FYI- wscntfy.exe

If you have installed SP2, or are considering it, you should know about this guy. It stands for Windows Security Center Notify, and it's a running process in the task manager. When you boot the comp, it will be the last thing loaded, not by design, I suspect, but because of its alphabetical order in the start up list.

This guy trys to phone home if at all possible, and if you allow Auto Updating, he will, so it is a legitimate process, and will not do you any harm...if you trust MS implicitly. I admit that I was a bit rattled when I discovered this was the process that added wauaclt.exe (Auto Update) to my running processes without my permission and CHANGED my security settings for me, apparently, with Norton's consent. (After all, both programs are legit!) I realize this is default behavior for the lowest common denominator user, and it's clever, but to start auto update w/o even informing me, three days after I installed SP2, ticked me off.

wscntfy.exe is also responsible for the silly icon in the Notification Area that opens directly to the new entry in the Control Panel- a dialog informing whether or not my ICF is on, and that it hasn't got the faintest idea how to handle NIS. To remove WSCNTFY, open the window, on the left is a preferences setting towards the bottom of the list.

I have a strict security policy, and to see my choices nulled by wscntfy irked me. My comp had other issues when I upgraded to WU ver 5, and being on a cable connection, I was "vulnerable" until I figured it out. I did not want an update of any sort confusing the existing problems. This is not a thread about whether or not you should use AU or not, my intention is to make it clear what this new running process is, and what to do if you want it GONE. I do not use AU, so the process is no longer running in my task manager, and the service is stopped in Admin Tools. Be advised that if you disable AU in services, you cannot use Windows Update ver 5 to manually update your computer, without temporarily enabling AU (as well as the BITS service).

Johanna

 

Clarification

If you have SP2 installed, AU in Services must be enabled in order to use the MS ver 5 Windows Update site.

Johanna

 

Unless you are a very advanced computer user, and providing your own managment solution, this is not advice for you. I strongly recommend against disabling the notification agent for home users.

 

I think the arguments you see about windows update V4 vs V5 are sort of pointless. In the end, everybody's going to have to change if they want to continue to use windows update. Seems to me we might as well get used to it now. Can't fight city hall (MS in this case).

 

Joe Hobart makes an excellent point. If you are not an experienced computer user who understands the effects of shutting down this process- DON'T! I needed to shut it off to eliminate another set of variables while doing diagnostics (which turned out to be faulty hardware, not anything Windows related, after all!) and this info was not to persuade anyone to turn OFF Auto Update, etc...just to share HOW to do it, should the need arise.

Better, Joe?

Johanna
(and it's MS. Dude, to you, Joe! )

 

Christer,
FYI, wscntfy will "turn on" wauaclt by default when it detects an internet connection. It took nearly three days for me to notice, or for AU to come on...

Johanna

still waiting on the brown truck....

 

Christer,
wauaclt is just waiting there for you to enable WU and it will jump online. It comes and goes, but it is "checking ". If you kill wscntfy, and disable AU, you will not see wauaclt again. I don't think wscntfy is necessary as an icon in the Notification Area. Access can be had to the same dialog box in Control Panel and any changes made there.
Johanna