Remove Windows 10 Push Icon From Taskbar

Today Microsoft decided to start using an advertising "feature" that they sneaked in with a recent Windows update. You should have noticed a new Windows logo icon in the bottom right hand of the Desktop window. No doubt that you hate it just as much as me, so here are the basic instructions for removal.

Use Windows Update to uninstall KB3035583
Reboot
Wait for Windows Update to offer you the update again
Hide the update so that it is not offered again

Hey presto! The icon has gone.

Malwarebytes Anti-Malware fails to load DDE driver (rootkit scanner)

Malwarebytes Anti-Malware version 2 randomly popped up a message saying that it was unable to load the rootkit scanner driver DDE and suggesting a reboot of the system. Rebooting did not clear the error. There were no indications of any problem loading drivers in the ntbtlog.txt file. Disabling other anti-virus products (Avast, Emisoft) on the machine did not clear the error either, thus demonstrating that there was no interaction between the products that was causing the problem. After noting the Malwarebytes license details, program configuration and exclusion lists, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware was completely removed (uninstalled), the system was rebooted and Ccleaner used to clear out the registry. Malwarebytes Anti-Malware was then downloaded from the official site and installed with default options. The license details were entered, the program was configured as before and the exclusion lists were restored. This cleared the problem. Simply a classic case of uninstall and reinstall. I like the easy ones.

svchost.exe 100% CPU when using Windows Update

Here is the situation: PC dating back to around 2003 running Windows XP SP2 in need of general clear-out and tune-up with all software to be updated. Automatic updates were not working and using Windows Update online would not work at all. Had to download standalone installation of SP3 and install, which all went smoothly. Using online Windows Update now seems compatible, but PC becomes unresponsive and process svchost.exe found to be using 100% CPU. Looking for help online I only found old patches that are included in SP3 anyway. Time to get inventive! Using my trusty old copy of Dialafix tried clearing out Software Distribution folder, but preserving DataStore.edb (update history). That did not resolve the problem. Once again using Dialafix cleared out DataStore.edb as well. Problem solved. The only data lost in this exercise was the Windows update history, which is nothing to cry about! It simply means that Windows Update will have to rebuild that file next time that updates are applied.

utorrent upgrade resets port settings

A number of people have just upgraded their utorrent installation to the latest version. Now quite a lot of people I know deliberately tweak various settings to avoid the use of the torrent protocol being detected by their isp. One of the techniques used is to set the outgoing port range to something unusual that their isp does not normally associate with the use of the torrent protocol so as to avoid "traffic shaping" which might slow down their connection. Be aware that the latest utorrent upgrade resets net.outgoing_port and net.outgoing_max_port to zero, totally defeating the tweaks people may have made before. Why? Don't ask me - stupid stupid stupid and why oh why oh why. If you can actually remember what you set these to before the upgrade (you DID document it didn't you?) you will have to set them again before your isp cottons on and degrades your p2p bandwidth.

uTorrent Will Not Restart

User reported that uTorrent would not run after having closed the program to restart it. A message pops up saying that an instance of uTorrent is already running. This is normal behaviour of the program. uTorrent creates numerous network connections that can take at least two minutes to close after the program has been  stopped, so there is an interval required for these connections to time-out before the uTorrent process disappears from the system (as displayed using Task Manager). This can be verified by using TCPView to monitor the network connections.

Always allow a minimum of two minutes to elapse after closing uTorrent before attempting to start it up again. Failing to do this can (and frequently does) cause a lock-up condition where uTorrent will never fully close down and a system reboot is required to clear the "stuck" process from the system.

Old hands familiar with the DEC VMS operating system will probably remember the dreaded RWAST process state - it is a bit like that old chestnut.

Windows 7 hung at Logging Off phase

This problem would arise when attempting to shut down the PC. Most times it would hang while displaying the message "Logging Off" or on occasion it would get past that and then hang while displaying the message "Shutting Down". Investigation showed that the cause was a well-known one, namely an external USB disk drive connected to the system. These are often the source of Windows shutdown hangs and the correct procedure is to "Safely Disconnect Hardware", then power-off the external disk drive before attempting a shutdown. While it is possible to write a script which performs the "Safely Disconnect Hardware" during log-off and/or shutdown, the power-off still needs to be done manually. If the external USB disk drive is not powered down, it can also cause the PC to hang during the boot sequence when the BIOS attempts to configure USB ports.

Internet Browsers Not Connecting to Network

This problem arose after a small batch of Windows Updates had been applied as routine operations. Any internet browser program e.g. IE, Chrome, Firefox, Opera would report "Network Unavailable". Unable to connect to the router on 192.168.1.1 using a browser either. Other network programs e.g. FTP, uTorrent, ping to router and ping to google.com all working ok so it was not a generic network connectivity promlem. This had to be something specific to the HTTP protocol. Symptom consistent with blocking of tcp port 80 so inspected Windows Firewall rules for any anomaly - none found. Temporarily disabled firewall (unplugged DSL connection first for safety due to reasonable paranoia about such things) and problem persisted, so this eliminated any issue with the firewall. Malware scans all clean. Rebooting did not clear the problem. Used System Restore to roll-back to the time just before the Windows Updates had been applied and this cleared the problem. Reapplied updates manually and no problem apparent after that. I did not "get to the bottom" of this one, but the fix using System Restore worked well enough! The System Restore utility is truly a life-saver at times.