Why does wmiprvse.exe start with Firefox 32.0.1 in XP SP3?
Whenever I start Firefox, I see wmiprvse.exe load as a running process. I see this happen by using Sysinternal's Process Explorer. This has been happening since I updated to the current version of Firefox (32.0.1). It also happens whenever I start up the current version of Thunderbird (31.1.1). I have two questions:
1. Is this normal behavior? 2. If so, why is it necessary?
And just to clarify things, I have researched this for HOURS using "my friend" Google. I have also tried to get answers to these questions in various newsgroups to no avail. My copy of wmiprvse.exe is NOT infected (I ran it through Virustotal) and is only located where it is supposed to be on my hard drive.
Please help me by sticking to answers to the two questions I have, and bear in mind that I'm only talking about XP SP3.
Ausgewählte Lösung
The bug at
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1070123
(The process WmiPrvSE.exe is launched on Firefox start-up) has been classed as resolved. The coder responsible for making wmiprvse.exe start with Firefox has added the following post to the bug discussion: ______________________________________________________________________________ David Major [:dmajor] 2014-09-25 14:56:07 PDT
Hi John and Yaron. I added that code. At the time, that AMD issue was one of our top sources of crashes. The crash was the result of a hardware issue on particular model CPUs and only appeared under certain timing conditions. Those conditions could be influenced by particular MSR values applied at startup by BIOS. AMD requested a breakdown of the crashes by OEM.
We didn't get a resolution on that bug, and usage of those CPUs has declined, but we're still finding the data useful for other crashes (as a proxy for system manufacturer, not necessarily the BIOS in particular).
There haven't been any changes in that area specifically for version 32. That code has been active since Firefox 27. To my knowledge it hasn't caused any problems, other than your surprise, which I hope I've addressed. ______________________________________________________________________________
Apparently he has no intention of removing the responsible code and doesn't consider wmiprvse.exe starting with Firefox to be an issue.
Well, my sincere thanks to OldSchoolCoder for discovering the cause of the phenomenon. Your research was above and beyond the call!
Now I know for sure that it's not caused by some kind of malware hijacking.
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The last reply by Matthias answers my last question. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1070123
Ausgewählte Lösung
The bug at
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1070123
(The process WmiPrvSE.exe is launched on Firefox start-up) has been classed as resolved. The coder responsible for making wmiprvse.exe start with Firefox has added the following post to the bug discussion: ______________________________________________________________________________ David Major [:dmajor] 2014-09-25 14:56:07 PDT
Hi John and Yaron. I added that code. At the time, that AMD issue was one of our top sources of crashes. The crash was the result of a hardware issue on particular model CPUs and only appeared under certain timing conditions. Those conditions could be influenced by particular MSR values applied at startup by BIOS. AMD requested a breakdown of the crashes by OEM.
We didn't get a resolution on that bug, and usage of those CPUs has declined, but we're still finding the data useful for other crashes (as a proxy for system manufacturer, not necessarily the BIOS in particular).
There haven't been any changes in that area specifically for version 32. That code has been active since Firefox 27. To my knowledge it hasn't caused any problems, other than your surprise, which I hope I've addressed. ______________________________________________________________________________
Apparently he has no intention of removing the responsible code and doesn't consider wmiprvse.exe starting with Firefox to be an issue.
Well, my sincere thanks to OldSchoolCoder for discovering the cause of the phenomenon. Your research was above and beyond the call!
Now I know for sure that it's not caused by some kind of malware hijacking.
I'm sorry, but this nonsense is still wearing thin with me. I really would like to know how to permanently prevent Firefox from automatically starting wmiprvse.exe. IMO, this is simply another way to ID the end user.