Just bought a new PC 2 days ago with Vista Home Premium installed. I have
barely started using it and installed SpyBot: Search & Destroy to help
protect against spyware. SpyBot detects it (%WINDIR%\SMINST\launcher.exe) as
a system startup file in the "HK_LM:RunOnce" key and says it is a potential
dangerous virus, spyware, malware or other resource hog.

I went to the dir and looked at the properties of the "launcher.exe" file.
It was created on 4/23/07, 4 months before I even bought the computer (which
is a Gateway PC from Circuit City). This is what made me suspicious because,
why would a PC come with spyware pre-installed. I'm not that familiar with
Vista yet so, I'm wondering if SpyBot is mistakenly identifying this file.
Just need some help figuring out what this file is and if it is really
dangerous. Anyone have any ideas?

I have two launcher.exe - one put there by Toshiba and the other
by Java. I suspect your version was put there by your system
maker.

"RollTide1017" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:888DD573-98DA-41B4-8014-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Just bought a new PC 2 days ago with Vista Home Premium installed. I have
> barely started using it and installed SpyBot: Search & Destroy to help
> protect against spyware. SpyBot detects it (%WINDIR%\SMINST\launcher.exe) as
> a system startup file in the "HK_LM:RunOnce" key and says it is a potential
> dangerous virus, spyware, malware or other resource hog.
>
> I went to the dir and looked at the properties of the "launcher.exe" file.
> It was created on 4/23/07, 4 months before I even bought the computer (which
> is a Gateway PC from Circuit City). This is what made me suspicious because,
> why would a PC come with spyware pre-installed. I'm not that familiar with
> Vista yet so, I'm wondering if SpyBot is mistakenly identifying this file.
> Just need some help figuring out what this file is and if it is really
> dangerous. Anyone have any ideas?
>

proibably an OEM applet

right click the file and see if there are properties which make sense

"RollTide1017" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:888DD573-98DA-41B4-8014-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Just bought a new PC 2 days ago with Vista Home Premium installed. I have
> barely started using it and installed SpyBot: Search & Destroy to help
> protect against spyware. SpyBot detects it (%WINDIR%\SMINST\launcher.exe)
> as
> a system startup file in the "HK_LM:RunOnce" key and says it is a
> potential
> dangerous virus, spyware, malware or other resource hog.
>
> I went to the dir and looked at the properties of the "launcher.exe" file.
> It was created on 4/23/07, 4 months before I even bought the computer
> (which
> is a Gateway PC from Circuit City). This is what made me suspicious
> because,
> why would a PC come with spyware pre-installed. I'm not that familiar
> with
> Vista yet so, I'm wondering if SpyBot is mistakenly identifying this file.
> Just need some help figuring out what this file is and if it is really
> dangerous. Anyone have any ideas?
>

Hello RollTide,

Very interesting reading here

PC Decrapifier
http://www.pcdecrapifier.com/home
- -- ---



"RollTide1017" wrote:

> Just bought a new PC 2 days ago with Vista Home Premium installed. I have
> barely started using it and installed SpyBot: Search & Destroy to help
> protect against spyware. SpyBot detects it (%WINDIR%\SMINST\launcher.exe) as
> a system startup file in the "HK_LM:RunOnce" key and says it is a potential
> dangerous virus, spyware, malware or other resource hog.
>
> I went to the dir and looked at the properties of the "launcher.exe" file.
> It was created on 4/23/07, 4 months before I even bought the computer (which
> is a Gateway PC from Circuit City). This is what made me suspicious because,
> why would a PC come with spyware pre-installed. I'm not that familiar with
> Vista yet so, I'm wondering if SpyBot is mistakenly identifying this file.
> Just need some help figuring out what this file is and if it is really
> dangerous. Anyone have any ideas?
>