Windows/Microsoft Pagefile

Thanks, Howard. This is quite a useful and informative little utility.

 

I hope it helps.

What troubles me is that until last June, I did not realize that I forgot to provide for the case of a system managing the page file.

So, I expect that some downloaded the program prior to last June and were turned off by the error they received, and nobody reported it to me.

When such a problem occurs, rather than assuming that the programmer is an idiot, the problem should be reported via email to the prog's author.

in this thread, I learned that the prog would not handle a pagefile on a removable drive, if the drive was not connected. In the process of changing the code to handle that case, the code allowed ruinebabine to use the prog. I have a theory as to what was causing ruinebabine's problem, but it was just a guess.

And then I added code to verify that the Winngnt service was actually installed. That was hard to do because of MSFT's @#$$% "organization" of the info for programmer's at its web site and its blatent reduction of info for VB 6. In effect, one has look at the info for C/C++, or the .NET languages, and, then you are on your own.

PageFileUsageMonitor is the only program that I have released that needs to verify that Winmgmt is instaled.

This made me think that I had better check all of my released programs in a non-Administraor account. Have not done that for a while.

Indeed, the issue is very confusing, even to very experienced programmers.
I poste the following yesterday in a programmer's discussion group.

In the programmer's group, I was discussing the 2 WMI related services. One very well known programmer effectively said, "Huh! I have only 1 of the two on my systems!". He has WinMgmt, but not WMI.

 

I just learned that some sites have old versions of PageFileUsageMonitor.
And some have renamed the file with an all numeric name.

So download ONLY from Home of PageFileUsageMonitor

 

Howard, if it can help you somehow with your nice program, here is a stated list of the windows' services in my system snapshot where I always receive the error '70' message when I try to use PageFileUsageMonitor 2.0.0.3 (XP Pro sp2).



Please note that the vbs file created from the code in your post #19 does work, and the VB 6 runtimes from post #23 are also installed. Thanks for your help.
EDIT - I forgot to specify that it is an admin account.

 

I changed the Overview section, and added a section (at the end) on removable drives.

PageFileUsageMonitor

 

What is the text of the error 70 message?

 

Is the text

"The remote server has been paused or is in the process of being started."

 

No, it's about some "permission denied".

 

That means that you have a security or permissions issue on your system.

First, make sure that the PageFileLog.txt file is deleted before you run the program, if it was ever created. Perhaps, your system is not allowing the file to be created or appended?

Next, although the program no longer needs to directly access the registry, the program still contains two declarations that refer to the registry. http://www.standards.com/TestregPagefileUsageMonitor.exe eliminates those references, so you should try TestregPagefileUsageMonitor.exe.

If neither of the above fixes the problem, then I expect that you do not have some service(s) set up correctly.

Looking at the list of services you posted, it appears that XP uses different names for some services.

You have a WmiApSrv servive that is disabled. I do not see a corresponding service in Win 2000, but I do see that service in Vista, where it is set to Manual. Perhaps you need to reset that service to Manual

Error 70 does indicate the problem is with your system.
It is not possible to program around such problems, perhaps, unless one knows that the program will be running as Administrator.

 

Even after deleting the PageFileLog.txt file and activating the WmiApSrv service, I continue to receive this error message. And using "TestregPagefileUsageMonitor.exe" just produces the same result.

Understand, no prob. I am sure you are right (culprit being on my side), so I will continue to fuddle-duddle with my windows settings and check what gives...

 

If XP has the WMI Control listed the Microsoft Management Console, you can check out the settings and permissions for WMI. Vista has this too, so I expect XP as well.

If that does not get the deed done, I would do one of the following:

1. Since others are running the prog on XP, try to find a clean/dirty XP system, and see whether the program works there. If so, look at the settings for ALL the services.

2. If permitted by your XP license, create a new clean install of XP in another partition on your hard drive. Accept default settings, then try the program.

 

I've just deleted TestregPagefileUsageMonitor.exe/

 

Have you tried running the prog in an account with Administator rights?
If that does not work, you most certainly need to look at the settings in the WMI Control, especially the settings for Security for Root/WMI.

If the prog runs as an Administrator, then all you need to do is add permissions for Everyone, in addition to Administrators.

 

I am using FirstDefense-ISR Pro, so I already have 5 other XP snapshots running on my pc plus many other archived away, (it only requires a reboot to jump from one to another, each with their own different configurations & tweaks, and sets of programs). Also, like I reported in my post #45, I can already run PageFileUsageMonitor 2.0.0.3 on some of those less tweaked system snapshots. So, using your proposed methodological way, I should be able to pinpoint the exact setting in fault shortly...

As I am already running on an admin account, does I need to check that anyways?

 

[EDIT - oops double post, sorry]

 

Then your snapshots have different settings for WMI access rights and/or different installed services.

Yes.

Yes, you might not have granted rights to the Administrators.

 

Perhaps, this should be a separate thread on First Defense?

In effect, you are using First Defense to create a multiboot system.
Is this use described in the first Defense documentation?

 

Bingo!
Maybe?

If after you verify that WMI has the correct permissions, if there is still an issue, then the following is likely the cause.

I believe that I figured what is wrong with your system in particular snapshots. In version 2.0.0.3, I added code to verify whether the WinMgmt service is installed. If this is the problem, then versions 2.0.0.1 and 2.0.0.2 should work on a system with appropriare WMI settings/permissions.

Version 2.0.0.3 has to access a "service control manager database" and open a handle to the Winmgmt service to verify that it is installed. Separately run .vbs scripts likely do not do such checking.

So, if the separate .vbs scipts run, the problem is that described below.

For the database, the prog uses the following rights:

Code:

Private Const SC_MANAGER_GENERIC_READ As Long = (STANDARD_RIGHTS_READ Or _
        SC_MANAGER_ENUMERATE_SERVICE Or _
        SC_MANAGER_QUERY_LOCK_STATUS)

For the Winmgmt service, the prog uses the following rights:

Code:

    Private Const SERVICE_GENERIC_READ = (STANDARD_RIGHTS_READ Or _
            SERVICE_QUERY_CONFIG Or _
            SERVICE_QUERY_STATUS Or _
            SERVICE_INTERROGATE Or _
            SERVICE_ENUMERATE_DEPENDENTS)

Hmmm, where did I put that jar of peanut butter?

 

Bingo!
Maybe?

If after you verify that WMI has the correct permissions, if there is still an issue, then the following is likely the cause.

I believe that I figured what is wrong with your system in particular snapshots. In version 2.0.0.3, I added code to verify whether the WinMgmt service is installed. If this is the problem, then versions 2.0.0.1 and 2.0.0.2 should work on a system with appropriare WMI settings/permissions.

Version 2.0.0.3 has to access a "service control manager database" and open a handle to the Winmgmt service to verify that it is installed. Separately run .vbs scripts likely do not do such checking.

So, if the separate .vbs scipts run, the problem is that described below.

For the database, the prog uses the following rights:

Code:

Private Const SC_MANAGER_GENERIC_READ As Long = (STANDARD_RIGHTS_READ Or _
        SC_MANAGER_ENUMERATE_SERVICE Or _
        SC_MANAGER_QUERY_LOCK_STATUS)

For the Winmgmt service, the prog uses the following rights:

Code:

    Private Const SERVICE_GENERIC_READ = (STANDARD_RIGHTS_READ Or _
            SERVICE_QUERY_CONFIG Or _
            SERVICE_QUERY_STATUS Or _
            SERVICE_INTERROGATE Or _
            SERVICE_ENUMERATE_DEPENDENTS)

Hmmm, where did I put that jar of peanut butter?

 

Well, the problem seems to be somewhere around the WMI Control. When I try to check its properties, I arrive to this following window:

​

where all the tabs other than the "General" one are not clickable/available. So I cannot even open the "Security" tab that I need to check inside... And the only clickable button is the "Cancel" one.

Now I will have to find how I managed to set my system in a way to "faile to initialize" those required WMI classes. I wouldn't surprise me if it could be some of the O/S hardening tools (see those 2 access denies reported in the screenshot above) that I used on this particularly tweaked system snapshot.
Then what I will need to search is an easy way out to reset this problematic setting.

Note: I did a check and this problem is not present in the other snapshots where PageFileUsageMonitor is working correctly.

 

FD-ISR has a dedicated place (see "Official Leapfrog Software Forum") in Wilders forums, where this program is already discussed at will. Btw, the classic (full featured) build that I am using is not on sale anymore, unfortunately, only an edulcored version is available now.

 

See the fellowing resulting screenshots...​

​

​

Hum, hope it's not the one that finished empty here this morning!
Was it the crunchy one?!​

 

The two Privare statements I posted are not VBS scripts, rather statements in the VB 6 program.

 

Yes, I see the prog is no longer available at the Raxco web site.

 

Yes, WMI is not correctly installed.

I have added code to try to trap the error. Temporary version 2.1.0.0 will likely produce a more meaningful error message.