Will windows Defender support Auto Login?

[Guest]

Hi,

I am the only person using my computer, so I have set an autologin for my
user. when I use windows Defender and boot my computer 9 times out of 10 it
switches to the blue XP theme, but with my title bar height settings etc.
When I log off and log on again my (modified) xp-cclassic theme does come
through. Will Windows Defender properly support auto login in future?

Drak

 

[Bill Sanderson MVP]

Drak - my home machine, which has been testing Beta1 and Beta2 since January
2005 is set to autologon, and having Windows Defender installed has had no
effect--no change to the login process at all.

So--this is an interesting report--I'm not sure what to suggest for
troubleshooting. Possibly a repair install of Windows Defender (add or
remove programs, windows defender, change, update)--but maybe some work with
msconfig--perhaps elminating third-party startup programs, then re-enabling
them one by one to see if there's a specific conflict involved. This sounds
time-consuming, though.

I believe I only have Windows Defender set up on 3 machines which I know
have autologon set on them--but it has had no effect on that logon on those
three machines.

 

[Guest]

Hi Bill,

first of all, thanks for the reply. Are those 3 machines set up to use
windows classic themes? The only thing that seems to be set wrong when the
machine boots up and automatically logs on is the 'Use visual styles on
windows and buttons' checkbox under My Computer -> Advanced ->Visual Effects.
I've had one reboot where the checkbox was not set to on, so it may be a
timing problem with some of the services running on the machine.

Maybe the Windows Defender service starts too soon, or maybe too late, but
the only service it seems to depend on is RPC.

I've removed and reinstalled WD from a new doanload but the same problem
persists. I have very few 3rd party startup programs running. MSASCui is
quite far down on the list. Above it are CTHelper.exe (for my soundblaster
sound card), NeroCheck.exe (for Nero CD creator), the Java update scheduler,
the Logitech G15 LCD software and the AGEIA fysix driver tray icon. Nothing
that should affect my UI experience, i think.

Drak

 

[Bill Sanderson MVP]

I don't think any of them is set to use the classic theme.

There have been occasional reports of Defender causing problems because of
high CPU usage at startup, and I wonder if that's possibly related to what
you are seeing? I've thought that might be related to definition
update--are your definitions up to date?

Could this be as simple as a conflict with a video driver, or related applet
of some kind? I've got a soundblaster, Sun's java, and Nero as well. I
don't have the logitech item, and I don't even know what that last item is.

--

 

[Guest]

Hmm, I'm running an AMD Athlon X2 64 rated at 4200, so it should have ample
CPU time. The last item on the startup list comes with the demo of Ghost
Recon Advanced Warfighter, they use it for the physics in the game.

My definitions are from the 8th of May this year, so they should be fine.

What video card(s) are you using? I'm using at ATI Radeon X850, with ATI
drivers Catalyst version 06.4 (2D version 6.14.10.6606). I did not install
the .Net component for the drivers.

Drak

 

[Bill Sanderson MVP]

Its embarassing for me to talk about video drivers. My wife has an Athlon
X2 upstairs. This machine is a PIII-750, and the video is an ATI
all-in-wonder pci, dating probably from Windows 98 days. It's definitely
time to build a new system--I've been waiting to see how Vista specs would
settle out--but I think that has happened..

--

 

[Guest]

I'll update MSAS on my laptop to Windows Defender tomorrow, the setup of that
machine is reasonably the same as this one, AMD 2500+ and an ATI Radeon
mobile 9 running the same drivers as on my main PC. I'll let you know what
happens.

 

[Bill Sanderson MVP]

I've got Defender running on an Intel Centrino laptop with probably that
same video chipset--bet it'll go fine.

--

 

[Guest]

Sadly (or gladly, depending on who you're rooting for) it seems to work fine
on my laptop with windows classic theme and autologin. So it's got to be
something about my desktop PC.

My laptop has more things starting before MSASCui in MSConfig than my
desktop. I'll have to put them side by side to see what's different between
those startups and then try to experiment.

Drak

 

[Bill Sanderson MVP]

I think some form of trial and error triage, using MSCONFIG, is probably the
way to find the conflict on the desktop. Thanks very much for persisting on
this--good luck!

--

 

[Guest]

I decided to go for the all or nothig approach, and even with nothing in my
msconfig startup except msacui, it still goes gives me the wrong theme (but,
again, only the colors, not the border sizes etc)

I tried stopping the only service i figured i couldn't totally trust (namely
one i wrote myself), but even that didn't help.

The funny thing is, when I started my PC the first time this evening,
everything was OK. The only difference between a normal boot and today was
the WD reminded my I hadn't scanned my PC for 4 days.

Maybe it is a dual processor problem with some timing issues, but i'm sort
of stuck now that turning everything off hasn't worked.

Drak

 

[Guest]

I found something: if WD changes status during boot (because I've blocked a
change, or a scan wasn't done for some time) the 'bug' does not occur. So it
has to be some sort of timing issue. The questing now is, whose timing, i
guess.

 

[Guest]

For some mysterious reason, the problem seems to be fixed. I ran a windows
update last night and it updated my Windows Genuine thingy and the driver of
a wireless network card i had disabled (it's still disabled), and the driver
for the gigabyte lan on my motherboard.

I guess one of these resolved the timing issue.

Drak

 

[Bill Sanderson MVP]

Thanks--that's interesting. I've no idea what the WGA thingy does under the
covers--and it probably isn't easy to find out. The new one--WGA
Notification--does do something at boot time. Network drivers do, too, of
course, but presumably not when the device is disabled...

--

 

[Guest]

If only I had know it would fix the problem, i'd have tried to install them
one by one



Drak