What is Watchdog ?

[PaperTiger]

Made a rare foray into the Task Manager to kill something, and noticed a task called Watchdog.
Found an .exe of that name in Compaq/Internet folder but it's not in the Add/Remove programs list.
Anybody know what it is, and can I just blow it away in Explorer ?

[RW-1]

Obviously something that compaq placed in the software bundle. as such have you run it and seen what happens?

From the sound of it it may be internet security for the system, or a log keeper of visited sites, something along those lines.

Unfortunately a search of Compaq's site hasn't turned up anything, but you have not listed the system, etc. So I have nothing more than a basic search available to me for this.

You likely can remove it without issue, you may wish to open regedit and search for watchdog.exe, as if it runs in the backround, you could find it in there where it is instructed to run or run once, and you could just remove that key as well.

[bagpuss lives]

Hi there,

This may be of help :

watchdog.exe
For Compaq PC's. Associated with Compaq's internet services. Not required if you don't use services provided by them and may not be required even if you do

Taken from :

<a href="http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_index.htm" target="_blank">http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_index.htm</a>

which is an excellent site for checking out those annoying progs that start when Winows start. It really is a good site.

Hope this helps <img src="smile.gif" border="0">

[PaperTiger]

Yep, I found the same reference. Although I had removed the Compaq stuff via Add/Remove, it had left a shortcut in the Start Menu/Programs. Well it's history now with no ill effects <img src="smile.gif" border="0">

No big deal - I just don't like things with 'watch' in their name !!