Quote:
Originally Posted by Josh
Presumably the 1 using 5,616K of resources.
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5MB of memory isn't exactly much to worry over.
I wouldn't freak out about userinit.exe just yet. Run virus scans, but, install your AV software to custom folders, not the default ones. A few virii are beginning to attack the most common AV software, especially when it's in the default folder. You might also try a less common one such as
ClamWin. You might want to try a program such as "Security Task Manager" (sorry, this one's commercial, but, the trial period should suffice for this purpose) which will tell you the risk level of many of your processes including often a mention of whether they are a common mask for virii or not. Something like userinit.exe is a fundamental process, so it could be a mask for a number of virii, but, few are going to target something so obvious since it tends to be protected a little better. The main point here is it's not specific to the one virus they mentioned.
There's another possibility you should be made aware of. Windows is, by default, set to automatically download updates, and many people select the option to automatically install such updates as well so they don't have to do it themselves. I once made the mistake of doing this. I say once and mistake because MS made me change my mind in a hurry when one of their automatic updates slowed my computer to an absolute crawl. It took me FOREVER to track down the cause. Uninstalling that particular hotfix update got me back to smooth running again, but, I learned my lesson. Since then, I've stuck with running a good firewall on my computer, disabling automatic updates, and only ever downloading and installing any updates that are actually necessary (such as that hotfix for the bad worm before the service pack fixed it.) I've had one virus in the time since then (more than a year, I think actually more like two now) and that was because I accidentally ran something I knew was iffy. ClamWin's ability to scan a single file as an option on right click teamed up with the fact that it seems rather unlikely any virus will ever target such an unpopular AV software has kept me from getting anything since. Many AV softwares will offer the right click thing, so make a habit of using that on practically anything downloaded that's at all questionable. I'm afraid you're going to have to disable that always running thing that checks everything all the time though. Those have a tendency to seriously interfere with gaming.
BTW, don't forget spyware. Ad-Aware and Spybot S&D are both free programs which will scan for spyware (though Ad-Aware went commercial a while back so may offer less features in it's free version now.) Spyware can slow a system and is as bad as a virus, but, since most aren't directly hazardous to non-gamers, AV software will only pick up one or two rare ones that are bad enough to slow the whole system. Running Spybot S&D every now and then (in particular I like the "immunize" option though I wonder at it's effectiveness) can catch some stuff that people don't even know they have and help with gaming especially.