MDGx Windows ME Tweaks + Secrets

Windows ME + MS-DOS 8.00
Tweaks + Secrets - Part 2

Go to Windows ME ©Tweaks + Secrets Contents

• 12-4-01 WinME Registry ©Trick in TIPSME.TXT, part of W95-11D.EXE:

WINME WBEM (WINMGMT) BUG + FIX

Courtesy of Elli.

"Since I "upgraded" from Win98 to ME I kept seeing Winmgmt.exe pop up in my Tasks list, and then the mysterious problem with my resources slowly creeping down until I killed that task. After extensive research on the net, I collected in bits + pieces all the information below.
I have seen on usenet that WinXP also suffers somewhat from this issue.

BTW: Despite the warnings I was able to safely remove WBEM from my WinME setup using an older release of System Restore Remover Pro (SRP).
SRP, back in version 1.2, used to have the ability to remove WBEM/WMI (Windows Management Interface), but they discontinued this feature in later versions (v1.5 is current)."

SRP author's explanation:

From: Shaun
Subject: System Restore Remover Pro

"We have run a series of test on systems using Windows ME and have come to the conclusion that the amount of system resources used by Windows Management is really quite small and in most systems unnoticable.
At the same time, Windows Management offers good things to the Windows ME user and the decision was made to take out the removal of Windows Management. In version 1.2 Final a check is made in the background for WMI and, if not found, is replaced."

Older System Restore Remover Pro (SRP) v1.1 [403 KB, freeware] also removes WMI/WBEM, and so does WMI-KILL (freeware).

BUGS + FIXES:

The Problem With WBEM (Web Based Enterprise Management)

Google Groups thread on Windows ME and WBEM (Winmgmt) problems.

Q: Sometimes my computer will start acting sluggishly. If I do CTRL+ALT+DEL I notice Winmgmt is listed. Is this what's slowing things down? What does Winmgmt do?

A: I suspect that this is the case. Winmgmt.exe can be initiated by both Pchschd.exe (the PCHealth entry in MSConfig → Startup and the PCHealth Data Collection entry in the Task Scheduler) and/or MSInfo32.exe or the System Information in Help & Support. Normally Winmgmt should exit after it has collected its data, but there have been a number of similar reports (and I have experienced this problem as well) of Winmgmt.exe not exiting correctly and staying resident, and gradually using more and more CPU cycles until the system grinds to a halt. In such cases I have simply killed Winmgmt.exe and continued without further problems.

This MSKB article contains info regarding data collected by Winmgmt.exe.

Winmgmt → WBEM

WBEM is an industry standard you can use to administer Internet Web browser based networked computers (quoted from Microsoft):

"WMI is the Microsoft implementation of Web Based Enterprise Management (WBEM), an industry initiative to develop a standard technology for accessing management information in an enterprise environment. The purpose of this initiative is to help companies lower their total cost of ownership by enabling powerful enterprise class management of systems, programs and devices."

More info.

It is an option in the Windows 98 installation, but is not included by default in either typical, portable or compact installations. This means that you must have selected it in a custom installation or added it to Windows 98 after the installation. I don't think DX8 uses it, but it is possible. I wouldn't worry about it, unless it is causing problems, in which case it can be removed by going to Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel, select the Windows Setup tab and uncheck it from the Internet category.

Windows Management Interface (WMI)

Web Based Client Management technologies and tools for administering PCs via HTTP. Unless you remotely administer PC Servers and Clients, or your PC is remotely administered via HTTP or a web based interface you may safely remove WMI. Dependencies: WBEM, ZAK and other HTTP PC administrative tools.

Warning for NOT removing WMI from Windows ME

Problems have been experienced in the past with Windows ME clients where the resources on the machine were down to 3 or 4% free. Pressing CTRL+ALT+DEL revealed that WINMGMT was always at or near the top of the heap. As soon as the "End Task" button was used to kill the WINMGMT task, resources on the client immediately shot back up to the 70% range.

Microsoft were unable to explain this behavior even after proposing a 30 day test which involved removing a different task each day and then seeing what happened. In an effort to resolve these problems the "Script to Remove WBEM from Windows 9x/NT Computers" was downloaded from SWYNK and run.
This cured the problem in so far as the dramatic memory losses, but then broke the Windows ME System Information tool (MSInfo32.exe). Whenever an attempt was made to use this tool without WMI being installed, MSInfo32 would not work, specifically saying that there were problems with WMI.
To resolve the problem, WinME was reinstalled over the existing OS, and the installation detected that WBEM was in need of reinstalling.
After doing this however the memory problems returned and are still on-going.

Temporary WBEM removal [breaks nothing, but comes back eventually :(]: click the Start button → type this in the Run box (%windir% = usually C:\WINDOWS) → click OK or hit Enter:

%windir%\SYSTEM\WBEM\WINMGMT /KILL

Try also this command:

%windir%\PCHEALTH\SUPPORT\PCHSCHD -A

Permanent WBEM removal: disable this Registry entry by using MSCONFIG.EXE:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunServices
"WinMgmt"="%windir%\SYSTEM\WBEM\WinMgmt.exe"

WARNING: By uninstalling WBEM you will lose WinME System Information tool [MSInfo32.exe] functionality!

Get the freeware Optional Component Maker for WinME (OppComME) tool, install it, and then remove WBEM from Control Panel → Add/Remove Programs → highlight Web Based Computer Management (WBEM) → click the Add/Remove button → restart Windows.

More info @ MSKB.

To reinstall WBEM, type the following commands from a DOS box and press ENTER after each line:

C:
CD %windir%\SYSTEM\WBEM
FOR %%f IN (*.DLL) DO %windir%\SYSTEM\REGSVR32.EXE /S %%f
WINMGMT.EXE /REGSERVER
EXIT

MDGx MSINFO32 FIX:

If using Windows ME and upgraded from Windows 98/98 SE, extract MSINFO32.EXE from your Win98 (SE) Setup CD-ROM by running this command from any DOS prompt (presuming D is your CD/DVD drive letter = change if different):

EXTRACT MSINFO32.EXE C:\TEMP D:\WIN98\WIN98_46.CAB

Then backup your WinME MSINFO32.EXE by renaming it (example using default location):

REN C:\PROGRA~1\COMMON~1\MICROS~1\MSINFO\MSINFO32.EXE MSINFO32.OLD

Now move Win98 MSINFO32.EXE from C:\TEMP to your C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\MSInfo folder (default location):

MOVE C:\TEMP\MSINFO32.EXE C:\PROGRA~1\COMMON~1\MICROS~1\MSINFO

You can also use Windows Explorer to rename the new file and then move the older file as described above.
This will fix ANY MS System Information tool problems you may have, because the older Win98 SE MSInfo32.exe [build 4.10.2222] does NOT rely on WMI (WBEM) to run properly.

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