3cdminic

3CDMINIC.exe

(3Com)

3Com DMI Agent (DMI = Desktop Management Interface).  This task is installed when you install the full driver suite for many 3Com network cards – it runs as a background task on Windows 9x/ME and as a service on Windows NT4/2000/XP/2003.  This version of the 3Com DMI Agent allows any DMI management browser to access information about your 3Com network card such as the driver version, size and  statistics on number of packets sent, CRC receive errors, and much more.  DMI also enables your network card to be remotely configured for features such as Remote Wake Up, OS‑absent alerts, and the 3Com Managed PC Boot Agent.

Recommendation :
The main purpose of this task/service is to provide statistical and troubleshooting information to the Network Administrator in large organisations, particularly at times when there are network performance issues or application issues on parts of the network or on specific PCs .  Ironically, however, our recommendation is that if you are using Windows NT4/2000/XP/2003 and you experience unexplained random illegal operations, access violation errors, or Dr Watson crashes, then this is one of the first services to set to  Disabled  on the  Services  tab of  The Ultimate Troubleshooter  when troubleshooting the problems !   While we have yet to come across error messages or data which emphatically points to  3CDMINIC  as the culprit, our empirical evidence seems to show that the crashes lessen or disappear altogether if this service is disabled.  Other than the above, if you are a home user with 3Com network cards, or you operate a small company network, you most probably will have no need for this task/agent, in which case you can either de‑install the  3Com DMI Agent  in the  “Add/Remove Programs”  icon in the Control Panel, or you can decide to initially simply disable the task 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  (look for the  3Com DMI Agent  service).  In all cases, if you are simply an end-user, you should consult your Network Administrator before  permanently  de-installing or disabling this task/service.

3dfxman

3dfxMan.exe

(3dfx Interactive Inc)

3dfx Tools Task Manager.  System Tray task installed by the drivers for 3dfx graphics cards, or Voodoo graphics cards from the Voodoo 3 onward.  It enables you to manipulate and configure the various features of your 3dfx/Voodoo graphics cards straight from the System Tray.

Recommendation :  
Down to end-user preference.  Unless you are a gamer, we recommend you disable it with  The Ultimate Troubleshooter as you will rarely, if ever, make use of it and yet it adds to the clutter of the System Tray.

Aaar

Aaar.exe

See   IWAR.
 

Aasd

Aasd.exe
 

See   IWAR.

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.

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.
 

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.
 

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, 28‑Mar‑2004, this usually solves most problems associated with this task.

Amra

Amra.exe

See   IWAR.
 

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.

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.

Aoltpspd

Aoltpspd.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 :   
An essential component of AOL 9.0 Optimized without which you cannot browse the Internet through the AOL browser.  Leave 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 service, but we do know that without it you cannot browse the Internet using the AOL browser.

Recommendation :  
As an AOL user you should in general leave this task alone.  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.

Apasserv

APASServ.exe

(Sunbelt Software)

Sunbelt Software’s Auto-Start service for the  AutoPilot  software – Windows XP only.  AutoPilot  is automatic “System Tuning” software which claims to tune your XP system for peak performance on-the-fly taking into consideration at all times the PC’s changing workload and its CPU specific capabilities and fine tuning facilities (Intel and AMD).

Recommendation :
This service is essential for the proper functioning of the AutoPilot software.

Apropos

Apropos.exe

(POP! – PeopleOnPage)

Advertising Internet Explorer add-on installed by the software from POP!, or PeopleOnPage.  PeopleOnPage’s own description of themselves :  “We are the first company to develop the technology necessary to make one‑on‑one chatting possible on any website on the world wide web - not just on specialist chat sites or on sites with added chat features.  So for the first time ever, instead of having to visit a particular community or dating website to chat, you can TAKE chat to any website.  To get started, you simply download a basic item of software to let you see the profiles of other POP! users on the same site as you - whichever site that happens to be.  Then, if you want to contact them, you simply click to email or chat with them, right there and then.”.

In addition, as of 25-Jan-2004 the license agreement for downloading and installing PeopleOnPage’s software, specifically states :  “POP! World is being provided to you free of charge in exchange for your agreement to download and view advertising served via Apropos (a proprietary browser-based advertising delivery system).  Apropos will deliver advertising on your computer screen on behalf of POP advertising clients.  These advertising clients may be competitors of the publishers whose Web pages users may be viewing or may have viewed recently.  By viewing advertisements served via Apropos ("Apropos Ads"), POP is able to subsidize the cost of providing you POP! World.”.

Recommendation :  
From the explanations above, Apropos is clearly advertising software, or adware – if you are experiencing annoying popup or pop-under ads, then this task will be one of the culprits.  Additionally, as per the license agreement this task will sometimes  “collect anonymous computer usage information and/or update user information” – what we call spyware (sending information from your PC out to PeopleOnPage).  From this point on the decision to keep APROPOS is yours :  if you use PeopleOnPage, then you are required to keep both POP! and APROPOS, as per the license agreement.  If you do not use PeopleOnPage, then get rid of this software immediately.  Aside from being adware and spyware, it is responsible for Internet Explorer lockups and severe slowdown in the PC’s operation with programs taking much longer than usual to open, or with APROPOS showing as  “not responding”.  To remove APROPOS, use the  “Add/Remove Programs”  icon in the Control Panel and remove  POP  and  AM Server  if the latter does not get removed automatically when you remove POP.  Next, use  The Ultimate Troubleshooter  to remove any  APROPOS  startup entries that may still be left behind.  Finally, reboot your PC.

Aspnet_state

ASPNet_State.exe

(Microsoft)

The ASP State Service provides support for out‑of‑process session states for ASP – Windows XP/2003.  Microsoft’s explanation :  “ASP has a concept of session state – a listing of values associated with the client session is accessible from ASP pages through the Session property.  There are three options provided to store session data : In process; SQL database; and out-of-process.  The ASP State Service stores session data out-of-process.  The service communicates with ASP using sockets.”.

Recommendation : 
Essential if you want your PC/server to be able to process out of process ASP session requests or if you use  Norton Ghost v9.  Unless you work with ASP, or you use Norton Ghost v9, this service is usually not necessary and its  Startup Mode  may be set to  Manual  on the  Services  tab of  The Ultimate Troubleshooter. 
Note :  if you change the startup mode from its default, do not set it to  “Disabled”, keep to our recommendation of merely setting it to  Manual  as this ensures that if another program on your PC needs this service, it will be able to start it when it finds that it is not running.

Ati2evxx

Atievxx

Atipolab

ATI2evxx.exe

ATIevxx.exe

(ATI Technologies)

ATI External Event Utility EXE Module.  Another background task which gets installed when you install ATI display drivers.  Under Windows NT4/2000/XP/2003 the service registers as the  “ATI Hotkey Poller”  and further investigation shows that it is related to the handling of various ATI Hotkeys which bring up specific ATI utilities.  Not only is this facility useless to 99.99% of users, but there is also no documentation anywhere on those ATI hotkeys !!   Additionally some of our more inquisitive users have been able to prove that  ATI2EVXX  can sometimes be an incredible resource hog using up to 85% of CPU utilization !!  Older versions of this background task show up as  ATIPOLAB  in the Task List.

Recommendation :
Disable on the  Startups  tab of  The Ultimate Troubleshooter  in Windows 95/98/ME.  If you cannot find it on the  Startups  tab, then read about  ATIPTAXX  below and disable that task as it often is the task that starts ATI2EVXX.  In Windows NT4/2000/XP, go to the  Services  tab of The Ultimate Troubleshooter, find the  ATI Hotkey Poller  service and set its  Startup Mode  to  Disabled.

Ati2mdxx

ATI2mdxx.exe

(ATI Technologies)

ATI 2D Mode Component task installed by the drivers for graphics cards using the ATI Radeon chipset.

Recommendation :  
We do not yet know the role of this task, so we an only recommend that you leave it.

Ati2s9ag

ATI2S9AG.exe

(ATI Technologies)

ATI SmartGART startup task installed by the drivers for ATI Radeon graphics cards on Windows 95/98/ME. ATI’s own description :  “SMARTGART is an advanced diagnostics tool that automatically determines and configures the optimal AGP and PCI bus settings for the most stable graphics performance. SMARTGART will run a series of tests on the first reboot after a driver install.  During the test SMARTGART may blank the screen.”.  Additionally :  if you, as the end-user, decide to go and modify some of your ATI graphics card settings through the Control Panel ATI icon, these settings will be saved but on the next reboot this startup task will run and check whether the new settings will work without stability problems.  If ATI’s SmartGART startup task believes that the new settings will make the PC unstable, it corrects the relevant settings accordingly.

Recommendation :
Leave alone – this startup task only runs during Windows boot.  Once it has performed all the checks mentioned above, it stops, which is why you will never see it in your Task List.  Note for gamers and advanced users :  if you find that some settings that you set through the ATI icon in the Control Panel, do not stick, it is most probably because  ATI2S9AG  performed its function and decided to modify the settings you had set on account that it felt they would lead to instability.  Thus, if this causes you problems because you want specific settings  regardless  of what ATI SmartGART thinks, then disable this startup task on the  The Ultimate Troubleshooter  to prevent SmartGART from changing your specifically chosen settings.

Ati2sgag

ATI2SGAG.exe

(ATI Technologies)

ATI SmartGART Service installed by the drivers for ATI Radeon graphics cards on Windows 2000/XP/2003. ATI’s own description :  “SMARTGART is an advanced diagnostics tool that automatically determines and configures the optimal AGP and PCI bus settings for the most stable graphics performance. SMARTGART will run a series of tests on the first reboot after a driver install.  During the test SMARTGART may blank the screen.”.  Additionally :  if you, as the end-user, decide to go and modify some of your ATI graphics card settings through the Control Panel ATI icon, these settings will be saved but on the next reboot this service will run and check whether the new settings will work without stability problems.  If ATI’s SmartGART service believes that the new settings will make the PC unstable, it corrects the relevant settings accordingly.

Recommendation :
Leave alone – this service only runs during Windows boot.  Once it has performed all the checks mentioned above, it stops, which is why you will almost never see it with a status of  “Running”.  Note for gamers and advanced users :  if you find that some settings that you set through the ATI icon in the Control Panel, do not stick, it is most probably because  ATI2SGAG  performed its function and decided to modify the settings you had set on account that it felt they would lead to instability.  Thus, if this causes you problems because you want specific settings  regardless  of what ATI SmartGART thinks, then set this service to  Manual  or  Disabled  on the  Services  tab of  The Ultimate Troubleshooter  to prevent SmartGART from changing your specifically chosen settings.

Atiptaxx

ATIPtaxx.exe

(ATI Technologies)

ATI Task Bar Icon.  This is a System Tray icon which gets installed when you install the ATI drivers.  All this icon does is enable you to bring up the Display Properties from the System Tray.  Since the Display Properties can be invoked in many other ways, this icon simply adds to the clutter of the System Tray.

Recommendation :
Go into the Display Properties  (Display icon in the Control Panel) and take the tick off the  “Enable ATI Task Bar Icon”  option.  You will have to seek out this option as it is in different places for different ATI drivers.  Typically, however, you need to go to the  Settings  tab, then click the  ADVANCED  button, and then find the option on one of the tabs that have the  ATI  icon as part of the tab name.  Also, particularly with the recent drivers from ATI, once you have found that option you may find that the option is already unchecked but that the ATI icon is still showing in the System Tray.  When that is the case, check the option, click APPLY, and then uncheck the option again and click APPLY again.  Once you have unchecked that option, delete the  “ATIptaxx.exe”  line on the  Startups  tab of  The Ultimate Troubleshooter – this will prevent  ATIPTAXX  starting at boot-up.  Note, however, that  ATIPTAXX  will still get started automatically every time you call up Display Properties, but at least it will not start automatically at boot-up.  If you want to totally disable  ATIPTAXX  from starting  at any time,  and you are familiar with editing the Windows Registry, then home in on the following registry key  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ATI Technologies\Desktop,  then the sub-key  NoAtipta  and set it to  1  instead of its 0 default (our Thanks to the AnswersThatWork user who told us about this).

Atiqipcl

AtiQiPcl.exe

(ATI Technologies)

This is one of the oddest startup entries we have ever come across.  You will never find this program in your Task List , you will only ever find it as a startup item.  The bizarre thing, however, is that in our experience the program file  ATIQIPCL.EXE  can never ever be found on the hard disk !   We believe, therefore, that  ATIQIPCL.EXE  is a program installed purely at driver installation time, which, thanks to this startup entry, runs on the first reboot after you have just installed the ATI drivers, does what it needs to do, and then deletes itself from your hard disk.

Recommendation :
Click on this entry on the  Startups  tab of  The Ultimate Troubleshooter.  If TUT tells you that the file does not exist, then simply delete this entry.