Where's this account come from?

D

dominicb

Member
Hi all

I recently installed a Pinnacle USB TV receiver device and the associated software - not impressed and won't be keeping it. However, since I installed this software an extra user account has appeared on Windows XP called asp.NET Machine A...

Anyone any idea where this has come from and if it's safe to delete it? I've never seen it before, I can't even be sure it's come from the Pinnacle software, it's just that this is the only thing I've done new recently and it seemed to occur at the same time I installed it.

Thanks for any thoughts

DominicB
 
It did the same on my main computer with an ATi TV Wonder Pro. It appears to have something to do with the card, although I have no idea what. Don't delete it though unless you can ascertain the purpose behind it and establish that it isn't necessary. It won't hurt anything.
 
I also had that once and deleted the account and still everything as fine.

Not sure why it creates an account though.
 
It has nothing to do with the card, the ASP.NET account is created whenever you install Microsoft's .NET framework, which is required for quite a few things. Ignore it, it doesn't do anything worth speaking of.
 
OK thanks for that guys - that's a relief. I can't imagine why a TV card software would have to set up it's own account. There's two things still bug me about this:
(i) The software was good enough to set the account up on installation, but couldn't be bothered to remove it on uninstallation
(ii) The software didn't inform me when it was installing that it was about to make changes to my operating system that I might have preferred it didn't (after all it is MY computer) and if I have to submit my computer to a third party installer (I'm old enough to remember when all you had to do to install software was copy the files to a folder on your C:\ drive:) ) it could at least tell me what it's doing to my system underneath the flashy installation screen.

I hate software companies sometimes...

That's it. Moan over.

Thanks for your responses.

DominicB
 
dominicb said:
(i) The software was good enough to set the account up on installation, but couldn't be bothered to remove it on uninstallation
(ii) The software didn't inform me when it was installing that it was about to make changes to my operating system that I might have preferred it didn't (after all it is MY computer) and if I have to submit my computer to a third party installer (I'm old enough to remember when all you had to do to install software was copy the files to a folder on your C:\ drive:) ) it could at least tell me what it's doing to my system underneath the flashy installation screen.
Click to expand...
Your installer didnt create that account, that account is created when you install (or update on windows update) the ASP.NET Virtual Machines or IIS components. It is needed if you run your own servers etc... it is this user "ASP.NET...." that runs the key processes so that your webserver can run ASP.Net applications on the server.

This is pretty much the only use for it, so it can be removed if you dont need it. But rest assured it was not your installer for your pinnacle card thigny. It wouldnt do anything like that.

Oh and i think you'll find if you sit and read that massive long EULA that everyone accepts without reading it will tell you exactly what it does and plans to do in the installation. Ever sat there and read it, its quite interesting, do it one day

dragon
 
I'll add some more info to the comments above - with some links that might help.

It depends on the version of .NET installed. Original version 1.1 has minor bugs, one of which is that it displays this ASP.NET account it creates. All you have to do is download the Service Pack 1 (SP1) for it. There is even a security update now for the service pack.

To see what asp.net version(s) you have installed, go to Control Panel - Add or Remove Programs and then in the list look for any of these:
Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1
Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 Hotfix (KB886903)
Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0

The Hotfix means that the SP1 update is installed.
I, for example, have all of the above.

More info here from Microsoft pages:

Download ASP .NET v.1.1
Download SP1 for version 1.1
Download Security update for SP1

Download version 2 (for 32-bit windows)
Download version 2 (for 64-bit Windows)

I hope it helped.
 
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