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How to kill a process which won't die?



 
 
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  #1  
Old January 18th 18, 06:22 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
pyotr filipivich
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 752
Default How to kill a process which won't die?


Okay, one for de schmart guys.

Every so often, say once or twice a week, Mailwasher.exe hangs up
at the splash screen. Just, sits there.
I've right clicked on the taskbar icon and chosen "exit", clicked
on the red x to close the window. Used Task Manager and Process
Hacker, separately, and sequentially, to attempt to kill the process.
No luck.I've logged out or selected "Restart" as the shutdown option,
and windows has hung up on the "logging out" screen. Normally a
reboot takes long enough I can go warm up a cup of coffee on the
stove, sometimes make a fresh pot. But in this case, I have time to
brew a Fresh Cup from scratch. As in go to Columbia, pick the beans
myself, dry, roast, and grind them. I'm assuming that, I haven't
waited two weeks, I just kill the power when I get back from getting
coffee.

Because until it is dead, I can't start it again.

What I am wondering is, is there a way to determine what
services/modules/handles one might be able to track, hunt down and
terminate, unload, kill, in order to closed down the process, process
tree, or whatever is holding the splashscreen / program open?

I've attempted to close modules through Process Hacker, as well as
terminate specific threads, but no change.

Is this a new "feature" I'm just going to have to live with?

tschus
pyotr

--
pyotr filipivich
The question was asked: "Is Hindsight overrated?"
In retrospect, it appears to be.
Ads
  #2  
Old January 18th 18, 08:14 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
David E. Ross[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,035
Default How to kill a process which won't die?

On 1/18/2018 9:22 AM, pyotr filipivich wrote:

Okay, one for de schmart guys.

Every so often, say once or twice a week, Mailwasher.exe hangs up
at the splash screen. Just, sits there.
I've right clicked on the taskbar icon and chosen "exit", clicked
on the red x to close the window. Used Task Manager and Process
Hacker, separately, and sequentially, to attempt to kill the process.
No luck.I've logged out or selected "Restart" as the shutdown option,
and windows has hung up on the "logging out" screen. Normally a
reboot takes long enough I can go warm up a cup of coffee on the
stove, sometimes make a fresh pot. But in this case, I have time to
brew a Fresh Cup from scratch. As in go to Columbia, pick the beans
myself, dry, roast, and grind them. I'm assuming that, I haven't
waited two weeks, I just kill the power when I get back from getting
coffee.

Because until it is dead, I can't start it again.

What I am wondering is, is there a way to determine what
services/modules/handles one might be able to track, hunt down and
terminate, unload, kill, in order to closed down the process, process
tree, or whatever is holding the splashscreen / program open?

I've attempted to close modules through Process Hacker, as well as
terminate specific threads, but no change.

Is this a new "feature" I'm just going to have to live with?

tschus
pyotr


Try the following, but I do not know if this will indeed work.

1. Using Task Manager, determine the exact, complete name of the
Mailwasher process.

2. Using Notepad, create a new file named kill_Mailwasher.bat.

3. Edit kill_Mailwasher.bat to contain the single line:
C:\Windows\System32\taskkill.exe /IM xxx
where "xxx" is the complete name of the process from step #1.

4. Copy the file kill_Mailwasher.bat and paste it as a shortcut (not
the file itself) on your desktop, in your Start menu, or in some toolbar.

The next time this problem arises, double-click on the shortcut to
execute the .bat file.

--
David E. Ross
http://www.rossde.com/

President Trump: Please stop using Twitter. We need
to hear your voice and see you talking. We need to know
when your message is really your own and not your attorney's.
  #3  
Old January 18th 18, 08:34 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
VanguardLH[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 10,881
Default How to kill a process which won't die?

pyotr filipivich wrote:

Every so often, say once or twice a week, Mailwasher.exe hangs up at
the splash screen. Just, sits there.

I've right clicked on the taskbar icon and chosen "exit", clicked on
the red x to close the window. Used Task Manager and Process Hacker,
separately, and sequentially, to attempt to kill the process. No
luck.I've logged out or selected "Restart" as the shutdown option,
and windows has hung up on the "logging out" screen. Normally a
reboot takes long enough I can go warm up a cup of coffee on the
stove, sometimes make a fresh pot. But in this case, I have time to
brew a Fresh Cup from scratch. As in go to Columbia, pick the beans
myself, dry, roast, and grind them. I'm assuming that, I haven't
waited two weeks, I just kill the power when I get back from getting
coffee.


Windows issues a request for processes to exit. If they don't respond,
Windows should timeout and give you an option to kill the hanging
process(es). You don't see that timeout prompt asking if your want to
forcibly kill the unresponsive process(es)?

Could be your installation of Mailwasher has become corrupted. You
never identified which edition of Mailwasher you have: free or paid.
They have a different feature set. For example, the free version only
support *one* e-mail account. It has been decades since I had a single
e-mail account. If it is a paid edition, well, support is included so
call them, e-mail them ), or use their forums.

Because until it is dead, I can't start it again.


Hold down the Power button for 4 seconds to force a cold reboot.

What I am wondering is, is there a way to determine what
services/modules/handles one might be able to track, hunt down and
terminate, unload, kill, in order to closed down the process, process
tree, or whatever is holding the splashscreen / program open?

I've attempted to close modules through Process Hacker, as well as
terminate specific threads, but no change.


Maybe it uses 2 processes. Each checks for the presence of the other.
If the other process is missing, it gets started. Meanwhile you kill
one process and the other restarts it.

Review all processes to see to which programs they belong. If you find
more than one process is linked back to a Mailwasher program, create a
shortcut that runs:

taskkill.exe /im process1 /f & taskkill.exe /im process2 /f

The /f forces a kill on the process. The & means to run multiple
commands in one line (without waiting for the prior command to complete
and regardless of the return status or errorlevel of the other command).
/im means to kill the process with THAT image name. So if the two
processes were mailwasher.exe and mw.exe, you would substitute those
process names (including the .exe extension) as process1 and
process2.

The kills should happen very quickly to prevent the remaining program
yet to get killed from having enough time to notice its mate program has
been killed.

Did you check Windows services for Mailwasher? If it runs as a service,
it can restart.

Did you disable your anti-virus program (permanently - until you
reenable it yourself), reboot, and retest if Mailwasher still hangs?

Did you check Task Scheduler to make sure there are no events defined
there to load Mailwasher (and perhaps repeatedly reload it)?

msconfig.exe only gives some startup locations. It doesn't show events
defined in Task Scheduler. It doesn't show logon events (defined in the
registry). It doesn't show other events assigned to objects (e.g.,
folder open and your desktop is a folder). If you want to see them all,
use SysInternals' AutoRuns.

Reboot Windows into its safe mode. Then uninstall Mailwasher. You
might want to use Revo Uninstaller (free) to both run Mailwasher's
uninstaller followed by a medium cleanup. Just be sure about which
remnant file and registry keys to delete: they should be pathed back to
the Mailwasher install path, not simply referenced by another program
(like your AV having an entry regarding its heuristic analysis of
Mailwasher). Then boot Windows into its normal mode. Check there is no
hanging on login or logout.

Reinstall Mailwasher if you still want it. Personally I prefer
server-side anti-spam solutions. Chaining together more clients (e-mail
client to local proxy to server) means a more fragile chain. I've often
seen the local proxy become unresponsive or crash (and not just for
e-mail but also some AVs) and the user then reports they cannot get any
e-mail (or all web traffic is dead for the AV proxy). If whomever you
use for e-mail service is poor regarding spam filtering, you could chain
together multiple e-mail providers to make use of each one's spam
filtering. You aggregate their spam filters. For example, you could
create and use a Gmail account to poll your other e-mail account. The
e-mail arrives at your other account, gets processed through that spam
filter (which presumably is enabled there but apparently you believe is
insufficient), Gmail polls your other account, and Google's spam
filtering gets employed on those e-mails. While your local e-mail
client would be polling Gmail for inbound e-mails, you can configure
your local e-mail client to send new or reply e-mails using either
account. So, by default, you would receive via Gmail but could send via
your other account (so recipients don't see a change in your sending
e-mail account). If you add the other account to Gmail as a sending
account, you can receive and send using Gmail. That doesn't mean you
have to change the From header added by your local e-mail client to
identify your e-mail address. Even when sending using Gmail, your From
header can still show your old e-mail address.

I don't know which public DNSBL (DNS blacklist) uses for their spam
filtering. I knew it when I trialed Mailwasher Free many years ago.
Fire Trust provides no donations to the blacklist provider despite they
incorporate it into their commercial version of Mailwasher. With other
local anti-spam solutions, you can specify which DNSBLs are employed in
the spam filtering. Back when I used those, I used Spamhaus Zen and
SpamCop, in that order. Spamhaus Zen caught almost everything that
Spamcop caught but once in a while Spamcop caught something earlier than
Spamhaus. That's because Spamcop has a userbase of spam reporters that
help update their database.

Another solution (used in addition to DNSBLs) is the Rhyolite DCC; see
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distri..._Clearinghouse. It's
really not a blacklist but instead a database updated by users to rate
the spaminess of an e-mail based on how many users received the nearly
same e-mail (fuzzy logic is used to determine if an e-mail is very
similar to another). It really is a automatic "bulk mail" voting scheme
where each user of DCC creates a hash of a received e-mail and adds the
hash to the DCC database. When a user gets an e-mail, they can see how
many other received the same e-mail. This lets users see if an e-mail
was sent in bulk. However, many confirmation messages, like an e-mail
from registering at a forum within which you need to click a link to
complete the registration, will look the same or close enough to qualify
as bulk mailing.

Other local anti-spam programs (ran as clients or proxies) can make use
of multiple DNSBLs and even incorporate DCC. Mailwasher uses only one
DNSBL (to which they don't donate nor contribute their discoveries).
From:

http://help.firetrust.com/en/product...nformation.htm
The cache subfolder
MWP.db3 - This is an SQLite database which contains your Friends List,
Blacklist, cached results from FirstAlert and DNSBLs, hash tables for
deleted and cached emails and other miscellaneous settings.

it appears FireTrust has added the option to specify more than one
DNSBL, plus they have their own. Bayesian filtering is also mentioned.
LOTS of anti-spam programs and even e-mail clients (e.g., Outlook
[Express], Thunderbird) have their own Bayes filter. That is a
statistically based guessing scheme. Keywords are added to a Bayes
database to weight words as spam or ham which is then used in later
e-mails to rate them as spam or ham. Some Bayes filters get
pre-populated with a keywords database (e.g., Outlook gets a monthly
update) while some start empty and require a learning period within
which the user has to keep voting e-mails as spam or ham. Eventually
the database gets large enough to make better guesses but they are still
guesses so it is still the responsibility of the user to review the Spam
folder (or Pending folder in the anti-spam proxy) to determine if there
were false positives (ham marked as spam). Bayesian filtering has been
around a long time. It should be the LAST method used to detect spam.
DNSBLs are more accurate. Some DNSBLs are better than others. Spamhaus
Zen and Spamcop are good. They will expire entries after awhile because
spammers move. A good Bayesian filter will have a "floor function" to
do the same expiration of old keywords that have not been present in any
received e-mails for a while. Alas, many anti-spam programs or client
using Bayes do not have a floor or expiration feature so ancient spam no
longer relevant to your current e-mail traffic can improperly flag ham
as spam.
  #4  
Old January 18th 18, 09:04 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
Zaidy036[_5_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 427
Default How to kill a process which won't die?

On 1/18/2018 2:14 PM, David E. Ross wrote:
On 1/18/2018 9:22 AM, pyotr filipivich wrote:

Okay, one for de schmart guys.

Every so often, say once or twice a week, Mailwasher.exe hangs up
at the splash screen. Just, sits there.
I've right clicked on the taskbar icon and chosen "exit", clicked
on the red x to close the window. Used Task Manager and Process
Hacker, separately, and sequentially, to attempt to kill the process.
No luck.I've logged out or selected "Restart" as the shutdown option,
and windows has hung up on the "logging out" screen. Normally a
reboot takes long enough I can go warm up a cup of coffee on the
stove, sometimes make a fresh pot. But in this case, I have time to
brew a Fresh Cup from scratch. As in go to Columbia, pick the beans
myself, dry, roast, and grind them. I'm assuming that, I haven't
waited two weeks, I just kill the power when I get back from getting
coffee.

Because until it is dead, I can't start it again.

What I am wondering is, is there a way to determine what
services/modules/handles one might be able to track, hunt down and
terminate, unload, kill, in order to closed down the process, process
tree, or whatever is holding the splashscreen / program open?

I've attempted to close modules through Process Hacker, as well as
terminate specific threads, but no change.

Is this a new "feature" I'm just going to have to live with?

tschus
pyotr


Try the following, but I do not know if this will indeed work.

1. Using Task Manager, determine the exact, complete name of the
Mailwasher process.

2. Using Notepad, create a new file named kill_Mailwasher.bat.

3. Edit kill_Mailwasher.bat to contain the single line:
C:\Windows\System32\taskkill.exe /IM xxx
where "xxx" is the complete name of the process from step #1.

4. Copy the file kill_Mailwasher.bat and paste it as a shortcut (not
the file itself) on your desktop, in your Start menu, or in some toolbar.

The next time this problem arises, double-click on the shortcut to
execute the .bat file.

requires /T /F: C:\Windows\System32\taskkill.exe /IM xxx /T /F

xxx must be full name ***exactly*** as shown in TaskManager
--
Zaidy036
  #5  
Old January 18th 18, 11:20 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
David E. Ross[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,035
Default How to kill a process which won't die?

On 1/18/2018 12:04 PM, Zaidy036 wrote:
On 1/18/2018 2:14 PM, David E. Ross wrote:
On 1/18/2018 9:22 AM, pyotr filipivich wrote:

Okay, one for de schmart guys.

Every so often, say once or twice a week, Mailwasher.exe hangs up
at the splash screen. Just, sits there.
I've right clicked on the taskbar icon and chosen "exit", clicked
on the red x to close the window. Used Task Manager and Process
Hacker, separately, and sequentially, to attempt to kill the process.
No luck.I've logged out or selected "Restart" as the shutdown option,
and windows has hung up on the "logging out" screen. Normally a
reboot takes long enough I can go warm up a cup of coffee on the
stove, sometimes make a fresh pot. But in this case, I have time to
brew a Fresh Cup from scratch. As in go to Columbia, pick the beans
myself, dry, roast, and grind them. I'm assuming that, I haven't
waited two weeks, I just kill the power when I get back from getting
coffee.

Because until it is dead, I can't start it again.

What I am wondering is, is there a way to determine what
services/modules/handles one might be able to track, hunt down and
terminate, unload, kill, in order to closed down the process, process
tree, or whatever is holding the splashscreen / program open?

I've attempted to close modules through Process Hacker, as well as
terminate specific threads, but no change.

Is this a new "feature" I'm just going to have to live with?

tschus
pyotr


Try the following, but I do not know if this will indeed work.

1. Using Task Manager, determine the exact, complete name of the
Mailwasher process.

2. Using Notepad, create a new file named kill_Mailwasher.bat.

3. Edit kill_Mailwasher.bat to contain the single line:
C:\Windows\System32\taskkill.exe /IM xxx
where "xxx" is the complete name of the process from step #1.

4. Copy the file kill_Mailwasher.bat and paste it as a shortcut (not
the file itself) on your desktop, in your Start menu, or in some toolbar.

The next time this problem arises, double-click on the shortcut to
execute the .bat file.

requires /T /F: C:\Windows\System32\taskkill.exe /IM xxx /T /F

xxx must be full name ***exactly*** as shown in TaskManager


Aha! I was working from a .bat file that terminates a process for an
application that has no Exit capability. Yes, the /T /F are required if
Task Manager itself will not successfully terminate the process.

--
David E. Ross
http://www.rossde.com/

President Trump: Please stop using Twitter. We need
to hear your voice and see you talking. We need to know
when your message is really your own and not your attorney's.
  #6  
Old January 19th 18, 12:16 AM posted to alt.windows7.general
Paul in Houston TX[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 999
Default How to kill a process which won't die?

pyotr filipivich wrote:

Okay, one for de schmart guys.

Every so often, say once or twice a week, Mailwasher.exe hangs up
at the splash screen. Just, sits there.
I've right clicked on the taskbar icon and chosen "exit", clicked
on the red x to close the window. Used Task Manager and Process
Hacker, separately, and sequentially, to attempt to kill the process.
No luck.I've logged out or selected "Restart" as the shutdown option,
and windows has hung up on the "logging out" screen. Normally a
reboot takes long enough I can go warm up a cup of coffee on the
stove, sometimes make a fresh pot. But in this case, I have time to
brew a Fresh Cup from scratch. As in go to Columbia, pick the beans
myself, dry, roast, and grind them. I'm assuming that, I haven't
waited two weeks, I just kill the power when I get back from getting
coffee.

Because until it is dead, I can't start it again.

What I am wondering is, is there a way to determine what
services/modules/handles one might be able to track, hunt down and
terminate, unload, kill, in order to closed down the process, process
tree, or whatever is holding the splashscreen / program open?

I've attempted to close modules through Process Hacker, as well as
terminate specific threads, but no change.

Is this a new "feature" I'm just going to have to live with?

tschus
pyotr


If it were me, I would first test the ram.
If ram is ok then I would remove and reinstall the program.

  #7  
Old January 19th 18, 03:08 AM posted to alt.windows7.general
Paul[_32_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 11,873
Default How to kill a process which won't die?

Paul in Houston TX wrote:
pyotr filipivich wrote:

Okay, one for de schmart guys.

Every so often, say once or twice a week, Mailwasher.exe hangs up
at the splash screen. Just, sits there.
I've right clicked on the taskbar icon and chosen "exit", clicked
on the red x to close the window. Used Task Manager and Process
Hacker, separately, and sequentially, to attempt to kill the process.
No luck.I've logged out or selected "Restart" as the shutdown option,
and windows has hung up on the "logging out" screen. Normally a
reboot takes long enough I can go warm up a cup of coffee on the
stove, sometimes make a fresh pot. But in this case, I have time to
brew a Fresh Cup from scratch. As in go to Columbia, pick the beans
myself, dry, roast, and grind them. I'm assuming that, I haven't
waited two weeks, I just kill the power when I get back from getting
coffee.

Because until it is dead, I can't start it again.

What I am wondering is, is there a way to determine what
services/modules/handles one might be able to track, hunt down and
terminate, unload, kill, in order to closed down the process, process
tree, or whatever is holding the splashscreen / program open?

I've attempted to close modules through Process Hacker, as well as
terminate specific threads, but no change.

Is this a new "feature" I'm just going to have to live with?

tschus
pyotr


If it were me, I would first test the ram.
If ram is ok then I would remove and reinstall the program.


Windows supports "zombie" status for processes, just like some
other OSes do. That seems to have gone underground on Windows 10 again,
but I was seeing zombies (not Suspended) at some point on Win10. You
can't kill a zombie because it's waiting to be harvested. It's not
a "push" thing, you cannot push it over a cliff, the thing harvesting
it has to "pull" it, at the appropriate software moment-in-time.
Which might be never. Normally, zombie status might last for 100usec,
just after you hit the X in the corner and the program (appears to)
have stopped running. The harvesting is normally quite fast,
so you should not see a zombie status in Task Manager. It's
when that process fouls up, that the thing hangs around with a
"zombie" sign around its neck.

They kinda admit to such a thing here.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/win...ugger/-zombies

A second kind of weirdness, is it's possible for a process to be
forked with no name. This makes it rather difficult to work with,
unless you have the PID for it. All it takes is two levels
of forking, to make the parentage indeterminate. The OS should
really terminate things like this, as a way to teach the
developer community what they're not allowed to do. A process
should simply not be allowed to run with an empty or a null
string associated with it for a process name.

Windows has its share of "non-conformal" things it will do, which
means that "standard" recipes to remove them won't always work. About
all I can promise you, is a reboot (clean or dirty) will resolve
it for the moment. Dirty being, hitting the power button, because
you got stuck on the "problem" one.

The same things happen with performance counters. Are performance
counters orthogonal, working under any and all circumstance ? No.
Things being counted, can be counted against processes you never expected.
It's quite easy in fact, for the disk light to be flashing on your
hard drive, and you being unable to figure out what process is
doing the writing. Not every aspect of I/O must appear in
Task Manager. Or even in Perfmon.msc window. As these things
go, the OS is "undisciplined" and refuses to get a hair cut.

When a user here says "I'm stuck", I really believe them.
You can be stuck.

Things like this wouldn't happen, if the OS had proper
checks and balances. Why does the OS design allow things
like this to happen ? That's the puzzling part.

https://www.cnet.com/forums/discussi...sses-on-win10/

Here's another one. Posted by someone who works there and
know how this stuff works.

"Why do some process stay in Task Manager after they’ve been killed?"

https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/old...23-00/?p=38363

"When a process ends (either of natural causes or due to something
harsher like TerminateProcess), the user-mode part of the process
is thrown away. But the kernel-mode part can't go away until all
drivers are finished with the thread, too.

For example, if a thread was in the middle of an I/O operation,
the kernel signals to the driver responsible for the I/O that
the operation should be cancelled. If the driver is well-behaved,
it cleans up the bookkeeping for the incomplete I/O and releases
the thread.

If the driver is not as well-behaved (or if the hardware that the
driver is managing is acting up), it may take a long time for it
to clean up the incomplete I/O. During that time, the driver holds
that thread (and therefore the process that the thread belongs to)
hostage.
"

"If you think your problem is a wedged driver, you can drop
into the kernel debugger, find the process that is stuck
and look at its threads to see why they aren't exiting.
"

Yes, I do that every day, right after I brush my teeth.

Paul
  #8  
Old January 19th 18, 04:40 AM posted to alt.windows7.general
pyotr filipivich
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 752
Default How to kill a process which won't die?

VanguardLH on Thu, 18 Jan 2018 13:34:53 -0600 typed in
alt.windows7.general the following:

Because until it is dead, I can't start it again.


Hold down the Power button for 4 seconds to force a cold reboot.


I've a "power bar" (switches which also serve as a monitor stand.)
with the BRS interrupt. "If all else fails..."

But I don't recall if I have tried the power switch on the front
of the box. (Note to self...)
--
pyotr filipivich
Next month's Panel: Graft - Boon or blessing?
  #9  
Old February 1st 18, 06:31 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
pyotr filipivich
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 752
Default Mailwasher splash screen freezing was How to kill a process which won't die?

Zaidy036 on Thu, 18 Jan 2018 15:04:55 -0500 typed
in alt.windows7.general the following:
On 1/18/2018 2:14 PM, David E. Ross wrote:
Try the following, but I do not know if this will indeed work.

1. Using Task Manager, determine the exact, complete name of the
Mailwasher process.

2. Using Notepad, create a new file named kill_Mailwasher.bat.

3. Edit kill_Mailwasher.bat to contain the single line:
C:\Windows\System32\taskkill.exe /IM xxx
where "xxx" is the complete name of the process from step #1.

4. Copy the file kill_Mailwasher.bat and paste it as a shortcut (not
the file itself) on your desktop, in your Start menu, or in some toolbar.

The next time this problem arises, double-click on the shortcut to
execute the .bat file.

requires /T /F: C:\Windows\System32\taskkill.exe /IM xxx /T /F

xxx must be full name ***exactly*** as shown in TaskManager


Took awhile for Mailwasher to hang up again, in order to try
things.

Built the batchfile:

Echo "should kill a stuck mailwasher"
Echo "good bye world"

C:\Windows\System32\taskkill.exe /IM "C:\Program Files
(x86)\FireTrust\MailWasher\MailWasher.exe" /F /T

C:\Windows\System32\taskkill.exe /IM "mailwasher.exe *32" /T /F

echo "done"
EOF

Should have put a pause at the end "Next time"

The first invocation - makes with the "access denied" message. I
really wasn't expecting much.

The second chugged along and exited, but if it left a message, it
closed before I could read it. Sigh.

Task manager identified the process as "mailwasher.exe *32" (without
the quotes.) Hmmm - I doubt it would be case sensitive, could it?

But the splash screen was still up. I did not attempt to restart
after that. I did try the "press and hold power button on the box to
shut down." That works. Of course, Windows doesn't like it , but -
meh.

Couldn't find any services or other processes related to the
program or splash screen. I do believe it is a real "zombie" that the
OS forgets to decapitate, drive a stake through it's heart, burn the
remains before scattering the ashes.

Looks to me that I'll just have to live with the occasional freeze
up and reboot. I don't have to like it, but - thanks everybody for
the input.


tschus
pyotr



--
pyotr filipivich
Next month's Panel: Graft - Boon or blessing?
  #10  
Old February 1st 18, 09:53 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
VanguardLH[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 10,881
Default Mailwasher splash screen freezing was How to kill a process which won't die?

pyotr filipivich wrote:

Built the batchfile:

Echo "should kill a stuck mailwasher"
Echo "good bye world"

C:\Windows\System32\taskkill.exe /IM "C:\Program Files
(x86)\FireTrust\MailWasher\MailWasher.exe" /F /T

C:\Windows\System32\taskkill.exe /IM "mailwasher.exe *32" /T /F

echo "done"
EOF

Should have put a pause at the end "Next time"

The first invocation - makes with the "access denied" message. I
really wasn't expecting much.


taskkill.exe requires admin privileges. Either you define a shortcut to
run the .bat file and configure the shortcut with elevated privileges or
you disable UAC. I do the former with my shortcuts so I can leave UAC
enabled.

Batch files are not shortcuts. Shortcuts let you configure them to run
the target program with elevated privileges. Else, you have to load a
command shell (cmd.exe) *with elevated privileges* and then run the .bat
file inside that command shell.

You could add a pause at the end of the .bat file but you can also look
in Task Manager as a check that the process is absent. Before running
the .bat file, use Task Manager to verify the mailwasher.exe process is
actually present. No point in trying to kill a process that doesn't
exist because you think that's the faulting process. After running the
..bat file, use Task Manager again if you want to verify mailwasher.exe
is absent.

Oh, by the way, the " *32" is *NOT part of the process name* so you
entered the wrong process name to the taskkill command. In 64-bit
Windows, the "*32" postfix substring is appended to a process name shown
in Task Manager's listing to let you know it is not a native bitwidth
(64-bit) process but instead a 32-bit process. The absence of the
postfix (which is just part of Task Manager's display, NOT of the
process' name) means it is a native process (64-bit process running
under 64-bit Windows). You can also use the tasklist.exe command to
list processes. Run "tasklist.exe /?" in a command shell (cmd.exe) with
elevated privileges to see how to use tasklist. If you didn't configure
the shortcut for cmd.exe to increase the buffer for display or you don't
want to scroll around the possibly long output, run "tasklist | more"
(i.e., pipe tasklist's output into the more command to pause the output
at every screenful). EnterKey moves one line forward while SpacebarKey
moves one screenful forward. You'll notice NONE of the processes have
been identified as 32-bit by postfixing a "*32" string onto the process
names.

Is mailwasher.exe the ONLY process used by Mailwasher? If it has 2, or
more, processes then it is possible for one to monitor for the presence
of the other and restart the other process if found absent. It will
take you a lot longer using Task Manager to select a process, kill it,
and then select the other process for the remaining one to see you
killed the other process and restart it. Then you kill the 2nd process
but it already restarted the 1st process and the 1st process restarts
the 2nd process.

Mailwasher sometimes hangs at the splash screen. Is there an option to
not show a splash screen (to advertize themself)? Since a splash screen
is showing, likely you have Mailwasher loading as a startup program.
Well, disable it loading on Windows startup or upon login, [re]start
Windows, login, and then yourself load Mailwasher. Try that for awhile
to see if the freeze goes away.

Is Mailwasher loading as a startup program? If so, by what means does
it get loaded? As a service (which loads when Windows starts and before
you've even logged in)? As a shortcut in your Programs - Startup
folder (which loads after you've logged in)? As an entry in a Run key
in the registry (which could for all Windows accounts or only for
yours)? As a scheduled task in Task Scheduler? Could be you have a
conflict with Mailwasher loading when some other startup program loads.
You could try disabling all startup programs leaving only Mailwasher to
load on Windows startup and user login. Or you could move Mailwasher to
Task Scheduler (deleting it wherever else it got started) and delay
startup of Mailwasher. They default delay choices a 30 seconds, 1
minute, 30 minutes, 1 hour, 8 hours, or 1 day. You can enter something
else, like 90 seconds or 2 minutes.
  #11  
Old February 2nd 18, 03:28 AM posted to alt.windows7.general
Zaidy036[_5_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 427
Default Mailwasher splash screen freezing was How to kill a process whichwon't die?

On 2/1/2018 12:31 PM, pyotr filipivich wrote:
Zaidy036 on Thu, 18 Jan 2018 15:04:55 -0500 typed
in alt.windows7.general the following:
On 1/18/2018 2:14 PM, David E. Ross wrote:
Try the following, but I do not know if this will indeed work.

1. Using Task Manager, determine the exact, complete name of the
Mailwasher process.

2. Using Notepad, create a new file named kill_Mailwasher.bat.

3. Edit kill_Mailwasher.bat to contain the single line:
C:\Windows\System32\taskkill.exe /IM xxx
where "xxx" is the complete name of the process from step #1.

4. Copy the file kill_Mailwasher.bat and paste it as a shortcut (not
the file itself) on your desktop, in your Start menu, or in some toolbar.

The next time this problem arises, double-click on the shortcut to
execute the .bat file.

requires /T /F: C:\Windows\System32\taskkill.exe /IM xxx /T /F

xxx must be full name ***exactly*** as shown in TaskManager


Took awhile for Mailwasher to hang up again, in order to try
things.

Built the batchfile:

Echo "should kill a stuck mailwasher"
Echo "good bye world"

C:\Windows\System32\taskkill.exe /IM "C:\Program Files
(x86)\FireTrust\MailWasher\MailWasher.exe" /F /T

C:\Windows\System32\taskkill.exe /IM "mailwasher.exe *32" /T /F

echo "done"
EOF

Should have put a pause at the end "Next time"

The first invocation - makes with the "access denied" message. I
really wasn't expecting much.

The second chugged along and exited, but if it left a message, it
closed before I could read it. Sigh.

Task manager identified the process as "mailwasher.exe *32" (without
the quotes.) Hmmm - I doubt it would be case sensitive, could it?

But the splash screen was still up. I did not attempt to restart
after that. I did try the "press and hold power button on the box to
shut down." That works. Of course, Windows doesn't like it , but -
meh.

Couldn't find any services or other processes related to the
program or splash screen. I do believe it is a real "zombie" that the
OS forgets to decapitate, drive a stake through it's heart, burn the
remains before scattering the ashes.

Looks to me that I'll just have to live with the occasional freeze
up and reboot. I don't have to like it, but - thanks everybody for
the input.


tschus
pyotr



should be TASKKILL /IM Mailwasher.exe /T /F

and Mailwasher is case sensitive

--
Zaidy036
  #12  
Old February 2nd 18, 04:59 AM posted to alt.windows7.general
VanguardLH[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 10,881
Default Mailwasher splash screen freezing was How to kill a process which won't die?

Zaidy036 wrote:

pyotr filipivich wrote:

C:\Windows\System32\taskkill.exe /IM "mailwasher.exe *32" /T /F


should be TASKKILL /IM Mailwasher.exe /T /F

and Mailwasher is case sensitive


Process names are not case sensitive for recognition unless you code
poorly. "Process.GetProcessesByName(arg)" will look for a process based
on case. For example, Notepad might be notepad.exe, NOTEPAD.exe, or
Notepad.exe. It's up the coder to look for a matching substring but
without case sensitivity, similar to vossjck's suggestion at
http://preview.tinyurl.com/yd4gbrlr where the returned values are all
converted to uppercase (or lowercase) to overcome the normally invalid
case sensitivity of the function. In contrast, "ProcessStartInfo
startInfo = new ProcessStartInfo(´notepadˇ);" doesn't care about case
since process class is not case sensitive.

For example, I can kill MS Outlook (OUTLOOK.EXE as shown by Task Manager
and by tasklist.exe) by using (in a command shell with elevated
privileges):

taskkill.exe /im outlook.exe /f
SUCCESS: The process "OUTLOOK.EXE" with PID 2996 has been terminated.

Task Manager and tasklist said the process name was OUTLOOK.EXE,
taskkill was given outlook.exe to kill, and its output said OUTLOOK.EXE.

If a program won't find or act upon a process due to case sensitivity,
the author needs to update their program. taskkill.exe doesn't care
about case.

The OP's real problem is he mispelled the process name. Look carefully
at his args to taskkill.exe. You think Mailwasher actually has " *32"
(space, asterisk, 32) in their program's process name? Even it
taskkill.exe took multiple arguments for multiple process names (which
is does not), it would fail on trying to find a process name " *32"
(sans quotes). There is no process with the name the OP specified.
  #13  
Old February 3rd 18, 03:26 AM posted to alt.windows7.general
pyotr filipivich
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 752
Default Mailwasher splash screen freezing was How to kill a process which won't die?

VanguardLH on Thu, 1 Feb 2018 14:53:38 -0600 typed in
alt.windows7.general the following:
pyotr filipivich wrote:

Built the batchfile:

Echo "should kill a stuck mailwasher"
Echo "good bye world"

C:\Windows\System32\taskkill.exe /IM "C:\Program Files
(x86)\FireTrust\MailWasher\MailWasher.exe" /F /T

C:\Windows\System32\taskkill.exe /IM "mailwasher.exe *32" /T /F

echo "done"
EOF

Should have put a pause at the end "Next time"

The first invocation - makes with the "access denied" message. I
really wasn't expecting much.


taskkill.exe requires admin privileges. Either you define a shortcut to
run the .bat file and configure the shortcut with elevated privileges or
you disable UAC. I do the former with my shortcuts so I can leave UAC
enabled.

Ah, I see you methodology.

Batch files are not shortcuts. Shortcuts let you configure them to run
the target program with elevated privileges. Else, you have to load a
command shell (cmd.exe) *with elevated privileges* and then run the .bat
file inside that command shell.


Could try that.

You could add a pause at the end of the .bat file but you can also look
in Task Manager as a check that the process is absent. Before running
the .bat file, use Task Manager to verify the mailwasher.exe process is
actually present. No point in trying to kill a process that doesn't
exist because you think that's the faulting process. After running the
.bat file, use Task Manager again if you want to verify mailwasher.exe
is absent.


I add Pause at the end, so that any messages, flags, froo-froo
will be there when I look. (I have one batch file change the colors
of the screen so I can tell at a glance "I'm done" without having to
read the fine print.)

Oh, by the way, the " *32" is *NOT part of the process name* so you
entered the wrong process name to the taskkill command.


Okay, I had some confusion. Being told to enter the process as in
Taskmanager - it seemed that was what it was.
Now I know. All I need no is for mailwasher to break again.

[snpp]

Is mailwasher.exe the ONLY process used by Mailwasher?


As far as I can tell.

More snippage.

Mailwasher sometimes hangs at the splash screen. Is there an option to
not show a splash screen (to advertize themself)? Since a splash screen
is showing, likely you have Mailwasher loading as a startup program.
Well, disable it loading on Windows startup or upon login, [re]start
Windows, login, and then yourself load Mailwasher. Try that for awhile
to see if the freeze goes away.

Is Mailwasher loading as a startup program? If so, by what means does
it get loaded?


Shortcut on the taskbar, which runs the program

"C:\Program Files (x86)\FireTrust\MailWasher\MailWasher.exe"



Could be you have a
conflict with Mailwasher loading when some other startup program loads.


That's my guess.

You could try disabling all startup programs leaving only Mailwasher to
load on Windows startup and user login.


What happens, as near as I can figure, is that I start the
computer, login to MyLogin, and hit the shortcut "too early" after
logging in, - before Windows has it's morning coffee and gotten its
brains fully functional. My usual morning procedure is start the
computer, have my own coffee, feed the cats, and then login. Once it
is through wearing out the drive heads, then I will start mailwasher
from the taskbar, and palemoon.
Some times "when I start too soon", mailwasher hangs up at the
spashscreen, and palemoon acts funky. The solution to both seems to
be a reboot, but I have to kill mailwasher else Windows gets stuck
waiting to log out.

But as I said, I usually start it from the taskbar after he
browser, or a wait. I'll have to get impatient and will then try the
shortcut rout on the Kill_Mailwasher batch file.

thanks for the advice information.

tschus
pyotr
--
pyotr filipivich
Next month's Panel: Graft - Boon or blessing?
  #14  
Old February 20th 18, 05:00 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
pyotr filipivich
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 752
Default It still won't die - round 2 Mailwasher splash screen freezing was How to kill a process which won't die?

pyotr filipivich on Fri, 02 Feb 2018 18:26:49
-0800 typed in alt.windows7.general the following:

Oh, by the way, the " *32" is *NOT part of the process name* so you
entered the wrong process name to the taskkill command.


Okay, I had some confusion. Being told to enter the process as in
Taskmanager - it seemed that was what it was.
Now I know. All I need no is for mailwasher to break again.

[snpp]


Yippie - mailwasher froze up this morning.

ran the batchfile - as admin - twice.

The first time it reported success. But the splash screen was
still there.

the second time I got an error message:

ERROR: The process with PID 2856 (Child Process of PID 3828) could not
be terminated.
Reason: there is no running instance of the task.

Except that Taskmanager still lists it.

And if I right click in a winder to create a new text file -
nothing. I can open an existing text file in notepad, and can wader
through the tree and start notepad, but not "create a new text
document."

"Abort, Retry, Fail?"
Yes!
--
APL is a mistake, carried through to perfection. It is the language of the
future for the programming techniques of the past: it creates a new generation
of coding bums.
-- Edsger W. Dijkstra, SIGPLAN Notices, Volume 17, Number 5
  #15  
Old February 20th 18, 09:01 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
VanguardLH[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 10,881
Default It still won't die - round 2 Mailwasher splash screen freezing was How to kill a process which won't die?

pyotr filipivich wrote:

Yippie - mailwasher froze up this morning. ran the batchfile - as
admin - twice.

The first time it reported success. But the splash screen was still
there.

the second time I got an error message:

ERROR: The process with PID 2856 (Child Process of PID 3828) could not
be terminated.
Reason: there is no running instance of the task.

Except that Taskmanager still lists it.


Looks like your batch file doesn't list all the processes on which to
use taskkill. There are 2 processes listed in the 2nd run of your batch
file: 2856 and 3828. Either you have to kill the parent process using
the /t switch in the taskkill or you need to use a taskkill on each
process name, first killing the children and lastly the parent.

One process might be svchost but that is likely a compound of multiple
services rolled into one process. Does Mailwasher use an NT service?
Run services.msc to see if there is one for Mailwasher. If so, and
because you don't want to perform a taskkill on svchost which would kill
all services under that rolled process, you would use 'net stop' to stop
the Mailwasher service by its service name (not by the service's title
shown in services.msc). First see if Mailwasher is running a service.

And if I right click in a winder to create a new text file - nothing.
I can open an existing text file in notepad, and can wader through
the tree and start notepad, but not "create a new text document."

"Abort, Retry, Fail?" Yes!


Don't what you're trying to describe. Doesn't sound like anything to do
with Mailwasher's splash screen.
 




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