[Eck]

I have OfficeXP installed and noticed crashing caused by MOSEARCH, CTFMON, and MDM so I uninstalled the related Office Tools and extras that call for these at Windows startup and disabled Script Debugging in Internet Explorer's Advanced Options. I also deleted all the stupid fff...tmp files that MDM.EXE installs into the Windows folder when it runs, and doesn't delete them properly so we must manually do it when MDM.EXE isn't running.

So all these are no longer starting with Windows. Great, right?

Well when I start Internet Explorer, some of the time but not all of the time, MDM.EXE starts with it and appears in the Close Program box. fff temp file build up also returns to the Windows folder. So I must reboot and delete these, then reboot again.

Yikes!

Why won't that thing go away? When it was listed in startup it was in a VS7Debug folder. I guess that comes from installing the VS 2005 update?

Outlook is installed but I never use it as I have Outlook Express as default mail.

Why does Internet Explorer run that thing (again, sometimes)? Disable Script Debugging is checked, so it shouldn't call MDM.EXE, right? I've tried toggling that off and on and rebooting but somehow MDM.EXE starts its crap when I open Internet Explorer again.

Latest McAfee engine and DAT's, Spybot Search and Destroy, and Ad-Aware all updated and run. No malware has latched on to the file so this is a Microsoft virus like thing.

I'm afraid of renaming the stupid thing. That would probably just crash Windows when Internet Explorer calls for MDM.EXE (I think).

Please help figure this out.

Edit - Hey! Seeing as there should be no reason to use this, and that malware sometimes tries to attach itself to MDM.EXE, I took further action.

Making sure it wasn't running in the Close Program box, I then searched and noticed MDM.EXE was only in the C:\Program Files\Common Files\VS7 Debug folder.

I renamed it to MDM.EXE.old. I then ran Norton WinDoctor, which found all the registry references to it. It's auto-fix was to delete the invalid references, so I let it do that and restarted Windows.

Upon opening Internet Explorer, everything seems to be working fine so far. And of course MDM.EXE can't run because it no longer exists (at least, in that form).

So did I fix it? Or will DotNET (I have 1.1, 2.0, and the Service Packs and security updates to them installed) somehow bugger out when it tries to do something needed MDM.EXE?

I hope nothing really needs the thing.

This post has been edited by Eck: 07 November 2006 - 12:26 PM

[glocK_94]

It could be infected with specific trojans like Win32.Lydra.a but if your antivirus is updated, then you're fine.
It's only used for debugging right so there's no risk disabling this crap.
Check kb321410 at Microsoft by the way.

[Eck]

Thank you glocK_94. Yes I've run the latest engine and def's virus scanner and the usual spy checker programs and they report clean.

And I used that and the similar KB282599, and KB221438 for the other pesky Office stuff. And got rid of the Office Search by using a similar KB article that I didn't print out so I forget the number.

That Office Search was causing the background virus scanner to crash the computer and MDM was causing Internet Explorer to freeze up Windows after closing it and then later restarting Windows. It wouldn't, and I'd need to reset the machine to restart.

Without all that crap everything's running pretty smooth.

I'm surprised that no normal technique would allow automatic uninstallation of MDM.EXE. I needed to manually rename it and then thankfully had Norton WinDoctor so I could easily delete the correct registry entries for it. I noticed a lot more registry entries that involved mdm (I searched), so I was happy not to destroy my machine by hacking these files away manually. Norton found the few entries that needed to be removed.

Apparently once the newer version of Visual Studio files are installed, checking to disable script debugging in Internet Explorer and removing the startup entry still allows MDM.EXE to be started when Internet Explorer is started.


Anyway, problem solved. But I'm not satisfied with the process. Stuff like this should be easily removed like the Search and ctfmon.exe processes were, with an uninstall of the cooresponding program tool.

[erpdude8]

the MDM.EXE file is also included in Microsoft Office 2000. After I installed the SR1 update onto my original Office 2000 Premium edition suite, MDM.EXE began loading at startup on my WinME/XP machines.

in Win95/98/ME, delete the MDM.EXE registry entry from "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunServices" key and MDM.EXE will stop running at startup. in WinNT4/2k/XP/2k3, open the Services module and set the Machine Debug Manager service Startup Type from Automatic to either Disabled or Manual