Quick Time assembler starting when I enter

[Mark Rainey]

MB -- When I come to the main page with the photo and lyrics, Quick Time Task Assembler apparently starts up--and tries to load itself into my startup routine, thus setting off The Cleaner (anti-trojan software) alarm. I am forced to go The Cleaner, shut off the alarm, then go to msconfig and unmark the start-up file. This doesn't indicate a trojan, only that a registry entry is being changed without my permission. Using QT for the music file must be starting it, but running QT generally does not cause QTTask.exe to load in the registry. Now, using RealPlayer will do a similar thing; it always tries to load a start-up file if you use the player. But I've never seen a Web page start up QTTask.exe before. Know what's up?

--Mark[/color][/glow]

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I believe QTTask.exe is the QuickTime Tray Icon program, which enables you to start QuickTime from the System Tray. I usually click "no" whenever asked if I want to have an icon automatically added to the System Tray when I install/upgrade a program because, not only do they take up space, but they're uploaded into memory on startup, and if i's not a program I'm going to use all the time, that's a waste of memory to me.

There are probably a few ways to disable it. But the easiest is probably to go into your Control Panel, double-click the QuickTime icon, and then uncheck the box next to "QuickTime system try icon".

I hope that helps.

[Raineypark]

And here I was about to blame the kid/and/or/husband for that annoying Quick Time pop up.   

better and better......

Has anyone else mentioned not being able to re-open the [Get More] if you open and close it while creating a message? Or not being able to put more than 2 "new" smileys on a post?  Or that the [Get More] window disappears and only reappears after I shut down everything else and I'm looking at the last blue screen before I shut the computer down?

I know.....IE

[Mark Rainey]

There are probably a few ways to disable it. But the easiest is probably to go into your Control Panel, double-click the QuickTime icon, and then uncheck the box next to "QuickTime system try icon".

I didn't explain that quite well. QT is set NOT to have a system tray icon. Coming to the DS page turns overrides my local config, thus necessitating the steps in my previous post. I've never had a Web page do that before, and I can go to other QT locations and it doesn't do it. It seems to be peculiar only to this site.

--M

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Well, you're probably not going to want to hear this but...

Has anyone else mentioned not being able to re-open the [Get More] if you open and close it while creating a message?

No - and I haven't had any trouble doing it. :-

Or not being able to put more than 2 "new" smileys on a post?

No - and I was able to insert the dozens of new smileys in my one post by clicking on them. :-

Or that the [Get More] window disappears and only reappears after I shut down everything else and I'm looking at the last blue screen before I shut the computer down?

No - how weird. :-

What might be happening here is some sort of conflict with your Java installation because the system uses a Java script to open the Smileys List window and to put their codes into posts. When was the last time Java was updated on your computer? If you don't have at least 1.4.0 installed, you might want to think about upgrading.

You can go here to download an upgrade installation program. (1.4.0_03 is now available.)

But if you already have 1.4.0, it might still be Java related because the installation may have become corrupted. If you go into your Control Panel, double-click on the Java icon, and then check the box "Show Exception Dialog Box" and maybe you'll receive an error (rather than the Windows Blue Screen of Death, as it's "affectionately" know) the next time you try to do one of those things.

I know.....IE

It might be - but I was able to do all of the above in IE.

[Midnite]

I was able to do all of the above in IE.

Same here.

Gee, MB and I were checking on it at the same time--whotta surprise. 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

QT is set NOT to have a system tray icon. Coming to the DS page turns overrides my local config, thus necessitating the steps in my previous post. I've never had a Web page do that before, and I can go to other QT locations and it doesn't do it. It seems to be peculiar only to this site.

Well, we do pride ourselves on trying to be a unique site on the Web. (Sorry - a touch of humor that I couldn't resist. )

I have to say that your problem has me completely puzzled. I checked, and QTTask.exe is the program for the QuickTime Tray Icon. I have no idea why that should try to start just because you've visited this site because it doesn't happen for me in either IE or Netscape. :-  I've even tried to do some research on the Web and couldn't come up with anything that could even remotely explain your situation. (The main problem I came across was a warning that QTTask is a resource hog that, if automatically loaded on startup, can easily consume 750KB or more of memory by just sitting there waiting!)

Perhaps it's something similar to what's happened to others who've used Norton Personal Firewall. Perhaps The Cleaner has a similar issue? I just don't know...

I'm sorry that I can't be of more help. But at any rate, that Midi is off the forum now - and I don't have any immediate plans to use another in the foreseeable future - so, you should be safe for the time being.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Gee, MB and I were checking on it at the same time--whotta surprise. 

Oh, yes - a HUGE one!

[Mark Rainey]

Well, I found another page that caused QTTask.exe to load into the start-up routine. Like here, QT was a part of the Web page; i.e., it didn't use a link to open the QT player separately. (Manually loading the player from my system doesn't cause the problem.) It's possible that the latest update of QT I downloaded is responsible for its misbehavior. Anyway, I overcame the situation by deleting QTTask.exe altogether. It doesn't impact functionality, and eliminates the annoying modification of the registry.

--Mark

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Well, I found another page that caused QTTask.exe to load into the start-up routine. Like here, QT was a part of the Web page; i.e., it didn't use a link to open the QT player separately.

Hmmm - I wonder how many sites there might actually be?

It's possible that the latest update of QT I downloaded is responsible for its misbehavior.

I don't even remember what version I'm using. But I suppose it's the latest because I haven't been prompted to upgrade...

Anyway, I overcame the situation by deleting QTTask.exe altogether. It doesn't impact functionality, and eliminates the annoying modification of the registry.

Maybe you should make a post about this on QT's site. They have a list of categories for all their discussion forums here. I did a search for any references to The Cleaner program in their Knowledge Base and on the QT for Windows forum and didn't come up with anything like your problem, so they might be completely unaware of it.

[Mark Rainey]

MB -- It's not a Cleaner issue per se; I could disable the Cleaner and QTTask.exe would still load into the startup routine, the difference being that I wouldn't be alerted to the fact until the next time I started the computer. The Cleaner sounds an alarm when a registry or system file is altered (in this case the startup routine), which can happen if a Trojan gets into your system.

Similar to this situation, RealOne Player loads a file called evntsvc.exe (unless you get rid of it) into the startup routine--but it does it every time the player is loaded, either for something on the Web or from local drives. Here's its description from www.answersthatwork.com:

"RealPlayer Classic used to be one of the most needed pieces of software on a PC. Its successor, RealOne Player, is vying for the title of the most hated piece of software. For a start, on many PCs EVNTSVC slows down boot-ups unacceptably, using up to 90% of CPU time at times.  There have also been reports of EVNTSVC dropping advertising shortcuts onto the desktop during idle times.  Next, if you try to disable EVNTSVC via Startup Manager or MSCONFIG, RealOne Player checks to see if it has been deleted from the Registry and re-instates it as a startup item! To be fair, there is a facility within RealOne Player to "only perform automatic services while RealOne Player is in use". As stated in our write-up for RNDAL, our recommendation is to de-install RealOne Player and either use the classic RealPlayer, or something else such as WinAmp. If you absolutely want to keep RealOne Player, we suggest you rename EVNTSVC.EXE to EVNTSVC.EXE.OLD as that is the only way to make absolutely certain that it never runs, and RealOne Player works fine without it."

The part I put in bold above appears to be what's happening here with QT, although I don't think QTTask.exe does anything more than load the icon into the task bar tray. I don't use QT all that frequently, and I don't remember precisely when it was last updated. But mine is the free version, not the paid version, with the bells & whistles. Dunno if this makes any difference.

--Mark

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I don't use QT all that frequently, and I don't remember precisely when it was last updated. But mine is the free version, not the paid version, with the bells & whistles. Dunno if this makes any difference.

Before using QT's plug-in to play the MIDI on the forum I can't remember the last time I used QT either. I also don't know if the free or Pro versions would make a difference because I've always used the free version too.

Here's its description from www.answersthatwork.com:

"RealPlayer Classic used to be one of the most needed pieces of software on a PC. Its successor, RealOne Player, is vying for the title of the most hated piece of software. For a start, on many PCs EVNTSVC slows down boot-ups unacceptably, using up to 90% of CPU time at times.  There have also been reports of EVNTSVC dropping advertising shortcuts onto the desktop during idle times.  Next, if you try to disable EVNTSVC via Startup Manager or MSCONFIG, RealOne Player checks to see if it has been deleted from the Registry and re-instates it as a startup item! To be fair, there is a facility within RealOne Player to "only perform automatic services while RealOne Player is in use". As stated in our write-up for RNDAL, our recommendation is to de-install RealOne Player and either use the classic RealPlayer, or something else such as WinAmp. If you absolutely want to keep RealOne Player, we suggest you rename EVNTSVC.EXE to EVNTSVC.EXE.OLD as that is the only way to make absolutely certain that it never runs, and RealOne Player works fine without it."

This explanation is chilling. Though I don't doubt that the problems with EVNTSVC.EXE exist (because I've had problems with previous versions of RealPlayer), I've been using RealOne Player practically since it was first released and I've never had this problem with EVNTSVC.EXE - or any other problem for that matter. In fact, I've been more satisfied with RealOne than I've ever been with any other version. I wonder what I'm doing/did that's different from what others who've experienced problems do/have done? :- 

[Mark Rainey]

This explanation is chilling.  Though I don't doubt that the problems with EVNTSVC.EXE exist (because I've had problems with previous versions of RealPlayer), I've been using RealOne Player practically since it was first released and I've never had this problem with EVNTSVC.EXE - or any other problem for that matter. In fact, I've been more satisfied with RealOne than I've ever been with any other version. I wonder what I'm doing/did that's different from what others who've experienced problems do/have done?

I like RealOne Player fine, too. I just deleted the evntsvc.exe file (which shows up as TkBellExe in the startup file) and I don't have any problem. Deleting QTTask.exe seems to have taken care of the QT issue as well.

--M