[McKnight]

This morning I went to use my computer and I was prompted with a McAfee screen that said my computer was not fully protected. I therefore, tried to fix it, but was then told that some files/etc. to run this were missing and I would have to reintall. While this was happening, some updates were being installed; which I then restarted the computer and hoped that this would fix the problem.

To no avail, my computer was still not fully protected; so I then searched for updates to which I had to restart the computer before I could do that (do not know why). Anyway, when the computer rebooted I searched and installed updates and then restarted once more. Once it rebooted this time, it now shows that my computer is fully protected.

However, after this, I was given a McAfee pop-up that said something was trying to do a registry change; I blocked it and later another one popped up:

Drive Letter Access Component & SonicStage Application

- Sonic Stage Solutions & Sonic Corporation

Now... my problem/concern is that the McAfee components that were missing (i.e. computer not fully protected) and the registry change request are somehow connected and that these events may occur again. Do I have anything to worry about, what may be the problem, and what exactly is a registry change?

Thank you very much...

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A 'registry change' simply means an action by you or by a software install has changed a setting in the Windows Registry. This Registry is a vast database of everything that's installed on your PC, how each application has been configured by you, what Windows options and preferences you've chosen -- they're all held in the Registry so that Windows knows what settings to follow each time it starts up.

In your case, the registry change is allowing the Sonic Software to run two utilities everytime Windows starts. It's nothing to be worried about since Sonic Software is a respectable company who make CD/DVD writing software. Sonic 'DLA' or Drive Letter Access is a utility which allows you to drag files on to the CD icon in my computer just as though it was a hard disk (a process called 'packet writing'), and the 'SonicStage Application' is used to copy music files to portable media players. Sonic software is often bundled with Sony equipment, though I guess other manufacturers bundle it too.

Now, whilst neither of these Sonic startup applications will do any harm, they do use a certain amount of RAM when they're running, which is wasteful if you never use them (see my previous paragraph to remind yourself what each is for). If you don't use them then you did right to block them, but you could achieve the same thing by looking in the options of your Sonic software and disabling them from there -- that would avoid the need for McAfee to warn you about it in future. But either method will have the same effect.

Edited by pip22, 05 August 2007 - 10:16 AM.

[pip22]

A 'registry change' simply means an action by you or by a software install has changed a setting in the Windows Registry. This Registry is a vast database of everything that's installed on your PC, how each application has been configured by you, what Windows options and preferences you've chosen -- they're all held in the Registry so that Windows knows what settings to follow each time it starts up.

In your case, the registry change is allowing the Sonic Software to run two utilities everytime Windows starts. It's nothing to be worried about since Sonic Software is a respectable company who make CD/DVD writing software. Sonic 'DLA' or Drive Letter Access is a utility which allows you to drag files on to the CD icon in my computer just as though it was a hard disk (a process called 'packet writing'), and the 'SonicStage Application' is used to copy music files to portable media players. Sonic software is often bundled with Sony equipment, though I guess other manufacturers bundle it too.

Now, whilst neither of these Sonic startup applications will do any harm, they do use a certain amount of RAM when they're running, which is wasteful if you never use them (see my previous paragraph to remind yourself what each is for). If you don't use them then you did right to block them, but you could achieve the same thing by looking in the options of your Sonic software and disabling them from there -- that would avoid the need for McAfee to warn you about it in future. But either method will have the same effect.

Edited by pip22, 05 August 2007 - 10:16 AM.