Help and Support–How to Disable

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My Win7 SP1 x64 machine (HAL9000–I kid you not–long story) is up to his usual shenanigans. Every time I click Start or any Folder in Windows Explorer, the Windows Help and Support Pane pops-up. The Pane will not close unless the Folder or File is closed. It usually will Minimize, but otherwise just hangs around. I cannot locate Help Center references in the Registry. On-line solutions are old or non-applicable. I performed a Repair Install a couple of months ago, when HAL started to become flaky and nothing else helped. I do not want to do that again unless absolutely necessary. Can anyone assist me in eliminating this problem? For further consideration: I did receive the GWX which stated that HAL was compatible, except for T.I. Home 2011. When I attempted to Suspend or Terminate GWX with Process Hacker 2, HAL threw a FIT!!! I uninstalled KBs 3035583, 2952664, and 3021917. After reading MS’s new privacy statement, I will stick with what I have. We don’t need another ‘Google’, and that is what MS is trying to become. Should Google put-out a Chrome OS independent of Chrome Box, I might try that. After all, they already know everything.

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Try resetting the file associations for folders and directories using the links at File Association Fixes for Windows 7[/url]

Joe

--Joe

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Tried the ‘Directories’ reg fix. No Joy!!! I want to disable Help and Support, not fix it. IMHO, It’s as useless as ‘tits on a boar hog’, and I never use it.

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Just disabling “Help and Support” is not going to resolve your problem. What happens when Windows Explorer is accessed is corrupted. Did you try the “folders” link?

Joe

--Joe

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Task Scheduler shows no tasks for anything, including GWX. Services has Task Scheduler and all its dependencies started.

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If you uninstalled the patches associated with GWX then GWX should be gone. No need to do anything else other than keep an eye on Windows Update and hide those fixes if you don’t want them installed again.

Joe

--Joe

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I installed an image of C: from six weeks ago. Two of the patches were installed in April. I uninstalled them, but could not locate 3021917. The Task Scheduler had two folders for GWX. Those tasks allowed MS to snoop at a given time every day, and were set to download more crud on given days. Let the user beware!!! So far no problems have reared their ugly heads, yet! Thanks for the attempts to help, but this is the only way I see to get the GWX crud off a computer. Now all I have to do is go to MS and unreserve the upgrade for my Laptop. Oh, and Joe, the initial problem had nothing to do with file associations.

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If Windows Explorer ever worked correctly after the reinstall is there a restore point back to when it worked?

Joe

--Joe

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The OP sounds like a knowledgeable person so he has likely done this but … It should not hurt to try to run

chkdsk

and then

sfc /scannow

at an admin command prompt.

And if that fails the usual anti-malware so often recommended on this forum.

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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