dwathle

I'm running WMP10 (WMP means Windows Media Player) on a WinXp Sp3 system, but research suggests that this entry probably applies to most versions of WMP/Windows. I don't like WMP (or anything else) communicating with external systems without permission; and I blocked WMP's only listed entry by blocking wmp_setup.exe in Online Armour's [Configuration.Firewall.Programs] listing. The system would run run fine for a while, but would eventually generate an exception. I extracted the following info from one of the resultant Event Viewer entries. Event 26 Application popup: oasrv.exe - Application Error : The exception unknown software exception (0x0eedfade) occurred in the application at location 0x7c812fd3. The system would lock up in such a way that I was unable to access the Task Manager or Online Armour. I wasn't able to reset the system, and usually had to pull the plug to recover. Testing showed that I could avoid these problems by disabling Online Armour. Subsequent research and testing showed that WinXp ALWAYS locks up if you try to block wmp_setup.exe.from accessing the internet. So this problem wasn't really Online Armour's fault: It was just the middle man. The bottom line is this: WinXp will eventually lock up if you try to block wmp_setup.exe via a firewall (eg. Online Armour). Further research shows that you CAN prevent wmp_setup.exe from accessing the internet as follows. Open the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) via [start Menu.Run]. Type in "mmc", and press ENTER. Select [File.Add/Remove Snap In...]. Select [Add...] from the [standalone] tab. Select [Group Policy] from the snap-in's selection menu. Select [Finish] in the Welcome-To-The-Group-Policy-Wizard. Close that window. The Group Policy snap-in will be added the MMC console. Press OK to show the updated MMC console. Click on "+" signs to open up [Computer Configuration.Administrative Templates.Windows Components]. Select [Windows Media Player] in the left panel. Right click on [Prevent Automatic Updates] in the right-hand panel. Select [Properties] from the drop-down menu. Select [Enabled] for Prevent Automatic Updates. Press OK, and close the MMC console.

My system locked up several times last week, and I have been trying to figure out why. Yesterday while viewing [Task Manager.Processes], I noticed that oasrv.exe was performing huge numbers of I/O reads (more than 1,000,000) and that its memory usage was increasing by about 40Kb/sec. I started to play around with OA's settings and discovered that I could stop the runaway I/O reads and memory consumption by toggling "Program Guard" on, and then back off. I reverified the same behaviors this morning after resetting the machine. I'm running Online Armor Free on Win Xp with only the Firewall enabled. Not sure whether oasrv.exe caused last week's crashes or not...

What does OA's Helper Service do? Do I need it?

My designated download directory, [j:\comm], has been changed to [c:\downloads], in both of the apps that normally use it, FireFox and FreeDownLoadManager. Moreover, the download-directory-selection wizard for both apps is locked so that I can no longer select my preferrred download directory. I've set both apps to "IsSafer". I'm wondering whether these changes derive from OE's "IsSafer" setup or from Amazon-Cloud-Player's setup. Any info or insights?