kesuki's Journal: TrustedInstaller.exe 50% cpu + 1MBPS disk utilization problem...

my sisters computer is having a weird bug, related to windows update trustedinstaller.exe it is using 50% cpu and 1 MBps hdd utilization, i came across someone else having a similar problem.
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_other-windows_update/service-trustedinstallerexe-permanently-active/32f87e95-1afa-4478-90a3-61fa6537c44c
but here is the kicker, in my situation the hdd and cpu use starts at bootup(pre login), windows update says there is a 'failed' install. my sister had done a system restore due to a failed sp1 install (her internet stopped working) i will try disabling the auto update and explain to her how to manually update on the second Tuesday of the month, but in the case that fails to resolve the issue i will wipe her system, but i really dislike having to do that especially since she has a lot of programs and music.

TrustedInstaller.exe

[jawtheshark]

That thing is a bitch... Was introduced in Windows Vista, and it causes lots of problems. Funnily enough, TrustedInstaller is the real owner of the machine, because it has more permission that the Administrator account. No joke..

I have no solution for you, sorry...

Re:

[kesuki]

well the news got worse, there was a full blown av disabling rootkit preventing windows update from installing sp1. i did a backup, and wipe, in progress, while trying to search for a virus on my desktop. i hope i dont have to wipe my desktop, i copied the files via lubuntu and there are av programs installed on the desktop, but my sis had mcafee installed and it was clueless that there was anything wrong, even though trusted installer was using full utilization of one core. sigh

Re:

[jawtheshark]

Good luck. Stuff like that always is tricky.

Re:

[kesuki]

tricky indeed, whenever i have wifi on, someone is disabling mcafee, firewall and if i don't reenable the firewall, the av software, none of which happens with wifi off. if i run wireshark nothing happens, oddly enough, and the files had no detected virus, but had an infinite loop of appdata appdata appdata links... which is why it spent 10 hours trying to copy... i suspect it is a government bot scanning the computer, but have no idea why they are targeting her computer and not any of the other computers.