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Install Tracker stops monitoring when it should not and misses a lot of registry and folder traces !!

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Volga
Posts: 2
Joined: 01 Oct 2016, 19:00

Install Tracker stops monitoring when it should not and misses a lot of registry and folder traces !!

Post by Volga »

I downloaded the latest version of Internet Download Manager from:
(http://mirror2.internetdownloadmanager. ... build7.exe)

I ran the installer and proceeded as usual while monitoring it with the Install Tracker. When installer finished copying files, it prompted following window:
FinishWindow.PNG
FinishWindow.PNG (58.05 KiB) Viewed 25505 times
Up until now, everything was fine. But when I pressed finish, the installer created a service called IDMWFP and launched two background processes (i.e. IDman.exe and IEMonitor.exe) without asking. Then the Install Tracker stopped monitoring and save button became active even though these two child processes were still running.

The problem here is that the installer launches the Internet Download Manager (IDMan.exe) for the first time without asking the user, and Install Tracker is unable to monitor it. Install Tracker thinks every child processes are finished but it is not the case here. I know that most of the programs do make changes to the system when they are run for the first time. I am pretty sure that IDMan.exe created a lot of registry and folder entries which was missed by the Install Tracker.

You have included "append traced data" option in the Uninstall Tool but unfortunately this does not solve the problem every time (in this case at least).

I would want Uninstall Tool to wait and keep monitoring until I manually close these two background processes.

This was the first part of my complain. And here is the second part;

Later, I removed the Internet Download Manager and reinstalled it while monitoring the system changes with ProcMon from Sysinternals. After installation, I filtered the system changes to include only the installer and its child processes. I realized that the installer runs regsvr32.exe and many other processes many times. Here the process tree from ProcMon captured from beginning to the end of the installation:
ProcessTree.PNG
ProcessTree.PNG (91.96 KiB) Viewed 25505 times
These processes make many changes to the system which Install Tracker misses. I can see that by comparing registry and folder changes in the Uninstall Tool's XML file and ProcMon's filtered PML file. I am including monitoring results from ProcMon and Uninstall Tool in IDM Installation.rar file in the attachment.

_0_2147483650_Internet Download Manager.xml is Uninstall Tool traced data.
IDM Installation filtered.PML is ProcMon's filtered traced data. (You can use ProcMon to see content of the PML file)

I would want Uninstall Tool 3.5.1 to monitor everything but seems like it misses when installer does service registration or launches many childprocesses.

Thank you
Attachments
IDM Installation.rar
(198.48 KiB) Downloaded 1260 times
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Steven
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Install Tracker stops monitoring when it should not and misses a lot of registry and folder traces !!

Post by Steven »

Volga, thanks a lot for the deep research.

I'm afraid there's nothing we can do about it at the moment. It looks like those processes start NOT as child of the installation process (nor its children). They are somehow created by system processes. Tracking of those can be tricky and could lead to false positives with other apps.
There's a rule that Install Tracker follows - it's better not to detect something than to misdetect it.

Anyway it's a rare issue. And we'll continue to improve Install Tracker and Uninstall Wizard and (I hope) such things will not be a concern in future.
Volga
Posts: 2
Joined: 01 Oct 2016, 19:00

Install Tracker stops monitoring when it should not and misses a lot of registry and folder traces !!

Post by Volga »

Uninstall Tool is a wonderful software and you are doing a great job developing it. But I would like it to become as thorough and complete as possible in terms of tracing items, even in these kinds of rare situations :smile:

You are right that two background processes (IDMan.exe and IEMonitor.exe) are somehow created by system processes and therefore Install tracker misses them. However ProcMon can classify these processes as child processes of the installer executable. (idman626build7.exe see the screenshot of the process tree)

If ProcMon can do that safely. (it is obvious that IDman is related to Internet Download Manager), how come Uninstall Tool can not ?

Thank you.
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