How to completely disable realsched.exe

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Yet another irritation: RealPlayer has a component called realsched.exe that will automatically check for software updates. I, however always prefer to manually update my software so do not need this to work. I use Win Patrol to, among other things, watch for changes made to my startup list and usually after having clicked “no” once or twice that effectively stops a program from re-attempting to implant a startup program. However with realsched.exe nothing I do will stop Real Player from trying to install realsched! I have disabled it in Win Patrol, I have unchecked every option within Real Player that automatically checks for anything including the Message Center, I have manually killed the realsched.exe process in Task Manager and have checked msconfig and found nothing. All this while Real Player isn’t even running!

Now I must be missing something and am no computing novice, but can see no reason why realsched.exe will not stay dead!

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Rename the executable to RealSched.wasexe , perhaps?

BATcher

Plethora means a lot to me.

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The registry key that refers to realsched.exe is named Tinkerbelle or Tbelle or something similar – I’ve deleted it so I can’t remember. Try looking in msconfig for that. (I use WinXP, but Win7 should be similar.)

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Unless you know for sure that you need RealPlayer, just uninstall it. I have not run across any website that requires RealPlayer in several years.

Joe

--Joe

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Forgot to mention earlier – also check your Scheduled Tasks in Control Panel. (I’m assuming here, as before, that it’s similar to WinXP.)

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Thanks for the responses. tonyl, yes it is TKBell which I also have disabled using Win Patrol. I have no scheduled tasks, I do everything manually, just in case something goes wrong; I’ve been bitten before and this gives me the opportunity to do one thing at a time.

Joe, yes I certainly could uninstall Real Player, however for me that’s like swatting a fly with a sledgehammer. :D: Also I really would like to figure out why this continues to happen, I’m stubborn like that. (Although I have given uninstallation serious thought as of late.)

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Have you used a utility such as Autoruns? It is a comprehensive look at what gets started when you boot the system. You should be interested in the Logon tab at first.

Joe

--Joe

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Have you used a utility such as Autoruns? It is a comprehensive look at what gets started when you boot the system. You should be interested in the Logon tab at first.

Joe

Well, I have now.:evilgrin: And, like Win Patrol it shows no Real anything in the startup, or ‘Logon’ in Autoruns. Of course, this only bothers me while Win Patrol is running, due to the constant warnings. If I am not running Win Patrol and I simply wait, nothing shows up in Task Manager relating to realsched. But NOT running Win Patrol kinda defeats the purpose.

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After manually deleting the registry keys (there may be more than one), you need to delete the exe in both the system 32, the program folder, and the hidden folder that windows keeps backups of DLL’s and such (system32/dllcache/).

Before restarting, use a registry cleaner. CCleaner seems on, but WtRegclean works pretty well for me.

If necessary, do this in Safe Mode.

If you STILL can’t delete a file in use, you can get a run from CD version of PCLinux and manually delete anything you ever wanted, including the file(s) that may be in use that Windows won’t turn off or delete. When you ‘surf’ to where the file(s) are, be sure you click on view>show hidden files. Be forewarned though. You can delete things accidentally that may make windows unbootable. Just shoot for the file(s) that you want to get rid of.

While you are there, delete your pagefile.sys . Don’t worry, Windows will just recreate it UNFRAGMENTED assuming you have enough contiguous space on your hard drive. Windows defragmenter and most others won’t defrag the pagefile.

There is a manual way of deleting registry keys that works too, assuming those keys that need to be eliminated just won’t let you.

I believe there is a program called process blocker that might stop it too.

Please note: sites like this one may be permanently blocked if the US Federal Government passes SOPA or similar laws.

P.S. I had to use that CD to remove a nasty polymorphic virus from my mother’s computer.

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Have you checked in Services? I’m not familiar with Realplayer, but it could have a service, set to automatic, which gets started when the system starts. But if this is the case, autoruns should pick it up. Run autoruns, wait until it has finished scanning, then do File > Find and type real into the search box. Or go to the Services tab and see what is in there. If there is such a service, stop it and set it to disabled. However, if the service is needed to check for updates, you may need to temporarily start it before doing your manual check.

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Follow up: I have uninstalled real Player from my Vaio, run JV16 Power Tools Reg Cleaner, and all is well. Until I ran the Registry Cleaner though, I still got one or two messages from Win Patrol that realsched.exe was trying to install itself upon reboot, which made me think that perhaps the installation was corrupted in one small way, considering real Player did seem to work ok. I may try reinstalling at a later date if I feel like it. Also, Real Player seems ok on my other two ‘puters which also points towards a corrupt install on the Vaio.

Bundaburra: Yes that was one of the first things I tried, checking services, and TKBell is the service associated with realsched, and had been disabled previously. It had to be a registry entry that was causing the Win Patrol warning.

Thanks to all who have responded, it is why I like the Lounge the best when it comes to getting actual answers to real problems.

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In the ..RealUpdate folder, you’ll find realsched.exe. It seems to run, as well as be re-enabled in the Startup section, every time realplayer is shut down.

If you take a copy of winver.exe (for example) and rename it as realsched.exe & replace the original (or rename realsched & then move the winver version) app, then run realplayer… you’ll see that (sometimes) :confused:when realplayer starts playing a video, or (always) when realplayer is shut down, winver will run.

realsched.exe actually re-enables itself in Startup.

Also, realupdate.exe runs when realplayer is started, but it shuts down quickly. :confused: Note that I disabled automatic updates under realplayer’s Preferences menu.

Note that if realsched.exe is renamed “hold realsched.exe” then realplayer will somehow find it and execute it. If the winver version is run, a “realsched” process stays in the Task Manager even when the winver window is closed. So…

I chose to create a single space text document and renamed it realsched.exe. And renamed realsched.exe itself as .exe-hold, not that I need to keep it. When realplayer shuts down, a CMD window opens trying to run this fictitious program, and it quickly closes.

32771-Spoofing-TkBell

Nothing remains in Task Manager, nor does the Startup entry for realsched/TkBell become re-enabled.

Not elegant but effective. Yep, it’s a hack. :o:

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so, actually, realsched is run by realplayer, but re-enabled in Startup by itself.

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You can disable realsched via Preferences > Automatic Services > Auto Update > uncheck Automatically download and install important updates.

Did that and disabled realsched in Windows 8 taskmanager and it didn’t come back after a restart.

Jerry

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If you run a video in RealPlayer (realplay.exe) and then close the program, the realsched.exe (TkBell) will reappear in Startup as well as in Task Manager. Even after you disable it in Preferences/Automatic Services AND /Auto Update. Did you run RealPlayer again? RealSched runs when RealPlayer is (being) closed.

I was reporting from a WinXP machine but now I’m on a Win7 PC and it’s doing the exact same thing (that is, before I do a similar hack on this PC).

R.

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This is one reason why I dumped Real Player a long time ago. It is a resource hog and defies attempts to control it.

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. It is a resource hog and defies attempts to control it.

Guess that shows my skill level then because I don’t have a problem with it and use it all the time. Works for me!

What do you use instead??

BJ

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The few times I actually play music I use VLC Media Playeror simply use Windows Media Player.

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Ah…. what I use it for is videos. Machine quilting techniques and patterns etc., but mostly for Angry Bird walkthroughs! Bwaahaaaa

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