Third Party Utilities gone missing!

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He y’all,

A really weird thing happened to my new MinisForum Venus UM790 main driver 2 days ago.

Background:
Windows 11 Pro 23H2 22631.3296 (April Updated NOT installed)
Folder on my G: (Data) drive called NonInstPrograms where I install all my portable utilities.

Observed behavior:

I went to use some utilities and low and behold they were no longer there.
The first clue was the shortcuts I have that run scheduled tasks so I don’t have to answer the UAC prompts to runas admin were missing their icons. Of course, clicking on the shortcuts did nothing. Upon investigating I found whole directories or in some cases just the executables empty or missing!

Here’s the list:

• Crystal Disk Mark Portable
• Niubi Partition Editor Pro Portable
• Rufus
• CPUz
• HWInfo
• Process Hacker – more on this later
• WizTree
• SysInternals – yes Microsoft software!
• ShutUP10
• WinAero Tweaker

I’ve got them all up and running again from downloads on my NAS or redownloading from the net.

I’ve confirmed via File History that the files were on the drive previously.

Also note that not all the programs in the folder were affected.

As far as Process Hacker I got it setup again but now I get this:

I haven’t tested this yet but it may be due t having Core Isolation ENABLED on this machine.

I’ll be keeping a close watch on this and keep y’all update if it happens again.

Has anyone else seen any similar behavior?

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
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lmacri, windbg

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RetiredGeek wrote:

I haven’t tested this yet but it may be due t having Core Isolation ENABLED on this machine.

RG, Your assumption is correct.  I get that same “cannot load on this device”, and it started after I enabled Core isolation.  The good news is that Process Hacker runs just fine without that driver loaded.

I don’t have Core isolation enabled on my B side, and that warning doesn’t popup there.

As for the missing portable apps, I haven’t experienced that.  All of mine are still there, although I don’t have the same menagerie as you.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

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satrow, RetiredGeek

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Except for Niubi, I have all the same tools and none have gone missing. I do not have Core Isolation enabled, but did have a scanner driver conveniently removed by Microsoft a few months back that had been working just fine for about 1.5 years. I’m assuming it was because MS had begun enforcing CRC integrity checks – the driver is one that I had hacked so it would run under Win 10.

Some of my extreme hacking and pen test tools disappeared awhile back (these were not kiddie scripting tools). Even my EICAR test file disappeared.

EICAR Test File

My AV software didn’t do it, so I assume MS must have. Even though I use 3rd party AV, MS apparently runs defender background scans every now and then without notification (and without it being enabled to do so in settings).

I’d be very interested in what you discover. You didn’t happen to have an Explorer crash around that time did you? There’s a bug in Explorer that rears its’ ugly head under certain circumstances. If multiple Explorer windows are open with large directory listings (not in details view), a copy/move operation can result in disappearing directories and files. Usually, just before it happens, listings become slow to navigate.

I thought I was the only one left who uses Resource Hacker. It’s one of those tools that you don’t need often, but when you do, it’s one of the best still available. I’m betting that you also have Frhed in your war chest.

– Another Old Geek –

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windbg

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