Functionality of Winss.exe
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Tuesday, December 04, 2007 10:00 AM
Winss.exe has been running on two of the three PCs in my OneCare circle continuously for three days. When I restart the PCs, Winss.exe starts up some few minutes later. Any idea on what it is doing?
Answers
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Tuesday, December 04, 2007 2:16 PMModerator Winss.exe is the service executable for One Care. It should always run in the background and when inactive should use no cpu cycles and 10-12 mb of ram. It should be running on all three of your computers. On the computer where it does not seem to be running and if that computer has Vista as the operating system, you need to use the "Show processes for all users" in task manager to see the winss process.
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Monday, January 21, 2008 5:24 PMModerator Looking through this older thread, I trust that you've seen this, Peter - http://forums.microsoft.com/WindowsOneCare/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=2707364&SiteID=2
-steve
All Replies
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Tuesday, December 04, 2007 2:16 PMModerator Winss.exe is the service executable for One Care. It should always run in the background and when inactive should use no cpu cycles and 10-12 mb of ram. It should be running on all three of your computers. On the computer where it does not seem to be running and if that computer has Vista as the operating system, you need to use the "Show processes for all users" in task manager to see the winss process.
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Tuesday, December 04, 2007 11:09 PM
A bit of an anomaly here then. On Machine 1 (CROFTMOUNT1 - details below), Winss.exe is using between 15 and 26 cpu cycles and using 38.2Mb memory. On Machine 2 (CROFTMOUNT3 - details below), Winss.exe is using between 13 to 20 cpu cycles and 35.2Mb memory. Machine 3 (CROFTMOUNT4 - details below), Winss.exe is using 0 cpu cycles and using 21.2Mb memory as expected. Can you please help?
Machine 1::CROFTMOUNT1 - details:
OS Name Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Version 5.1.2600 Service Pack 2 Build 2600
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name CROFTMOUNT1
System Manufacturer Hewlett-Packard
System Model HP Compaq dc7100 SFF(PC923A)
System Type X86-based PC
Processor x86 Family 15 Model 4 Stepping 1 GenuineIntel ~2994 Mhz
Processor x86 Family 15 Model 4 Stepping 1 GenuineIntel ~2994 Mhz
BIOS Version/Date Hewlett-Packard 786C1 v01.05, 16/06/2004
SMBIOS Version 2.3
Windows Directory C:\WINDOWS
System Directory C:\WINDOWS\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume1
Locale United States
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "5.1.2600.2180 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158)"
User Name CROFTMOUNT1\Peter
Time Zone E. Australia Standard Time
Total Physical Memory 1,024.50 MB
Available Physical Memory 149.29 MB
Total Virtual Memory 2.00 GB
Available Virtual Memory 1.96 GB
Page File Space 2.39 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sysMachine 2::CROFTMOUNT3 - details:
OS Name Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Version 5.1.2600 Service Pack 2 Build 2600
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name CROFTMOUNT3
System Manufacturer SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.
System Model SX60S
System Type X86-based PC
Processor x86 Family 6 Model 14 Stepping 8 GenuineIntel ~1995 Mhz
Processor x86 Family 6 Model 14 Stepping 8 GenuineIntel ~1995 Mhz
BIOS Version/Date Phoenix Technologies LTD 09XA, 26/07/2006
SMBIOS Version 2.34
Windows Directory C:\WINDOWS
System Directory C:\WINDOWS\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume2
Locale United States
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "5.1.2600.2765 (xpsp.050928-1517)"
User Name CROFTMOUNT3\PeterC
Time Zone E. Australia Standard Time
Total Physical Memory 2,048.00 MB
Available Physical Memory 1.08 GB
Total Virtual Memory 2.00 GB
Available Virtual Memory 1.96 GB
Page File Space 3.85 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sysMachine 3::CROFTMOUNT4 - details:
OS Name Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Version 5.1.2600 Service Pack 2 Build 2600
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name CROFTMOUNT4
System Manufacturer IBM
System Model 23734GG
System Type X86-based PC
Processor x86 Family 6 Model 9 Stepping 5 GenuineIntel ~1594 Mhz
BIOS Version/Date IBM 1RETDHWW (3.13 ), 29/10/2004
SMBIOS Version 2.33
Windows Directory C:\WINDOWS
System Directory C:\WINDOWS\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume1
Locale Australia
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "5.1.2600.2180 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158)"
User Name CROFTMOUNT4\Peter
Time Zone E. Australia Standard Time
Total Physical Memory 512.00 MB
Available Physical Memory 133.28 MB
Total Virtual Memory 2.00 GB
Available Virtual Memory 1.96 GB
Page File Space 1.22 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys -
Wednesday, December 05, 2007 2:18 AMModerator
Hello, Peter.
Could you create support logs for the 3 PCs and send them to wloc@live.com along with your contact information. I'd like the OneCare team to have a look at it.
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Click Start.
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Click My Computer.
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Double-click Local Disk (C
. (If you're notified that files are hidden, click Show the contents of this folder.) -
Browse to the Program Files folder and double-click to open it.
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Browse to the Microsoft Windows OneCare Live folder and double-click to open it.
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Double-click OneCareSupport.exe. (Vista users need to right click OneCareSupport.exe and choose Run as Administrator.)
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The application will run for 2-10 minutes and create a zipped file called OneCareSupportData.zip, which will be saved automatically to your Local Disk (C. When the application is finished, you'll see a dialog box.
Thanks,
-steve
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Thursday, December 06, 2007 7:41 AM
Hi Steve
Apologies for not responding sooner as I have had to go away for a couple of days. I have created the three support files as suggested and prefixed the file name with the machine name as applicable and have emailed them as requested.
Regards
Peter Clark
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Friday, December 07, 2007 2:05 AMModerator
The files have been received, Peter, and are being investigated. Thanks!
-steve
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Thursday, December 13, 2007 3:04 AM
Hi Steve
Any word on the investigation?
Regards
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Thursday, December 13, 2007 3:49 PMModerator
Nothing yet, Peter. There have been many other reports of the problem or variations of it and it is being actively investigated.
-steve
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Monday, January 21, 2008 5:24 PMModerator Looking through this older thread, I trust that you've seen this, Peter - http://forums.microsoft.com/WindowsOneCare/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=2707364&SiteID=2
-steve
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Tuesday, January 22, 2008 3:13 AM
THANK -
Sunday, January 27, 2008 12:19 AM
Thanks Steve, well done. As per my email, this fixes the problem and we will now wait on the patch to be released.
Kind regards
Peterdb
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Friday, April 03, 2009 3:38 PMThis link is broken. What is the answer? I have OneCare on my desktop which is running fine and just installed it on a laptop and its hogging the CPU? Is there an auto update that it should have found?
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Friday, April 03, 2009 3:58 PMModerator
This link is broken. What is the answer? I have OneCare on my desktop which is running fine and just installed it on a laptop and its hogging the CPU? Is there an auto update that it should have found?
The link is no longer valid since this is a very old thread and no longer applies. High CPU is usually due to a conflict with OneCare. Make sure that no other security software is active that might be conflicting with OneCare - antispyware, antivirus, firewall.
Sometimes your previous security software is not completely removed via Control Panel - add/remove. You may need to visit the vendor's site for a removal tool:
Norton Removal Tool - ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/removal_tools/Norton_Removal_Tool.exe
McAfee Removal Tool - http://www.majorgeeks.com/McAfee_Consumer_Product_Removal_Tool_d5420.html
If you are unable to determine the cause of the high CPU, please contact support.
How to reach support (FAQ) - http://social.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/onecareinstallandactivate/thread/30400b52-7f26-4ba0-bc18-17e305329d90
-steve
Microsoft MVP Windows Live / Windows Live OneCare & Live Mesh Forum Moderator -
Thursday, May 07, 2009 5:15 PMhttp://social.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/onecareupdate/thread/937999c2-bdd8-449b-8461-4f6dd4d78257/
This above redirection link results in an error stating "You are not authorized to perform this action."
Please correct the link. -
Thursday, May 07, 2009 6:28 PMModerator
http://social.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/onecareupdate/thread/937999c2-bdd8-449b-8461-4f6dd4d78257/
This above redirection link results in an error stating "You are not authorized to perform this action."
Please correct the link.
That link points to a thread/post that was deleted before the forums were moved to the new location. It exists in a deleted state, so you can't see the post. The information in that post is no longer valid for the current version of OneCare. It was valid for 2.0, not 2.5.
-steve
Microsoft MVP Windows Live / Windows Live OneCare & Live Mesh Forum Moderator -
Thursday, May 07, 2009 8:24 PMRegardless the information is still needed and would be helpful if updated. Today I wrestled with this winss.exe CPU high process loading and 'Can't Turn On OneCare Firewall' issue on a new trial installation on XP Pro at a client's store. I tried using the FixFirewall.exe Tool to no success. I then uninstalled and reinstalled OneCare again with the same results. I then Uninstalled OneCare and then ran a RemoveOneCare.exe (or some such like named file) and then reinstalled OneCare ...with the same result. At this point with egg on my face and an irritated client I removed OneCare entirely and used something else. Excessive time was spent for what should have been a maybe 15 minute install and I'll have to eat those hours and hope I repair the lost trust.
This is a bad situation and I've not ran into it with OneCare before. The Windows Firewall was "On"; but for whatever unknown reason OneCare couldn't properly work to seize the firewall control.- Edited by Dale DU-IT Thursday, May 07, 2009 8:26 PM
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Friday, May 08, 2009 2:14 PMModerator
The information in that post would not have helped, trust me. It referred to services that caused an issue in v2 if they were disabled. I suspect that your issue may have been caused by have one of the Nvidia chipsets with the forceware firewall driver for the network adapter. Basically, this driver, when the firewall feature is left on by default will cause major issues with the OneCare firewall.
-steve
Microsoft MVP Windows Live / Windows Live OneCare & Live Mesh Forum Moderator -
Friday, May 08, 2009 3:09 PMThanks for that idea I'll have to audit that machine the next time I'm over there and see what Video Card he's got. The system is a Dell build. In troubleshooting the problem I did a thorough search through the Add/Remove programs listing looking for any possible culprit apps that might have influenced firewall behavior. The only security/anti-malware program there was Spyware Doctor; in my previous experiences this app hasn't caused a OneCare conflict before. Just to be certain I disabled the program from running but that had no effect. The NVIDIA thread you have pinned refers to a listing in Add/Remove and I know that no such app listing was there.
Later after I've looked and audited I'll post back if any NVIDIA card is installed. -
Friday, May 08, 2009 4:03 PMModeratorNot the video card, it is the chipset for the motherboard and the on-board Ethernet controller/LAN port.
So, it is actually a driver update.
I haven't used Spyware Doctor, but it could well have been the culprit if any part of it runs as a service.
The one clue you also provided is that OneCare was unable to disable the Windows Firewall, if that was running. That would also be a problem, in that the OneCare firewall needs that to be off for it to be on. OneCare shuts down the Windows firewall and enables its own.
If the issue wasn't due to an Nvidia driver with the firewall enabled for the LAN connection, then I'd have to guess that all dependent services were not running, or a conflicting service was running.
I'm sorry about the frustration and the lost time, but if you went with another solution, I'd not pursue it. I trust that you've seen the announcement at the top of the General forum and Install/Activate forum which explains about the end of OneCare by the end of 2010....
-steve
Microsoft MVP Windows Live / Windows Live OneCare & Live Mesh Forum Moderator
