Task List Programs - AnswersThatWork's famous Database of Processes, Windows Startups, Windows XP Services, Windows Vista Services, Process Library

Task List
Name

PROGRAM & MANUFACTURER

WHAT IT IS
AND WHAT YOU CAN DO

Qagent

QAgent.exe

(Intuit)

Quicken’s Background Downloading Agent. Many of Intuit’s background downloading tasks can sometimes create serious conflicts, from illegal operations and invalid page faults which mention the MRTMNGR, MRTRATE, MRTPROC, or QAGENT programs, to the modem attempting to dial on boot-up, inability to print after going online, or the printer being activated when going online. For all these reasons we strongly recommend disabling all Intuit background downloading tasks.

Recommendation :
Disable from within Quicken/QuickBooks – choose the "Edit \ Options \ Internet Options" menu option. Press Alt+Shift+4. Click "Yes" on the window asking you if you want to disable the Quicken Background Download Manager. Click OK. Close Quicken. Restart your PC.

QBCFMonitorService

QBCFMonitorService.exe

(Intuit)

QuickBooks Company File Monitoring Service. Service which is part of the QuickBooks automatic updating mechanism. This service monitors for new/copied QuickBooks update files and prepares them for updating of your Company File(s) with the latest updates.

Recommendation :
If you have Automatic Updates turned ON in QuickBooks, then leave this service in its default state of “Manual” (or “Automatic” on some PCs), otherwise, if Automatic Updates are turned OFF, then you can disable it by setting its Startup Mode to Disabled on the Services tab of The Ultimate Troubleshooter.

Qbdagent

Qbdagent.exe

(Intuit)

Intuit’s “QuickBooks v8 Delivery Agent”. The purpose of this background program is to see if your QuickBooks software needs updating. It does this by contacting Intuit whenever there is an Internet connection present. We have serious issues with this : if your connection to the Internet is by modem, it slows it a little initially. Worse, if it finds updates it downloads them without asking the user, thereby significantly slowing down the user’s connection without the end‑user knowing why. Next, when the user closes QuickBooks, he is prompted with a question about updating QuickBooks – many users find this confusing as they did not realise QuickBooks had been downloading updates in the background. Finally, as if the above problems weren’t enough, the QuickBooks Delivery Agent also conflicts with some programs.

Recommendation :
You’ve guessed it : Delete or Disable on the Startups tab of The Ultimate Troubleshooter, and also disable the Background Manager in the Internet Options within QuickBooks. You can always do manual downloads through the QuickBooks menus.

Qbdagent2001

Qbdagent2001.exe

(Intuit)

Intuit’s "QuickBooks 2001 Delivery Agent". The purpose of this background program is to see if your QuickBooks software needs updating. It does this by contacting Intuit whenever there is an Internet connection present. We have serious issues with this : if your connection to the Internet is by modem, it slows it a little initially. Worse, if it finds updates it downloads them without asking the user, thereby significantly slowing down the user’s connection without the end-user knowing why. Next, when the user closes QuickBooks 2001, he is prompted with a question about updating QuickBooks – many users find this confusing as they did not realise QuickBooks had been downloading updates in the background. Finally, as if the above problems weren’t enough, the QuickBooks 2001 Delivery Agent also conflicts with some programs (e.g. Atomic Authorizer).

Recommendation :
You’ve guessed it : Delete using The Ultimate Troubleshooter, and also disable the Background Manager in the Internet Options within QuickBooks. You can always do manual downloads through the QuickBooks menus.

Qbdagent2002

QBDAgent2002.exe

(Intuit)

Intuit’s "QuickBooks 2002 Delivery Agent". See write-up for QBDAgent2001 above.

Recommendation :
While in QuickBooks 2002, choose the "File \ QuickBooks…" menu option, then click on the "Options" button, then make sure Automatic Update is set to OFF. Next, disable QBDAGENT2002 in The Ultimate Troubleshooter.

Qbupdate

Qbupdate.exe

(Intuit)

Intuit’s “QuickBooks Update”. The purpose of this background program is to see if your QuickBooks 2003/4/5 software needs updating. It does this by contacting Intuit whenever there is an Internet connection present. We have serious issues with this : if your connection to the Internet is by modem, it slows it a little initially. Worse, if it finds updates it downloads them without asking the user (QuickBooks 2003 & 2004), thereby significantly slowing down the user’s connection without the end‑user knowing why. Next, when the user next opens QuickBooks 2003/4, he is prompted with a question about updating QuickBooks – many users find this confusing as they did not realise QuickBooks had been downloading updates in the background. Finally, as if the above problems weren’t enough, our experience is that this QuickBooks Update Task contributes to a significant slow-down on some PCs.

Recommendation :
While in QuickBooks 2003/4/5, choose the “File \ Update QuickBooks” menu option, then click on the Options button, then make sure Automatic Update is set to OFF. Click Save. Next, disable QBUPDATE on the Startups tab of The Ultimate Troubleshooter. We suggest that you then diarize doing a manual update of QuickBooks once a month at periods when you least need QuickBooks.

Qdcsfs

QDCSFS.exe

(Symantec)

Norton CleanSweep Fast & Safe (the "QD" part stands for Quarterdeck as CleanSweep used to be a Quarterdeck product before being bought by Symantec). Fast & Safe works in the background and automatically deletes temporary files, and files from software applications that you recently deleted/uninstalled.

Recommendation :
Unusually for a Symantec product, there are too many instances, for our liking, of this task causing problems at startup because of boot-up timing problems. As a result we recommend you disable this from running automatically in the background and run it manually as and when you are performing housekeeping tasks. You disable this task by opening "Fast & Safe Cleanup", choosing "Settings" and then the Schedule tab, and then unchecking "Run at system startup".

Qshelf2k

QShelf2k.exe

(Microsoft ?)

We believe this program to be part of Microsoft Bookshelf if you choose to install Bookshelf to your hard disk when you install Microsoft Office.

Recommendation :
None, as we are not yet certain of the role of this program.

QSORT

QSORT.EXE

(Hyper-Q Software)

This is Hyper-Q Software’s QSORT program whose sole purpose in life is to sort alphabetically the user’s Start Menu and Programs Menu. QSORT runs only at Windows Startup, quickly sorts the Start Menu and Programs Menu, and then exits.

Recommendation :
Down to end-user requirements. You can disable this program on the The Ultimate Troubleshooter.

Qttask

QTTask.exe

(Apple)

Apple’s QuickTime Tray Icon which enables you to start QuickTime from the System Tray (from version 5 onward). Given the extremely simple functionality of this Tray icon, it is in our view an unreasonable resource hog – it has been measured to use as much as 1.5Mb of memory at times in earlier versions, and in version 7 it uses as much as 3.4Mb of memory on our test systems. Yet, on Windows PCs hardly anyone starts QuickTime manually, whether from the System Tray or otherwise – what usually happens is that the end‑user opens a QuickTime movie file or email attachment and Windows then automatically opens QuickTime to enable the end‑user to view the movie or video. There is therefore almost never a need for the end‑user to start QuickTime manually from the System Tray.

Recommendation :
Disable it immediately, as follows :

In version 5 :
Start QuickTime through “Start \ Programs”, choose the “Edit \ Preferences” menu option, select “QuickTime Preferences” from the right‑hand side menu, uncheck the box next to QuickTime System Tray icon. Close QuickTime. Finally, Disable or Delete this entry on the Startups tab of The Ultimate Troubleshooter.

In version 6 :
Double-click on the QuickTime icon in the Control Panel to bring up the QuickTime Settings panel, choose Browser Plug-in in the drop-down at the top, and then uncheck QuickTime System Tray icon. Close the QuickTime configuration window. Next, disable or delete this entry on the Startups tab of The Ultimate Troubleshooter.

In version 7 :
Right-click the turquoise blue “Q” QuickTime icon in the System Tray, and choose “QuickTime Preferences”. Choose the UPDATE tab and uncheck “Check for Updates Automatically”. Next, choose the ADVANCED tab and uncheck “Install QuickTime icon in System Tray”. Click OK. Finally, Disable or Delete this entry on the Startups tab of The Ultimate Troubleshooter.

Quickdcf

QuickDCF.exe

(??)

Exif Launcher System Tray application. EXIF stands for Exchangeable Image File Format. It is the de-facto standard for modern digital cameras for the storage and interchange of image files using JPEG compression. As of December 2002 all new digital cameras now use the EXIF format. The EXIF format is part of the DCF standard (Digital Content Format) created to standardise interoperability between imaging devices. The Exif Launcher, also sometimes called the FinePix Viewer, sits in the System Tray and enables you to transfer images between your digital camera and your PC. This application is used mainly by Fuji’s FinePix line of digital cameras.

Recommendation :
Down to user preference. If you take a lot of pictures then it is convenient to be able to start the application from the System Tray, otherwise you may want to keep your System Tray to the bare minimum, and so disable QUICKDCF with The Ultimate Troubleshooter and always start it via "Start \ Programs".

QuickTV

QuickTV.exe

(AVerMedia Inc)

QuickTV. System Tray icon for the AVerTV or UltraTV TV software which come with AVerMedia’s TV capture cards. You can double‑click on the icon to start AVerTV / UltraTV to watch television, or you can right‑click on the icon to display a range of options which include opening AverTV / UltraTV, pausing QuickTV, or opening the scheduler which can be used to schedule the recording of TV programmes, or to automatically open AverTV / UltraTV in time to watch a specific TV programme. Finally, you need this System Tray program to be running for the Remote Control to work.

Recommendation :
Down to end‑user preference. Leave it running if you use the scheduler and/or the Remote Control. If you want to disable it, you can do so on the Startups tab of The Ultimate Troubleshooter. This task consumes very little memory, between 4Mb and 5Mb.

Qwdlls

QWDLLs.exe

(Intuit)

Quicken’s quick launch utility which loads Quicken DLLs at startup so that Quicken can start quicker whenever you invoke it. Just like its Microsoft cousin, Find Fast, this program is a total waste of time and simply takes up resources.

Recommendation :
Disable using The Ultimate Troubleshooter (do not delete, just in case).

All of the tasks below, and many more, although not detailed on this page, are explained in full in The Ultimate Troubleshooter.

The Ultimate Troubleshooter (TUT), has the full database in a remarkably easy and pleasing interface which makes the process of fine tuning your PC, or troubleshooting your computer's problems, a snip. Get it here.

Q-Update.exe, Qaccess.exe, QBDBMgr.exe, QBDBMgrN.exe, QBW32.exe, QBW32PRO.exe, QCONSVC.exe, QCTRAY.exe, QCWLIcon.exe, QLBController.exe, QLBCTRL.exe, QNAVI.exe, QOELoader.exe, QPService.exe, QPW.exe, Qqfx.exe, QSD.exe, QtaET2S.EXE, QtEwLMng.EXE, QTVPRMTX.EXE, QtZgAcer.exe, QtZiAcer.exe, QtZwLMng.EXE, QuickCam.exe, QuickCam10.exe, QuickDCF2.exe, QuickMessenger.exe, QuickSet.exe, QuickStart.exe, QuickTimePlayer.exe, QUICKT~1.EXE, Qv.exe, QW.exe

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