Windows Update Broken

[donsears]

In System Startup the items listed below showed up a few months ago. There was no information about them and they looked suspicious so I disabled them. Some time later I found I could not manually update Windows. I finally found out today from Microsoft that I had deleted everything in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Notify

I was sent a script to restore the items to the registry. Now I can manually update Windows XP. Perhaps in your information section you can indicate these are used for Windows Update. Thanks.

- Don


Located: System.ini, crypt32chain
command: crypt32.dll
file: crypt32.dll

Located: System.ini, cryptnet
command: cryptnet.dll
file: cryptnet.dll

Located: System.ini, cscdll
command: cscdll.dll
file: cscdll.dll

Located: System.ini, igfxcui
command: igfxsrvc.dll
file: igfxsrvc.dll

Located: System.ini, ScCertProp
command: wlnotify.dll
file: wlnotify.dll

Located: System.ini, Schedule
command: wlnotify.dll
file: wlnotify.dll

Located: System.ini, sclgntfy
command: sclgntfy.dll
file: sclgntfy.dll

Located: System.ini, SensLogn
command: WlNotify.dll
file: WlNotify.dll

Located: System.ini, SSOExec
command: %windir%\temp\sso\ssoexec.dll
file: %windir%\temp\sso\ssoexec.dll

Located: System.ini, termsrv
command: wlnotify.dll
file: wlnotify.dll

Located: System.ini, wlballoon
command: wlnotify.dll
file: wlnotify.dll

[mikey]

With this particular tool, there are litterally thousands of aspects to it's use.

Is there no point at which an expectation is drawn that the user knows what and why he is doing what he does?

This tool has a massive help file but I don't think it can teach the user all there is to know about the system.

The user has to actually configure the tool to be used in the 'advanced mode'. I would think that an 'advanced' user would at least be able to do a simple web search for info.

Perhaps my idea of an 'advanced' user is just too far out there.

[ShermanGeneral]

Having had the same problem as did DonSears -- for more than a year -- I think mikey's response is unfortunately dismissive.

When your computer isn't working properly and you know something is wrong but cannot determine what, despite extensive effort and time, you take certain risks. Everytime we remove something suspicious that shows up after a spybot scan, we assume the risk it is not malware and indeed is necessary for the system to function. I think advanced users know a lot of spyware can masquerade as a legitimate system file. Don's decision to remove the files doesn't establish he is not an advanced user, whatever that means in the world of Spybot, or anything else about his abilities.

I agree with Don that the way Spybot lists those files in the System Startup page is uninformative. The program identifies those files it knows; when it says nothing about other files, those files appear to be suspicious. Doing google searches that identify the files as legitimate files isn't going to tell you whether their appearance in that list is evidence of spyware on your system. The instructions for that page state that the window to the right gives information about "known startup entries." For the files Don deleted, the window says "No information available." Is it a trait of an advanced user of Spybot to trust Spybot more than a google search? Maybe Don even followed the advice to disable the entries before deleting them, but his system worked fine after doing so, and he never suspected a connection between these logon files and an inability to install windows security updates. It appears that many users having problems with Windows Update happen to have missing or corrupt registry entries related to these files; perhaps they all use Spybot and, like Don, got rid of them because one day the files suddenly appeared on the list where there had been no entries before, Spybot listed no information about them, and they investigated but made no connection with the update problem.

Spybot is a great program and this forum is a great service. I think every time I look at any comparable user forum, I read a number of gratuitous messages bashing users for making suggestions or asking questions that just might result in an improvement or identify some shortcoming in a program. There's this presumption among some that nothing could be wrong with the thing the forum is about. The users who are having trouble with the thing are the problem. (This sentiment is especially common in Microsoft user forums, which should tell us something.) Therefore, the users must be stupid, in a word, and the moderators or others who know more about the program, well, know more about the program, which is why they're participating in the forum. I don't know where they get this idea that their job includes making less informed users feel like idiots for taking the time to make constructive suggestions.

I know it's hard, but I'd urge everyone to try looking at it from a perspective other than your own.