Very strange processes going on

Alright let's see...

When I installed windows 2000 I had removed Internet Explorer and all was fine until I needed to run a windows update.
So I re-installed IE and at this point I could not remove it again (even with the OS cd).

So that was fine until I noticed the other day that IE was running in the background processes..TWICE. This was using 40 mb of Ram at all times (and it would spike higher). So I thought this was ridiculous and removed IE using 2000lite.

Everything was working fine until two new processes showed up. One called 'Debugpeak.exe' and one called 'DupeHole.exe'. I managed to turn them off once by turning their priorities to low and ending them. However now they will not go and they are sucking my ram up (I don't have a lot to spare on this machine).

I tried looking on every search engine, forum, etc place I could find. I even asked a few people on irc. Nobody has documented or knows what these two processes are.
My spyware and virus scanners are finding nothing.

Can anybody help me out here?
I'd like to fix this problem if possible, reformatting is way too much of a pain. However if there is no fix, I'm definetly moving to linux again. -_-

 

IE will sometimes create extra running processes. But not all the time when you open a new IE page. They should, go when you close all IE pages. If all instances don't disappear from the processes display it may be because of an IE page hang that didn't close the running task on exit. You should be able to terminate the process safely from within the task manager/Processes display.

I'd be very carefull about trying to remove IE from the windows shell. If you don't want to use it, then change the default browser setting and delete the desktop and start menu shortcuts. Clear all IE history and Temporary Internet files and forget about it. But continue to install ALL IE security updates.

As far as Debugpeak.exe and DupeHole.exe go, do a windows search with and without the .exe extension, and see if you can track then down to an installed programme. A search of the registry may turn up a clue as well. They may be spyware, malware or perhaps some sort of viri, but I can't find any reference to them either.

 

The programs are either configured to launch on boot, or being invoked by another program.
Paul's way will definatly work, if you nuke the exe, it wont be able to load it anymore.
You could also collect a hijackthis log, since it will interrogate all the usual vectors for 'autoload' programs (and offer to fix them for you)

 

Hello

It sounds Like LOP a parisite.
Please see this post http://www.windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?t=37074
Dont use Hiajckthis without assistance please.

 

Alright, maybe I wasn't clear enough.

Internet explorer was not open at all, anywhere. However it was running in the background twice. I could NOT stop the processes at all, they would close and come right back.
I closed every single program running except windows processes and it was still running. I made sure no spyware was running at all and it was still running.

I have had mozilla firefox as my default program for a long time now, but all my programs that actually use a browser at some time won't recognize it and I've made sure that internet explorer is all but disabled.

I found nothing in windows search and nothing in the registry that is even close to debugpeak and dupehole.

I'm going to reboot and re-install internet explorer and see if that helps anything.

Okay I tried to re-install but the installer can't seem to connect to the internet and won't allow me to install. So I've decided I'm going to back up files and reformat.
Thanks for the help anyway.

 

Hmm, im gonna agree with lonnie, sounds like you picked up a bug.

If reinstall is easy for you, go nuts. If i may recommend that you increase your browser security settings, and use spybot to immunize your machine from future problems.