Invariably now, on trying to restart and/or turn off, a TouchPad object helper window pops up with "Ending program" notice. It effectively freezes the system & I have to end the process manually to be able to finish. I keep the touchpad switched off, using a mouse instead; functionality is fine.
I do not particularly like the look of it, so finally went to control panel & switched to classic view to take a look at the Mouse. But the first thing that caught my eye in the panel was a blank icon (like DAT file); there was no Delete option attached to it. I continued through the mouse menu tab by tab, and checked especially the driver update which only confirmed my setup was up-to-date, Another strange thing is that the last tab - Device Settings - is non-responsive. On trying to close the Mouse window, End Program message pops up saying rundll32.exe is not responding, and I have to end it manually.
What am I to think of it - is this a topic for the malware forum? The blank icon is now gone from control panel.
Tired of having to tell XP to close a task that is not responding when you are shutting it down? There is a simple registry edit that will cause the task to be automatically ended rather than you being prompted to do so. Means you can start a shutdown and leave the room and come back a few minutes later and it should really be shutdown, not sitting there waiting for you to tell it to end a task.
To Implement for All Users
[Start] [Run] [Regedit]
Registry Key: HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop
Data Type: REG_SZ [String Value] // Value Name: AutoEndTasks
Modify/Create the Value Name [AutoEndTasks] according to the Value Data listed below.
Value Data: [0 = AutoEndTasks Disabled / 1 = AutoEndTasks Enabled]
Exit Registry and Reboot
To Implement for Individual Users
[Start] [Run] [Regedit]
Registry Key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
Data Type: REG_SZ [String Value] // Value Name: AutoEndTasks
Modify/Create the Value Name [AutoEndTasks] according to the Value Data listed below.
Value Data: [0 = AutoEndTasks Disabled / 1 = AutoEndTasks Enabled]
Exit Registry and Reboot
As always, before you make any changes to the registry, please back it up. An excellent way to do this is to install ERUNT. Let it add an entry to your Start menu during the install process. That will allow ERUNT to backup your registry each time you boot. It only takes a few seconds and has no real impact on boot time. Run ERUNT immediately after installing it to create a full registry backup.
