What is "_wowexe.exe"?

[Jentle Jiant]

Does anyone know what _wowexe.exe is?

I have recently begun experiencing significant slowdowns. In trying to
troubleshoot, I have discovered what seems to me to be a very strange
entry in the Task Manager.

Under "Processes" there is an entry for _wowexe.exe.

(I used an underscore here to represent what appears to be a blank
space in the listing.)

In that entry, under Memory Usage, there is nothing. not even 00.

To clarify, the listing looks like this:

sychost.exe SYSTEM 00 48K
taskmgr.exe my name 00 4,180k
wowexe.exe my name 00
ntvdm.exe my name 00 524k

etc, etc

This looks odd to me. I have never seen a blank space in the Mem Usage
column, nor an entry with a blank space as the first character.

My concern was increased when I ran a full system search for the file,
including hidden files, system files, etc. No file was found.

I'r running WinXP Home Edition, SP2 installed (uneventfully as far as
I could see)

I'd appreciate any feedback and/or recommendations.

Thanks

Jentle Jiant

 

[Vanguardx]

Does anyone know what _wowexe.exe is?

I have recently begun experiencing significant slowdowns. In trying to
troubleshoot, I have discovered what seems to me to be a very strange
entry in the Task Manager.

Under "Processes" there is an entry for _wowexe.exe.

(I used an underscore here to represent what appears to be a blank
space in the listing.)

In that entry, under Memory Usage, there is nothing. not even 00.

To clarify, the listing looks like this:

sychost.exe SYSTEM 00 48K
taskmgr.exe my name 00 4,180k
wowexe.exe my name 00
ntvdm.exe my name 00 524k

etc, etc

This looks odd to me. I have never seen a blank space in the Mem Usage
column, nor an entry with a blank space as the first character.

My concern was increased when I ran a full system search for the file,
including hidden files, system files, etc. No file was found.

I'r running WinXP Home Edition, SP2 installed (uneventfully as far as
I could see)

I'd appreciate any feedback and/or recommendations.

Thanks

Jentle Jiant

You are running an old program that requires Windows to remap back to
the 16-bit Windows system API.

http://support.microsoft.com/?id=103656
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=314495
"... Windows 3.0 or 3.1 subsystem (WOWEXEC.EXE), ..."

http://support.microsoft.com/?id=320127

You can find more articles by searching on "wowexec" at Microsoft's
support knowledgebase (http://support.microsoft.com/).

 

[Taurarian Fire]

When a WinXP Home computer runs 16-bit applications it produces the following error
message: -
WOWEXEC caused a General Protection Fault in module MMSYSTEM.DLL at 000A:0032

WOWEXEC is short for "Windows on Windows Execute" and is a helper program used to run
16-bit applications under NT and XP.

A 16-bit program can give this error message when WOWEXEC is already running when the
16-bit program is started.

Make sure that WOWEXEC is not left in memory when a 16-bit program is closed.
To do this:
1. Log in as the administrator.
2. Run Regedit.exe (in \Windows).
3. Go to the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\WOW
4. Look for the entry DefaultSeparateVDM, and change it to Yes.
5. Close Regedit.

Another possibility is that the path name to the 16-bit program is longer than 128
characters. To solve this problem relocate the program on a path with a shorter name.

 

[Jentle Jiant]

You are running an old program that requires Windows to remap back to
the 16-bit Windows system API.

http://support.microsoft.com/?id=103656
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=314495
"... Windows 3.0 or 3.1 subsystem (WOWEXEC.EXE), ..."

http://support.microsoft.com/?id=320127

You can find more articles by searching on "wowexec" at Microsoft's
support knowledgebase (http://support.microsoft.com/).

Vanguardx and Taurian Fire:

First let me say thank you both for such quick and complete and
precise feedback. At the very minimum it is reassuring that this is a
definable and predictable thing, and not some malicious script or
virus. That was my primary concern. And am relieved that is not the
case.

And this makes perfect sense as well, since I do have and use a few
such old games from Win 3.1 days. I assume the SP2 reset the registry
since this did not occur in the past.

As soon as time permits I will make the recommended registry changes.

Thanks again

Jentle Jiant

 

[Jentle Jiant]

Vanguardx and Taurian Fire:

First let me say thank you both for such quick and complete and
precise feedback. At the very minimum it is reassuring that this is a
definable and predictable thing, and not some malicious script or
virus. That was my primary concern. And am relieved that is not the
case.

And this makes perfect sense as well, since I do have and use a few
such old games from Win 3.1 days. I assume the SP2 reset the registry
since this did not occur in the past.

As soon as time permits I will make the recommended registry changes.

Thanks again

Jentle Jiant