Have you tried checking out msconfig in "run" and getting rid of unneeded startup items?
- Status
1 - 16 of 16 Posts
***CORRECTION. READ THIS BEFORE APPLYING CHANGES ABOVE***
Firstly disregard the last message from Michael Drivas which regards removing viruses. This problem has nothing to do with viruses unless you count Microsoft Windows and Dell bloatware as being virus/spyware (though not far from the truth especially in this case
).
For some time my solution worked well but after sometime the problem magically reappeared, and thereafter after every reboot, but only after a delay of about 3-5 minutes after logon.
Technical description (Jump if you just want the fix)
-------------------------------------------------
After monitoring the registry I found the culprit in my case (but read on as there are many possibilities) was a service called sprtsvc.exe which is Dell's SupportCenter's service.
This software is actually supplied by SupportSoft and basically takes a snapshot of your system's hardware/software settings and sends it off to SupportSoft who keep it for assess by Dell to help with Help Desk queries. It also runs some basic fixup scripts and can recommend updates. If your Dell has this there should be a blue spanner icon in your systray. If your paranoid about outside access to your computer simply uninstall "Dell Support Center" from Control Panels "Add or Remove Programs" window but note you will loose a facility to keep your computer in good working order !
On further investigation I found that the problem was actually caused by a Microsoft bug and even more compounded by another Microsoft bug. Basically SupportSoft use an XML script to query the location of the StartMenu which uses the WshShell.SpecialFolders command. This in turn uses the MS SHGetSpecialFolderLocation command. The problem
with this command is that it resets the keys in the "HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders" registry entry to the default entries as provided by the entries in the "HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders" registry entry or even worse deletes them altogether if the default directories don't exist! Furthermore the %USERPROFILE% registry variable evaluates to either LocalService or NetworkService depending on what time the service is started (a definite bug).
So whats this all mean? Effectively it means that other than disabling any program that uses SHGetSpecialFolderLocation (not many but hard to identify) we have to provide matching startup directories in both the LocalService and NetworkService user directories as well as using the default "\Start Menu\Programs\Startup" setup. Although the registry entries will eventually be overwritten with whatever user directory MS chooses depending on the time, it means that MsInfo32 will stop thinking every thing in \system32 is a startup program straight away!
The Fix (for Windows XP. Vista status unknown)
---------------------------------------------
1) Create the following directories:
C:\Documents and Settings\LocalService\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
C:\Documents and Settings\NetworkService\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
2. Open your Registry Editor and change the following entries to the values given:
HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders\Startup => C:\Documents and Settings\LocalService\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders\Programs => C:\Documents and Settings\LocalService\Start Menu\Programs
That's it!
Cheers
The Professor :grin:
PS Feel free to propogate this on other Tech Sites but at least credit me.
Firstly disregard the last message from Michael Drivas which regards removing viruses. This problem has nothing to do with viruses unless you count Microsoft Windows and Dell bloatware as being virus/spyware (though not far from the truth especially in this case
).For some time my solution worked well but after sometime the problem magically reappeared, and thereafter after every reboot, but only after a delay of about 3-5 minutes after logon.
Technical description (Jump if you just want the fix)
-------------------------------------------------
After monitoring the registry I found the culprit in my case (but read on as there are many possibilities) was a service called sprtsvc.exe which is Dell's SupportCenter's service.
This software is actually supplied by SupportSoft and basically takes a snapshot of your system's hardware/software settings and sends it off to SupportSoft who keep it for assess by Dell to help with Help Desk queries. It also runs some basic fixup scripts and can recommend updates. If your Dell has this there should be a blue spanner icon in your systray. If your paranoid about outside access to your computer simply uninstall "Dell Support Center" from Control Panels "Add or Remove Programs" window but note you will loose a facility to keep your computer in good working order !
On further investigation I found that the problem was actually caused by a Microsoft bug and even more compounded by another Microsoft bug. Basically SupportSoft use an XML script to query the location of the StartMenu which uses the WshShell.SpecialFolders command. This in turn uses the MS SHGetSpecialFolderLocation command. The problem
with this command is that it resets the keys in the "HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders" registry entry to the default entries as provided by the entries in the "HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders" registry entry or even worse deletes them altogether if the default directories don't exist! Furthermore the %USERPROFILE% registry variable evaluates to either LocalService or NetworkService depending on what time the service is started (a definite bug).
So whats this all mean? Effectively it means that other than disabling any program that uses SHGetSpecialFolderLocation (not many but hard to identify) we have to provide matching startup directories in both the LocalService and NetworkService user directories as well as using the default "\Start Menu\Programs\Startup" setup. Although the registry entries will eventually be overwritten with whatever user directory MS chooses depending on the time, it means that MsInfo32 will stop thinking every thing in \system32 is a startup program straight away!
The Fix (for Windows XP. Vista status unknown)
---------------------------------------------
1) Create the following directories:
C:\Documents and Settings\LocalService\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
C:\Documents and Settings\NetworkService\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
2. Open your Registry Editor and change the following entries to the values given:
HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders\Startup => C:\Documents and Settings\LocalService\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders\Programs => C:\Documents and Settings\LocalService\Start Menu\Programs
That's it!
Cheers
The Professor :grin:
PS Feel free to propogate this on other Tech Sites but at least credit me.
1 - 16 of 16 Posts
- Status
