Giveaway of the Day Forums

1. 

   badsouth
   Member

   Hi! Is there a program out there that tells which program files in Windows/System 32 belong to? Please, I would appreciate any help. Thank You!

   Posted 16 years ago #
2. 

   watcher13
   Member

   Well no, I don't believe there's any program that can tell you for sure how a file got there a long time after it happened. You likely realize that most of what should be in there are essential modules from Microsoft that shipped with the machine. Of course, other programs write files in there, too. There are programs which can tell you what modules a program calls on when it's running, although a lot of times these are those built-in Microsoft Windows modules. Hopefully the more sophistcated folks here will recommend the best. I'm not completely up on what's out there. Here's a simple, free one that can get you started. It's called What's Running.

   http://www.download.com/What-s-Running/3000-2094_4-10256718.html

   Though it doesn't list Vista, is does work on Vista. I don't remember if it has to be installed as an Administrator in Vista, but it does need to be run as an Administrator in Vista. I assume you're familiar with that. If not, just ask. There are even more detailed programs, hopefully someone here will suggest.

   There are some things you can figure out by yourself by exploring the folder. In Vista - and I believe XP - you can change the window view to give you useful information when you're looking inside a folder, like System 32. First you need to go to the view(s) menu and change to a details view. Then right click on any of the headings on top - you'll at least have "name" up there. Right clicking will give you a whole bunch of options as to what kind of detals you can see, like size, type, and so on. If you go down and click "more" at the bottom, you'll get probably a hundred options. If you select company, it will tell you who made many of the modules, and sometimes that will be the company of one of the softwares you installed. You can also select Product Name, which will list the name of the module, so you can at least often get some idea of what it's function is. A lot of those will say Microsoft Windows Operating System, so it's likely (but not always) it shipped with your computer. You can also select date created, and sometimes can match that date if you know when you installed a particular software. And if you know roughly when the computer left the factory, the date may clue you that a particular file was part of the initial install.

   The bottom line, though, is you need a program that tracks changes to your system when you install things. Hopefully, folks will suggest the best of those, too.

   Hope this helps.

   Posted 16 years ago #
3. 

   goodgotd
   Member

   RegShot 1.8.2 ? use SERVER 2: FreewareFiles U.S.

   Posted 16 years ago #

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