Little annoyances

[Menno Hershberger]

Last night while I was reading newsgroups I noticed my hard drive light
being rather active and spaced it off for the time being. This morning when
I returned to my computer it was still flashing steadily. In task manager I
noticed CISVC.EXE was taking about 30% of my resources. Looked it up.
Indexing service. Disabled it and that took care of the problem. I know the
indexing service is considered unnecessary, but why did it all of a sudden
get carried away?
Shortly after this, I went to print something and my default printer had
been changed to one that wasn't online... hasn't been for 2 months.
And about once a week, I lose all my mapped drives (4 of them). They don't
come back with a reboot. I have to remap them.
I don't really attribute any of this to viruses or spyware. I run
everything under the sun... NAV, MS Antispyware (beta), AdAware, Spybot
Search and Destroy, startup monitor, Win Patrol. I hardly ever get a hit
and when I do it's usually just a cookie.
Is all this just par for the course?

 

[CWatters]

Last night while I was reading newsgroups I noticed my hard drive light
being rather active and spaced it off for the time being. This morning when
I returned to my computer it was still flashing steadily. In task manager I
noticed CISVC.EXE was taking about 30% of my resources.

CISVC.EXE is the indexing process but it also appears to be the name of the
executable for a key logger program called

http://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/grayware/graywareDetails.asp?SNAME=SPYW_FAMKEY.250

Google finds..

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=CISVC.EXE+Family+Keylogger+by+SPYArsenal&spell=1

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Menno

The Indexing Service is intended to run when the system is idle. Most
users find it a nuisance and disable the service when they discover the
affect on system performance,

Read more about it here:
http://snipurl.com/d859

--


Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FCA

Using invalid email address

Stourport, Worcs, England
Enquire, plan and execute.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Please tell the newsgroup how any
suggested solution worked for you.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Colin

Um. I missed the possibility of malware.

Picked this up from your link.
In the list of running programs*, locate the processes:
cisvc.exe acl.exe

The Indexing Service is shown just as cisvc.exe!

It seems the Indexing Service is started from the StartUp Folder whereas
the malware is started from the Registry.


--


Regards.

Gerry

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FCA

Stourport, Worcs, England
Enquire, plan and execute.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Menno Hershberger]

CISVC.EXE is the indexing process but it also appears to be the name
of the executable for a key logger program called

http://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/grayware/graywareDetails.asp?SNAME=SPYW
_FAMKEY.250

Google finds..

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=CISVC.EXE+Family+Keylogger+by+SPYA
rsenal&spell=1

OK... thanks for those links. Actually, I had checked that out already
and determined that this wasn't the case in my situation. If you have the
keylogger, then you're supposed to have a CISVC.TXT, which I didn't. Also
none of the other symptoms mentioned.

 

[Menno Hershberger]

Menno

The Indexing Service is intended to run when the system is idle. Most
users find it a nuisance and disable the service when they discover the
affect on system performance,

Actually, I *thought* I had disabled it a long time ago. If it wouldn't
have started going wild on me, I'd never have noticed it.
Thanks for the help.

 

[Guest]

The Indexing Service is intended to run when the system is idle. Most
users find it a nuisance and disable the service when they discover the
affect on system performance,

Disabling this service is one of the first things I do after a clean
install. Actually, two steps are involved. First, I right click on my hard
drives in Explorer (or click on "properties") and disable indexing from the
General tab. This will free up lots of disk space that Windows otherwise
reserves to enable the index service to work. Second, I go to services
themselves and disable the Indexing service.

Ken

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Ken

I cannot see what you are referring to regarding Explorer on my system!
Are you using Home Edition or Professional?


--


Regards.

Gerry

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FCA

Stourport, Worcs, England
Enquire, plan and execute.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Menno Hershberger]

It's an option in Properties. You have to click on Disk Cleanup. There's a
check box there. "Catalog files for the Content Indexer".

 

[Guest]

Ken

I cannot see what you are referring to regarding Explorer on my system!
Are you using Home Edition or Professional?

Professional, but it makes no difference. I said "Explorer," but I meant
"My Computer" on the start menu. Sorry about that. Let me try again.
On the Start Menu, click on My Computer (which opens Explorer), then right
click on your hard drive, click the General tab, and uncheck the box at the
lower left that refers to the Indexing Service. It will begin removing index
attributes from your files. This may take a few minutes, depending on how
many files are on the drive. When it gets to the Windows prefetch files, you
will get an error message (I don't think prefetch files have index attributes
to be removed, which is why you get the error message). That's okay. Just
click "Ignore All." Repeat this procedure for each hard drive on your system.

Ken

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Yep. Found it. I hadn't previously made the connection to the Indexing
Service. My system has always reported 0 bytes as I have never used the
Indexing Service until I tried a test yesterday.

Thanks.


--


Regards.

Gerry

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FCA

Stourport, Worcs, England
Enquire, plan and execute.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Ken

If you had just said DiskCleanUp I would have found it immediately <g>.
Now I know yet another route to Disk CleanUp.

Thanks.

--


Regards.

Gerry

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FCA

Stourport, Worcs, England
Enquire, plan and execute.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~