Multiple process instances

  • Thread starter Thread starter Marty Winston
  • Start date Start date
M

Marty Winston

Checking Task Manager, I often see multiple instances of
the GIANTAntiSpywareMain.exe process, a circumstance that
always makes for other difficulties. These processes
resist attempts to remove (singly or as a tree). They
make it impossible to do a routine system restart. They
often impede IP communications. I tried ripping out my
initial installation, grabbing and installing a fresh
download, but this bad behavior still occurs.

And as of today (the first I noticed it anyway),
Microsoft AntiSpyware loads itself with real-time
protection disabled.

Any advice on making it a better citizen?
 
Is this a Tablet PC?

I'm not sure what to say about the multiple instances--I'm inclined to
associate them with the "multiple tray icon" syndrome that crops up here
pretty regularly. It is usually relatively harmless, though--mostly a
visual issue.

About the real time protection, I'd do an update install:

start, control panel, add or remove programs, Microsoft Antispyware, change,
update.

That should take care of getting the agents back on the job, but whether it
will make a difference to the rest, I'm dubious.

I guess, besides uninstall/reinstall, there is:

uninstall

delete installation folder and subfolders (typically c:\program
files\microsoft antispyware)

then reinstall
--you will lose access to quarantined items and all customizations and
personalization.
 
I can understand ONE instance being responsible for its
functioning; please explain how multiple instances are
necessary to it.

Or is locking things up an undocumented core feature?
 
I had done all of that, as well as a purge of registry
entries before reinstalling.

To no avail.
 
I'm not sure how I can respond.

You have two separate issues--the appearance of multiple processes, and
real-time protection disabled.

I don't have a fix for the appearance of multiple processes. I can connect
that appearance (and reality!) with running on a Tablet PC or having a host
VNC session active, and probably other driver software conflicts--a new one
was posted yesterday as I recall, but I'm not recalling the name of the
conflicting software. The user found it by using MSCONFIG and doing a
diagnostic startup and then adding items back in to see where the conflict
arose.

The issue of inactive real-time protection should be able to be solved by
the update install.

I mentioned that, along with some other reinstallation processes, and you
responded that you had done all that. Have you, specifically done the
update install and did that help with the inactive real-time protection?

On the multiple processes, I believe you will need to discover the
conflicting process yourself, by using MSCONFIG.

I can see that you've spent a good bit of time on this already--there are
certainly cases where it may make sense just to take the beta product off
the machine and wait for beta2.

--
 
Marty Winston said:
Checking Task Manager, I often see multiple instances of
the GIANTAntiSpywareMain.exe process, a circumstance that
always makes for other difficulties. These processes
resist attempts to remove (singly or as a tree). They
make it impossible to do a routine system restart. They
often impede IP communications. I tried ripping out my
initial installation, grabbing and installing a fresh
download, but this bad behavior still occurs.

And as of today (the first I noticed it anyway),
Microsoft AntiSpyware loads itself with real-time
protection disabled.

Any advice on making it a better citizen?
Click to expand...

With WinXP SP2 I don't seem to have any GIANTAntiSpywareMain.exe process
running. I do have gcasServ.exe and gcasDServ.exe
--
Frank Saunders, MS-MVP, IE/OE
Please respond in Newsgroup. Do not send email
http://www.fjsmjs.com
Protect your PC
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/
 
gtaDtServ.exe and gcaServ.exe both run here.

It *SEEMS* that the additional processes introduce
themselves when I launch links from within e-mail
messages (from trusted senders only, I should add).

-----Original Message-----


With WinXP SP2 I don't seem to have any
Click to expand...
GIANTAntiSpywareMain.exe process
 
That's an interesting observation.

What email client is involved? What browser are the links opened in? What
antivirus is installed and active?

This issue--multiple tray icons, multiple program code instances--can
definitely be a software conflict--it is seen by users hosting VNC remote
control sessions, by Tablet PC users who are using voice commands, and we've
had one user here who finds it associated with having a Microsoft
fingerprint reader active on his machine.


--
 
Thanks, Bill.

It is not, by the way, a tablet - but it is a bit of a
muscle machine.

I had done the update install, and that was what I ripped
out to do the clean install of the updated version.

For the moment, I'm keeping it in and monitoring it. It's
easy enough to reverse the inactive mode (I assume
there's some attack venue somewhere that is including
this in the "disable" list - I know from experience that
a user can't actually end these processes - despite
several levels of protection on this machine). The only
cure for the multiple instances seems to be rebooting; to
add to the frustration, warm reboots can take up to 30
minutes, so I often use the big switch.

here's hoping beta 2 is better - and maybe addresses the
way the UI animated graphics go screwy if you move
windows around.
 
You may have hit on it by accident - I, too, have
Microsoft Fingerprint Reader on my machine.

The e-mail client is Outlook (from Office Pro 2003) SP1
version 11.6359.6408.

The browser is MSIE version
6.0.2900.2180.xpsp_sp2_gdr.05031-1519

Perhaps the development team can take a closer look at
potential conflicts with the fingerprint reader.
 
It's been put on a plate for them--thanks--glad we've pinned that one down
further.

--
 
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