What is mmtask?

The connection to the trojan is difficult to ignore. If it's trying to
exploit something in a MM component then the error you are seeing is very
likely if your AV has deleted or removed or renamed files as part of the
cleaning process.

Removing or renaming MMTask was simply to confirm it as the source of the
error.

I would take out all MM components from startup, including screen savers and
similar until the system operates properly with MMTask running, then add
them back one by one to see at what point the error re-appears.
--
Jeff Richards
MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)
"J. P. Gilliver" wrote in message
...
"Jeff Richards" wrote in message
...
MMTask.tsk is a process that manages background multimedia operations.
You can use the machine without it, although some multimedia stuff won't
work properly. Just rename it to something else, reboot, and see what
the effect is.

If it turns out to be the problem, the error probably isn't with mmtask
but with some multimedia component that mmtask is trying to manage.

Thanks: I'd got the impression it was something like that. (I have the
computer set to play "ding" twice and "tadaa" once at points between 7:30
and 7:50 or so, which I used once when staying somewhere where I didn't
have an alarm clock. I've left these in, as they provide a useful reminder
that time is passing! Will they still work if I rename mmtask.tsk?)

Any idea why it's gone wrong though? The "alarm clock" was working fine
for months. Obviously it seems likely it has something to do with the
ancient software I tried to install, but how can I fix it, which I'd like
to do, rather than just commenting disabling some functionality, which
sems like admitting defeat. I've tried ERD-ing to a set I'd saved before
that, but it didn't cure it this time.

It may or may not have anything to do with it, but AVG keeps finding a
trojan in a file called CCsomething which is in a subdirectory of
\windows\temp (but isn't there when I look for it); I _think_ it's
regenerated by a screensaver starting up, especially if it's one that has
sound. (I select the "clean" option in AVG, and it so far has always
reported success in cleaning the file.)

--
Jeff Richards
MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)
"J. P. Gilliver" wrote in message
...
Recently, I tried to load some software (image and video viewer, I
think) from an old (pre-98 I think) CD. It seemed to screw things up
pretty well, so I went back to an ERD which I had saved not long before.
Now most things work OK, but I get three or four errors during boot.
They are quite an old-fashioned error box: two buttons, labelled
something like Ignore and Cancel, and no title bar (so no close boxes).
When I accept them (Ignore I think), all is well.

They seem to be associated with sounds, though that could be incidental:
the Windows startup sound, and the EZdesk restore chorus. For the first
two, the accused task (the error box says what it thinks has done
something naughty) is mmtask, and the second two EZdesk.

The only file I can find called mmtask - which isn't a .exe, .bat., or
.com - has a date and version number that matchs a lot of the other
files that are part of my Windows installation: date 23rd April (1998 or
'9 IIRR), version (IIRR) ending in 2222. I've virus-checked with fairly
up-to-date data files (not that anything from that CD would be at all
recent!), and found nothing.

Any thoughts? (Constructive I mean of course - "don't load dodgy
software" is obvious!)

The only other symptom, which might be nothing to do with it but I
mention it as I think the rogue _was_ a pic/vid viewer, is that I have
some movie files from one of these solid-state camcorders (mp4 or Xvid
format, something like that - I think they're .avi file extension), and
how these play has changed. Usually, for pictures and video, I let
IrfanView run, as it seems to pick up whatever CoDecs are installed and
use them, with a lot less fuss than MediaPlayer. It used to play these,
though rather jerkily; now it doesn't, but Media Player does, and
smoothly (I think that used to play them jerkily too). Since I imagine
that whatever CoDec I have installed which WMP is using is far newer
than the rogue software, this change may be purely coincidental, but it
does seem a coincidence.

According to its "Properties", the mmtask file is Microsoft and
something to do with scheduling media somethings.

"Jeff Richards" wrote in message
...
The connection to the trojan is difficult to ignore. If it's trying to
exploit something in a MM component then the error you are seeing is very
likely if your AV has deleted or removed or renamed files as part of the
cleaning process.

Removing or renaming MMTask was simply to confirm it as the source of the
error.

I would take out all MM components from startup, including screen savers
and similar until the system operates properly with MMTask running, then
add them back one by one to see at what point the error re-appears.

Sorry to be so slow in providing followup. My system is now back behaving OK
(including MM functions); unfortunately I can't remember what I did to make
it so! (_Might_ have something to do with some codec I loaded or reloaded,
as it plays certain kinds of movie files better than it did when things were
bad.)

Thanks again all!
--
Jeff Richards
MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)
"J. P. Gilliver" wrote in message
...
"Jeff Richards" wrote in message
...
MMTask.tsk is a process that manages background multimedia operations.
You can use the machine without it, although some multimedia stuff won't
work properly. Just rename it to something else, reboot, and see what
the effect is.

If it turns out to be the problem, the error probably isn't with mmtask
but with some multimedia component that mmtask is trying to manage.

Thanks: I'd got the impression it was something like that. (I have the
computer set to play "ding" twice and "tadaa" once at points between 7:30
and 7:50 or so, which I used once when staying somewhere where I didn't
have an alarm clock. I've left these in, as they provide a useful
reminder that time is passing! Will they still work if I rename
mmtask.tsk?)

Any idea why it's gone wrong though? The "alarm clock" was working fine
for months. Obviously it seems likely it has something to do with the
ancient software I tried to install, but how can I fix it, which I'd like
to do, rather than just commenting disabling some functionality, which
sems like admitting defeat. I've tried ERD-ing to a set I'd saved before
that, but it didn't cure it this time.

It may or may not have anything to do with it, but AVG keeps finding a
trojan in a file called CCsomething which is in a subdirectory of
\windows\temp (but isn't there when I look for it); I _think_ it's
regenerated by a screensaver starting up, especially if it's one that has
sound. (I select the "clean" option in AVG, and it so far has always
reported success in cleaning the file.)

--
Jeff Richards
MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)
"J. P. Gilliver" wrote in message
...
Recently, I tried to load some software (image and video viewer, I
think) from an old (pre-98 I think) CD. It seemed to screw things up
pretty well, so I went back to an ERD which I had saved not long
before. Now most things work OK, but I get three or four errors during
boot. They are quite an old-fashioned error box: two buttons, labelled
something like Ignore and Cancel, and no title bar (so no close boxes).
When I accept them (Ignore I think), all is well.

They seem to be associated with sounds, though that could be
incidental: the Windows startup sound, and the EZdesk restore chorus.
For the first two, the accused task (the error box says what it thinks
has done something naughty) is mmtask, and the second two EZdesk.

The only file I can find called mmtask - which isn't a .exe, .bat., or
.com - has a date and version number that matchs a lot of the other
files that are part of my Windows installation: date 23rd April (1998
or '9 IIRR), version (IIRR) ending in 2222. I've virus-checked with
fairly up-to-date data files (not that anything from that CD would be
at all recent!), and found nothing.

Any thoughts? (Constructive I mean of course - "don't load dodgy
software" is obvious!)

The only other symptom, which might be nothing to do with it but I
mention it as I think the rogue _was_ a pic/vid viewer, is that I have
some movie files from one of these solid-state camcorders (mp4 or Xvid
format, something like that - I think they're .avi file extension), and
how these play has changed. Usually, for pictures and video, I let
IrfanView run, as it seems to pick up whatever CoDecs are installed and
use them, with a lot less fuss than MediaPlayer. It used to play these,
though rather jerkily; now it doesn't, but Media Player does, and
smoothly (I think that used to play them jerkily too). Since I imagine
that whatever CoDec I have installed which WMP is using is far newer
than the rogue software, this change may be purely coincidental, but it
does seem a coincidence.

According to its "Properties", the mmtask file is Microsoft and
something to do with scheduling media somethings.

"Jeff Richards" wrote in message
...
The connection to the trojan is difficult to ignore. If it's trying to
exploit something in a MM component then the error you are seeing is very
likely if your AV has deleted or removed or renamed files as part of the
cleaning process.

Removing or renaming MMTask was simply to confirm it as the source of the
error.

I would take out all MM components from startup, including screen savers
and similar until the system operates properly with MMTask running, then
add them back one by one to see at what point the error re-appears.

Sorry to be so slow in providing followup. My system is now back behaving OK
(including MM functions); unfortunately I can't remember what I did to make
it so! (_Might_ have something to do with some codec I loaded or reloaded,
as it plays certain kinds of movie files better than it did when things were
bad.)

Thanks again all!
--
Jeff Richards
MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)
"J. P. Gilliver" wrote in message
...
"Jeff Richards" wrote in message
...
MMTask.tsk is a process that manages background multimedia operations.
You can use the machine without it, although some multimedia stuff won't
work properly. Just rename it to something else, reboot, and see what
the effect is.

If it turns out to be the problem, the error probably isn't with mmtask
but with some multimedia component that mmtask is trying to manage.

Thanks: I'd got the impression it was something like that. (I have the
computer set to play "ding" twice and "tadaa" once at points between 7:30
and 7:50 or so, which I used once when staying somewhere where I didn't
have an alarm clock. I've left these in, as they provide a useful
reminder that time is passing! Will they still work if I rename
mmtask.tsk?)

Any idea why it's gone wrong though? The "alarm clock" was working fine
for months. Obviously it seems likely it has something to do with the
ancient software I tried to install, but how can I fix it, which I'd like
to do, rather than just commenting disabling some functionality, which
sems like admitting defeat. I've tried ERD-ing to a set I'd saved before
that, but it didn't cure it this time.

It may or may not have anything to do with it, but AVG keeps finding a
trojan in a file called CCsomething which is in a subdirectory of
\windows\temp (but isn't there when I look for it); I _think_ it's
regenerated by a screensaver starting up, especially if it's one that has
sound. (I select the "clean" option in AVG, and it so far has always
reported success in cleaning the file.)

--
Jeff Richards
MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)
"J. P. Gilliver" wrote in message
...
Recently, I tried to load some software (image and video viewer, I
think) from an old (pre-98 I think) CD. It seemed to screw things up
pretty well, so I went back to an ERD which I had saved not long
before. Now most things work OK, but I get three or four errors during
boot. They are quite an old-fashioned error box: two buttons, labelled
something like Ignore and Cancel, and no title bar (so no close boxes).
When I accept them (Ignore I think), all is well.

They seem to be associated with sounds, though that could be
incidental: the Windows startup sound, and the EZdesk restore chorus.
For the first two, the accused task (the error box says what it thinks
has done something naughty) is mmtask, and the second two EZdesk.

The only file I can find called mmtask - which isn't a .exe, .bat., or
.com - has a date and version number that matchs a lot of the other
files that are part of my Windows installation: date 23rd April (1998
or '9 IIRR), version (IIRR) ending in 2222. I've virus-checked with
fairly up-to-date data files (not that anything from that CD would be
at all recent!), and found nothing.

Any thoughts? (Constructive I mean of course - "don't load dodgy
software" is obvious!)

The only other symptom, which might be nothing to do with it but I
mention it as I think the rogue _was_ a pic/vid viewer, is that I have
some movie files from one of these solid-state camcorders (mp4 or Xvid
format, something like that - I think they're .avi file extension), and
how these play has changed. Usually, for pictures and video, I let
IrfanView run, as it seems to pick up whatever CoDecs are installed and
use them, with a lot less fuss than MediaPlayer. It used to play these,
though rather jerkily; now it doesn't, but Media Player does, and
smoothly (I think that used to play them jerkily too). Since I imagine
that whatever CoDec I have installed which WMP is using is far newer
than the rogue software, this change may be purely coincidental, but it
does seem a coincidence.

According to its "Properties", the mmtask file is Microsoft and
something to do with scheduling media somethings.