Microsoft malware protection Update Stub

mpsigstub.exe is a Microsoft executable related to Windows Security updates in Windows 10 or 11. It is visible in Task Manager and can often be seen sucking up resources.

Deciphering Interactive Services Detection

Interactive Services Detection is the software that comes up with the cryptic message: "A program running on this computer is trying to display a message". It is actually a Windows service named UI0Detect.

WLAN Connection Issues

Facing WLAN connection issues? Can't see any wireless networks? WLAN Autoconfig service can be shut down. Then go to Network and Sharing Center. Then start WLAN Autoconfig again. Wait and see results.

The Standard Way to Install a Windows Service from the Command Line

Step One: Open a command window with Administrator privileges. Cd into the appropriate .NET framework directory probably C:\windows\framework\microsoft.net and so forth. Run installutil on your exe and you're done! Installutil /u does an uninstall - in case you change your window.

BITS, BFE and other "Standard" Windows Services

BITS is a Windows service, that stands for Background Intelligent Transfer Service. This helps to transfer files in the background using idle network bandwidth. It is used by Windows update and Internet Explorer.

BFE is the Base Filtering Engine which manages firewall and IPsec (Internet Protocol security) policies. Stopping or disabling the BFE service will significantly reduce system security.

Related Tangent: What is IPsec? It's a suite of protocols for authenticating and encrypting information at the IP packet level. Developed in conjunction with IPv6. Its major application is in Virtual Private Networks.

Control Windows Services

Sometimes you install a new program and it adds new services to Windows on startup. msconfig is great for configuring these services, but it doesn't let you interact (stop/start) services in an obvious way. To do that you need Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Services.

To make this function easily accessible (annoyingly it is even possible to configure Windows to hide Administrative tools) we should make a batch file and stick in a directory on our path, such as c:\bin. Here is s1.bat:

start C:\WINDOWS\system32\services.msc

Now we can use the command s1 to access services and start and stop them as appropriate.

If you are at all curious on what the default services are, such as Background Intelligent Transfer Service and IPSEC service, you may want to take a gander at The Overclockers Club.

Improve CPU Performance using msconfig

Start->Run->msconfig This nifty utility allows you to disable programs and services that run on Windows startup. One example is realsched.exe, a RealPlayer update-checker that runs out of C:\Program Files\Common Files\Real\Update_OB directory.