dwin.exe error

[Sheila]

I am having a problem when I shut off or restart my computer. A message flashes about dwin.exe and dll initialization error. It does not stop the computer from shutting down it only flashes fast and then shuts down or restarts. It is a brand new Vostro 1500 with Windows XP home edition. The only programs on there so far are what came with the computer, PC tools, AVG, Ad-aware, Spybot, and some windows updates which is up to SP3. I have went into the startup and unchecked everything one at a time to see if one of the programs in startup was causing this but I guess not because I still get this message. Can you tell
me how to stop getting this message?
Thank you

[EzyStvy]

A quick google of dwin.exe shows that it can be malware...

Try running Ad-Aware...and or download SuperAntiSpyware.

[mickzer]

Copied from another forum: http://forums.windrivers.com/showthread.php?t=38988


"dwwin.exe is the "Microsoft Application Error Reporting" tool.


This means that there is a program you are running that is crashing during
system shutdown. When the crash occurs the OS launches dwwin.exe to report
the error, however the window station is shutting down and so the
application can't launch.


Your problem isn't with dwwin.exe, you need to figure out what application
is actually crashing at shutdown.


To do so:


To view the event log: Administrative Tools/Event Viewer or
Start/Run/eventvwr.


To review Shutdown Event Tracker data, Open Event Viewer. Click System Log,
scroll to the Event column, and find entries with the number 1075."

mickzer.

[BigDawg]

Sheila:
I was having the same problem. Here is what I did to solve it.
go to Start/Run and type msconfig...hit Enter.
It will bring up a window...click on the Startup tab. In there you will see all the programs that are loaded at starup. Here is the painstakingly slow process you must follow.
Un check them all so that they do not load next time you boot up.
Now Reboot the computer...you will still get the dwwin error because nothing has been unloaded from memory yet.
You will see a message popup when you reboot...just continue...next the same window you saw with the Startup tab will open again. Now, don't do anything just reboot again...you are trying to see if one of these programs was the problem. If no dwwin error, then we can be pretty sure that it WAS one of them.
If you still get the error, then go back to the startup tab and recheck each program...at this point I can't help.

But if Dwwin.exe stopped now the trick is now to find the culprit.
Reboot, you will get the same message box, continue to the startup tab and check the first two programs to load the next time you boot up. Now reboot...remember, the two programs you just checked are NOT loaded yet so you probably won't get an error yet.
Now that the computer is rebooted and you are back at the startup tab. Reboot! I know that sounds crazy but in the previous reboot, you just highlighted two of the programs to load the next time you boot up. Now they are loaded so if you reboot now and nothing...then continue this exercise till you find the one that is causing the problem. I had approximately 16 items in my Startup tab so that is why I did two at a time. (Half the number of reboots). Once I got the dwwin error I new it had to be one of the last two previous programs that I had loaded so it was now fairly easy to see which one it was.
Good luck. It was a long slow process, but worth it in the end.
BigDawg

[tripp]

The file name that is showing up in the message box is actually dwwin.exe and as Mickzer said it is part of the Microsoft Error reporting tool. NOT SPYWARE. There is may be no need to waste your time running virus scans and spyware scans. The important thing to realize is that dwwin.exe is not the problem and the error that pops up is only a symptom of the problem not the problem itself.

Basically what is happening is that some program is causing an error during the shutdown procedure and the Microsoft Error reporting tool is dutifully trying to report the error to Microsoft. With this knowledge it should be fairly obvious that you have one of two possible solutions. First you could disable error reporting which would serve only to make the error message go away and not actually solve the problem itself, or you could track down the program that is actually causing the problem and correct it.

There are many different ways to track down a problem of this nature. One being the brute force way that BigDawg suggests which will not necessarily work in all situations and will take a good bit of time. The other much more elegant solution would be to look in the application and system logs in the event viewer. These logs will tell you exactly what the error message was that popped up and then disappeared so fast you couldn't read it, as well as giving you more insight into what else was happening during that same time. This will allow you to make a more educated and targeted approach to solving the problem.

Also using programs like Hijackthis will allow you to actually remove the offending entries in the registry as opposed to simply disabling them. This will keep your registry cleaner and smaller which will serve to provide better system performance. I suggest you avoid programs like Ccleaner and msconfig as these are merely watered down tools that prevent the user from actually solving any problems. Keep in mind that caution should be used when using programs like Hijackthis, but it automatically creates backups of settings removed with it and it is quite impossible to break your computer beyond repair with this tool.

The actual solution to the problem is below.

The computer that I experienced this problem on was brought into me by one of my clients who had spend several hours trying to solve the issue. He had purchased several Dell Vostro 1510 laptops, but had also experienced the same problem on several of his Latitude laptops as well (I'm unsure of the exact models of those laptops). He told me that he only experienced the problem on the computers he purchased from Dell that had the Vista to XP downgrade option that were pre-installed with XP from the factory.

The problem itself in my situation was caused by the Google Desktop software. The service that runs as part of the Google Desktop software runs as the user who is logged in, as opposed to running as a system service. This is a good thing as you usually don't want goofy useless software running as the local system user. The problem in this case, however, is the botched up Dell pre-install will not allow the service running as the user to properly access the registry and thus it can not write to it. You can see evidence of the in the application log (its marked as a warning in the log).

In order to solve the problem you need to completely remove the Google desktop software (INCLUDING THE INDEXES). Once this is done the error will no longer pop-up during shutdown.

This was as far as I went with the problem as the client was in the habit of removing the unneeded software and he did not want google desktop installed. If, however, you enjoy the Google Desktop software you should try to do a clean install and see if the error comes back. Also if you are like me and you like to remove all of the crap/useless software that comes preloaded on computers when you buy them from Dell and other large manufactures then you will want to remove the Google Tool bar for IE BEFORE you remove the Google Desktop Software. If you don't the Google Tool bar will not uninstall.

The moral to this story: Don't buy computers from large manufactures who load their systems with crap software to the point of breaking them and who also don't give a damn about customer service or the quality of the product they are putting out. Instead buy your computers from a qualified and reputable LOCAL computer company. This will not only support your local community, but will also ensure you get a quality product and quality support. Also stay away from $300.00 computers as these will always end up being pieces of garbage.

Good Luck.

[glc]

Don't buy computers from large manufactures who load their systems with crap software

That's what this tool is for:

http://www.pcdecrapifier.com/

These days, I have a hard time recommending custom builds at the very low end of the price scale - even though I am a custom builder myself. I am quite comfortable with Dell quality in entry level machines. I can't build a cheapie with QUALITY components for anywhere near that price. That said, I won't touch low end HP or other major brands.

My minimum price for a custom build that I'm comfortable with is $500 - and that's just for the computer, no monitor or any other peripherals or any software.