Utility Navigation

Latest news

07 Jun 2007: Version 0.7.1 of RunAlyzer released now with an update database and works with Vista

21 Feb 2008: Version 2.05.555 of CCleaner released with enhancements and bug fixes

11 Sep 2007: Version 0.9.11 of Xpy is released.

XP Utilities

The following list some of the utilities that you may find useful in understanding some of the features of Windows XP such as what is running on the machine, and whether it is necessary to run. There are also a number of settings that can be altered in XP and again it is sometimes useful to have utilities that allow these to be changed relatively safely as opposed to changing the registry direct. Once you have been running XP for a short time you will find it useful to examine some of the files created and again to distinguish and get rid of any redundant files. As always if you are unsure of what you are doing always backup the registry and create a system restore point before taking any action.

I have found the System Information utilities listed here useful, because they give me an insight into what applications and program versions I have installed. It is also useful sometimes particularly if you have a problem to be able to report precisely what hardware configuration and driver versions you are running.

Xpy

Xpy is a tiny application that allows you to tweak some of the windows XP settings and also configure some of the windows processes to close some of the security loopholes in Windows XP. Maybe this should be detailed under Security, but I considered this was primarily an XP utility that should really be part of the XP operating system. With this tool you can disable windows "calling home", disable questionable services, disarm Internet Explorer, disarm Windows Media Player, remove Windows Messenger, improve privacy and security and improve performance. Make sure you thoroughly understand what changes are being made before using; it's definitely not a tool for the beginner or faint hearted.

RunAlyzer

Many people who can remember the days of MSDOS 6.0 long for those days when you knew precisely what was running on your machine at any time and felt a little bit in control of the Operating system. Now Safer Networking (who develop Spybot) have bought out an alpha version of a new utility called Runalyzer to check in detail what is running on your machine. Download and run this and prepare to be amazed and hope you do not find any real nasties. At the least you will probably be able to save some resource by eliminating unwanted processes. As it is still in the alpha stage there is no documentation so it is probably advisable not to actually update anything at this stage.

FileAlyzer

This is another very useful tool from Safer Networking which can be activated by right clicking on the file in Windows File Explorer. From here you obtain comprehensive details of the file including a text, image or hex view. For exe files you can often obtain details of the version that is sometimes useful when checking whether or not you are running the latest version.

CCleaner

CCleaner is one of those must have utilities that cleans up after the mess left by installing and uninstalling Windows XP applications. One would have thought that a utility such as this would have been bundled in with the Operating System, but I guess it would hurt to have to admit that running Windows is such an untidy process. There are options to clean up Temporary files and also the debris left by some common applications such as Firefox. This will also look at the integrity of the Registry and remove any redundant links. I particularly like the approach adopted because instead of claiming to clean everything it concentrates on the major system components including the XP operating system, the major browsers IE6/7 and Firefox, and some of the major applications such as Adobe Acrobat Reader and Photoshop. This means that cleaning can be carried out intelligently rather than using a general rule. Using this may not put off buying a new disk, but it can make your system more responsive and less prone to crashes due to unwanted garbage.

jv16 Power Tools

This is an interesting utility which has many useful functions most notably its ability to completely remove all registry details for previously removed applications. Sometimes (in fact often) the Control Panel Add/Remove Program function fails to delete all trace of a removed program. Sometimes this can stop a new version from being installed. There is a freeware older version that you can get at this address ...

AutoRuns

This utility written by SysInternals, now acquired by Microsoft provides a really detailed view of all processes which startup automatically at System Startup or system boot. With this utility you can disable a startup entry by unchecking the tick box against each process. If you decide you want the process later on then you can check the tick box. There is also the facility to delete the entry when you are sure you do not want this process at startup. All in all a really useful tool because it can check against a known list to provide details of the process - in particular distinguish Microsoft from other suppliers.

ProcessExplorer

This is another very useful utility from SysInternals which gives you details of every process that is currently running together with a hierarchical list of processes called by other processes. This is very useful because you also have a panel showing the CPU being used by each main process.

svchost Viewer

If you've ever wondered what all those svchost processes are actually doing on your machine then immediately download svchost Viewer from codeplex and take a look. I have had a quick look on my machine and can see there are potentially several process hoggers that can be removed. As always you need to take care when stopping any system processes so make sure you only change one thing at a time and check out with a reboot that all is still functioning OK.

Windows Installer Cleanup

Have you ever been in the situation where you have an application that you want to uninstall but the add/remove programs in XP Control Centre is unable to remove the program, so you try to add the latest version of the program and it won't let you do it, because it says there is already a previous version installed? I found this very frustrating when I was trying to update my Silverlight alpha installation and was on the point of giving up, when I found the 'Windows Install Cleanup' utility on the Microsoft web site. It certainly worked for me, but it's not the sort of tool you want to leave lying around on the PC just in case someone curious decides to check out what this does. In fact it seems to remove every last trace of that application on your PC - seems to do a much more thorough job than the Control Centre add/remove program, which could be useful for getting rid of those applications that splurge registry keys all over the place. Use with caution and at your own risk!!!

Stopping Unwanted XP Processes

I feel this will be an expanding section, but for now I will list my pet hates and where possible how to deal with them. Admittedly, some of these don't seem to impinge on privacy in terms of collecting personal details, but instead are like unwanted, unknown guests in your house - most of the time they are invisible, but actually they are using your resources i.e. memory, CPU and diskspace. Whenever I wish to alter any process running I always (without exception) only change one item at a time and make sure I have a clean boot up after the change, so that if there is a problem I can quickly identify the likely source of the problem. I always try to avoid direct editing of the registry because a small error here can easily make your system inoperable. Some of the tools listed above will help you identify processes running and also allow you to modify the startup list.

McAfee

When I received my Dell PC I found it had McAfee pre-installed on a free trial basis, so immediately I did an uninstall using Windows Control Panel. Several times the software warned me about the dire consequences that would befall my computer if I proceeded which is obviously designed to deter the naive user. After I uninstalled I was surprised to see two McInfo processes still running which were set up as autoruns. These were processes designed to save poor McAfee from being removed and were giving prompts to go and re-install. So where were these processes hiding? Eventually I found the exe files tucked away in the Windows/Temp directory, and removed the autoruns and the McInfo files. So far I haven't heard any more from McAfee but I am always on the lookout just in case.

rundll32.exe NvQtwk.dll, NvCplDaemon

This process creates a system tray item where you can change display settings, clock rate and memory speed for NVidia type graphics cards. All of these can be set from the Display Properties in the Control Panel so there is absolutely no need for this process to be running continuously. You will also need to stop the NVidia driver helper service (Nvsvc32.exe) otherwise it will keep on reappearing each time you restart windows.

Jucheck.exe and Jusched.exe

These are programs installed in your system to handle automatic updates to your Java runtime environment. I have chosen these two not because of any particular dislike for Java, but because these are typical of many of the programs you install. Basically they all want to contact base at regular intervals (actually Java is not so bad because it only does it once a month) providing an opportunity to monitor your usage. If you go into the Java item on the control panel and go to update, you can uncheck the box that says 'check for updates automatically'. This will then stop the jusched.exe process from running continuously. On the other hand the jucheck.exe is an optional process that is under your control for checking for updates. So now you could use Task Manager which is designed for this type of activity, to run once a month or whenever you wished to see if there was a Java Update. So by taking this action you have saved some resource on your computer by not having juched.exe running continuously.

DMXLauncher.exe

I saw this was associated with Dell's Media Experience used for playing media files. So since I had no real use for this I decided to stop it running continuously. This time I used Microsoft Autoruns to uncheck the box so it would not automatically run on Windows start up. Autoruns is an excellent free tool from Microsoft which provides details of all processes which are set up as autoruns; if at any time you feel you wish to run DMXLauncher you can always recheck the box.

Issch.exe

this is the InstallShield Update service always included with Dell computers to monitor the status of Sonic software. It can also be setup to monitor other software installations. As I preferred to update these manually and did not want a resource hog running I removed this from the start up list.

CPSHelpRunner

This seems to be associated with an icon in your tray called Media Manager Services. If you exit out of Media Manager Services then the process CPSHelpRunner will disappear. I also had to set Roxio Hard drive watcher to be a manual process and stop this in autostarts.

RoxiodragToDisk

I did not want this tray popping up all the time so I removed 'DrgtoDsc.exe' from the startup list.

EhTray.exe

This is a Microsoft process related to media centre which allows you to control the computer from a remote. As I have no need for this I disabled it from the autostarts.

Stopping Ctfmon.exe

This little program gets put in your startup list automatically when you install IE7 whether or not you are running Microsoft Office. I found it annoying because it seems to be a bit of a resource waster. I did not need these services and got fed up removing it from my startup list only to see it reappear. However, I did find this little note on the net which seems to do the job without any need to tinker with the registry directly.
Disable it by going to start/control panel/regional and Language options.
Click the language tab/details/ advanced...
here check: turn off advanced text service!!!

ePlaice / For the Best Software on the Net

Mainly Free and Open Source Software