Computing desk
< January 25	<< Dec \| January \| Feb >>	January 27 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Computing Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

January 26

Strange Computer Processes in Task Manager

Hi everyone! I hope you help me with this.

I have very strange computer processes. For example, on the startup of the computer, it runs several programs and they appear onto the taskbar. When I close them from the taskbar, their processes are still visible on the task manager. It's very weird and it happens with all programs! That means that it's not the program itself that is working silently or anything. Is my system corrupted or what?

Thank you. Wuvixx (talk) 08:39, 26 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Please list the programs here, so we can figure out what they are. StuRat (talk) 14:25, 26 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Sure. c2c_service.exe TeamViewer_Service.exe Jhi_service.exe hamachi-2.exe hsswd.exe. There seems to be a lot of unknown processes I think are harmful. I'm not running Hamachi nor TeamViewer but they still are listed in the task manager processes tab and the only way I can close them is by ending the processes. There are also like 5 processes called "rundll32.exe"... Thanks in advance! Wuvixx (talk) 15:46, 26 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

That last one is a normal Windows process, but I'm not sure why it's running so many instances. The earlier ones might have been included in downloads you did. They try to trick you, by having the check box to download extra crap already checked, or sometimes you have to pick "Customed download" to even see the checkboxes. Note that some programs keep a process running even when not in use. I hate those, as they just waste resources and I suspect they report what web sites you visit, etc. StuRat (talk) 15:59, 26 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I have to agree completely with you, because I experience a lot of automatically downloaded programs like "Baidu PC Faster". It just keep installing constantly even after I uninstall it. I'm thinking of formatting my C: hard drive and installing a new system. I believe this will fix the problem, what's your opinion on that? Thanks for fast replying! Wuvixx (talk) 16:20, 26 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Try a virus scan like ESET online. Then Junkware Removal Tool. Wikipedia:Reference desk/Computing/Viruses could use a bit of updating. -- Gadget850^talk 16:52, 26 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

If you download Junkware Removal Tool from CNET download.com, the download link you want is not the big green "Download Now" button, but the tiny "Direct Download Link" below it. The big green button downloads the "CNET installer" which will offer to "set my home page and default search to Conduit Search for Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Chrome", and then try to get you to download "Lookinglink - search made simpler" (apparently adware), and then try to get you to download "MyPCBackup" (apparently nagware for a paid service), and then try to get you to download "DLCleaner" (apparently scareware), and then finally download the software that you could have gotten in one step by clicking the other link. Personally, I would avoid download.com entirely. You can get JRT from what appears to be the official site. I don't know how well it works, but at least it doesn't seem to be malicious. -- BenRG (talk) 04:46, 27 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

You are entirely correct and I updated my link. JRT is a very good tool, but it should be downloaded directly from BleepingComputer. -- Gadget850^talk 09:47, 27 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I think reinstalling is a good idea if you don't mind the hassle, but it won't solve the problem unless you also avoid doing whatever allowed that software on the system in the first place. The most important rules are

Don't download "registry cleaners", free emoticons, or other random software. Whatever your problem, there is a web site that will claim that it's caused by registry corruption and can be fixed by this simple tool. They are lying.
If you do want to download something, try to find its official site and download from there. Don't Google it and pick whatever page comes up first. One way of finding the official site is from the software's Wikipedia article, if it has one.
Don't click on "download" buttons without checking carefully that they aren't actually ads that will cause you to download something totally unrelated to what you want. Unfortunately these ads show up even on official web sites. The easiest way to avoid them is to use an ad blocker.
When you run the installer, make sure you opt out of any browser toolbars or other crap it may try to install at the same time. Unfortunately it's common these days for even legitimate software to bundle these toolbars.

Some of the processes you listed are probably legitimate software (though you may not want them regardless). "rundll32" is just a simple stub program that loads a DLL and runs code in it. The DLL is the real "program" in this case, but unfortunately Task Manager shows rundll32 as the name of the process. You can see the name of the DLL in the "Command Line" column (which you will probably have to add from View → Select Columns). -- BenRG (talk) 03:54, 27 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Good advice, and I agree that a re-install of the O/S may be in order. StuRat (talk) 04:02, 27 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

As for hamachi, see our article and this. Oda Mari (talk) 10:40, 27 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you all for the tips and advices. I really appreciate it! Wuvixx (talk) 10:40, 27 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Does an email server need to be 24h online?

Could users host their own email servers in their private computers and fetch their post when they are online. It would be a kind of P2P email service. OsmanRF34 (talk) 14:36, 26 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong. I think you could do it but it would be a lot of trouble both for you and those corresponding with you. If the email server is down, then the next server up the chain that tries to contact it is going to fail to make a connection. After enough failed attempts, it will bounce the email back to the sender. It's going to also use unnecessary processor time on that other server trying to serve you your mail. Dismas|^(talk) 13:16, 27 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

It used to be that email was a store-and-forward thing, where email went through several hops before being delivered to the final machine. I suspect that some of the links could be e.g. UUCP, which only happens at pre-arranged times. However, that requires servers to accept email from anywhere (or at least from all neighbouring nodes, which may change quickly), and spam pretty much put an end to that. That said, I see no reason why you cannot have your email delivered to a dedicated upstream server, and then use fetchmail to get it to the local computer whenever convenient. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 14:22, 27 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

One option for small companies is to have the mail hosted on a 24-hour server in the cloud then use a mail retrieval agent to pull down the mail periodically pull down email for local delivery. -- Q Chris (talk) 14:50, 27 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

On a bit of a tangent, you might be interested in the implementation of email when computers weren't always on, and only connected point-to-point via phone lines. FidoNet let you send email around the world, mostly with local phone calls, usually in a matter of days! SemanticMantis (talk) 18:20, 28 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]