winSAT.exe

[fivealive]

so i was watching a youtube video and all of a sudden windows looks weird ( the task bar is now a whitish colour and is no longer black and the menus look odd) (pretty sure this is called areo)

anyway i instantly close teh browser and unplug the net and start looking thru the computer and came across this in the task manager winSAT.exe

i ended the process tree and windows look went back to normal

so my question is what exactly is this and why did it run with out my permission or me telling it to (i will note i did just install the latest nvidia drivers for my graphics card today)

anyway do i have anything to be worried about?

[CWB]

some google searching shows that this program (it has to do with the windows experience hmmmware) .

some have reported problems with this after updating the graphics drivers .

this is one : http://forums.techarena.in/windows-software/1285553.htm

you can disable this .

also , this may be related to your other thread about the remote call procedure .

(according to a couple of threads)

[fivealive]

ah thank u.

Good to know its a legit software

scared me

[fivealive]

i did try and google it but hard on a cell since i didnt wanna use the computer till i was sure.

And from what i can tell it seems to be about scoring ones computer

[CWB]

yep ...

you can call up the program and it will look through your machine and "grade it" based on their scale .

heh ... i have seen low scores but the machine was performing admirably in it's "working environment" ...

the machine was used for office work ... not playing "timmy in the sewers of new york" .

you can safely disable this program , how to do it is outlined at the link i posted (i think) .

if not , a little google search will provide the procedure .

ps ... i have 39 processes that normally run .

this includes eight "tray" programs ; live messenger , eset , audio manager , etc .

i could pare the list down a bit , but i have plenty of ram and crunch .

[fivealive]

i try and remember what prosesses are generally running so i can tell whats happening with the machie but with windows 7 im still learning.

Im used to windows booting up and bout 66 processes running and 8 of them being svhost.

Since this process ran

iv gotten 2 more to 4 more pocesses running and 2 of em svhost.

Just confused is all