Replies

This is a quick note to let people know that there is a problem with the Secunia PSI which I reported to them last November, before the PSI version 2.0 was released.
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I have since tested PSI 2.0 and it still overwrites the Explorer Start Navigation sound definition.

As far as I know, this is the only system problem with PSI. It is otherwise a great tool.

============= This is my email to Secunia ===============

Running PSI 1.5.0.2 under Win XP SP3

I have been looking for the process that destroys the definition of my Explorer Start Navigation sound definition. I have that sound defined as “Start.wav” and after each reboot it gets set to “Sta”.

If I disable PSI at startup, the sound definition remains as I set it.

I ran the Sysinternals ProcessMonitor program filtered for registry accesses to
HKCUAppEventsSchemesAppsExplorerNavigating.current(Default)
and I found when starting PSI manually that PSI executes a RegSetValue on that registry Key 4 times during startup. The data is garbage and the type is changed from REG_SZ to REG_EXPAND_SZ.

So my question is why does PSI have to change my sound definitions at all?

I would also like to submit this as a bug report.

============= Response from Secunia ======================

Subject: PSI Overwrites Sound Definition
From: Secunia Support
Date: Thu, December 2, 2010 3:14:37 AM

Hi

Thank you for contacting Secunia Support.

We are aware of the issue and are currently working to fix it.

If you have any further questions, please let me know.

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Kind regards,

Emil Jeppesen
Secunia PSI Support

Secunia PSI
http://secunia.com/vulnerability_scanning/personal

I have used EASEUS to expand drive C: into some empty space and it worked great. I highly recommend the program.

As to the partitioning, I agree with the other posts. Keep a D: drive for data. It makes backup much easier.

I use a C: = 45GB D: = 85GB and E: = 102GB

Success! It was your suggestions that made the difference. Here is what I discovered and the fix:

I checked the C:Program Files and the C:Program FilesCommon Filessystem folders and there were no ATI files or folders.

I checked the C:Documents and Settings folders (User and All Users) and there were no ATI files or folders in “Application Data” or “Local FilesApplication Data” (or in the “Local FilesTemp folder” or the C:WindowsTemp folder).

As for my video card, I re-installed an MSI 7300LE Nvidia card (which is working fine).

I also noticed that I can delete the nine files from the C:WindowsSystem32dllcache folder and they will stay gone (even over a reboot). However, when I remove them from the System32 folder, all nine were restored to both the dllcache and System32 folders within 10 seconds.

When I listed all the running processes, there were none which were running any ATI programs. When I listed the installed drivers, there are no ATI drivers shown as being installed. So WINDOWS had to be restoring these files from some backup.

I do not have a DOS disk to boot from, so I tried F5 then “SAFE MODE WITH COMMAND PROMPT”. This was a bit scary, but after delays it let me logon and then put up a window with a command prompt. In this window I executed my BAT file to remove all the ATI files. Then I rebooted.

When Windows started up again, I checked System32 and dllcache and the files were gone and stayed gone. I was skeptical about removing the files this way, but you guys proved me wrong.

Thank you for help. I hope my experience makes this easier for someone else in the future.

Zorkoff

Thanks for the suggestions.

I already tried un-registering them by running ” regsvr32 /u ati3duag.dll ” from a DOS window and it said that the entry was not found.

As for deleting them from DOS, I don’t see the difference. When I delete the files with my BAT file, they are really gone. But about 10 seconds later some process decides to re-create them from some backup.

The files must be listed in some database as being important and protected; and some system process keeps bringing them back. I want to tell that process to forget about these nine files.

Zorkoff

Scott Z

This is just a thought, but have you compared the security settings for all three computers?

Look at the Internet Options in the Control Panel. Go to the the Security Tab and select the Internet Zone, then the Custom Level button. Scroll to the bottom and look at the various logon descriptions on each machine. I suggest selecting automatic logon only in the Intranet Zone.

See is that helps. Check out the other zones under the security tab as well.