Frequently Asked Questions
or Two Scotties appear in my Task Bar
- WinPatrol PLUS provides the additional information our researchers have collected about
the programs on your computer. Our online database contains descriptions of both malicious
programs you should avoid and normal safe programs you may have always wondered about.
Starting with WinPatrol 9.5 PLUS users also get the addition of Real-time Infiltration Detection so they'll know immediately when changes are made to critical system areas.
WinPatrol Free is not demo or trial software. You're welcome to use it as long as you like. Unlike some new Anti-Spyware/Adware programs our free version will actually help you remove any programs that should go.
For a complete list of PLUS Enhancements, click here.
- Click on our Be a WinPatrol PLUS Member
link and follow the order process. No additional download is required.
When your order is confirmed click on the Continue button to obtain your WinPatrol PLUS registration code. Your personal code will be generated and should be saved. Click on the WinPatrol PLUS tab and your PLUS features will be activated.
- WinPatrol works much differently than traditional Anti-Spyware & Security programs.
We don't hook directly into any system resources and all system monitoring is done as read only operations.
Many of our users also use programs from Norton, Sygate, McAfee, AVG, Panda, TrendMicro and
no conflicts have been reported. Our users have also had success with Adaware, SpyBot as well as the highly recommended Zone Alarm.
WinPatrol has an advantage in detecting and stopping potentially dangerous programs but we still encourage the use of the anti-virus program of your choice to help you find and remove any portions that remain. For list of other vendors see http://www.mysteryware.com.
SpySweeper users have reported that Scotty regularly lets them know about changes to the HOSTs file. Apparently SpySweeper in its monitoring of the HOST file rewrites the file. We recommend you disable HOST file monitoring in either SpySweeper or in WinPatrol set the patrol time for HOST file to zero.
- Yes, when you disable a program in WinPatrol it will automatically be removed when it
is detected in the future. We discovered many programs like Quicktime, RealPlayer and MSN Messenger
that think they're so important, they put themselves in the startup list anytime they run.
Just leave these programs as disabled and Scotty will remove them for you every time they reappear.
- Typically, you just need to highlight the program and click the Disable or Remove button.
If you're not sure, click Disable. The program will not be loaded the next time you reboot.
Removing the program with WinPatrol will prevent it from being loaded but will not delete any files from your hard drive. Some programs may be removed by using the Add/Remove applet in the Windows Control Panel. In the worse case, right-click on the file title and select "Delete File on Reboot".
- Unlike many other programs,WinPatrol does not require constant updates of information on new spyware,
adware or virus programs. Instead WinPatrol monitors the system areas and resources these programs must use.
When a change is detected Scotty will alert you and allow you to decide if this change was
intentional or if you've been infected. If you're not sure, WinPatrol will help you decide and
WinPatrol PLUS will give you additional information to make an informed choice.
For your privacy we do not maintain a typical Email list of our customers so we will not notify you when new versions are released. Announcements will be made at the bottom of the pages when you request PLUS info.
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Absolutely. Your membership will help fund future enhancements to WinPatrol so trying to charge you
again would be rude. Instead of yearly fees we want you to be happy with WinPatrol
and tell your friends about Scotty the Windows WatchDog.
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You just need to download the new "free" version and run the wpsetup.exe program.
Under most circumstances Scotty will automatically detect your PLUS Membership information.
If not just re-enter your Name and Registration code.
Be sure to exit your current version of WinPatrol before running wpsetup. To exit, right click on Scotty in the system tray and Exit will be one of the options on the menu.
- Just Email support@winpatrol.com and including your name and any information that might confirm your order.
While we don't supply 24/7 online support all Email will receive a personal response as soon as it's read.
- Make sure you have room on your hard drive.
All setup programs require extra space to uncompress files.
- Download or Save the wpsetup.exe program to your hard drive and run it locally instead of opening it from the web page.
- Use the classic, Reboot Windows and try it with a fresh system. For some reason this actually solves the problem more times than anything else.
- When you press the PLUS Info button or Free Info button WinPatrol passes the address
of a web page that should be loaded. Typically, Windows will look up the location of your default browser
and connect you to the internet via that browser. If you've recently installed a browser enhancement program
and then Uninstalled we've seen cases where the removal does not restore the default
browser back to its pre-install settings. This problem will affect other programs besides WinPatrol so
it's important to restore your default browser settings. One program other users have recommended to
fix this problem is called SetBrowser from PC-Tools.net
Another highly recommended tools is called "DefaultBrowser" by Ramesh SRINIVASAN
- This issue can be resolved by a change to your Internet Settings. PLUS database access currently requires page refresh to be enabled which is an
option but not a security issue.
- Run Internet Explorer and click on the menu Tools >> Internet Options.
- Click on the 2nd tab, Security
- Click on the button, Custom Level...
- Scroll down until you see a group called Miscellaneous
- One of the options is to Allow META REFRESH".
- Click on Enable and click the OK on the bottom of the page and you should be all set.
- This issue has been known to occur when the Internet Temp Folder is too full. We've also
seen problems trying to use the IE's right-click context menu when this folder has too many files.
- Run Internet Explorer, on the menu Tools, select Internet Options.
- Click Delete Files, and then click OK.
- Click OK to close the Internet Options dialog box.
- Everything that is downloaded by the browser has a copy left in this folder so it can be
accessed by the browser. "Copies" of all your cookies will be left here. Scotty
ignores the Temp Internet Folder and so can you. Some Cookie managers and other
Spyware scans will report tracking cookies that are found in the temp folder.
Under the Tools -> Internet Options for Internet Explorer you can specific how often this folder is cleaned up and the trash is deleted.
If you're wondering about Mozilla cookies will be removed the next time Scotty goes on patrol after you exit the browser.
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Some fire walls including the newest Zone Alarm are blocking the execution of WinPatrolEx.exe.
When you click on the Scotty icon we actually launch WinPatrolEx.exe but Zone Alarm's protection prevents one program
from launching another but doesn't necessarily let you know. You'll need to tell Zone Alarm
that WinPatrol.exe and WinPatrolEx.exe are your friends.
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NO!
Unfortunately, some programs have incorrectly indicated that Scotty is a keystroke spy. WinPatrol (PatrolPro.dll) uses a common Windows function called SetWindowsHook which allows Scotty to monitor some activities. This generic function is used by Windows to monitor a variety of actions including mouse clicks, internal messages, keystrokes, syscommands. In WinPatrol's case we use it to be notified when a new window is about to be created. A new window is one of the triggers used by R.I.D. to indicate a possible change in your installed programs.
WinPatrol will never communicate with the internet unless you specifically request information.
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We have had some reports of this and it appears to be related to a bug in Windows XP
since they've added a "hide inactive icon" feature. Even if you've told XP to show Scotty
sometimes Windows thinks he's not active enough.
Microsoft acknowledges the problem and claims its been fixed in the most recent SP2.
What you can do is press CTRL-ALT-DEL and under processes you can verify that WinPatrol.exe is running. This indicates that Scotty is on patrol.
Our main tabbed interface is now a separate component which can be opened separately. You can access this from your Start button -> Programs -> WinPatrol -> WinPatrol Explorer. This was done so we could add more features but keep the monitor portion of WinPatrol as small and efficient as possible. When you click Close on the main tabbed interface it will remove WinPatrolEx.exe from memory but the monitor portion which should show up as an icon will still be on patrol.
One of our user recently found a web site with more information that may apply. http://www.michna.com/kb/WxSystray.htm
We haven't fully tested their solution but it sound promising. If we can come up with a work around this Windows bug we'll release a new build.
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Are you getting repeated messages about your HOSTS file changing?
If you're using the program Spy Sweeper we know they also monitor the HOSTs file so having both programs doing is redundant. I would suggest turning off HOSTs monitoring on either WinPatrol or SpySweeper.
To disable HOST monitoring click on the Options tab in WinPatrol. On this page you'll see a check box in front of the text "Warn if changes are made to my Internet HOSTs file..". Uncheck this box or on newer versions set the Patrol Time to 0. This will stop Scotty from checking the HOSTs file.
If Spy Sweeper or some other AntiSpyware program is taking care of it, you don't need WinPatrol to duplicate the issue and the alert boxes will go away.
For information on the HOSTS that mere humans can understand we recommend the following site.
http://accs-net.com/hosts/what_is_hosts.html
For more technical information and how it can be used by other AntiSpyware programs see:
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm
or Two Scotties appear in my Task Bar
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It sounds like there are multiple copies of WinPatrol.exe in your Startup Programs list.
What I recommend is bring up your list of Startup Programs in WinPatrol.
Find any entries that say WinPatrol.exe or WinPatrolEx.exe, select them both and click Remove.
Next, go to the Options tab.
You should see a checkbox that says, "Automatically run WinPatrol when Windows boots". If you've removed all the WinPatrol items under Startup Programs this should be clear.
Now, check the box and it should put one copy of WinPatrol.exe in your list and it will be associated with the version of WinPatrol you're using.
(Version 12.1.2007.0 or greater)
- When you press the PLUS Info button button WinPatrol creates a temporary file called temp.url and tells Windows to open it.
This file contains the address of the PLUS Information along with known information about the
file you're looking at.
Windows will look up the location of your default browser and connect you to the internet via that browser.
In some cases, Windows may not respond properly. This is usually due to invalid or old entries in the Windows registry.
If you've recently installed a browser enhancement or 3rd party browser and then Uninstalled it we've seen cases where the removal does not restore the default settings.
At this time we recommend reading more at the following website.
Ramesh's Troubleshooting Windows. If you're experiencing problems with WinPatrol there's a good chance other programs will be affected as well.
Maxthon users can download and run the following script without having to change their default browser to IE
http://www.winpatrol.com/support/plusinfo6.reg if IE6 is still installed.
http://www.winpatrol.com/support/plusinfo7.reg if IE7 is installed.
Most people obviously aren't comfortable making any system changes so we've updated WinPatrol to fix this problems with no registry changes.
Download version 12.1.2007.5 or higher, free at http://www.winpatrol.com/download.html
- This error is the result of changes or tweaks made to your Windows registry. We have found a way around this problem in our newest version.
Download version 12.1.2007.5 or higher, free at http://www.winpatrol.com/download.html
For more details on this tweak and how to improve it see our post on the Bit for Bill Blog. Click Here
Click to be a WinPatrol PLUS Member
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