What is PNTIOMON.exe?

[PBoyd]

What is PNTIOMON.exe? It is running on my son's Sony
VAIO with WinXP Home Edition. It takes up all of the
processor capacity and memory and freezes the computer.
What is it and how do we stop it from taking over the PC?

 

[nebuloso]

This is probably a virus or parasite. It is recomended to use a powerful
antivirus like Norton, but you can quickly solve the problem by ending the
process in the Task Manager, and then deleting it from "system32" folder.
(don't forget to make a backup in case this file was really useful, and the
cause was something else).

 

[Bruno]

What is PNTIOMON.exe? It is running on my son's Sony
VAIO with WinXP Home Edition. It takes up all of the
processor capacity and memory and freezes the computer.
What is it and how do we stop it from taking over the PC?

It is neither a virus, nor a parasite. It is the scanning utility of
PC-Cillin, an antivirus program. It should be uninstalled and replaced
with one of the better supported commercial AV programs, like Norton or
McAfee.

 

[Wesley Vogel]

Pntiomon PNTIOMon.exe

(Trend Micro) Real-time background antivirus scanning task from the
PC-cillin antivirus software (from version 2000 onwards) – Windows
NT4/2000/XP/2003 only. This task scans files for viruses as you access
them. It also automatically updates your PC-cillin antivirus software from
the Internet if you have turned on that facility.

Recommendation :
Essential task of your PC-cillin antivirus software – leave alone. Users of
PC-cillin 2000/2001/2002 may experience PNTIOMON running away with CPU
resources, up to 99% – this is sometimes actually nothing to do with
PNTIOMON but with the indexing service CIDAEMON; in other cases PNTIOMON is
actually the culprit, in which case we recommend upgrading to version 2003
which seems to fix the problem.