www.ultimatehandyman.co.uk

I noticed that my lappy was working away whilst idle and I checked the Task Manager and spotted the dwm.exe process active. I recently downloaded Sky desktop to watch catch up and I reckon it was this bugger that it came with. Having a look for info on this http://www.processlibrary.com/directory ... dwm/71288/

Can anyone tell me how to remove this safely. I am a bit worried in case I cause worse problems trying to fix it so if someone can point me to a simple safe process to remove it I would be most grateful.

Ta

DWD

If it's DWM - you can't remove it!! From the link you provided:

dwm.exe is a system process that is needed for your Windows system to work properly. It should not be removed. Check Windows now to identify removable processes that are slowing down your computer.

It's running on all the machines I've currently got open.

Keep looking, it'll be somethign else!

BG

Oops, I got it wrong when I looked up that 'process library' link I looked at dwe.exe by mistake. 'This process monitors your browsing habits and distributes the data back to the author's servers for analysis. This process is likely to be spyware, in which case it should be stopped and removed immediately.' When I went back to paste the link I got the right one which was dwm.exe and it was this that was on the task manager.

So, going back to the issue I raised, it must be the Vista process doing something?

Thanks for the reply

DWD

If it's just since the Sky app - it's most likely running doingsomething (downloading crap, updates, sharing, etc).

A quick and dirty method of eliminating startup app's (while being able to put them back with after troubleshooting) is MSCONFIG.

Start > MSCONFIG [return]

when it opens, click the Startup tab - these are the applications your computer runs on each boot/login. Some are useful (antivirus tray apps - not the software itself) some are not.
Have a look at the stuff there - see if you can find the sky app and disable it. Reboot - is PC better? Yes - come back with app and location reported in MSCONFIG and we'll stop it.

I'm sure there are other ways to do it and I'm sure the guys will chime in with better instructions.

PS....what machine is it you are using? Typically, if you computer can run Vista, it can run Windows 7 MUCH better. If you have to worry about a single process bogging the machine down, then you might need to throw a few pounds at it too!

BG

me thinks -Dwm.exe or desktop windows manager -part of the system
anyways some info here

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows- ... t-running/

Thanks for the replies, it all seems to have settled down now. I think that Windows was running an update as I noticed later that the close button had the 'update icon' showing when I came to shut down. I guess it was this that was generating the disk activity, not what I thought. How can you spot an update going on as it does not seem to show on task manager?

Ta

DWD

In Task Manager select processes and there should be one, something like update manager (or similar) running if your computer is updating.
You can always turn off automatic updates and manually update your computer manually by going to http://www.update.microsoft.com/


To turn off automatic updates do the following


Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
Depending on which Control Panel view you use, Classic or Category, do one of the following:
Click System, and then click the Automatic Updates tab.
Click Performance and Maintenance, click System, and then click the Automatic Updates tab.
Click the option that you want (Automatic Updates on or off) (ticked or unticked)

Download MalwareBytes... it's an excellent spyware / adware scanner thing and has saved my computer loads of times. I think I got it from download.com or you could try googling it!

Thanks chaps

DWD