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SSEreg didn’t sound like an auto-downloader. So decided to leave that alone.

For want of any alternative, ran SoftwareManagerUninstall.exe following the suggestion by Paul T. Apparently ran successfully, but didn’t seem to do anything. Both the “Software Updates” Start Menu item and the file it points to (C:ProgramDataFLEXnetConnect11ISUSPM.exe) are still present; ditto after a restart.

I’ve decided to let this issue go for now; I’ve spent enough time on it. I will monitor the files associated with the Brother software for changes and proceed accordingly.

By the way, is there a utility that monitors changes to software/files and generates a report if/when there is a change? I’m sure there must be a Windows utility. I’m not expert enough to remember what it is.

Thanks to jwwods and Paul T for your replies.

Thank you for your responses. Following the several suggestions, here’s what I found:

– Admin Tools -> Services
– Found PDFProFiltSrvPP, whose purpose I could not determine but which I assume is
related to Nuance PDF Viewer

– Run msconfig
– The Services tab has PDFProFiltSrvPP
– The Startup tab has SSEreg related to Nuance

– Run Autoruns
– Found PDFProFiltSrvPP (but not SSEreg)

I am assuming PDFProFiltSrvPP is benign, which leaves SSEreg as the culprit.

Does anyone have any information as to what is SSEreg? I am pursuing these before I attempt the Software Manager Uninstall.exe tool suggested by Paul T.

I was able to resolve this problem using TeraByte Image for DOS, thanks to Coochin’s suggestion. I used the version currently available on their web site, which I assume is the latest. I did not have to hunt for an earlier version. Makes sense, I guess, since this runs independent of Windows.

A few points might be useful for others in a similar situation.

First, the GUI version of the software (created on a CD) would not boot the TOSHIBA laptop. I’m guessing this might have been due to the limited RAM of the machine. The non-GUI version worked well.

Second, I had a lot of trouble trying to create the image file on an NTFS formatted partition on a USB HDD. After many trials, I did successfully create one on a FAT32 formatted partition. (By the way, it appears that the only way to accomplish FAT32 formatting these days is on a Mac.)

I was also able to create an image file on a flash drive (also FAT32 formatted).

Thanks to all for your suggestions, and especially to Coochin for the lead for TeraByte IFD.

jwoods:

I tried both Macrium and ToDo-backup. The current versions of these do not support Win2K and I was unable to find older versions.

Paul T:

The emulation route won’t work because the hardware communication occurs via RS232 port which my current PC does not have. Ehat I’m doing is developing code on the old PC and downloading it to EPROM on the external unit.

CLiNT:

See comment to jwoods above. I tried finding an old version of Macrium, but no luck. Any suggestions to the location of archives of old software?

Thanks to all for your responses.

Thank you, jwoods.

I will try your two suggestions.

Jerry, Paul:

Thank you for your suggestions, and sorry for the delay in acknowledging.

I did try turning off the Firewall and that worked, as one would expect. Duh! That was embarrassing. So, obviously I need to reconfigure the firewall to be less restrictive.

The network is set to use DHCP to auto configure.

The reason I went through this exercise is that I use Malwarebytes Anti Malware (MBAM) to periodically scan my system for malware. As I explained in my original post, the PC is normally isolated from the internet. However, I do transfer files to/from it via external USB drives, so I am careful about checking for malware using MS Security Essentials and MBAM. Previously I was updating the MBAM database manually by downloading the relevant file from their site via my Mac and transferring it to the PC via a flash drive. However, as of a month or so ago, Malwarebytes no longer supplies the standalone database updates. Therefore, I have no alternative but to periodically connect the PC to the network to update the MBAM database.

I’d welcome any suggestions to obtain standalone MBAM database updates.

Hi Woody:

Your recent article regarding the future of Microsoft vis Google and Apple brings up an interesting question that doesn’t seem to be discussed much. This is the question of how will these nifty apps that run on tablets and smart phones be created. What most people need are not “personal computers” but “personal communicators”. When PC’s (personal computers; e.g. the IBM PC, Apple Mac) came out and were soon adopted en mass by many people, there were no alternatives. These PC’s were used mostly for e-mail, photo and music sharing, etc. Few people used them to “compute”. In those early days of the PC, real computing was being done on mainframes, scientific workstations (remember Sun, Silicon Graphics, Apollo, even the old HP?), or supercomputers (Cray). Even some applications for PC’s were developed on workstations.

As PC’s became more and more powerful, however, it became clear that most of the work done on expensive workstations could be done on cheap (due to mass sales to a wide customer base) PC’s. So went Sun, Silicon Graphics, etc.

Then came the iPod, iPhone, iPad, and their equivalents. Nobody needs big, bulky PC’s to do e-mail or share photos and music any more. Thus the recent decline in PC sales and the fortunes of Microsoft. But the question is what will be the hardware/software environment for creating the nifty apps that run on these personal communicators. Will we be back to the old days of expensive (because of the limited market size) workstations? Who will make them? Apple certainly seems to be easing itself out of that market. Their latest Mac Pro is likely to be their last. HP is struggling; so, it seems, is Dell. Who will put a “PC”/workstation on my desk five years from now, and for how much?