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Same goes for me today, March 28th about 15 minutes before the time of this post.

It may be a component of one of your add-ons for IE, so that’s why you don’t see it in the list by itself.

A Google search for the file name includes some results for web sites with instructions for using certain programs recommended by each individual site to get rid of the file, but I wouldn’t go there. If you think it’s suspicious, try running Malwarebytes, to see what that turns up, if anything.

The file belongs, as you’ve said, to a program called Bullseye Coverage, which is a C++ code analyzer. The program’s utility might also be part of another program installed on your computer. For more info about the program itself, just Google the term “Bullseye Testing Technology” (which shows up in the file’s cert as you’ve stated above) and click on the link for the company’s homepage. That initial sentence on the company’s website will give you some basic info about the Bullseye Coverage program itself so you can decide if it belongs on your computer or not. It may also help you figure out how it got there as well.

Please post back here with any other questions that come up, and we’ll do our darndest to help you with them.

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Elly

Same here!! Waiting till it’s ok to install next month’s official rollup which will hopefully have a fix or two for some of the [problems] from this month’s “patch”.

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Pierre77

MrBrian wrote:

Note added to March 13, 2018—KB4088875 (Monthly Rollup) (Win 7) and March 13, 2018—KB4088878 (Security-only update) (Win 7): “If the version of PCI.SYS file is less than 6.1.7601.21744, please follow the step-by-step instructions outlined below before applying this update to physical or virtual machine:”

@MrBrian, I also happened to notice that KB4088875 was last updated today, the 25th of March, so maybe the note you mention is what was changed in it.

For everyone else reading this thread, if you don’t recall where the file pci.sys is and want to find it, it’s probably in your System32/drivers folder.

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walker, DrBonzo

What @MrBrian mentions in post 178189 just above,

MrBrian wrote:

This script needs to be run with admin privileges.

and what @DrBonzo mentions in post 178197 also above,

DrBonzo wrote:

Seriously??!! There’s no way I’m going to attempt that and I’ll bet there’s no way a typical home user would attempt it either. Then again, I’m not being offered the Rollup in Windows Update, so I’ll just wait until I am, at which point I’ll also assume I won’t need to run scripts. Um… I would be right in assuming that at some point these patches should not require the user running a script, and that they would just install on their own after I click an OK to install button??

are, I believe, the biggest reason(s) that MS pulled KB4088875 from being offered through the WU channel to users. They probably figured that most folks using that method to install rollups wouldn’t be able to or wouldn’t desire to install that patch with anything other than the proverbial click of a mouse.
Notice that the word “most” is in italics above, as I know there are still folks who are being offered the patch via WU, but that it’s unchecked by default for them.

I was initially offered the update for both of my machines, but it has since been pulled, and has been replaced by the preview offering for next month, which shall remain uninstalled as I don’t install any previews of MS patches, only “production” releases. Production is in quotes because, with MS patches lately, most seem to be a preview anyway with their assorted problems each month.

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DrBonzo

Hi walker!

Sorry to say, but I’ve never been asked for a password on Mozilla’s site at all. Also, I’ve never had to use a password to update Firefox, dating all the way back to Firefox 3 or 4.

I’ve always used the built-in updater in the Help menu, as you did this time, to check for and apply updates, except once when Mozilla changed Firefox enough so that we all had to download a completely new copy, and restore our profiles from a backup.

When you said “I went to the website, and it wouldn’t accept my password, so I was forced to get a new password”, were you speaking of the Mozilla website for obtaining a new copy of Firefox (firefox.com) or was it their support website login at https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/users/auth possibly?

If so, you don’t need to login to that support website to get the latest version of Firefox, just use the feature that’s built-in to the browser like you did earlier today, although I still don’t see why even that feature asked you for a password. That issue (updater in the help menu asking for a password and user account login) makes it sound as if you might be infected with some password stealing malware.

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MrBrian

PKCano wrote:

…I disabled the free trial, and I no longer have the QualityCompat Regkey even though I am running TrendMicto Internet Security. Disabling the full version may be the cause of loss on the setting…

I believe I’ve finally found a reason WHY this happens. See my post on the other thread here on AskWoody for the explanation I found on the Malwarebytes forums. Basically, it’s what I believe to be a built-in program behavior.

Since I started this topic, I thought I’d try to find a solution or a reason for the behavior. I think I may have, finally! Turns out, Malwarebytes REMOVES the registry key if it’s set to not be registered with Windows Security Center, as seen in this post from their forums: https://forums.malwarebytes.com/topic/224593-ms-required-qualitycompat-key/?do=findComment&comment=1224553

When downgrading the installation from the full 2 week trial to the free version, Malwarebytes probably removes the key because, in the free edition, registering with the Windows Action Center is an option that’s greyed out at the bottom of the Application tab of the Settings menu item. That option is listed as Premium Only.

By the way, this will probably happen if the installation is downgraded to the free edition from the full edition after the expiration (for any reason probably) of any paid subscription anyone might have.

So, for now, the key will have to be reinstalled either manually by the user or by a default anti-malware program already installed on the computer and set to monitor changes in system settings, as noted by anonymous in post #176530 above this one.

Sorry for the bad news, @geekdom.

Hopefully Malwarebytes will change this behavior by their next program update or Microsoft will relent for the other versions of Windows besides Windows 10, in which case this whole thing becomes a moot point.

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MrBrian, Elly

As mentioned in step 3, I let the program do its own uninstall and reinstall, so that may be the difference by itself!

@PKCano-

How’d it return for you when it didn’t return for me??? When I rebooted after ending the free trial, the registry key was still missing!! Please read my post here and see what you might’ve done differently than I. from what your post says above, the noly difference is that I’m running AVG free 2017, whereas you’re running Trend Micro’s AV solution. (I thought you were running Bit Defender free).

R/

Bob99

anonymous wrote:

I’m having the same problem with IE 11 but I use AVG Free V 18.2.3046

I have the same version of AVG as you but I also let it update the definitions automatically as often as it needs to, and IE 11 opens just fine for me on a Win7 x64 SP1 machine which has an Intel processor.

In reading the entire thread mentioned by the original poster, I see that the problem with Avast has disappeared if one lets the program go get the latest definitions as of yesterday, March 2nd. This procedure might well work for you if you’re still having problems.

Another workaround for this problem would be to stop using Internet Explorer and try using one of the other browsers out there, such as Chrome, Firefox, Pale Moon, or Opera.

anonymous wrote:

…Amazon and Google allowing the advertisers to serve their own code from their own servers… 

Got some proof of that??

I just Googled the term “windows secrets down” and scrolled through the listings until I came to their (WS’s) twitter feed listing. Clicked on that to see what’s listed there to see if I could find some kind of update on the site being down. Instead, I found a little teaser at every tweet of WS’s for another site called myitforum.com. Going to that site produced a statement saying

Our sites are currently under maintenance.

Please try back later.

We apologize for any inconvenience.

Penton

So, this makes me think that Penton is wrapping things into one neat package for everyone to use instead of having four or five different sites for each group. I.E. I think Windows Secrets may be folded into this new site, myitforums.com, and any newsletter subscriptions passed on to the new site somehow.

BTW, I’m a former WS subscriber, having migrated to it from the Langa List when Fred folded it into WS.

I was also a Langa List subscriber and was introduced to Windows Secrets in the same way! I hope Fred’s doing well these days, as I haven’t heard anything about him since his departure from Windows Secrets a few (2 or 3?) years ago by now. I do recall it was said he was absent due to either personal or family issues, like taking a sabbatical of sorts.

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walker

@Kirsty-

That’s my post up there, #164551. I was posting anonymously due to using a borrowed computer. On my wife’s computer, the one I referenced in the note above, I let Windows manage the page file so I don’t have to get grey hairs doing so myself. With 4 gigs of RAM, its historical size has been around 4 gigs. On my computer with Win 7 SP1 and 4 gigs of RAM along with a 500 gig spinning hard drive, the page file is still just a skosh over 4 gigs in size as I write this, again with Windows managing the file’s size.