Description
When troubleshooting exacqVision software in a Windows environment, it is likely that the customer has installed various monitoring or protection software which could be interfering with our communication or processes. The most common culprit is Anti-virus software.
However, there are many different methods of determining what software is running on a machine. There are several that actively hide themselves from the task tray or the Programs list. Below is an effective way of quickly determining what else is running on a system.
Utility – msconfig
The Microsoft System Configuration Utility can be used to see what services are running running with the ability to quickly rule out all Microsoft necessary services.
Open the msconfig utility by clicking on the “Start” button and typing msconfig – select the ‘System Configuration’ result.
You can also launch msconfig.exe from the “Run” dialog.
Once it loads, select the “Services’ tab.
Click on the ‘Service’ heading to sort them by name (useful for the next step).
Rule Out Windows Defender
Scroll down and look for anything that begins with Windows Defender…
There are several different names for Defender Anti-virus. On my machine it’s ‘Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection Service’ and its status is ‘Stopped’ This tells me that it is not a concern for our software. However, the Firewall is enabled. This may be configured in a way that interferes with our communication.
In other situations, you’ll see Defender Anti-virus running. Normally Defender does not cause much of an issue for us, but it can be locked down and more aggressive in scenarios where they have attached the system to a Domain. It would be worth asking how the customer has configured Defender and trying setting exclusions for our software. See KB 853.
Ruling Out Other Services
Now that you’ve ruled out Microsoft’s own Anti-virus, you can check the box ‘Hide all Microsoft services’
The resulting list will be everything that has been installed on the machine since the time the Operating System was installed. These items may need to be researched if there is something unfamiliar. Discuss with the on-site technician or customer items that may be related to Anti-virus, security software, threat protection, anti-malware, heuristics, etc… It may be possible to set exclusions for our processes, but this is the responsibility of the customer to apply the changes..
Sometimes it is helpful to create a report of all the installed Services to supply to a customer or IT department. This can be accomplished in PowerShell with the “GetService” cmdlet. To see a list of all services, in PowerShell type:Get-Service | Sort-Object status | Out-Gridview
This will open a window with all Services sorted by their Status. You can then use ‘Ctl-A’ to highlight all, and ‘Ctl-C’ to copy this data to the Clipboard. This can then be pasted into a spreadsheet or text file.
Ruling Out Other Processes
Now that you’ve seen all of the services running on the system, it’s time to see if any executables are running at startup that aren’t registered as Windows Services.
Right-click on the taskbar and select ‘Task Manager’. Then click on the ‘Startup’ tab.
Again, discuss with the technician or customer if these items are expected to be running on the machine. Utilize search engines and forums to research any that you are unfamiliar with.