Topic: See ALL processes running in Windows 98 (Read 9337 times)

Lisa · « **on:** October 26, 2004, 11:24:56 AM »

As anyone using Windows 98 knows, Ctrl+Alt+Del doesn't really show all processes that are running. Check out www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/procexp.shtml? It will show all processes running along with the corresponding dll.

Kevin · « **Reply #1 on:** October 27, 2004, 01:18:43 PM »

Great program to recommend Lisa. I use it. Probably not for beginners though.

Lisa · « **Reply #2 on:** November 03, 2004, 02:21:46 AM »

Thanks Kevin, you're right about it not being for beginners, I should have mentioned that. If nothing else, I found it helpful to know which program is related to what's running. It helped me to understand what was going on "inside".

nukem911 · « **Reply #3 on:** December 10, 2004, 02:19:05 AM »

Is there a similar program for xp that shows the connections between the processes and dlls?

Kevin · « **Reply #4 on:** December 10, 2004, 05:22:34 PM »

Of course there is.

Get APM. It should do what you want.

TheShadow · « **Reply #5 on:** December 19, 2006, 01:52:40 PM »

Can I play Devils Disciple here for a moment?

thanks

So, you find out everything that's running in the background on a Windows 98 machine.
What are you going to do about it?
I know of no way to shut down services in 98, if indeed there are any.

With XP, we have "Services.msc" to see what's been set to run and how it will run.
We can also use that same program to turn OFF unwanted services.
What's available for 98?

Just curious,
Shadow

By the way, that link that was posted way back in 2004 doesn't work now. Is there a new one?

Kevin · « **Reply #6 on:** December 20, 2006, 08:17:18 PM »

Yeah, our buddy Mr. Gates bought them out in July of 2006. It should be Process Explorer:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/ProcessesAndThreads/ProcessExplorer.mspx

Lisa · « **Reply #7 on:** January 06, 2007, 10:08:04 PM »

No, there are no services in W98.

More than anything, I use it on W98/ME to provide clues as to what infection may be present when HJT shows nothing. The decent Anti-Malware programs are non-NT compatible anymore.

All we have left is DrWeb, really.

status1 · « **Reply #8 on:** January 16, 2010, 12:47:49 PM »

Well it looks like the new version of Process Explorer is no longer working on windows 98

Kevin · « **Reply #9 on:** January 16, 2010, 02:26:02 PM »

Hi status1, welcome to KRC Forum.

As time goes by, all older Microsoft Operating Systems will not be compatible with newer programs. I recommend upgrading to newer versions if possible since Windows 98 is no longer supported and any new exploits found will just cause more trouble in the long run.

status1 · « **Reply #10 on:** January 16, 2010, 05:53:28 PM »

I understand that newer programs will not be compatible with older operating system but and that windows 98 is no longer supported but why not leave the programs that are made for older operating system still available ?
Is it to force users to upgrade to the new operating system ?
Doesn't Microsoft have enough of a monopoly ?

Kevin · « **Reply #11 on:** January 17, 2010, 07:05:03 PM »

This is just the way it is. A lot of other freeware programs are slowly phasing out the Windows 98 support as well and using newer/updated code for NT-compatible systems (usually Windows 2000 and higher).

I suggest getting the older version of the program if you still want to use it. It might not have all the new bells & whistles but at least it will be a working copy. FileHippo has a pretty good archive copy of previous versions of Process Explorer at:

http://www.filehippo.com/download_process_explorer/tech/

You can give those a try to see if the older versions work.

status1 · « **Reply #12 on:** January 17, 2010, 09:23:38 PM »

Good news
I found a few earlier versions that work on windows 98 at that link Versions 10.2 to 11.11 work with windows 98 the next one 11.12 has a message that says that it needs a newer version OS then the later version after that don't say anything

Anyway I tried one of them and it actually works and just as I suspected it was part of the open office software that was lurking in the background
There are 3 files called SOFFICE.BIN and 1 CRASHREP.EXE
Non of those files show up when I hit ctrl-alt-del so I cant turn them off before shutdown now hopefully I can close it before shutdown

status1 · « **Reply #13 on:** January 17, 2010, 10:19:08 PM »

Just a quick update
Unfortunately I cannot kill the processes related to open office
It was a nice Idea to bad it doesn't work
That's probably why windows doesn't shut down
If I can't kill it windows can't kill it either so it just hangs there waiting for the process to close but it never does
At least I know what is causing it

Kevin · « **Reply #14 on:** January 20, 2010, 08:57:56 PM »

From what I found, it could be your antivirus program locking it. See if you can add open office to the list of exceptions so it doesn't lock up the process.

status1 · « **Reply #15 on:** January 20, 2010, 09:07:11 PM »

Thank you but I don't see how it could be my antivirus program since I don't have any installed

Kevin · « **Reply #16 on:** January 20, 2010, 10:18:38 PM »

That's not a good thing to do. You should have some antivirus installed and updated frequently as it's just not safe leaving a station unprotected these days.

You don't have 3 copies of OpenOffice running do you? That soffice.bin process should only be showing up once. Another thing you can check is the startup processes. Go to Start > Run and type in msconfig and hit OK. Go to the Startup tab and see if you can spot anything related to OpenOffice. You can probably disable it by unchecking it. Most likely it's not needed and used only to speed up the loading process for OpenOffice.

status1 · « **Reply #17 on:** January 21, 2010, 09:15:16 PM »

I understand your concern but I never had any problems with viruses at least not on windows 98 I am using it with firefox which warns me of any sites that may have a potential virus so I avoid those

As far as open office I may have opened and closed open office a few times but I did not have any open at the time it showed 3 instances of soffice.bin
Sometimes I close one file and open another but for some reason nothing happens. I see the hourglass and wait for the program to open but it doesn't Then I usually hit ctrl-alt-del and I see more than one copy of open office but one of them says "not responding" so I end task all the open office programs and then open it again and it works normally
So I am guessing those 3 instances of soffice.bin happened during one of those open close end task sequence

As far as startup I don't have any open office programs checked because it slows down the startup and I am not using open office daily so I don't mind if office starts slower as long as the startup is fast enough for me

Kevin · « **Reply #18 on:** January 23, 2010, 08:25:55 PM »

My guess is that Windows or OpenOffice is not closing itself properly when you exit the program. That's the only explanation I can come up with that's logical. Did this problem just happen recently? If so, did you upgrade OpenOffice recently? If possible, use an older version that didn't have this problem and see if the same thing occurs.

status1 · « **Reply #19 on:** January 24, 2010, 12:59:39 PM »

That is my guess also. If open office would close properly when exiting the program windows would not have a problem shutting down That's why I thought I would be able to do it with process explorer but it can't close it either
Is there anything else that can be used like a special command or program that would force the program to close or make windows close without waiting for open office to close ?

I renamed the soffice.bin file just to see what happens but the program doesn't open without it
I am pretty sure the earlier versions have the same problem

Kevin · « **Reply #20 on:** January 24, 2010, 07:56:01 PM »

So you had this problem even on the first day you installed the older versions of OpenOffice?

Try getting the kill.exe file from Microsoft at:

http://ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/services/technet/samples/ps/win98/reskit/diagnose/

Save it to your C:\Windows\system32\ folder. Then open up a command prompt window by going to Start > Run and type in cmd and click OK. At the prompt, type in something like:

kill /f soffice.bin

and hit ENTER. Hopefully Windows will recognize the kill command. If so, see if that ends the running process.

status1 · « **Reply #21 on:** January 25, 2010, 09:39:46 PM »

The older version did not have Base
Only versions 2.0 and up have Base
I only used the spreadsheet part of open office with the earlier and newer versions and since it did not crash I did not have any problems I started using Base with version 2.3 and it seem to be fine until it crashed It's probably because database creation is more prone to errors than a spreadsheet

I tried the file you suggested but it's still there

I used command instead of cmd and for some reason it didn't work when I had it in the system32 folder so I moved it to the command folder
I opened a Base file and I wanted to see if it works before crashing.
It was able to kill the soffice.bin file but when I opened the Base file again the crash recovery file started up so just by killing the soffice.bin file made it crash
Then after closing the base file sure enough the soffice.bin file was still there so then I used the kill exe file and while I got the confirmation message "process number soffice.bin killed " the process explorer still showed it in there
This may sound strange but is it possible that the sofice.bin file is reloading itself somehow after it was killed ?

status1 · « **Reply #22 on:** January 26, 2010, 09:24:34 PM »

Quick update
Yesterday when I turned off the pc I used restart instead of shut down and I had the pop up window with the warning that it is waiting for a program to close and I had the choice of waiting , end task or cancel so I picked end task and it restarted the pc without hanging

Is the restart routine different than the shutdown ?

I was just wondering why I don't have the same pop up window warning me that it's waiting for a program to close and give me the option to wait or end the task

Kevin · « **Reply #23 on:** January 28, 2010, 12:08:26 PM »

Sorry, Windows 98 uses command and does not recognize cmd by default.

Does OpenOffice Base still work for you now? If it still crashes, is it only for specific database files you created or even on a blank database (completely new)? The major problem I see here is that you are still running Windows 98. The newer version of OpenOffice (3.0 and higher) is meant to be run on a Windows 2000 and higher system with at least 256MB of RAM as indicated at:

http://www.openoffice.org/dev_docs/source/sys_reqs_30.html

You may still get it to work on Windows 98 but I'm sure there were problems found which is why they didn't include Windows 98 there. Unfortunately at this point, you might have to try posting at the OpenOffice Support Forum to see if they are able to assist:

http://support.openoffice.org/index.html

That must be some kind of coincidence. Both restart and shutdown commands should almost be identical as they use the shutdown command to initiate the process. Only difference is that the restart is set to shutdown Windows and restart it again while shutdown powers down everything completely until the user powers up the computer again.

You can give test it out by starting up the computer and waiting until everything loads. Then try the restart. Do the same thing again but shutdown instead this time. Make sure you don't run anything else and wait for Windows to load for about a minute so the trials are about the same from the starting state.

status1 · « **Reply #24 on:** January 28, 2010, 09:38:00 PM »

Yes Base still works I just have to avoid making mistakes that causes errors which is hard to do when you are a beginner

There was one particular database I made that seem to make it crash quite frequently on windows 98
I tried that same database on a pc with xp and open office 3.0 and while it crashed on that pc also , it did not freeze the program like windows 98 it just closed the program and also it did not affect the shutdown like windows 98

I will do more testing with the restart to see if it's real or just a coincidence

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Author Topic: See ALL processes running in Windows 98 (Read 9337 times)