Multiple copies of WP showing in task manager

[Loose rivets]

This keeps stacking up in Processes in Task Manager. Eventually the system becomes stalled until I rid it of them. They do not show in Applications.


WPWIN8.EXE

This is my old Word Perfect, and it's been re-installed more than once for various reasons a while back. Have bits been left behind during the Uninstall removal processes? If so, where are they likely to be and can I zap them?

R

PS It's running like a dream on the other HD.

[bnt]

It's certainly possible, but not knowing how WP8 installs itself, I can't tell you exactly what's happening from here. Assuming you mean that these multiple processes happen after you log in, have a look in the following places:
- Start Menu -> All Programs -> Startup
- run "regedit" (the Registry Editor), navigate down through the tree to the following two locations, and take a look:
- HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Run
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion \Run
In the right-hand window you'll see a list of processes that start when you log in, for you specifically, or all users. Anything there referring to WPWIN8?

[Loose rivets]

I was kind of thinking I might have to get up to speed on the registry, but the last time I went into that area was with Win 3.1 I think.

But no, WP never starts itself, just called by a Shortcut.

I had thought that I just stayed and got added to each time I called WP up. But just now, I found two in the Task Manager, and I'm 90 % sure that it was only call up once. Will monitor that.

Right now, I'm just cleaning it up every so often.


Huh! I've just come back from a store with a shop soiled HP Core 2 Duo Desktop with XP Pro and a good graphics card. $345 Cheap computer after the OS is taken into account.

[green granite]

You could try renaming the file from .exe to .old and see what it tells you when whatever it is tries to load it, you'll need to change it back to run it of course.

[bnt]

Ah, so you are starting WP, WP works as you expect, and after you close it, these processes are "left behind"? Sorry, that wasn't clear from what you said originally, you made it sound as if this was happening without you doing anything. And when you say "WP never starts itself, just called by a Shortcut", it's you that calls the shortcut? In that case, I think it's just bad software which launches multiple processes and fails to clean up after itself.

(I don't mean to be pedantic, it's just that computers do stuff by themselves, and so it pays to avoid passive language, and be clear about who or what is starting things! :8 )

[Loose rivets]

g-g Good idea, I'll try that.


bnt Yes, getting technical issues across without ambiguity is a skill...one that I don't have naturally.

Now that you mention it, Word Perfect has always had the tendency to double launch. Maybe from a time when the software was left behind by modern performance. I would know right away, cos the cursor would not blink and it was dead. It only happened occasionally, and sometimes not for weeks. But the glitch was obviously there.

It's the issue of not cleaning up after itself that is worrying. Fragments lying around after an uninstall is just what I don't want after installing a clean new drive.

It's a shame, but I guess that I'm going to have to get into the modern world. My old W-P is showing other frailties now that I'm trying more complex layouts. Tab sometimes pushes an entire paragraph over. The code is ?Some letter then soft or hard return, which is put in a couple of line above. and will not delete in the code screen. I have to remove other bits of code then it's okay again. All becoming too tedious. It's served me well otherwise, almost knowing what word I'm thinking when I write my usual dyslexic nonsense.

[bnt]

It's the issue of not cleaning up after itself that is worrying. Fragments lying around after an uninstall is just what I don't want after installing a clean new drive.
I was thinking more about the "memory cleanup", the processes you say are left running after you exit WordPerfect. I don't quite understand what you've been doing there. Why were you uninstalling and reinstalling the program?

I thought we were talking about processes sitting in memory, but uninstalling the program removes it from the disk, and reinstalling it puts it back on disk...

[Loose rivets]

Thanks for your input. But please don't spend too much time on this except for interest. I'm really beginning to accept the inevitable, and get more up to date. So, if it stops being fun;)



Well, that stems from the question that's asked during the typical uninstall. "These files may be used by other...etc.", which seems to imply that an installation is rather pervasive, and that to uninstall safely (From the point of view of not affecting other things) would mean leaving fragments behind.

Sadly, my efforts at getting my two HDs and their five logical drives going well together, (with a BIOS selected OS) meant several goes. WP was installed at least twice on one drive, maybe even three.

So, when it is called, what goes into memory could be duplicated? corrupt? I don't know. But it is a memory issue once I'm up and running...well, given that something could be called from the HD at any time I suppose.


Process Explorer is showing a residual PID of 876. When it's being annoying, the memory shows some 12 -13k 1 2 3 or 4 times. That's about when it crashes.