MMC - Management Console behavior

This isn't a very serious problem, more of a curiosity...

When I right-click Computer and click Manage, Windows pops open a window
asking if I want the 32-bit or 64-bit version of the snap-ins. (Why?) It
displays two lists of the snap-ins available for 32- or 65-bit use. At
the top of both lists, it says (in both cases) that I can view "12 of the
19 snap-ins". Why only 12? The two lists are identical save for one entry
in each; in the 64-bit list one snap-in shows as unknown and only lists
Service Dependencies in the 32-bit snap-in list. This is Win 7
Professional. I have another 64-bit system with Home Premium and I never
see this popup - it goes directly to the MMC. What's up with this?

Jason

Jason has brought this to us :
This isn't a very serious problem, more of a curiosity...

When I right-click Computer and click Manage, Windows pops open a window
asking if I want the 32-bit or 64-bit version of the snap-ins. (Why?) It
displays two lists of the snap-ins available for 32- or 65-bit use. At
the top of both lists, it says (in both cases) that I can view "12 of the
19 snap-ins". Why only 12? The two lists are identical save for one entry
in each; in the 64-bit list one snap-in shows as unknown and only lists
Service Dependencies in the 32-bit snap-in list. This is Win 7
Professional. I have another 64-bit system with Home Premium and I never
see this popup - it goes directly to the MMC. What's up with this?

Jason

There's probably a Registry setting somewhere that controls how this
behaves. However, my Win7 Pro machine doesn't have this behavior! It
takes a few seconds for the window to display but I don't get any
popups.

--
Garry

Free usenet access at http://www.eternal-september.org
ClassicVB Users Regroup!
comp.lang.basic.visual.misc
microsoft.public.vb.general.discussion

Jason wrote:
This isn't a very serious problem, more of a curiosity...

When I right-click Computer and click Manage, Windows pops open a window
asking if I want the 32-bit or 64-bit version of the snap-ins. (Why?) It
displays two lists of the snap-ins available for 32- or 65-bit use. At
the top of both lists, it says (in both cases) that I can view "12 of the
19 snap-ins". Why only 12? The two lists are identical save for one entry
in each; in the 64-bit list one snap-in shows as unknown and only lists
Service Dependencies in the 32-bit snap-in list. This is Win 7
Professional. I have another 64-bit system with Home Premium and I never
see this popup - it goes directly to the MMC. What's up with this?

Jason

See if this helps: item #4.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/l.../cc749541.aspx
IDK why only 12 of 19.

Jason wrote:
This isn't a very serious problem, more of a curiosity...

When I right-click Computer and click Manage, Windows pops open a window
asking if I want the 32-bit or 64-bit version of the snap-ins. (Why?) It
displays two lists of the snap-ins available for 32- or 65-bit use. At
the top of both lists, it says (in both cases) that I can view "12 of the
19 snap-ins". Why only 12? The two lists are identical save for one entry
in each; in the 64-bit list one snap-in shows as unknown and only lists
Service Dependencies in the 32-bit snap-in list. This is Win 7
Professional. I have another 64-bit system with Home Premium and I never
see this popup - it goes directly to the MMC. What's up with this?

Jason

Don't recall ever seeing that prompt on this Win7 Pro x64.

On a 64 bit system, 64 bit is the default version. The Computer
Management shortcut on the Start Menu under All Programs/Administrative
tools should point to:
%windir%\system32\compmgmt.msc /s

System32 folder is the location for 64 bit versions. 32 bit are stored
elsewhere.

--
...winston
msft mvp consumer apps

"Jason" wrote in message
...

When I right-click Computer and click Manage, Windows pops open a window
asking if I want the 32-bit or 64-bit version of the snap-ins. (Why?) It
displays two lists of the snap-ins available for 32- or 65-bit use. At
the top of both lists, it says (in both cases) that I can view "12 of the
19 snap-ins". Why only 12? The two lists are identical save for one entry
in each; in the 64-bit list one snap-in shows as unknown and only lists
Service Dependencies in the 32-bit snap-in list. This is Win 7
Professional. I have another 64-bit system with Home Premium and I never
see this popup - it goes directly to the MMC. What's up with this?

I don't know what would cause this behavior; the KB article cited in the
response by "Paul in Houston TX" sounds promising but if its explanation is
the immediate cause we still don't know what happened to set up the problem.

Try running the following commands (both of which should launch the
"Computer Management" dialog after you reply to the UAC challenge - you *do*
have UAC enabled, right?) from the Search field in the Start menu. Do either
or both of them ask you if you want the 32-bit or 64-bit version?

COMPMGMT.MSC

COMPMGMTLAUNCHER.EXE

If neither of these commands trigger a "32 or 64 bit" question then your
Registry entry for the "Computer" context menu may be corrupt - possibly by
an infection. (Alternatively, I've seen an online claim - about which I
have no opinion - that there is malware that replaces COMPMGMTLAUNCHER.EXE.)

No, I don't know why, but the context menu of "Computer" runs the
"COMPMGMTLAUNCHER.EXE" executable rather than directly invoking COMPMGMT.MSC
which you select "Manage"; I've never had a reason to look into that oddity.

If the commands result in questions about bitness, it's possible that
something has added extra snapins to your system that are confusing the
system; I've never seen the behavior you describe on 64-bit versions of XP,
Vista, Win7, or Win8. Did you make any changes to the system just before
you started seeing the odd behavior?

Incidentally, I have binary-identical copies of COMPMGMT.MSC in each of the
following folders:

C:\Windows\System32
C:\Windows\System32\en-us
C:\Windows\SysWOW64
C:\Windows\SysWOW64\en-us
and more under C:\Windows\winsxs. All show a size of 113,256.

COMPMGMTLAUNCHER.EXE is in System32 (and also under winsxs) and shows a size
of 145,920.

Joe

On Wed, 14 Jan 2015 06:56:49 -0500 "Joe Morris"
wrote in article

I've never seen the behavior you describe on 64-bit versions of XP,
Vista, Win7, or Win8. Did you make any changes to the system just before
you started seeing the odd behavior?

Incidentally, I have binary-identical copies of COMPMGMT.MSC in each of the
following folders:

C:\Windows\System32
C:\Windows\System32\en-us
C:\Windows\SysWOW64
C:\Windows\SysWOW64\en-us
and more under C:\Windows\winsxs. All show a size of 113,256.

COMPMGMTLAUNCHER.EXE is in System32 (and also under winsxs) and shows a size
of 145,920.

Joe

I have all the same files as you with sizes that match, so I don't think
corruption or infection is the issue. All of this brings up a question:
is there a way to see the command that's being executed when I right
click My Computer/Manage?

I suspect it's lurking in the Registry somewhere. I have no idea where to
look. Search for "compmgmt.msc"?

Hi, Jason.

How about C:\System32\compmgmt.msc ?

The GUI Search is still looking, but good old "Dir C:\compmgmt.msc /s/a" in
a Command Prompt window found it - in several folders - promptly. ;)

And entering "C:\System32\compmgmt.msc" at the prompt started Computer
Management for me.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX

Microsoft Windows MVP (2002-2010)
Windows Live Mail 2012 (Build 16.4.3528.0331) in Win8.1 Pro with Media
Center


"Jason" wrote in message
...

I suspect it's lurking in the Registry somewhere. I have no idea where to
look. Search for "compmgmt.msc"?

Jason wrote:
On Wed, 14 Jan 2015 06:56:49 -0500 "Joe Morris"
wrote in article

I've never seen the behavior you describe on 64-bit versions of XP,
Vista, Win7, or Win8. Did you make any changes to the system just before
you started seeing the odd behavior?

Incidentally, I have binary-identical copies of COMPMGMT.MSC in each of the
following folders:

C:\Windows\System32
C:\Windows\System32\en-us
C:\Windows\SysWOW64
C:\Windows\SysWOW64\en-us
and more under C:\Windows\winsxs. All show a size of 113,256.

COMPMGMTLAUNCHER.EXE is in System32 (and also under winsxs) and shows a size
of 145,920.

Joe

I have all the same files as you with sizes that match, so I don't think
corruption or infection is the issue. All of this brings up a question:
is there a way to see the command that's being executed when I right
click My Computer/Manage?


It is the same as the shortcut in Start Menu/All Programs/Adminstrative
Tools
%windir%\system32\compmgmt.msc /s






--
...winston
msft mvp consumer apps

"Jason" wrote:

I suspect it's lurking in the Registry somewhere. I have no idea where to
look. Search for "compmgmt.msc"?

Nothing so simple or obvious; remember that this *is* Windows we're
discussing.

The context menu for both the Start menu "Computer" item and the "Computer"
(previously "My Computer", later "This PC") icon on the Desktop is
controlled by the Registry key

HKCR\CLSID\{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}\shell

Under "Shell" you'll find the key "Manage" and under that key is "command".
The default value of "command" is what's executed when you click "Manage" in
the context menu. On my systems the "Default" is a REG_EXPAND_SZ string
having the value:

%SystemRoot%\system32\CompMgmtLauncher.exe

As an experiment I added a new entry to the context menu (by adding keys to
the above GUID) that issued the command:

MMC COMPMGMT.MSC

and it worked exactly as expected, no different from when CompMgmtLauncher
is invoked.

Leaving out lots of value entries unrelated to this discussion the Registry
key looks like this (including my experimental addition):

{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}
DefaultIcon
InProcServer32
shell
find
Manage
command (Default) REG_EXPAND_SZ
%SystemRoot%\system32\CompMgmtLauncher.exe
MgmtByMMC
command (Default) REG_SZ mmc compmgmt.msc
ShellFolder

Again, the "MgmtByMMC" key is what I added as an experiment.

It's possible that the system uses CompMgmtLauncher.exe to support the needs
of non-English Windows installations and/or some security features.

Joe