What is msdts.exe?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Martin
  • Start date Start date
M

Martin

What is msdts.exe?

I'm getting an error message box:

title: msdts

Run-time error 5
Invalid Procedure Call or Argument.

I've had this errror box two or three times in the last six hours.

My firewall has also caught msdts.exe trying to access the net...
First it was trying to access www28.brinkster.com
Then it was trying to access adsl-208-191-242-234.dsl.ltrkar.swbell.net 4177
UDP.
Both of which i blocked, three incoming connection requests from
208.191.242.234 were also blocked.

A search on Google gave me no results and the Microsoft help was
unavailable.

A complete virus scan with latest definitions shows no infection.

Running Windows XP Pro with SP1.

Thanks for any insight.

Martin.
 
"Microsoft Distributed Transaction Controller " maybe?

I know, that's not much help is it?
 
Process File: msdtc or msdtc.exe
Process Name: Distributed Transaction Coordinator
Description: The Microsoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator handles
transactions across multiple servers and is installed by Microsoft Personal
Web Server and Microsoft SQL Server
Common Errors: N/A
System Process: No
Microsoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator. The Microsoft Distributed
Transaction Coordinator is a transaction manager which permits client
applications to include several different sources of data in one transaction
and which then coordinates committing the distributed transaction across all
the servers that are enlisted in the transaction. MSDTC runs on all Windows
platforms and is installed by applications which need to use it, such as the
Microsoft's Personal Web Server, or Microsoft SQL Server.
Recommendation : If you have it running, it is most probably needed by a
Microsoft Application, so leave it untouched unless it is definitely causing
you problem.
 
Thanks for that.

My guess is it's being called by either Opera 7.11 or CuteFTP - the last two
apps i installed.
I know CuteFTP has some Adware (Timesink?) - this is an old version of
CuteFTP i always use.
My Opera is registered so i hope it's not the culprit.
Maybe it's Sci-Soft's Sandra...
These three apps are the only installations i've done for weeks.

A little update on msdts.exe

It starts at each boot-up (currently), in what my firewall calls 'listening
mode'.
Once i've dialed-up, my firewall reports that msdts.exe is trying to access
the internet and asks for permission.
I refuse it permission and the msdts.exe process terminates immediately with
the Message Box:

Run-time error 5
Invalid Procedure Call or Argument.

Again www28.brinkster.com is the (first) address it's trying to access.
www.brinkster.com appears to be a common or garden web-hosting service and
msdts.exe is trying to access a Brinkster member page - actually my firewall
asks for msdts.exe to be granted permission as a Download Manager (one of
it's presets of rules) so i'm assuming that it's actually trying to download
a file from the Brinkster member's site......

So i've now run complete scans of Ad-Aware and MooSoft's The Cleaner - both
with the latest definition updates.
Ad-Aware found and removed the Timesink stuff from CuteFTP but nothing else
was found by either scans.
I've used this old version of CuteFTP many times before and after removing
the Timesink adware it's always been successfully neutered!
Yet a couple of reboots after the scans and msdts.exe is still repeating
it's strange behavior.

www28.brinkster.com is a members site that is simply just a 'Currently this
site is under construction. Please check back later.' page.

I wonder what msdts.exe is trying to access or even download........!!

Any comments??

Martin.

PS I have nothing like PWS etc on my PC.
 
Martin said:
What is msdts.exe?

I'm getting an error message box:

title: msdts

Run-time error 5
Invalid Procedure Call or Argument.

I've had this errror box two or three times in the last six hours.

My firewall has also caught msdts.exe trying to access the net...
First it was trying to access www28.brinkster.com
Click to expand...

No component of the system AFAIK - it sounds like some virus type
program or probably spyware. Try Adaware from www.lavasoft.nu
 
Frank said:
Process File: msdtc or msdtc.exe
Process Name: Distributed Transaction Coordinator
Click to expand...

That is msdtc - not msdts. This sounds like spyware trying to hide
under a plausible sounding name
 
Alex Nichol said:
No component of the system AFAIK - it sounds like some virus type
program or probably spyware. Try Adaware from www.lavasoft.nu
Click to expand...


Well i've now found and disabled the Registry key that was starting
msdts.exe at start-up.
Also noticed that SVCHOST.EXE keeps trying to create an outbound
connection on port 1900 to IP address 239.255.255.250 which seems to
be a local host address.

The msdts.exe file on my pc was created 13th August 2003 - a search of
my pc reveals nothing in particular being installed on that date.

I've scanned with NAV, Ad-Aware, The Cleaner - all with latest updates
- and found nothing suspicious.

I'm now going to give the Trend on-line scan a try.

Martin.
 
msdts.exe is definitely keylogger not "Microsoft Distributed Transaction Controller " msdtc etc. If this service is running in your pc,it records everything you type with keyboard and use the mouse.

You can check msdts is running or not.
just open task manager and find msdts in service tab. end it
 
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