MMTASK.TSK: Lots of questions.

Lengthy, for which I apologize.

Following the MS KB891711 debacle I noticed while inspecting the accumulated
log produced by ScanDefrag that MMTASK.TSK was also not terminating when
ScanDefrag ran (the other was KB891711 itself). MMTASK is not in the
startup list but Process Explorer always reports it in its list of running
processes. I understand that MMTASK is a "Multimedia Background Task
Support Module" and there are numerous caveats against its being deleted.
So what's calling this module anyway? Process Explorer shows it as the only
one in the list with the generic windows icon (if that's significant). Is
its failure to terminate, as reported by ScanDefrag, in any way responsible
for ScanDefrag itself to run longer than ever before? (About 20+ minutes
recently against 4-5 minutes previously.)

MMTASK is the only *.TSK filetype found on my computer, which is somewhat
interesting because I didn't think it would be unique, but maybe this is
okay.

I can, of course, rename MMTASK.TSK to something else so that no other
program can find it, but is this advisable?

I only run (or try to run) ScanDefrag after the computer fails to shut down
properly (alternatively defrag in Safe Mode which runs all right but
scrambles all my desktop icons). Apparently MMTASK began to fail under
ScanDefrag late in January, never before that and consistently thereafter.

Any help greatly appreciated.

Ken Bland