Aaar

Aaar.exe

See   IWAR.
 

Aasd

Aasd.exe
 

See   IWAR.

aAvgApi

aAvgApi.exe

(AVG Technologies)

AVG Security Toolbar Helper.  Program which will appear on the  Tasks  tab of TUT if you have Internet Explorer open and you use the Internet Explorer  AVG Security Toolbar  which protects the user against fly-by infection and phishing, and which also provides security ratings on the websites you visit and on searches you make through Yahoo.  The  AVG Security Toolbar  is installed either AVG AntiVirus or AVG Internet Security.

Recommendation : 
Down to end-user preference (as to whether you want to use the  AVG Security Toolbar  or not).

If you experience problems with this task, simply turn off the  AVG Security Toolbar  by right‑clicking in a blank space on any toolbar and unchecking  AVGTOOLBAR.  Then, close Internet Explorer and re-open it and this task will not appear again in your Task List.  This task normally uses between 2Mb and 8Mb of memory.

Acao

Acao.exe
 

See   IWAR.

Acbtnmgr_x63

Acbtnmgr_x73

Acbtnmgr_x83

AcBtnMgr_X63.exe

AcBtnMgr_X73.exe

AcBtnMgr_X83.exe

(Jetsoft for Lexmark)

Lexmark X63/X73/X83 Button Manager, also called  “Lexmark Scan & Copy Control Program”.  System Tray icon for the Lexmark X63/X73/X83 multifunction printer/scanner/copier.  Through that icon you can access from your PC all the functions available on the control pad of your Lexmark X63/X73/X83 :  scan, scan to e‑mail, scan and fax, scan to OCR, copy, scanning resolution settings. 

Recommendation :  
Down to end-user preference.  This program is not strictly necessary for the proper operation of your Lexmark X63/X73/X83 as you can use most of the above features via the printer’s control panel.  However you need this System Tray program to scan to e-mail, fax, or OCR, and to change the machine’s defaults, such as the default scanning resolution, the email address to scan and e-mail to, etc...  Should you decide to disable this task on the  Startups  tab of  The Ultimate Troubleshooter, you can start it at any time via  “Start \ Programs \ Lexmark X63/X73/X83 \ Lexmark Scan & Copy Control Program”.

Acbtnmgr_x84-x85

AcBtnMgr_X84-X85.exe

(Jetsoft for Lexmark)

Lexmark X84/X85 Button Manager, also called  “Lexmark Scan & Copy Control Program”.  System Tray icon for the Lexmark X84/X85 multifunction printer/scanner/copier.  Through that icon you can access from your PC all the functions available on the control pad of your Lexmark X84/X85 :  scan, scan to e‑mail, scan and fax, scan to OCR, copy, scanning resolution settings. 

Recommendation :
Down to end-user preference.  This program is not strictly necessary for the proper operation of your Lexmark X84/X85 as you can use most of the above features via the printer’s control panel.  However you need this System Tray program to scan to e-mail, fax, or OCR, and to change the machine’s defaults, such as the default scanning resolution, the email address to scan and e-mail to, etc…  Should you decide to disable this task on the  Startups  tab of  The Ultimate Troubleshooter, you can start it at any time via  “Start \ Programs \ Lexmark X84/X85 \ Lexmark Scan & Copy Control Program”.

Acmonitor_x63

Acmonitor_x73

Acmonitor_x83

ACMonitor_X63.exe

ACMonitor_x73.exe

ACMonitor_x83.exe

(Jetsoft for Lexmark)

Lexmark X63/X73/X83 Button Monitor.  Background task installed by the drivers for the Lexmark X73 or X83 multifunction printer/scanner/copier.  This background task monitors the X63/X73/X83 for activity and interacts with  ACBTNMGR_X73/83  above for operations involving the PC (e.g. scan to e-mail).  Also, for large copy jobs it relays the current copy count back to  ACBTNMGR_X63/X73/X83  so you can view it on your PC.

Recommendation :  
In the main this task is necessary, so leave it alone.

Acmonitor_x84-x85

ACMonitor_X84-X85.exe

(Jetsoft for Lexmark)

Lexmark X84/X85 Button Monitor.  Background task installed by the drivers for the Lexmark X84 or X85 multifunction printer/scanner/copier.  This background task monitors the X84/X85 for activity and interacts with  ACBTNMGR_X84/85  above for operations involving the PC (e.g. scan to e-mail).  Also, for large copy jobs it relays the current copy count back to  ACBTNMGR_X84-X85  so you can view it on your PC.

Recommendation :  
In the main this task is necessary, so leave it alone.

AcroRd32Info

AcroRd32Info.exe

(Adobe)

Adobe Acrobat Reader File Info tab.  Interesting little program which first appeared with version 7.x of the Adobe Reader and which runs only when you hover the mouse over a PDF file in Windows Explorer, My Computer, or over a PDF email attachment.  Its purpose is to add the  PDF tab  to the Properties sheet of a PDF file.  That PDF tab displays summary information about the PDF file (if this was supplied by the person/program which created the PDF file) :  Title, Author, Subject, Keywords, Created & Modified Dates, and details about the application which produced the PDF.

Recommendation :
Leave alone.  This is an extremely well-behaved task – it will close itself automatically after a while if you stop hovering the mouse over PDF files, or if you close Windows Explorer \ My Computer, etc...

Acrotray  (1)

AcroTray.exe

(Adobe)

Adobe Acrobat Assistant.  This background task is installed when you install the full version of Adobe Acrobat.  It comes into action when you create PDF files from non Adobe applications through the “Watched Folders”  feature of Acrobat Distiller.  The full path to this program should be  “C: \ Program Files \ Adobe \ etc..... \ Acrotray.exe”.

Recommendation :
Usually harmless.  Only disable on the  Startups  tab of  The Ultimate Troubleshooter  if you specifically experience problems with it.

Acrotray  (2)

Adobe Acrobat Distiller Application

Acrotray.exe

(???)

If the full path to this program is anywhere inside the Windows folder, such as  “C:\Windows\System\Acrotray.exe”  or  “C:\WinNT\System32\Acrotray.exe”  or  “C:\Windows\System32\Acrotray.exe”,  then you have a virus such as the   W32.Randex.DFJ   virus.

Acsd

AolAcsDaemon1

Aolacsd

ACSd.exe

AOLacsd.exe

(AOL)

AOL Connectivity Service.  Background task introduced with version 9.0 of AOL and which supposedly reconnects you to AOL if you lose your connection while online.  It runs as a task in Win9x/ME, and as a service under WinNT4/2000/XP/2003.

Recommendation :  
At the time of writing, 15‑Dec‑2003, this task is an annoying feature of the latest AOL.  For a start the concept itself beggars belief since we cannot see how the task can check for loss of connection without constant pinging of a particular Internet address (be ready for ACSD firewall alerts!) – in short unnecessary traffic on your connection; the very sort of behaviour normally attributed to spyware !   But that is the least of the problems :  this task is responsible for boot-up errors on some PCs, constant autodials on boot-up of some PCs, it is incompatible with some programs on others (you have to terminate ACSD to use the programs without problems), on other PCs it uses inconsiderable amounts of memory for what its role is, on some Win2000/XP PCs we have found it running away with CPU resources and incredibly slow PCs as a result, and, worse, it stays around when you have deliberately closed your Internet connection.  This, in our opinion, is  TerribleWare !   Unfortunately, at the time of writing we do not have a solution to the problem :  even if you disable this task on the  Startups  tab of  The Ultimate Troubleshooter  on Win9x/ME, or set the service to manual on WinNT4/2000/XP/2003, opening AOL starts the task anyway.  Out of frustrations some users have reverted back to AOL 8.0.  The advice for those who stay with version 9.0 is that it is unthinkable that AOL will not eventually address the problem, so keep downloading those AOL updates whenever you are prompted by the software. 
Update (16-Jul-2004) :   from our records, sometime in March 2004 AOL finally fixed the worst problems with this task in AOL 9.0 Optimized and in the process gave it a new name too – AOLACSD.EXE.

Actionagent

ActionAgent.exe

(Dell)

Part of Dell’s OpenManage Client Instrumentation software which allows the user or system administrator to view, and sometimes set, various statistics, characteristics, configuration, and performance data of specific hardware components in your Dell PC.  This task/service is used to  set and reset  configuration parameters of a particular hardware item  (e.g. your network card).

Recommendation :
Such software is not critical to the good running of your PC, so you may decide to disable it on the  Startups  tab of  The Ultimate Troubleshooter  in Windows 9x/ME,  or set the startup mode of this service to  Disabled  on the  Services  tab of The Ultimate Troubleshooter in Windows NT4/2000/XP/2003.  Note :  if you are troubleshooting problems with your PC or server, then we strongly suggest that if you fail to home in on the cause of your problems, you should also try disabling this task/service during your investigations.

Ad-watch

Ad-Watch.exe

(Lavasoft Sweden)

There is no better description of Ad‑Watch (an option available only with the paid version of Ad-Aware) than Lavasoft’s own description :   “Ad‑Watch is a real time monitor add‑on included in the Ad‑Aware Plus  and  Ad‑Aware Professional  software programs.  It runs silently in the background, waiting for adware, spyware, and other parasites that may try to install themselves or modify your system.  While Ad‑Aware detects and cleans your system from known malware and advertising parasites, Ad‑Watch goes even further by catching these programs before they even integrate in your system.  If malware/parasites are detected, Ad‑Watch pops up, unloads the particular module and launches Ad‑Aware.  You can change the action taken by Ad‑Watch in the Preferences menu.”.

Recommendation :  
Down to end-user preference.  In our view, however, Ad-Watch should only be used by advanced users as they alone will be able to work out at all times which programs should be allowed to modify the Windows Registry, and which ones should not.  All other users, through insufficient technical knowledge of such issues and through insufficient experience in understanding all the consequences of a particular action, run the risk of preventing software that they actually need, from running properly or at all (even to the point of the much needed software running into intractable installation problems).  Should you want to, you can disable Ad‑Watch by going into Ad‑Aware, clicking  Settings,  then  Ad‑Watch,  and then unchecking  Load Ad‑Watch on Windows startup.

Addrbook

Addrbook.exe

(Novell)

Novell GroupWise Address Book.  This task appears when you first use the GroupWise Address Book and remains after you have closed the Address Book – the intention here is that the Address Book will open up quicker the next time you call it up.

Recommendation :  
If you have closed the GroupWise Address Book, and you are in the process of troubleshooting a problem, then terminate this task.  Otherwise leave it alone as it does speed up the opening of the Address Book the second time you use it.

Admillikeep

AdmilliKeep.exe

(???)

Trojan virus.  This virus first appeared on the scene in late December 2004 and at the time of writing, 17‑Jan‑2005, most antivirus programs do not pick it up as a problem yet.  We do not yet know how it gets picked up but, typically, the users who have been infected with it have consistently told us they  clicked on something they shouldn’t have !  This is a very strange pest as it both makes itself very easy to uninstall but impossibly difficult to stop !!   For example :  if you try to stop this program,  ADMILLIKEEP,  then its  “brother”,  ADMILLISERV,  restarts it, and vice versa.  Similarly, if you try to remove these from the  Startups  tab of  The Ultimate Troubleshooter,  they get added back in immediately !

Recommendation :  
Get rid of this immediately :

1)   Restart your PC into Safe Mode by pressing  F8  continually after turning your PC ON till you get a menu where  “Safe Mode”  is one of the options  (if you are unable to start your PC into Safe Mode, then try the following in Normal Mode).

2)   Go to  “Add/Remove Programs”  in the Control Panel and uninstall  Admilli Service  if you find it in there.

3)   Next, start  The Ultimate Troubleshooter  and go to the  Startups  tab and for each instance of either  ADMILLIKEEP  or  ADMILLISERV, if they still exist, do the following :  right-click on it and choose  Delete from the hard disk the file that this Startup points to;  next, right-click on this entry again and this time choose  Delete this Startup entry.

5)   Click the big green  APPLY  button to make your changes stick.

6)   Reboot your PC into Normal Mode.

7)   Download  Ad-Aware  or  SpyBot  from our  Downloads  library and run it to eliminate all possible adware and spyware.

8)   Make sure you have an up-to-date reputable antivirus program and run a full virus scan on your PC.
 

Admilliserv

AdmilliServ.exe

(???)

Trojan virus.  This virus first appeared on the scene in late December 2004 and at the time of writing, 17‑Jan‑2005, most antivirus programs do not pick it up as a problem yet.  We do not yet know how it gets picked up but, typically, the users who have been infected with it have consistently told us they  clicked on something they shouldn’t have !   This is a very strange pest as it both makes itself very easy to uninstall but impossibly difficult to stop !!   For example :  if you try to stop this program,  ADMILLISERV,  then its  “brother”,  ADMILLIKEEP,  restarts it, and vice versa.  Similarly, if you try to remove these from the  Startups  tab of  The Ultimate Troubleshooter,  they get added back in immediately !

Recommendation :  
Get rid of this immediately :

1)   Restart your PC into Safe Mode by pressing  F8  continually after turning your PC ON till you get a menu where  “Safe Mode”  is one of the options  (if you are unable to start your PC into Safe Mode, then try the following in Normal Mode).

2)   Go to  “Add/Remove Programs”  in the Control Panel and uninstall  Admilli Service  if you find it in there.

3)   Next, start  The Ultimate Troubleshooter  and go to the  Startups  tab and for each instance of either  ADMILLISERV  or  ADMILLIKEEP, if they still exist, do the following :  right-click on it and choose  Delete from the hard disk the file that this Startup points to;  next, right-click on this entry again and this time choose  Delete this Startup entry.

5)   Click the big green  APPLY  button to make your changes stick.

6)   Reboot your PC into Normal Mode.

7)   Download  Ad-Aware  or  SpyBot  from our  Downloads  library and run it to eliminate all possible adware and spyware.

8)   Make sure you have an up-to-date reputable antivirus program and run a full virus scan on your PC.
 

AdobeUpdateManager

UpdateMgr

AdobeUpdateManager.exe

(Adobe)

Adobe Update Manager.  This is the Adobe program which downloads updates for your various Adobe software products whenever you do a  Check for Updates  or when you have your Adobe programs configured to automatically regularly check for updates.

Recommendation :
If you do not have the Adobe Update Manager currently open on the screen, but have it set up as a startup entry on the  Startups  tab of  The Ultimate Troubleshooter,  then this will have happened purely because you once had the program download the updates but decided to click on  Install Later  at the end of the downloads, either because you indeed wanted to install later, or because you ran the Adobe Update Manager solely to collect the actual software update setup files so that you could put them on your network folders, or on a CD, or on a USB pen drive in order to manually install them repeatedly on all the other PCs on your network.  The purpose of this task being there as a startup is so that it can ask you, each time you reboot, whether you now want to install the updates which you downloaded in a previous session of Windows.  Therefore, if you know you have already installed those updates and you find this entry on the  Startups  tab of TUT, simply delete it.

Adservice

ADService.exe

(Iomega)

Active Disk Service.  See  ADUSERMON  below.

Recommendation :
Disable on the  Startups  tab of  The Ultimate Troubleshooter  in Windows 95/98/ME,  or set the startup mode of this service to  Disabled  on the  Services  tab of The Ultimate Troubleshooter.

Advchk

Advchk.exe

(Symantec)

Advanced Tools Integrity Check.  This is purely a startup task which is included with Norton SystemWorks or Norton AntiVirus 2003 Professional.  This task checks, when your PC starts up, whether the Windows Registry or some of the crucial components of your Norton security software may have been compromised by a virus.  If the components all check OK, the PC continues, otherwise a warning is issued to the end-user.  Either way, the task terminates once it has done its job of checking the integrity of components.

Recommendation : 
Given the function of this startup task we classify it as essential as it ensures that you do not use security products which may have been stealthily compromised by a virus or Trojan task – Leave it alone therefore.  If, however, you experience startup problems with your PC, then you should disable this startup on the  Startups  tab of  The Ultimate Troubleshooter  as part of your troubleshooting experiments.

Aerr

Aerr.exe

See   IWAR.
 

Aexplore

Aexplore.exe

(AOL)

You have the   AOL Explorer   web browser currently open  (or set as a startup item).

Agsatellite

AGSatellite

(AudioGalaxy)

This program is a Napster clone.  Just like Napster, and most other Napster clones, you can minimize the program to the System Tray.  Many users, however, do not realise that when they think they have closed the program, the program is actually still running in the background and showing as an icon in the System Tray.

Recommendation :
Unless you have queued some downloads, right-click on the icon and close the program as, otherwise, some of your PC resources are being wasted unnecessarily, and a significant portion of your Internet bandwidth could be taken up through someone downloading MP3s from your PC in the background !

Ahqtb

AHQtb.exe

(Creative Labs)

Audio HeadQuarters for SoundBlaster Live! Sound cards !!   In layman terms :  System Tray application installed with the drivers for Creative Labs’ SoundBlaster Live! Sound cards and which enables you to bring up that utility from the System Tray.

Recommendation :
There are many reported problems with AHQTB, from startup error to crashes under Windows XP.  If you absolutely want to start this application from the System Tray, then make sure you have the very latest updates and patches for your SoundBlaster Live! Software !   Otherwise we recommend strongly that you disable this item on the  Startups  tab of  The Ultimate Troubleshooter  since you can run it from  “Start \ Programs”.

Ahqtbu

AHQTbU.exe

(Creative Labs)

Audio Headquarters for SoundBlaster Live! Sound cards !!   In layman terms :  System Tray application installed with the drivers for Creative Labs’ SoundBlaster Live! Sound cards and which enables you to bring up that utility from the System Tray so you can set/unset various settings on your soundcard.

Recommendation :
There are many reported problems with AHQTB and AHQTBU, from startup error to crashes under Windows XP.  If you absolutely want to start this application from the System Tray, then make sure you have the very latest updates and patches for your SoundBlaster Live! Software !   Otherwise we recommend strongly that you disable this item on the  Startups  tab of The Ultimate Troubleshooter  since you can run it from  “Start \ Programs”.

Aim

AIM.exe

(AOL)

AOL Instant Messenger.  This is AOL’s own Internet chatting software, equivalent to MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, ICQ, and many others.  You either have it currently open or minimized to the System Tray as an icon.

Recommendation :
As a startup item it is down to end‑user preference.  If you do not want AOL Instant Messenger started automatically, or if you do not use it at all and only have it there because it was installed by default when you installed AOL, then open AOL Instant Messenger and configure the preferences so that it does not start with Windows.

Alarmapp

AlarmApp.exe

(Palm)

System Tray background task which ensures that you get on your PC/laptop the alarms that you have either set in the Palm Desktop software, or that you set on your Palm organizer and then transferred to your PC through a hotsync.

Recommendation :
Essential if you want your Palm alarms notifying you when working on your PC.  You can enable/disable this option in the  “Tools \ Options \ Alarms”   tab in the Palm Desktop software, or through disabling this task on the  Startups  tab of  The Ultimate Troubleshooter.  This task has a history of problems (crashes, strange error messages, and worst, non-notification of alarms!!), particularly under Windows XP.  Most of those problems, however, were resolved in version 4.1 or later of the Palm Desktop software.  If you have version 4.1 or later of the Palm Desktop software and are experiencing problems with this task, do a hotsync to ensure both your PC and your Palm are in sync, then fully de-install the Palm software through the  “Add/Remove Programs”  icon in the Control Panel, delete this task from the  Startups  tab of The Ultimate Troubleshooter (if it is still there), reboot your PC, re-install the latest version of the Palm Desktop software, re-hotsync with your Palm, and then set the options in the  “Tools \ Options \ Alarm”  tab in the Palm Desktop software to re-enable this task.  At the time of writing, 25‑Mar‑2005, this usually solves most problems associated with this task.

Alcxmntr

AlcxMonitor

ALCXMNTR.exe

(Realtek)

Realtek   Audio Event Monitor   startup task installed by the drivers for some of the Realtek AC’97 onboard soundcards.  At the time of writing, 12‑Nov‑2005, we do not know what this task actually does.  According to Hewlett‑Packard, however, you should leave this startup alone to  “avoid sound issues”.

Recommendation :
Anything that is critical to the proper functioning of sound on your PC will  never  be loaded from the  Startups  tab of  The Ultimate Troubleshooter.  For this reason we, at AnswersThatWork, always disable this task on the  Startups  tab and we have never encountered any problems with the sound as a result of doing so.  You may therefore wish to do the same – if you do, simply  Disable  this startup, do not delete it, just in case this task may perform a needed function on your own particular PC and you therefore need to re‑enable it.

Alg

ALG.exe

(Microsoft)

Application Layer Gateway service found only on Windows XP/2003.  ALG is an integral part of ICS (Internet Connection Sharing) and ICF (Internet Connection Firewall) in Windows XP/2003 – in simple terms, your Windows XP/2003 Firewall uses ALG.  Microsoft’s description :   “Provides support for 3^rd Party protocol plug-ins for ICS and ICF”.

Recommendation :
If you use the Windows XP/2003 Firewall, you must have ALG running.  If you use a 3^rd Party firewall, or if you have disabled your Windows XP/2003 firewall because you are on an already firewalled internal corporate network, for example, then set the  Startup Mode  of this service to  Manual  on the  Services  tab of  The Ultimate Troubleshooter.

Alogserv

ALogServ.exe

(McAfee)

Background task installed with McAfee VirusScan and whose purpose is to log all McAfee background virus scanning activities.  As of July 2004, and since February 2002, there is nothing positive we can say about this program !   Since its introduction with VirusScan 5.x, this program has caused end-users endless problems and McAfee has had to issue fixes and help documents for it.  It has been responsible for gobbling up  all  resources, with the result being a PC which slows down to a crawl and eventually locks up completely.  In other instances ALOGSERV appears many times in the Task List.  This is silly :  antivirus protection is necessary these days, it is not optional, and the least one would expect from an antivirus software publisher is higher standards of testing to ensure that its antivirus software does not behave........ like a virus !!!

Recommendation :
If you have McAfee VirusScan, visit their website to ensure you have the very latest software updates (as opposed to virus updates).  If you are experiencing performance related problems, lockups, or other problems which you cannot explain, then disable  ALOGSERV  on the  The Ultimate Troubleshooter – VirusScan will still work fine without it in the background.  Note, however, that if you start VirusScan manually through  “Start \ Programs”, VirusScan will in turn start ALOGSERV.  Thus, once you have stopped using VirusScan and exited out of it, remember to do an End Task on  ALOGSERV.

AMD_dc_opt

AMD_DC_opt.exe

(AMD – Advanced Micro Devices)

AMD Dual-Core Optimizer.  Driver from AMD which optimizes AMD Dual-Core systems to fix video incompatibilities with specific games, overclocking conditions, and even virtual environments such as VMWare (although the latter two are not part of the original aim of this driver).  AMD’s description at the time of writing, 6‑Jan‑2007 :  “The AMD Dual-Core Optimizer can help improve some PC gaming video performance by compensating for those applications that bypass the Windows API for timing by directly using the RDTSC (Read Time Stamp Counter) instruction. Applications that rely on RDTSC do not benefit from the logic in the operating system to properly account for the affect of power management mechanisms on the rate at which a processor core's Time Stamp Counter (TSC) is incremented. The AMD Dual-Core Optimizer helps to correct the resulting video performance effects or other incorrect timing effects that these applications may experience on dual-core processor systems, by periodically adjusting the core time-stamp-counters, so that they are synchronized.”.  This program runs only at Windows startup – it sets some parameters and then terminates.

Recommendation :
Down to end-user’s experiences.  On some PCs the early versions of the driver have caused problems such as the inability to complete Windows boot-ups, blue screens of death (BSOD), or event log errors when switching users.  The most problematic of these errors are usually caused by a combination of not having the latest AMD driver and/or graphics card drivers.  The first stop, therefore, if you feel this driver is causing problems, is to update your AMD and graphics card drivers which you can do through our  Drivers  page;  at the time of writing, 6‑Jan‑2007, the latest version of this AMD driver is November 2006.  If you still experience problems after updating your drivers and want to disable or uninstall this AMD driver, then note the following :  on some PCs, simply disabling this task on the  Startups  tab of  The Ultimate Troubleshooter  is enough to stop the problems;  on other PCs a full uninstall, via the  “Add\Remove Programs”  icon in the Control Panel, is required.

Amra

Amra.exe

See   IWAR.
 

AniServ

ANISERVICE

AniServ.exe

(Airgo Networks)

Driver for your Airgo Networks MIMO onboard, PCMCIA, or USB wireless network adapter.  Airgo Networks is an OEM manufacturer.  As an OEM manufacturer Airgo Networks designs and manufactures wireless connectivity products for other companies to put their own badges, branding, and packaging on those products.  This means that you will find this particular task installed by the installation CDs of a number of wireless brands, amongst them :  Belkin, Corega, Jungo, Linksys, Netgear, Samsung, and many others.

Recommendation :
Essential driver program which enables your PC to use your wireless network adapter – Leave alone therefore.

Annclist

Annclist.exe

(Microsoft)

Microsoft Announcement Listener task for Microsoft WebTV.   Microsoft WebTV was first introduced in Windows 98, and was also part of Windows Millennium.   At the time of writing however, 14‑Dec‑2003, Microsoft WebTV is an obsolete technology that has been superseded by Windows Media Player and Windows Media Streaming.

Recommendation :  
Unless you use Microsoft WebTV, disable or delete this task with  The Ultimate Troubleshooter.

Aoldial

AOLDial.exe

(AOL)

Dialer introduced with AOL 9.0 Optimized and which enables you to connect to the Internet via AOL without first having to start your main AOL software and connect to your email.

Recommendation :  
The installation of AOL 9.0 Optimized automatically inserts the dialer as a startup item.  The problem with this is that not everyone necessarily wants to connect to the Internet immediately after turning the PC ON, and on PCs which use modem connections rather than broadband this task can not only add significantly to the boot-up time of the PC, but, worse, on some PCs, because of timing issues, it will give errors either on boot-up or on shutdown, or both.  On such PCs our recommendation is to disable this task on the  Startups  tab of  The Ultimate Troubleshooter  and simply let your browser connect you when you decide to go onto the Internet.

AOL Launch.  Startup task which starts the   AOL OpenRide   Internet browser at Windows boot-up (either fully open or minimized to the System Tray, depending on your own particular configuration).  From 10‑Dec‑2007, this task is also installed by   AOL Desktop   which is the successor to  AOL OpenRide.

Recommendation :
Down to end-user preference.  You can disable this task on the  Startups  tab of  The Ultimate Troubleshooter.

AOLOpenRide

AOLOpenRide.exe

(AOL)

You have the   AOL OpenRide   multi-faceted web browser currently open (or set as a startup item).  The  AOL OpenRide  browser, which first appeared in Beta in September 2006, is a long needed replacement for AOL’s previous cluttered offerings of unwieldy windows.  We like it.  It is a 4‑pane browser with the four panes being made up of :  the new AOL tabbed Internet browser,  AOL Mail,  AOL Instant Messenger,  and  AOL Media Center.  As you click on a pane, AOL OpenRide automatically resizes that pane to become the dominant pane and the other panes are automatically sized down to smaller sizes (and you still have the option of resizing manually).  We like it a lot – it works very well.  On a 15” or 17” TFT monitor the automatic upsizing of your current pane makes this a dream to use, and you still have the other three programs available at a single-click of the mouse.  On a 19”, 20”, 21” TFT monitor, or bigger, then the software really comes into its own, as no resizing whether automatic or manual, is required and you have all four Internet activities all available on the one screen.  Top stuff.

Aolsp scheduler

AOLSP Scheduler.exe

(AOL)

AOL Spyware Protection task introduced with AOL 9.0 Optimized and which is AOL’s contribution to the anti‑spyware and anti‑adware movement.  Once a week this task scans the PC’s hard disk(s) for known spyware and adware.  You can modify the frequency of the scans within AOL 9.0 Optimized, and you can also turn it off altogether.

Recommendation :   
At the time of writing, 18-Jul-2004, we have some reservations about AOL Spyware Protection and our main reservation is that it is made by Aluria Software whose own anti-spyware offerings think, in some versions, at the time of writing, that our product, The Ultimate Troubleshooter,  is spyware and as a result prevent it from opening !!    Basically, unlike with antivirus software, we believe that most anti‑spyware programs are not yet safe enough to be run in the background and unattended.  Our reasons for this are that in this day and age of Internet enabled software, there are hundreds of  safe programs  out there which communicate over the Internet  legitimately  and which are not spyware.  Yet, from our experience and our research there are few anti‑spyware programs which are rigorous enough in their research to have a very high degree of accuracy in only ever targeting  known spyware programs and tasks  and  never  making guesses.  SpyBot is one such program in our opinion, but there are others.  Unfortunately, at the time of writing, Aluria Software’s anti‑spyware products are not products we would trust to run in the background and unattended.  The last thing you want is to find that a program that is important to you, and which is actually safe, has been incorrectly identified as spyware, and disabled, and you have no idea that that is what happened because it ran in the background and you did not check the results.  Our recommendation, therefore, is that you disable automatic spyware protection scanning within AOL, disable this task on the  Startups  tab of  The Ultimate Troubleshooter,  and simply manually run the  AOL Spyware Protection  as necessary.  How often you should do this depends on how often you download and install from the Internet, how often you open emails from unknown sources, and whether you use file sharing programs such as KaZaA.  Note :  On 20‑Jul‑2004, the Director of Operations of Aluria Software swiftly acknowledged to us that Aluria Software was indeed incorrectly identifying some components of The Ultimate Troubleshooter as adware/spyware, and indicated that the problem would be resolved in updates later in the same week.  He also stated  “False positives do occur with the best programs out there including antivirus programs, it is not a case of guesswork but unfortunate similarity”.  Aluria’s Director of Operations then named a few products which have recently had the same problem.  At this point, from experience, we disagree.  After a careful initial selection, years ago we used to use Dr Solomon AntiVirus both in-house and at our corporate customers, and never experienced a single  “false positive”  in years of usage.  Then Dr Solomon got bought out and, alas, we experienced such nightmares with the product within a month or two of it having been bought out, that we had to move to a different product.  This time, again after a careful and lengthy evaluation of all leading products on the market, we homed in on Norton AntiVirus.  Well, in the 5+ years since we have used it, in‑house and at our corporate customers, we have not once experienced a single  “False Positive”.  Not once !   Sure, we have had the occasional problems with the product, rectified with updates, but not once have we had Norton AntiVirus identify a legitimate program as a virus or spyware/adware.  If Dr Solomon can do it, if Norton AntiVirus can do it, then our view is that that has to be the yardstick for this particular industry.

AOLssc

AOLssc.exe

(AOL)

Background support task (called AOL Service Libraries) which is started by the  AOLSoftware.exe  task and which, in conjunction with  AOLSOFTWARE,  provides background support for the  AOL Instant Messenger (AIM)  instant messaging program.

Recommendation :
At the time of writing, 14‑Jan‑2006, there are problems with this task on a few PCs where it ends up consuming large amounts of memory (e.g. up to 100Mb).  Therefore, if you never use AIM disable this task by disabling its parent task,  AOLSOFTWARE,  on the  Startups  tab of  The Ultimate Troubleshooter.  If you do use AIM, however, then make sure you do install the regular software updates which AOL will try to push to you whenever you login to AOL, as AOL is bound to work at resolving this problem.

Aoltpspd

Aolwbspd

Aoltpspd.exe

Aolwbspd.exe

(AOL)

AOL TopSpeed  background task which implements AOL’s new web caching technology introduced in AOL 9.0 Optimized and which results in significant speed gains when accessing the Internet via dial‑up modem  (note that independent tests have shown that AOL TopSpeed technology also results in faster access on broadband lines although the gains are not as significant as they are over dial-up – around 10% gain).

Recommendation :
The early versions of TopSpeed are so integrated with AOL 9.0 Optimized that without it you cannot browse the Internet through AOL’s own browser even if you are on broadband.  As many users out of choice do not download the updates which AOL prompt for when one finishes an AOL session (which means that some users may still be on the early versions of AOL 9.0 Optimized), we have to recommend that you leave this task alone.

Aoltsmon

AOLTSMon.exe

(AOL)

AOL TopSpeed Monitor  service installed on Windows 2000/XP and introduced in AOL 9.0 Optimized.  We do not yet know the exact purpose of this particular service, but we do know that without it you cannot browse the Internet using the AOL browser on the early versions of this service.  As per its related tasks,  AOLTPSPD  and  AOLWBSPD, this service is part of  AOL TopSpeed  technology which is web caching technology aimed at providing significant speed gains when accessing the Internet via dial-up modem.

Recommendation :
The early versions of TopSpeed are so integrated with AOL 9.0 Optimized that without it you cannot browse the Internet through AOL’s own browser even if you are on broadband.  As many users out of choice do not download the updates which AOL prompt for when one finishes an AOL session (which means that some users may still be on the early versions of AOL 9.0 Optimized), we have to recommend that you leave this task alone if you use AOL’s own browser.  If you are an advanced user and do not use AOL’s own browser but use, instead, a browser like Mozilla or FireFox which both have inbuilt web acceleration caching of the type used by AOL TopSpeed technology, then you can disable this service by setting its  Startup Mode  to  Manual  on the  Services  tab of  The Ultimate Troubleshooter.

Aornum

Aornum.exe

Aornumsp.exe

Ornum.exe

(iWon.com)

Background data collecting task from iWon.com which connects back to iWon servers to supply them with miscellaneous information about your Internet browsing and which also pulls up popup advertisements when you are browsing the Internet with Internet Explorer.  An extract from iWon.com’s Privacy Policy on 13‑Apr‑2003 : “If you elect to install certain software products (the “iWon Software Products”) provided by iWon to its users, such as iWon PLUS, the iWon Messenger, or iWon Co-Pilot, iWon may collect additional information about you. This happens because iWon Software Products automatically communicate over the Internet with iWon’s servers and, in order to provide you with information or services, may convey to iWon certain information regarding your activities, including, for example, the URL of sites you visit. iWon Software Products may also upgrade their functionalities from time to time without further action on your part, and some of these functionalities may expand the scope of the information that is communicated to iWon’s servers.”.  In short, what we call adware and, also, potentially spyware.  AORNUM, which appeared on the scene around August 2002, used to originally only be installed if you installed the iWon Prize Machine software.  As per the above extract, it is nowadays also installed by iWon Plus and other iWon software products.

Recommendation :
If you absolutely want to play iWon’s $1 million game, you have no alternative but to keep AORNUM on your PC.  If, on the other hand, you have no time for it then you should de-install  all  iWon programs that you find in  “Add/Remove Programs”  in the Control Panel (note that, in addition to sending information about you, AORNUM significantly slows down the boot-up period of your PC, it often prevents ScanDisk and Defrag from completing, and on some PCs it consumes 100% of CPU resources, effectively locking up the PC).  Unfortunately, a  full de‑installation of all iWon software is only the beginning of the cleanup operation as, totally unacceptably, the AORNUM software still remains after de‑installation of iWon software and in many cases is even concealed by being renamed !!  This is unacceptable.  To fully rid yourself of AORNUM after de‑installation of all iWon software, run SpyBot Search & Destroy from our  Downloads  page.

Apache

Apache.exe

(Apache Software Foundation)