Downloaded files disappearing to the void

Hi, I've seen this problem posted a number of times, and either there's
no fix for it or it was attributed to something that doesn't apply to my
situation. Here's the description:


- With Firefox and Google Talk, any downloaded file cannot be opened
by the program.
- IE8 and Chrome both work, and since I use Chrome for everything, I
never noticed the issue in Firefox. File transfer in Google Talk has
been screwed since I installed Vista.
- It happens when they're run in Administrator Mode as well
- The files do not appear in the specified Download directory (my
User\Download folder)
- A search shows that the files do not exist -anywhere- on any of my
HDs
- The files aren't in AppData\Temp either
- I do NOT have AVG, nor have I ever had it installed on any of my
HDs, ever
- The account I use is the original account I created on install, and
has Administrator privileges
- I have already granted special permissions for all Users to
Create/Modify files within the folder
- The User folders are not in their original location. They've been
moved to a separate HD specifically for Docs/Downloads.


The most common answer I see is "Turn off UAC," but I see that as a
last resort and would prefer a different solution. I'm tempted to just
switch to 7 today and deal with the RC but I'm wary of the problem not
being fixed there either. Does -anybody- have any idea?


--
dferrantino

I think what I'd do is to use a program like Sysinternals 'Process Monitor'
to observe in real time where the downloads are being written to.

Process Monitor v2.04
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s.../bb896645.aspx

Then start a download in Firefox / Google talk to observe what is happening.

--
Jon



"dferrantino" <> wrote in message
news:...
>
> Hi, I've seen this problem posted a number of times, and either there's
> no fix for it or it was attributed to something that doesn't apply to my
> situation. Here's the description:
>
>
> - With Firefox and Google Talk, any downloaded file cannot be opened
> by the program.
> - IE8 and Chrome both work, and since I use Chrome for everything, I
> never noticed the issue in Firefox. File transfer in Google Talk has
> been screwed since I installed Vista.
> - It happens when they're run in Administrator Mode as well
> - The files do not appear in the specified Download directory (my
> User\Download folder)
> - A search shows that the files do not exist -anywhere- on any of my
> HDs
> - The files aren't in AppData\Temp either
> - I do NOT have AVG, nor have I ever had it installed on any of my
> HDs, ever
> - The account I use is the original account I created on install, and
> has Administrator privileges
> - I have already granted special permissions for all Users to
> Create/Modify files within the folder
> - The User folders are not in their original location. They've been
> moved to a separate HD specifically for Docs/Downloads.
>
>
> The most common answer I see is "Turn off UAC," but I see that as a
> last resort and would prefer a different solution. I'm tempted to just
> switch to 7 today and deal with the RC but I'm wary of the problem not
> being fixed there either. Does -anybody- have any idea?
>
>
> --
> dferrantino

I managed to fix it in Firefox (known issue in Firefox3 with the
automatic antivirus scan, turned it off in about:config and it works
now) but I will check this out with Google Talk. Not at home right now
to check, but if you could give me a quick rundown on how to use Process
Monitor to check where it's going to make this as quick and painless as
possible I'd appreciate it.

Thanks

Jon;1037649 Wrote:
> I think what I'd do is to use a program like Sysinternals 'Process
> Monitor'
> to observe in real time where the downloads are being written to.
>
> Process Monitor v2.04
> 'Process Monitor'
> (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s.../bb896645.aspx)
>
> Then start a download in Firefox / Google talk to observe what is
> happening.
>
> --
> Jon
>
>
>
> "dferrantino" <> wrote in message
> news:...> > >
> > >
> > > Hi, I've seen this problem posted a number of times, and either
> > there's
> > > no fix for it or it was attributed to something that doesn't apply to
> > my
> > > situation. Here's the description:
> > >
> > >
> > > - With Firefox and Google Talk, any downloaded file cannot be opened
> > > by the program.
> > > - IE8 and Chrome both work, and since I use Chrome for everything, I
> > > never noticed the issue in Firefox. File transfer in Google Talk
> > has
> > > been screwed since I installed Vista.
> > > - It happens when they're run in Administrator Mode as well
> > > - The files do not appear in the specified Download directory (my
> > > User\Download folder)
> > > - A search shows that the files do not exist -anywhere- on any of my
> > > HDs
> > > - The files aren't in AppData\Temp either
> > > - I do NOT have AVG, nor have I ever had it installed on any of my
> > > HDs, ever
> > > - The account I use is the original account I created on install,
> > and
> > > has Administrator privileges
> > > - I have already granted special permissions for all Users to
> > > Create/Modify files within the folder
> > > - The User folders are not in their original location. They've been
> > > moved to a separate HD specifically for Docs/Downloads.
> > >
> > >
> > > The most common answer I see is "Turn off UAC," but I see that as a
> > > last resort and would prefer a different solution. I'm tempted to
> > just
> > > switch to 7 today and deal with the RC but I'm wary of the problem
> > not
> > > being fixed there either. Does -anybody- have any idea?
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > dferrantino > >


--
dferrantino

i hate AVG and any antivirus software..i never ever use them. EVER i
like it raw.


--
inc2000

That's just silly. I've never had an issue with AV software before, and
this one is a known Firefox issue anyway. I know AVG caused some
problems with Vista, but Avast is free too and I haven't had a problem
yet.

That being said, I'm probably switching to Windows 7 within the month,
so we'll see what happens.

inc2000;1037675 Wrote:
> i hate AVG and any antivirus software..i never ever use them. EVER i
> like it raw.


--
dferrantino

"dferrantino" <> wrote in message
news:...
>
> I managed to fix it in Firefox (known issue in Firefox3 with the
> automatic antivirus scan, turned it off in about:config and it works
> now) but I will check this out with Google Talk. Not at home right now
> to check, but if you could give me a quick rundown on how to use Process
> Monitor to check where it's going to make this as quick and painless as
> possible I'd appreciate it.
>



It works by placing "filters" on the mass of computer activity that is
happening on your machine, to focus on whatever it is you wish to monitor,
be it a registry key, an executable, a file or whatever.

So the way I was envisaging its usage here was ....

1. Place a filter on the executable for the browser. So for Internet
Explorer it would be iexplore.exe or ieuser.exe, and for firefox it would be
firefox.exe etc [ via the menus Filter > Filter ]
2. Click on the [Show..activity] toolbar buttons to further limit it to file
activity only (as opposed to registry activity etc)

You can then observe in real time, file writes, file reads etc. involving
that executable.

--
Jon

On Wed, 6 May 2009 15:10:55 -0500, inc2000 <>
wrote:

>
>i hate AVG and any antivirus software..i never ever use them. EVER i
>like it raw.
>
>
>--
>inc2000

Excellent strategy.

Looking at procmon and there's just a ton of stuff going on. GTalk
constantly accesses the AppData folders while idle, so there's a ton of
spam, and I'm not sure what's relevant and what's not.


--
dferrantino

Think I found the problem, but I have no idea what to do from here...

Class: File System
Operation: SetDispositionInformationFile
Result: SUCCESS
Path: F:\Daniel\Documents\Google Talk Received Files\rare_owl.wmv
_Details_
Delete: True

All subsequent queries to that path (SearchProtocolHost.exe and
Explorer.EXE) show either NAME NOT FOUND or NO SUCH FILE


--
dferrantino

Update: This is happening with Fraps as well. I was able to capture one
movie, and then after that, nothing. Didn't matter where I was saving it
to (tried my User\Videos folder and Program Files\Fraps), they just
wouldn't show up once I stopped recording.


--
dferrantino