"Program" in startup. \ VOGONS

"Program" in startup.

Topic actions

Post a reply

First post, by Shagittarius

Posted on 2012-11-29, 03:32

Shagittarius Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 1532
Joined: 2007-12-20, 06:49
Location: California, USA

Sorry guys this isn't a retro question but this place is full of knowledge and after searching in every way I could think of in google, I've come here in hopes of a tip to figure out what is running in my startup.

I installed Windows 8 a few days after release. Just today in the startup I noticed a program called "Program" running. When you right click on it both "open file location" and "properties" are grayed out. I disabled and it doesn't seem to do anything to my system being disabled so I'm assuming it's not part of something that also is in my startup.

I went to the registry searching for "program" and found nothing of use.

What should I do next to try and figure out what this is and where it's located? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Here's an image for ominous dramatic effect:

Reply 1 of 8, by Old Thrashbarg

Posted on 2012-11-29, 04:23

Old Thrashbarg Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 1607
Joined: 2009-06-08, 14:30
Location: Central FL

It looks to me like it's something not running at startup. It's disabled. I'd suspect it's probably not even an actual program, just some sort of glitch, maybe a remnant of something that was removed. You could look in the registry, see if there's anything unusual under HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run (and HKLM\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run if you have a 64-bit version of Windows) and also the corresponding HKCU entries.

Reply 2 of 8, by Shagittarius

Posted on 2012-11-29, 04:24

Shagittarius Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 1532
Joined: 2007-12-20, 06:49
Location: California, USA

Little Update:

I think it's for the automated update check for Amiga Forever. When I disable it a program called 'software director' which I believe Amiga forever uses to auto update doesn't run.

Does anyone have amiga forever 2012 or any version with the software director and can confirm this startup item, I guess win 8 in particular would be best.

Last edited by Shagittarius on 2012-11-29, 04:43. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 3 of 8, by Shagittarius

Posted on 2012-11-29, 04:30

Shagittarius Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 1532
Joined: 2007-12-20, 06:49
Location: California, USA

Thanks for the feedback. I looked under your first location and found nothing but 2 ambx entries which I think are represented under the task manager. I dont have a Wow6432 folder in my registry though I am running Win8 64bit.

Reply 4 of 8, by Shagittarius

Posted on 2012-11-29, 04:42

Shagittarius Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 1532
Joined: 2007-12-20, 06:49
Location: California, USA

I have fired off a support message to Amiga Forever to see if they are aware and can shed some light on this. Will let you know if I can confirm.

Reply 5 of 8, by eL_PuSHeR

Posted on 2012-11-29, 08:43

eL_PuSHeR Offline

Rank l33t++

Rank: l33t++
Posts: 6570
Joined: 2003-06-20, 16:39

Try running Autoruns to see if it offers more info.

Reply 6 of 8, by Shagittarius

Posted on 2012-11-29, 16:39

Shagittarius Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 1532
Joined: 2007-12-20, 06:49
Location: California, USA

Looks like it's legit and according to cloanato a bug in Windows 8.

Here's their response:

Yes, our software works fine on Windows 8.

And you are correct that the "Program" entry is for Software Director.

This looks like it is in part a bug in Windows 8. The Startup entry we set uses an environment variable, i.e. instead of having the path to Software Director as "C:\Program Files"Common Files\Cloanto\Software Director\...", it is written as "%ProgramFiles%\Common Files\Cloanto\Software Director\..."

For some reason Windows 8 executes this well, but it doesn't unwrap the %ProgramFiles% environment variable correctly when listing the entries in Task Manager.

We are going to fix this, probably by storing the absolute path.

Regards,

Mike

Thanks to everyone who offered suggestions!

Reply 7 of 8, by Shagittarius

Posted on 2012-11-29, 17:35

Shagittarius Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 1532
Joined: 2007-12-20, 06:49
Location: California, USA

This little bug in windows 8 seems like a good way to hide a keylogger. Since you cant get any info about it from the task manager. At least good as in you wont be able to tell what's starting up.

Reply 8 of 8, by DosFreak

Posted on 2012-11-29, 18:33

DosFreak Offline

Rank l33t++

Rank: l33t++
Posts: 12979
Joined: 2002-06-30, 16:35
Location: Milliways

Common files has it's own variable

CommonProgramFiles=C:\Program Files\Common Files
CommonProgramFiles(x86)=C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files
CommonProgramW6432=C:\Program Files\Common Files

How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
Make your games work offline

Go to top of page Go to top of page

Back to General Old Hardware

Main menu

Common searches