Control Panel pops-up on startup
Hi Experts!
We ordered 20 Dell Latitude E5500 laptops, which came with XP Pro pre-installed. Once Windows start loading, the Control Panel pops-up automatically every time computer is started. Nothing explicitly related to "Control Panel" is in msconfig...
I know that this is caused when "Dell Control Center" is uninstalled, or "Dell Wireless Manager" utility, and if i re-install that, then it's fine. But I've been asked to remove any of that stuff from laptops...
Is there a way to disable that Control Panel from poping-up every time computer starts?
There has to be some sort of registry edit, or something else that I can do to stop that annoying pop-up.
Any ideas? Would that be hard to figure out?
Thanks a million!!!
We ordered 20 Dell Latitude E5500 laptops, which came with XP Pro pre-installed. Once Windows start loading, the Control Panel pops-up automatically every time computer is started. Nothing explicitly related to "Control Panel" is in msconfig...
I know that this is caused when "Dell Control Center" is uninstalled, or "Dell Wireless Manager" utility, and if i re-install that, then it's fine. But I've been asked to remove any of that stuff from laptops...
Is there a way to disable that Control Panel from poping-up every time computer starts?
There has to be some sort of registry edit, or something else that I can do to stop that annoying pop-up.
Any ideas? Would that be hard to figure out?
Thanks a million!!!
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Disable Ctfmon.exe at startup
* Open the System Configuration Utility (Start> Run> Type in msconfig)
* Click the Startup tab and Uncheck the startup item for ctfmon.
* Apply and validate with OK.
* You should restart your PC for same to be effective.
* After reboot, a warning message will inform the modification of the startup. Simply check "Do not show this message", then validate with "OK."
* Now, the process will start Ctfmon.exe do more. It will be absent from the process in Task Manager, and will, once and for all, disabled startup items.
* Open the System Configuration Utility (Start> Run> Type in msconfig)
* Click the Startup tab and Uncheck the startup item for ctfmon.
* Apply and validate with OK.
* You should restart your PC for same to be effective.
* After reboot, a warning message will inform the modification of the startup. Simply check "Do not show this message", then validate with "OK."
* Now, the process will start Ctfmon.exe do more. It will be absent from the process in Task Manager, and will, once and for all, disabled startup items.
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ASKER
Hello,
I looked through the suggested registry entries, but there's nothing explicitly related to Control Panel there.
StartupCPL program didn't had anything related to Control Panel either.
Looked through AutoRuns, but don't know what to look for/don't see Control Panel. Text output of "everything" (huge...). Let me know if you only need a part or a specific one. Please take a glance at it.
ibrahim, I did found ctfmon.exe at msconfig, but according to Microsoft, it has to do something with MS Office software and it's related to text/input stuff. Microsoft says that disabling/removing it may cause problems with MS Office. Are you sure it's related to my problem?
I'd rather not install/uninstall any software from Dell - it's a lot of work for 20 laptops. :( :( :( A registry or file edit would be better :).
Thanks for all the input so far!
AutoRuns.txt
I looked through the suggested registry entries, but there's nothing explicitly related to Control Panel there.
StartupCPL program didn't had anything related to Control Panel either.
Looked through AutoRuns, but don't know what to look for/don't see Control Panel. Text output of "everything" (huge...). Let me know if you only need a part or a specific one. Please take a glance at it.
ibrahim, I did found ctfmon.exe at msconfig, but according to Microsoft, it has to do something with MS Office software and it's related to text/input stuff. Microsoft says that disabling/removing it may cause problems with MS Office. Are you sure it's related to my problem?
I'd rather not install/uninstall any software from Dell - it's a lot of work for 20 laptops. :( :( :( A registry or file edit would be better :).
Thanks for all the input so far!
AutoRuns.txt
I agree with you on that part.But can you please visit this link and give it a try one more time.
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/what-is-ctfmonexe-and-why-is-it-running/
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/what-is-ctfmonexe-and-why-is-it-running/
Is that AutoRuns.txt from a laptop you have uninstalled the Dell apps (and the Control panel pops up)? I would compare AutoRuns from a "working" and a "non-working" laptop, e.g. with WinMerge or WinDiff, or whatever you have available to visually compare files.
ASKER
ibrahim,
Unfortunately, disabling ctfmon.exe in msconfig did not help with the Control Panel poping-up.
Qlemo, all of the laptops have this Control Panel pop-up problem... so I can't compare.
Thanks
Unfortunately, disabling ctfmon.exe in msconfig did not help with the Control Panel poping-up.
Qlemo, all of the laptops have this Control Panel pop-up problem... so I can't compare.
Thanks
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I would use Autoruns
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx
This might help you look at all startup programs in all locations.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx
This might help you look at all startup programs in all locations.
Sorry, I did not notice that orangutang already mentioned Autoruns
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ASKER
Haven't gotten to troubleshooting this... I was looking for a fix w/o dealing with Dell utilities, but I guess I'll have to work with those. I'll report back in a week or two. hang on
Thank Ya'll
Thank Ya'll
LAptop OEM Utilities are the root of all evil.... No sense in having an app loaded to memory, to eat valuable resources, to handle functions that Windows can already do on it's own......
ASKER
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Disable it:
The name of the control panel program is CONTROL.exe and its located in C:\WINDOWS\system32