By Bill Pytlovany
The release of Windows 95 was suppose to spell the end of Microsoft’s 8.3 filename specifications. The folks in Redmond hailed the era of long filenames that would provide better descriptions of what a file would be used for. Unfortunately, years later Microsoft and others continue to use filenames which are small and non-descriptive.
WinPatrol PLUS is a program which allows users to click on a filename and read an description of a file and find out if it’s required. Apple Computer once bragged about long filenames but stick their files with cryptic filename into Windows Startup Programs and have them running in the background.
One of the ones most commonly requested belongs to QuickTime and tends to stick itself back into the autorun registry frequently. Below is the results from our online Cloud stats.
QTTASK.EXE – Apple’s QuickTime Player
8,425 Requests for information on this file.
47,426 Users chose to allow this file to run.
105,864 Users decided to prevent this file from running.Apple’s QuickTime holds the record for the file WinPatrol users want removed. It doesn’t help that Apple keeps trying to put QTTASK.exe back even after it’s removed. Luckily, WinPatrol has a Disable function so we can automatically remove it without any alert messages.
More Mystery Files
There are plenty of other filenames which WinPatrol users were confused about and/or wanted more information. You’ll notice most users made their decision without checking the Info that is available to WinPatrol PLUS members.
This post is excerpted with Bill’s permission from his blog
