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Java Runtime Environment

Started by Chandler, December 06, 2008, 12:40 hrs

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Chandler

One of the things that I hate more than anything is software that installs background services and processes without these being fully documented beforehand.

Take DVB Viewer which I use with my TV card.  If I install it, it creates a directory for itself and there is the main program.  I don't find anything running at startup that wasn't there before.  There are additional features that can run in the background, and I use a background recording service, but I have to specifically ask for this to install afterwards.  It's not sneakily installed without my permission.

Next up system tools such as backup and defrag programs.  For these, it is to be expected that background processes will be installed.  I have no problem with this.

What I have a huge problem with are company such as Apple (in the case of iTunes) and Sun (in the case of Java) that appear to be just a desktop application (or the result of bullying Microsoft into removing their implementation of Java) and yet install all manner of things that cause conflicts.  If I install iTunes I end up with the Bonjour service (which I don't use), the Apple Mobile Device Support (which I don't use), the iTunes Helper (without which iTunes still seems to work just fine) and the iPod Service (which the iPod works fine without).  The iPod Service in particular has been known to create havoc.

But my problem today is with Sun.  I recently updated all software on my PC after reading Windows Secrets newsletter and one of the things that needed updating was Java.  So installed the latest version and everything seemed fine.  Today though I noticed an annoying problem whereby everytime I connected or disconnected a USB hard drive to my machine, my floppy drive clunked away a few times.  Maybe for many this isn't such an annoyance, but it is for me because floppy drives are so noisy and my system runs at near silence most of the time.

I went through various processes, shutting them down and after I tried all of the obvious ones I decided to fire up SysInternals Process Monitor to see whether it could shed any light on it.  I noticed that when I disconnected the drive, a process named iqs.exe (part of Sun Java) looked at all disks in the system.  I ended this service, and immediately the problem was resolved.

This process is called the Java Quick Starter and according to it's description "Prefetches JRE files for faster startup of Java applets and applications".  I don't think that this is something that I will be needing to run on my system continually.

scuzzy

You need WinPatrol, which is available in both free and paid versions. Both work equally well, but the paid version adds real time protection vs. a 2-minute delay with the free version.

I have been using the paid version for about 3 years, which includes unlimited updates. It's has a small footprint and does an excellent job of controlling what services run in the background. Once you start using WinPatrol, you'll wonder how you did without it.

All the headaches you listed I have easily managed with WinPatrol. WinPatrol gives you the option to Add, Remove, or Disable services. I recommend that you use Disable over Remove, unless you are certain that you want a service permanently gone. Disabling a service will prevent it from running, but it will allow you to easily re-enable that service if you later chose.
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