the patience for virus removal under any circumstances when I could just make the whole thing go away with the restoration of a disk image in 30 minutes. Now, the antivirus plugin business is something I hadn't thought of and IObit's product does plug into MSIE.

 

rusty...

Thanks for pointing that out about Hitman Pro. I noticed that it was the scheduler running after I made the post, when I was looking over the Speccy again. Very nice catch!

I have run Hitman Pro a few times, but the security programs seems to ooze into each other for me. I can never remember which ones are manual scan scanners (other than MBAM and SAS) and which are full services...:confused. Oh well. Wish I knew more, but I suppose this is life as they say...

:-o

Yes, imaging has recently become my out for almost everything too. It really is basically a catch all fix for just about everything...

IObit seems to be issuing some pretty edgy programs these days. Maybe you remember the issue a couple of years ago where they were caught using Malwarebytes' malware definitions. Well, I have tried some of their software since (just the defragger and a game booster), and from that I would say their program development teams seem to work in entirely separate environs from each other. Not that this is all bad or even really bad at all, but I wouldn't count out that, for example, Advanced System Care might just somehow step all over ASC anti-virus. Not by any means am I saying it would. This is just a perception on my part. Definitely, I wouldn't count out the possibility that ASC could have changed some IE 8 settings on AloisD's PC. When I hear the dings, I think of the old .dll hell of Windows '95 and '98 where .dlls were being damaged or removed. Well, the cleaners I have seen (CCleaner I know) remove some .dlls when the registry cleaning option is selected. I guess that's why the cleaners are so frequently a suspect when programs fail to operate correctly or for certain system problems.

Enjoying your posts. You're really adding a nice new perspective on things in the forum.

P.S. Hope I get a chance to look more into Tweaking.com - Windows Repair. Have always wanted to do so...

 

Rusty, I'm starting with your advice first, because yours is the first reply. I downloaded Fusion, but I can't find the "driver family", and I can't use the "device control" feature without buying the premium version of the program. Can you help me identify the "driver family"? I looked through all the choices and couldn't identify it. Thanks!

 

AtlBo, I disabled my ethernet controller. I didn't notice any processes in the Speccy report that looked suspicious. I removed Advanced System Care from my computer. The Ink Monitor exe message no longer comes up because I found a way to remove it - it was affiliated with my former Epson printer. Finally, I tried to upload the minidump file, since I was unable to open it up, but I got an error message: "invalid file". Internet Explorer 8 runs fine, no error messages, it's just slow, and seems like it should be running faster. That, and the stupid D-link wireless adapter disconnects! I don't know why it disconnects, but "repairing" the connection works every time!

 

My add-ons are show in the attachments below!

 

Rusty, I checked out the other link you suggested, and toggled System Restore. That was something I hadn't been alerted to before. Also, there are screenshots in this thread of the previous error messages I was having problems with: http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=282374

Finally, I am just about to run the "shotgun" approach you recommended from Tweaking. Do I still have to figure out how to use Fusion to uninstall and reinstall the D-Link adapter drivers?

 

You just picked the wrong time to have a crisis

If you are no longer using the ethernet adapter, then why do you still have it attached, especially if it nags you for action on every boot?

I checked these codes out briefly and they appear to be related to system memory problems... what kind of problems I don't know, but I'll look into it some more.

 

Hey, I'm not stepping all over somebody else's thread in a different forum. This thread is already complicated enough. If you need to, you can repost those pics in here with some history of the problem, but only if you think the problem is related to the problem in this thread. If it's a separate problem, or you can't explain how the problem is related then you would be better served by posting them in a new thread.

No, you don't have to figure out how to use Driver Fusion at the moment, let's just concentrate on doing the repairs and seeing if they help. If they don't help then I have some more diagnostic and repair tools you can use, so despair just yet.

 

While I appreciate the thought, you are not required to effectuate my recommendations first, simply because I posted first. I don't have Driver Fusion installed so I will reinstall it when I get a moment and see if I can answer your question. You may not be able to do what I intended you to do with the program, simply because the authors of the program are systematically crippling the program with each new release. It may be that one can't uninstall anything with it anymore.

 

As AtlBo astutely pointed out, you are running Norton Security Suite (a real-time scanner) and at the same time running IObits Antimalware with MSIE, which I believe is also a real-time scanner. From experience I can tell you that Norton doesn't play nice with most other real-time scanners. That alone could potentially explain a lot of your problems. Try turning them off alternately. First turn off Norton (right click on Norton systray icon and choose "Disable Antivirus Autoprotect", then choose a time duration. Then launch MSIE and see how it responds. Then turn Norton back on and disable the IObit antimalware software (I don't know how as I refuse to defile my computer with their products). Then see how MSIE reacts. Thirdly, turn them both off and see how MSIE responds.

 

AloisD...

Sorry about the length of this. Wanted to try to include everything, so you might be able to resolve this easily next time.

That's good. It was looking for the rest of the driver software I suppose. One problem scratched.

I have used CCleaner for some time, but I don't use the registry cleaning feature. Actually, the ONLY things I use it for are removing browsers temporary internet files and special folders where there are large logs or for the logs themselves. Sometimes developers create mechanism for a log to be created and allow for it to grow very large.

I kind of respect IObit for trying to tackle the cleaning issue. They seem to have turned things around since the Malwarebytes' fiasco, when they (according to experts in the field) stole MBAM virus definitions. Ashampoo and WinOptimizer seem to be really trying to create a mistake free cleaner too. I think it will be very difficult, though. Overall, provided the bare minimum settings are used, I would say CCleaner is the safest, only because for me it's the easiest one to understand. Didn't mean for you to feel like you need to remove ASC, but I could understand why you would.

AloisD, you must use a ZIP utility like 7Zip or the one built into Windows to zip the files contained in the minidump folder. To do this, go to the folder and highlight all the files. Then right click and select the program you use to ZIP/UNZIP the files, and then create the ZIP and name the to be created ZIP folder. You will be able to add the zipped folder as an attachment in a post.

If something has messed up the mechanics of IE 8, you wouldn't see the error messages. That's why the sound would happen, because IE 8 would be trying to display the messages, and IE has a built in warning with the sounds, so to speak. This is where I think Advanced System Care may have caused a problem, possibly removing a necessary .dll for IE 8 during registry cleaning.

That doesn't solve the instability you are experiencing with your net connection. One question. Did your installer have any sort of a special menu where you were given the option to use Windows (or the driver software) to manage your internet connection? If so, I would select Windows. I have had better luck using Windows to manage wireless connections personally.

If you want to try Windows, during a time when your connection is working, right click the connection icon in the system tray and select "Choose a wireless connection". Then look on the left and the last entry should be "Change advanced settings". Click on this and a menu like this should open:

https://portal.ictp.it/icts/howto/wpaxp3.jpg

Click on the Wireless Connections tab like you see in the picture and make sure the "Use Windows to manage my wireless connection settings" check box is checked. If so Windows is already managing the connection. If not, place a check mark there.

Based on my experiences with wireless adapters, if you are connecting using Windows XP with the above mentioned box checked and if you have disabled the ethernet connection (if it is present in the Network Connections folder), then an intermittent connection is likely a on again off again USB connection (if your adapter is USB) or a on again off again network adapter card connection (where the card attaches to the motherboard...if your computer has wireless build into the PC...sorry if you said which...I missed it along the way somewhere if so). The only other explanation I would have would be a on again off again adapter. If you have a USB adapter, try another USB socket. If your wireless adapter is part of your PC and not a PCI card, you might need to add a PCI wireless card or a USB wireless adapter.

I have had this exact same problem in Windows XP and Windows 7. I used to have to unplug and replug it to reset the connection. It worked fine until I started getting blue screen errors. That's when I discovered that disabling the ethernet connection was necessary for a steady wireless connection to be present. Same thing on Windows 7. This was using a USB wireless adapter like this:

https://betsol.net/userfiles/productlargeimages/product_81.jpg

This is alot I know. Hope it helps...

 

Hey, guys, Happy New Year! and thanks for the help!

Rusty, I did the repairs with Tweaking. It discovered 40 problems and repaired them. Also, I only use Norton because it comes free with Comcast. What do you use or recommend?

AtlBo, I like CCleaner. I think I'll keep using it. I don't mind getting rid of Advanced System Care. I think I only picked that program up a few weeks ago in the Major Geeks malware forum. Also, since I've run Tweaking the minidump file seems to have disappeared - I won't be able to upload it at all now.

Finally, I think you may have hit on something with the ethernet controller. Now that I have disabled it, I haven't had to repair my Internet connection yet. That problem seems like it may have gone away.

But IE8 is still slow to open up web sites, and I don't think it has to do with oBit, because I had the problem before I had that program. Maybe it has to do with Norton, but on my laptop Norton doesn't seem to slow things down.

What the sympton is, is that when I fetch a URL, the whole screen is blank for a moment before downloading begins - a long pause. Once downloading begins, it goes quickly. It just seems like something is placing a temporary block on downloading. At first, I think it's because I've lost the connection again, but if I wait five or ten seconds, then the page will eventually open up.

If you can decipher the serious error message, learn anything from my Speccy log, or recommend any other repair tools, I would appreciate it. I think I've done most of what you guys have recommended now.

Thanks again, and have a safe and happy 2014!

 

AloisD...

The pause could be your a-v scanner scanning the page as it loads. It checks to make sure no dangerous scripts run when the page is loaded into the browser.

I have an old P4 PC I use in emergencies, and I had to start using the exclude feature built into avast! for excluding sites from the scans. It was taking too long to load the pages. I excluded from scans the ones I use most frequently and know I can trust. With newer PCs the scanning happens really fast, just not so on the old P4s it would seem...

BTW...I noticed that when I excluded YouTube from scans, I could run videos at one notch higher quality. avast's a-v scanner runs the entire time an online video is running...

Happy new year to you too. If you have any other issues, please post back here or start a new thread...

2014...:celebrate:hyper:clap

 

Complete Internet Repair

http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/complete_internet_repair.html

Download, install, run
You may have to reboot afterwards, I don't remember
Give it a try, then report resutlts here

 

I finally tracked down this one. It simply re-registers all of the DLLs and OCXs used by MSIE
It's called Fix IE Utility

http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/fix_ie_utility.html

Download and run (requires no install as I recall, but not sure about that)

 

The last thing that I can think of doing to solve your problem is to reset MSIE back to default settings. To do that you need to click MSIE Tools >> Internet Options >> Advanced Tab >> Reset button

I would also try disabling ALL of the MSIE plugins and see how the browser functions. If it's still very slow then you can safely rule out all of the plugins as the cause of your problem.

You may need to upgrade MSIE to at least v9.0

 

Rusty, I ran the two programs you recommended and then disabled the add-ons show in the screenshots below. (Are plug-ins and add-ons the same thing?) Everything seemed to help! Explorer 8 is running very quickly now, and when I first opened it up after running the second program, I was taken to an IE URL that said, "Your browser has just been upgraded". I don't know what that means, though, since I still have IE 8.

But I just experienced another Internet disconnect. It seems that issue may not be resolved. The ethernet controller is still disabled. Maybe I still have to find a way to get rid of all the adapter drivers and reinstall? Or something else?

 

I think most people who use FF make a distinction between add-ons (which are the applets you can download and install by clicking Tools >> Add-ons) and plug-ins, which are BHOs like the one's you disabled (mainly toolbars). I made the mistake of using the term "plug-in" earlier in the thread. Best to limit descriptions to "add-ons" and "BHO", at least when discussing FF.

Not sure what that means either. Maybe a security update got installed

What do you mean when you say that ethernet controller is "disabled". Did you disconnect it or is Windows refusing to use it, or what? Do you manage to get a hold of updated drivers for that controller?

 

Rusty, AtlBo said that when he disabled his ethernet controller, his wireless adapter Internet connection was much more steady, so based on his experience, I disabled it myself. I have downloaded the adapter drivers to my Desktop; I just haven't installed them yet, because I tried it once before and it didn't work. I figured it was because I didn't completely clean my computer of the old drivers, like you said that one program would do, so I've been waiting to try that.

 

Rusty, sorry to keep this thread going, but if you don't mind, I have a couple other questions.

First, IE 8 as I've said, takes a while to get going sometimes. I sent an error report, and MS calls it a "hangup" I think. They say it is usually caused by malware, add-ons, or viruses, but their Fix-It tool didn't detect anything.

Making matters more frustrating, when I hit control alt delete to end the program, it just continues not to respond for several minutes and then eventually does close on its own. Is that normal for your computer to get hungup and be non-responsive, if you practice safe-browsing?

This led to me wonder: should all of these processes in the screenshots below be running on my computer at the same time? It seems like a lot!

Also, I can't play videos now that I disabled add-ons. A couple sites told me I don't have a flash player, so I downloaded Adobe (what they recommended) and enabled it, but the sites still don't recognize the download and say don't have a flash player, while IE 8 shows a message at the top of the screen about managing add-ons.

If you could help me understand these basic issues a little better, and help with the driver issue, I think that should do it for me. I hate to continue belaboring these issues, but I really appreciate your help!

 

AloisD...

I'm sure rusty will be back shortly.

The short answer to your question on is this alot of processes is yes. In your case, it's alot and probably too many.

Now the long story:
On startup after you boot the computer, Windows begins to load at the Welcome screen. At this time, any programs set on your computer to start automatically will start. It's normal for many things to start, and some of them are essential Windows processes. However, some are also processes associated with a program you have installed at some point such as iTunes or Norton, etc. Actually, almost every program has someplace in its settings the option to start on boot. When a program starts on boot, typically an icon for the program can be found in the bottom right corner in the System Tray (systray). If you right click on the icon, it will expand into a menu and you can make choices and so on.

The benefit of having a program open on boot is relative to the developer's decisions. Sometimes you just have the icon and access to settings. This type of startup program usually doesn't cause any trouble. Most of the time, however, startup programs are actually running in one sense or another in the background (like your anti-virus). The amount of resources this service uses varies from program to program. Sometimes the program is actually partly open, so that it will open more quickly and sometimes the program is actually fully running (again anti-virus).

There is a benefit in trimming your PCs startup programs when it comes to performance. The key is to know what the startup program is costing you in terms of resources to be running and to know what it's getting you for being there.

This is what I have done and recommend. I looked over all the processes on my PC and Googled them one by one. When I found that one was not a Windows process, I made a note of the process name and what program it is associated with. Once I finished the list, I went back and evaluated further what each of the processes on the list actually did for me. One by one I eliminated all the ones I didn't care to have open and then used CCleaner to disable the startup entry.

Notes on CCleaner...

1. To adjust your startup programs:
Open CCleaner
Select the Tools tab far left
Select the Startup tab just to the right of the menu containing Tools
Right click on any process you don't need running on startup and select disable.

You can close CCleaner now knowing that what you disabled will not run on startup.

2. When using CCleaner I highly recommend deselecting the Registry cleaning option. Here's how:
Open CCleaner
Select Registry from the far left menu
Deselect all of the check boxes. If they are all checked, click on the icon next to the text "Registry cleaner", and they will all deselect automatically.

This PC will handle 4 GB of RAM. I recommend either maxing out the RAM or see if you can find a PC with a better processor. There are used i5 (highly recommend 4 GB+ of RAM for current uses) type PCs going constantly on ebay for $100 in very good condition off of a business lease. I recently bought an i3 with 8 GB of RAM for $70 on ebay...very good deals there. I admit it takes a little bit of investment to learn how to use the search filter feature located on the left margin of the PC Desktops area of ebay. You can add a max price and add i3, i5, i7 processors, minimum RAM and so on.

Not to tell you your PC is finished. The i3, i5, and i7 PCs are so much better, though, that I can say I don't think you'd be being foolish to consider a used one of these instead of buying more RAM (if you need more to max out your Dell).

Trimming your startup programs will help. I'll let rusty continue from here as he seems to be more familiar with the situation. Let me know if I can help.

 

AtlBo, Thanks for the excellent assist on this one. Couldn't have said it better myself. Feel free to contribute to any of my threads anytime but especially now. I seem to have overextended myself in terms of the number of threads I've gotten myself involved in. Everything is getting jumbled in my mind, so it's a welcome relief to get a fresh set of eyes on the subjects.

 

I stopped using MSIE long ago. It's become a behemoth stricken with every kind of problem you can think of. Therefore, I can't comment on what might be causing the hangups. I can only suggest that you start using a different browser like Firefox or Opera.

Yes, it is a lot. Many, many programs place themselves in Windows autorun list on installation. Some even do it every time you run the program. You can control these autostarting apps with a program called Autoruns from Microsoft.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/microsoft_autoruns.html

I give you the same suggestion that AtlBo did. Open Task Manager (right click on taskbar and click "Start Task Manager". Go to the "Processes" tab and start Googling anything you don't recognize. This will allow you to unearth which processes belong to which programs. You can then use AutoRuns to turn off any that you don't want running all of the time. No easy way to do this (not to my knowledge). You just have to start digging through the Processes page. Right now, just looking at your Processes page and your CPU, I can guarantee that you are going to have problems with programs hanging or running slow.

What exactly is the message you are getting from MSIE 8 on this matter?

You really need to post separate problems in separate threads. You'll get a lot more responders that way. You want as many people as possible to take a stab at the problem. Right now, we could keep this thread going for years without ever having another person look at it or contribute. AtlBo is an exception, he's profoundly diligent and that's why he posted. But your average poster is not going to get involved in a dead thread, which is what this one has become.

 

Here's an excellent resource for getting started. Covers most common computing problems that the average user is likely to run into. Thanks to Just Playin for pointing this one out to me.

http://www.winhelp.us/

 

DavidGP, Thanks for placing a much needed final chapter onto this run-away thread.

 

Thanks for the replies, guys. David, the Major Geeks appremover link leads to a download that says "license expired". The download at author's site seems to lead nowhere. I will give Firefox or Opera a try. Thanks again.

 

Hi AloisD, just one more little issue. In your very 1stpost I noticed from your thumbnail that your desktop is full and this uses a lot of resources. A lot of the shortcuts can be deleted and any programs can be put in to your start menu, if not already there. I have learned a lot from this thread that these experts have so diligently explained. Happy browsing . Boneyeye