xp shutdown & "DDE server window"

[Nasty Democrat]

hi ...

lately shutdown on my XP pro machine halts with the "end now" message for
DDE SERVER WINDOW.

I've tried googling this with all kinds of mixed responses. Is there a
definitive way to end this? My XP is totally up to date.

thanks for any ...

NDP

 

[John John - MVP]

hi ...

lately shutdown on my XP pro machine halts with the "end now" message for
DDE SERVER WINDOW.

I've tried googling this with all kinds of mixed responses. Is there a
definitive way to end this? My XP is totally up to date.

thanks for any ...

Disable the Network DDE services. This is a rather old set of functions
(dating back to WFWG) that have not ever really been used all that much
and that have always had security concerns. Few applications ever used
it and in this day and age there would be even fewer using this.

John

 

[Tim Meddick]

Since the "Network DDE" service is, by default, start-up : "manual" - then
=, it is my guess that some program may be using it.

Rather than disabling this service, might I suggest that you simply change
a registry value that tells Windows to automatically terminate all running
programs and background services, without the need for the user to respond
by clicking on the "End Application" box.

To employ this "auto-end application" feature, open regedit and navigate to
:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop]

and, if not already present, create a new string value :

"AutoEndTasks"

....and assign it a value of : "1"


Alternatively, copy and paste the following into Notepad and save it to
your desktop and giving it a (*.reg) file extension (you may have to turn
off "Hide file extensions for known types" in the "Folder Options"
Control Panel in order to rename it's extension from (*.txt) to (*.reg)).

Then double click on this reg-file (and press [Yes]) to import it.

------------------- copy between lines -------------------

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop]
"AutoEndTasks"="1"

------------------- copy between lines -------------------


==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.

 

[John John - MVP]

Since the "Network DDE" service is, by default, start-up : "manual" -
then =, it is my guess that some program may be using it.

On Windows XP SP2 and on Server 2003 installations these DDE services
are Disabled by default. The services are removed and no longer
available on Vista and later operating systems. Really, there is hardly
anything that uses NetDDE in this day and age and the services have
always had a security concern around them, the only reason that they
were ever included in Windows 95 and NT 3.1 was in the interests of
backwards compatibility with Windows 2.x and WFWG. Network DDE opens
network shares and allows remote access to local resources, it should be
disabled unless explicitly needed.

John

 

[Tim Meddick]

So what is your explanation that the Net DDE Service is "Enabled" Start
Type: "Manual" on my Win XP Pro SP3 machine?

Since, I have gone through, at some length, and disabled most of what I was
sure wasn't absolutely necessary, and certainly did *not* enable any
already "Disabled" services on my system.

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.

 

[John John - MVP]

I don't know why your machine is setup that way but I can categorically
tell you that it is disabled on a clean Windows XP SP2 installation, I
just did one of those installations a few hours ago and both of the DDE
services are disabled by default. See here:

Application Compatibility: Compatibility Risks
http://msdn.microsoft.com/es-ar/library/bb756977

INFO: Windows 95 Support for Network DDE
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;125703

John

 

[Tim Meddick]

A difference between SP2 and SP3 defaults perhaps?

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.

 

[John John - MVP]

No, SP3 also defaults these services to "Disabled". Is the Clipbook
service enabled? The Clipbook service relies on NetDDE & NetDDE DSDM,
if you had this service enabled or set to Automatic my guess is that the
service pack installation may have left the NetDDE services enabled.
The Clipbook (clipsrv.exe) is another security hole which is usually
disabled by default on standard Windows XP installations, Clipsrv.exe is
not to be confused with clipbrd.exe, (clipbrd.exe does not rely on NetDDE).

Or it could just be a glitch when your service pack was installed, these
service pack installations are rarely executed perfectly and they do not
always go 100% according to plan...

John