Seeing *32 in my task manager?

Ah! Now we both know! This describes one of the processes but I am certain it can describe all the other *32 processes:

WMP comes in both a 32-bit and a 64-bit version. 32-bit plug-ins won't show up in the 64-bit version and vice versa. So if you're usually starting the 64-bit version, that would explain why you don't see the plug-ins. To check which version of WMP is running, press Ctrl+Alt+Del, start Task Manager, go to Processes , and find wmplayer.exe in the list. If this process has *32 next to its name (wmplayer.exe*32 ), it's the 32-bit version. Otherwise, it's 64-bit.

Windows Defender is a spyware/adware program only. It does not have antivirus capabilities. You should:
Have layered Security:

• Antivirus Software(only one):Both of the following programs are free and known to be good:
  [o]Avira Free
  [o]Avast Home
• Firewall (only one): Use bi-directional firewall. Both of the following programs are free and known to be good:
  [o]Comodo
  [o]Zone Alarm
• Antispyware: I recommend all of the following:
  [o]Spywareblaster: SpywareBlaster protects against bad ActiveX. It places kill bits to stop bad Active X controls from being installed. Remember to update it regularly.
  [o]IE/Spyad This places over 4000 websites and domains in the IE Restricted list which will severely impair attempts to infect your system. It basically prevents any downloads (Cookies etc) from the sites listed, although you will still be able to connect to the sites.
  [o]MVPS Hosts files This replaces your current HOSTS file with one containing well know ad sites etc. Basically, this prevents your computer from connecting to those sites by redirecting them to 127.0.0.1 which is your local computer.
  [o]Google Toolbar Get the free google toolbar to help stop pop up windows.

I have to leave for a while so will be back this afternoon to go over the rest.

Ah man, I never knew that about Windows Defender. Thanks for letting me know..

How would I use wmplayer in 64 bit all the time? It was a bit strange b/c after that site popped up then my iexplore.exe and wmplayer went to 32 bit.

I noticed when I downloaded AVG and Spybot that my computer was working a lot slower so I removed them. The Teatimer in Spybot was sucking up a lot of memory so I got rid of Spybot all together. Will those programs make my computer run slower or regardless of how slow it makes the computer is it smart to add them?

Thanks a lot for the information. I will be able to do these downloads tonight once I am home from work and in front of my computer.

I am looking forward to hearing your other advice. My computer seems to be running a lot faster right now, i guess with all the temporary internet files being deleted it kind of "cleaned" the system out, which is great.

wrong thread

Edit: Deleting incorrect information.

Sorry- yes, it was wrong thread. Please ignore. Go ahead with AV install.

Not sure if you saw my above post or not with the mixup. Will these programs cause my computer to run slower? Just a reminder: I have Windows 7 in 64-bit.. does that matter?

I am installing those applications now. I think GoogleToolBar is already on my computer because it is under my progams list if I click on "Uninstall programs" under the control panel.

BTW- Avira asked me to turn off Windows Defender "real time protection" upon installing. Is this normal? I thought I should have both running?

Please let me know what the next step is. Thanks!

I meant to ask you: did you have either one of the AV programs you had running at the time scan and remove the 'fake antivirus'?

Remember> Avira is the antivirus program and Windows defender is for spyware/adware. If Avira needs it disabled to install, go ahead and do it. I didn't mean for you to install all of what I left right now- but you do need a current, updated AV running now. It would be better to finish up what we're doing, then remove the cleaning tools and their logs first.

I think what happened is that the malware may have damaged your permissions to run in 64 bit. I don't know that for sure- I'm waiting to hear on that. But I am wondering where that pop-up went or just what it was.

Everything is but the MVPS progam. I'm pretty sure I already have GoogleToolbar Installed although I may of turned it off. it is definitely in my unintall program list already.

I have a question about this ZonedOut program, does this work automatically? It doesn't seem like anything is running from that program. When I went to download IESpyad, it gave me the download link for this ZonedOut program. Is this the same program? Would you mind giving me more information on how to use this thing? Thanks!!

The only anti-virus I had running at the time of the scan was Windows Defender. I didn't have Spybot or AVG at the time of when that fake antivirus window popped up. Then everything began running in *32 bit.

It was a fake virus scan which said "you are infected with malware!" and popped up in a new window with a fake folder as if it was scanning drives. I immediately control alt deleted out of internet explorer and then I saw everything running in *32. Do I have a virus on my computer then which is running undetected? How do I repair my system to run in *64 bit? Thanks..

This Comodo Firewall is cool. Its blocking everything and asking me what to allow or block. I honestly have no idea on some of these tasks that run. What to do if unsure?

These pop up with Comodo but some say safe
OOBEFcdRegistration.exe
ThirdPartyAppMgr.exe
PowerManager.exe


Are these safe?

EDIT- This thing is blocking "intrusions" but I have no idea if they really are intrusions or not. Said the firewall blocked 31 outbound connections and 1 inbound. What the heck is this lol

Also- I noticed the computer fan has been running non-stop since I downloaded avila, comodo, spyblaster and zonedout. It literally now just stopped as I'm typing this but it was on for a while. Is this normal?

Thank you for bringing the Spyad problem to my attention. Zoned Out is a similar program, but it does not appear to be compatible with Windows 7- yet. It has been brought current for IE8 but only through Vista.
FYI:

Please stop adding these program for a bit and let me try to handle one question at a time! Fan running means heat. You have a lot running. Power down and let system chill out.

Sorry Bobbye !! Didn't mean to bombard you. I have downloaded Avila, Comodo and Spywareblaster. I will get rid of the Zoned Out program. Thanks so much!

Will power down now and wait for next step. Thanks a lot.

I have deleted the ZonedOut program and my fan seems to be running normally again.

Sorry to repeat this but I forgot to ask you about this too. You had mentioned I had too many Java programs and to uninstall the ones not needed. These are the three I see on the program list under "uninstall programs". I have not done anything with Java yet. I didn't want to miss a step so how do I remove the ones not needed? Thanks a lot Bobbye!

You always only need the most current Java on the system. Right now, that is v6u21. According to the Java Update site:

You currently have this:
Java (TM) 6 Update 15 (64-bit)
Java (TM) 6 Update 21
Java (TM) SE Development kit 6 Update 15 (64-bit)

I would suggest that you run this program which will remove all of the Java entries. Then go to the update site, do the scan and download the appropriate 32 and 64 for Java v6u21.
Please download JavaRa and unzip it to your desktop.
Important!
***Please close any instances of Internet Explorer before continuing!***

• Double-click on JavaRa.exe to start the program.
• From the drop-down menu, choose English and click on Select.
• JavaRa will open; click on Remove Older Versions to remove the older versions of Java installed on your computer.
• Click Yes when prompted. When JavaRa is done, a notice will appear that a logfile has been produced. Click OK.
• A logfile will pop up. Please save it to a convenient location.

Then download and install then most current version and update of Java Runtime Environment (JRE) HERE.
======================================
I will have one more step for you to remove the cleaning tools.

Great, thanks Bobbye. Step is complete and I think I have installed everything correctly as instructed. Going to do a double check to make sure.

Question for you: You had mentioned earlier that you think that the fake virus scan or whatever it was that popped up on my screen had: "I think what happened is that the malware may have damaged your permissions to run in 64 bit. I don't know that for sure- I'm waiting to hear on that. But I am wondering where that pop-up went or just what it was. " What did that mean and is there a fix for that?

Thanks so much for your help.

I don't have an answer for that yet. You did not mention having any problem running any of the programs showing the *32. Since they have versions that can be run in either 32 or 64 bit, I don't know if this is a problem.

You can use CleanUp in OTL feature to remove all or most of the programs we've used in cleaning.

• Double click OTL.exe.
• Click the CleanUp button.
• Select Yes when the "Begin cleanup Process?" prompt appears.
• If you are prompted to Reboot during the cleanup, select Yes.
• The tool will delete itself once it finishes.

Note: If any tool, file or folder (belonging to the program we have used) hasn't been deleted, please delete it manually.

You should now set a new Restore Point and remove the old restore points to prevent infection from any previous Restore Points.
Creating a Restore Point in Windows 7:

• Click on Start> right click on Computer> Properties
• Select System Protection
• Click on the Create button (near bottom)
• Type a name for the Restore Point
• Click on Create again to save the restore point.
  
  Deleting all but the most recent System Protection point in Windows
  7
• Click Start, type Cleanmgr.exe and press ENTER
• Select the drive-letter from the list and click OK
• Click Clean up system files
  This restarts Disk Cleanup to run in elevated mode.
• Select the drive-letter from the list and click OK
• Click the More Options tab
  
• Click the Clean up… button under System Restore and Shadow Copies.
• Click OK.

Bobbye,

In regards to the Java, the three programs on my "uninstall list" didn't change. All 3 remain. When I did the removal, nothing was removed and everything was verfied via the link you provided saying that I was up to date. Since I have to have both 32 and 64 bit versions, is having all 3 programs normal?

Sorry for the double post. Thanks Bobbye. I did all of this but the OTL program only cleaned up itself. TFC.exe, Java uninstaller program, malwarebytes, ESET, etc are still on here. Are they safe to delete manually?

Also- I noticed my .PDF file reader doesn't work anymore. I just noticed this today but it could of stopped working since the fake virus thing occured. I have Adobe PDF Writer and it was working fine before. Any idea why this would of happened and could it of been connected?

Thanks a lot.

Gambit, I don't think you can make the one pop up you had the cause for anything that isn't working right!

1. The users who have 64 bit systems are telling me that it was common to see the *32 in the Task Manager. One person suggested that it/they might have been there but you only noticed it when you opened the Task Manager to stop a process.

2. If there is any program we used that didn't clean up, you can uninstall in Add/Remove Programs or use the following for most:
Download OTCleanIt by OldTimer and save it to your Desktop.

• Double click OTCleanIt.exe.
• Click the CleanUp! button.
• If you are prompted to Reboot during the cleanup, select Yes.
• The tool will delete itself once it finishes.

TFC would have been good to keep since it was one of the programs I recommended. The Eset scan will be in addons. you can leave it as it's user invoked, If you want to remove it:
Click on Tools> Manage add-ons> Highlight either Eset or Nod32> Disable.

3. You will need to clarify this for me:

I do not see the Adobe Reader in your installed programs-or as a running process in the original logs- just get plus plus for the Flash which you have.There is no other Adobe program installed. If you just want the PDF Reader, you can visit this Adobe Reader site and download the latest version.

4. I would like to mention that you have an enormous number of processes running. You need to check what's on the machine, decide if you want it or need it and if you don't uninstall it. Don't put programs on Startup if you don't need them- and all you really need if the AV, firewall and touchpad for laptop. If you have Network Magic, there are 2 processes for that. Anything else can be started when you need it. Why have is start on boot, run in the background, use the system resources if you don't need it!

5. Companies pre-load a lot of junk a system before they ship them. Sony, on their VAIO, is one of the worse. Most users don't use most of these processes and most don't even know they have them. systems should always be but through some kind of check to remove what isn't needed or wanted. But it's up to you to check out what the processes are for.

5. Now that you have a firewall, you have to tell it what you want to access the internet that is on your system. You do that by configuring the firewall. So look for the Comodo help. Most of what is outgoing can be stopped by either blocking or removing and keep in mind that everything you have auto-updating will connect to the internet several times a day looking for updates- good reason to stop all auto-update except for antivirus.:

See #5:
1. OOBEFcdRegistration.exe>> [RegistrationReminder] "c:\program files\sony\first experience\OOBEFcdRegistration.exe"
2. ThirdPartyAppMgr.exe>> C:\Program Files\Sony\SmartWi Connection Utility\ThirdPartyAppMgr.exe
3. PowerManager.exe>> C:\Program Files (x86)\Sony\SmartWi Connection Utility\PowerManager.exe

Haha, sorry I guess I panicked a bit when I saw the pop-up. My old computer I had issues with when I was in college, it was connected to a huge network so I would often get infected. It wasn't until I downloaded Spybot search & destroy and some other anti-virus stuff did the problems stop. I still have bad memories from that experience that stick with me, even four years later.

Ok great, thanks a lot for the information. I google'd the problem when I first saw it, and I noticed some people saying it could be a virus. This is good information though.

I ran OTC again and nothing had cleaned up other than itself. I ended up keeping TFC because it is very useful. I disabled ESET as well, thank you.

Thank you. I fixed this. For some reason I only had Adobe Flash Player installed. The PDF was working not too long ago which is odd. I wonder if I removed it by accident? Either way, I have it back on. Thanks.

This may be a really stupid question but how do I stop programs from running off startup? I never put any programs on startup and would definitely like to disable some (I didn't even know this was an option..). Is there somewhere you recommend that I can go to, to help me with what is safe to remove and what is not necessary? I would love to get rid of a lot of these programs, but i was always afraid of uninstalling/deactivating the wrong ones.

This firewall is awesome. I really appreciate you referring this to me. I can tell it is very, very good and I may just have to get used to what programs are supposed to be outgoing. I will read up on this and try to teach myself how to use it properly.

Will do thank you.

I just wanted to take time to once again, thank you for your time in assisting me on this. I guess I panicked when I saw the virus popup but I ended up getting a great firewall and an anti-virus thanks to you. You are extremely helpful and I can't believe that you take your free time to assist people like this, it is great.

I hope you don't mind but I referred your forum to a lot of friends of mine. A couple of them visited the site today, read the articles but have not posted yet.

Thanks so much. I look forward to seeing your reply. I am really clueless as to what is safe to remove/not needed so any help will be greatly appreciated. I'd like to make my computer run as fast and smooth (but safe of course) as it possibly can.

EDIT: Wanna know something interesting Bobbye? I click the IE shortcut which is pinned to my taskbar. Usually, IE would open in 64-bit. After that fake virus scan popped up, it was running in 32 bit (or so I think.. it could of just not been noticed by me, but I'm pretty sure it always ran in 64 bit..). I hit start-----> all programs then saw Internet Explorer (64 bit). I clicked that and IE is back running in 64 bit, but some other programs are still running in 32 bit. I pinned the 64 bit shortcut back to the task bar and deleted the other one. Could that fake virus scan have swapped my IE shortcuts? It is just strange because I don't see th epoint of that, lol. Anyway, just realized it and thought I'd share, hope that info can shed some light on something.

I'm in the process of reviewing the different processes but I really have no idea what to uninstall or disable b/c depending on what site I look, some say keep it, others say turn it off. Seems like some of these programs are considered "Bloatware". It sucks that Sony has to pre-download this junk.

Virtually every program on a new system outs itself on the Start menu. And when you download any new program, you are asked if it should go on the Start menu. Note that very few processes need to start on boot and most can be used by choosing the program itself.

Here is a list of Sony VAIO Services that you can reset Startup to Manual. If you decide to uninstall any of these, the Service can then be changed to Disabled:
Change Sony VAIO Services to Manual:

Start> Run> services.msc> right click on each of the following Services> Properties> Change the Startup type to MANUAL> Stop the Service.

If you need specific info about what any of these Services do, please do a search.

To stop a program from starting on boot and running in the background using the msconfig utility
Please refer to the screen shots and directions HERE.

There are instructions I would like to add however, based on my use of msconfig with other operating systems:
The screen shows a check in Normal Startup. Please check Selective Startup instead, then the Start tap.
#6 has the last step and an image of a screen you get. This is essentially a nag message and you need to ut a check in 'don't shoe this message again.' IF the message includes you are 'in a diagnostic more' and suggests you go back to Normal Mode, don't do it. If this works like earlier Windows OS, going back to Normal Mode will restore all the processes you unchecked. You need to remain in Selective startup to keep the changes.

And an FYI for you: Normal Startup vs Selective Startup is not the same as Normal Mode vs Safe Mode.

Regarding 32 bit vs 64 bit: Here is a thread I started about this matter. You can read the discussion and use the links jobeard left if you want to do more reading:
http://www.tech-101.com/windows-7/1547-starting-64-bit-32-bit.html#post7664

Please let me know if I've left anything out. I do have a reference suggestion for you. There is a Windows 7 for Dummies book available at bookstores. I use this series for general reference because the language is not technical and guidance is basic. I think everyone need one for their OS!