Ghost 10 - can it be launched manually?

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Larry, thanks for the advice. Unfortunately, it appears that all 'Hide Tray Icon' does is just that - the underlying process/service is still running. At present, I use Administrative Tools/Services to turn 'Norton Ghost' off and on; and the tray icon develops a little red cross when the service is off. (I've discovered this in desperation since my original post!)

 

The difference it makes is very significant. With Ghost service not running, and my PC disconnected from our WiFi network, I get a 'rest' CPU load of between 2% and 6%. This contrasts to the spike of 100% every 90 secs produced by Ghost.

 

So, in a way, I've solved my problem, but only with a clumsy workaround. This should have been built into the program. I'd still rather not have Ghost load at boot-up anyway - I only use it once a week. I do rather resent the way Symantec/Norton feel it's ok to take over my computer.

 

Anyone from Symantec around who deals with Ghost, or its later incarnation? What's the thinking behind this?

I am running Ghost v10 under Win XP sp3, for non-scheduled backups, on a Pentium III 860Mhz PC. Among other tasks, I use the computer for sound recording and editing. I notice from Windows Task Manager that GhostTray.exe is causing a spike in CPU usage roughly every 90 secs, usually taking the total usage up to 100%.

 

Since this spike is a threat to clean audio recording, I would prefer to launch Ghost manually at the times I wish to make backups. I cannot see the point in having GhostTray running in the background at other times. Is it possible to do this, and if so how?

 

Chris B

 

 

The Norton Ghost Service is quite a different animal than the Ghost tray icon. Your original post mentioned only Ghost Tray.

 

The Ghost tray icon is a process called "Ghost Tray.exe".  If you select the Ghost option to not show it, it should go away.  But maybe I also did the following.  Use the System Configuration Utility to stop ghost tray from being started.  Click on Start and then Run.... and enter msconfig.  When the sys config utility starts up, select the Startup tab.  If the entry for Ghost Tray is checked, uncheck it.  When you exit the utility it will want you to restart.  You can restart or just wait for your next restart.  Ghost Tray will continue to execute until you restart.  But you can use the Task Manager to KILL it directly.

 

The Norton Ghost Service runs in process VProSvc.exc and you can stop it the way you describe.  But it needs to be started again when Ghost is to be used.

 

In any case, I have had the Ghost Tray process NOT running for over a year with no known side effects.  You can safely get rid of it.

 

Which process is the one that causes the cpu spikes?  Ghost Tray or VProSvc ?  On my system VProSVC does not seem to use any cpu when Ghost is not active. 

 

--Larry 

 

 

Larry, thanks again. I can't actually work out which process is causing the spikes (assuming there are two different services). In the Task Manager there's a process called 'GhostTray.exe' that spikes to 100% CPU usage every 90 secs. In 'Admin Tools/Services' there's nothing by that name, but a service called 'Norton Ghost'; and stopping that stops Ghost doing whatever it does in the background, and gets rid of the spikes. I've been assuming that GhostTray.exe is the exec file that launches the Norton Ghost service, and hence the same process has two different names in the two different tools.

 

The good news is that the immediate problem is solved - I can record .WAV files without interference. But I'd still like to know why Ghost has to have all that CPU activity and memory tied up in the background when there's nothing for it to do.

 

Incidentally, I was under the impression that the Startup tag in msconfig was only a diagnostic tool - ie, it prevents the unchecked processes being launched on the next boot, but only that once. Next time it reverts to a full startup unless I've uninstalled that process or otherwise got rid of it. That seems to be how it works here anyway. :-)

 

Chris

Ghost Tray.exe is not a service and does not launch the Norton Ghost service which runs as process VProSvc.exe.  Windows services are started by the system (I think it's called DCOM) based on the settings in the Admin Tools/Services facility.  I still think you should totally get rid of Ghost Tray using msconfig's Startup tab.  These changes are usually permanent but some very persistent apps will re-enable themselves, especially when you upgrade them (QuickTime is the one that drives me nuts).  After making a change in the Startup tab, on the next boot of Windows a box will appear that "warns" you that you are not using the standard startup.  It has a checkbox to stop complaining.  Check the box and then tell it to continue on its way.  You should not see that box on subsequent boots unless you make more changes to msconfig.

 

If you saw Ghost Tray spike to 100% in the task manager, then for whatever reason Ghost Tray was indeed the culprit.  I suggest that after you get rid of Ghost Tray, enable the Norton Ghost service and then monitor VProSvc.exe via the task manager.  It should just be sitting there doing nothing except using some memory.   If it is actually running from time to time then I don't know what is going on.

 

 --Larry

Larry, I've no idea why, but it is definitely this GhostTray.exe that's showing the spikes - when the Norton Ghost service is running, vProSvc.exe is sitting there quietly in Task Manager processes doing nothing.

 

I've found that if the Norton Ghost service is stopped (so that the spikes go away), then I can restart it by right-clicking on the Ghost tray icon (with its little red cross) and clicking on 'Reconnect' in the drop-down menu. When the Norton Ghost service is stopped, vProSvc.exe disappears from the Task Manager list, so I agree that's what's running the service. I don't really need to know any more than this - it's enough for me to deal with the practical issues; but it still just bugs me.

 

I'll investigate the behaviour of msconfig here; but at present my PC is in the middle of its weekly AntiVirus scan, and I wouldn't want to upset it. ;-)

 

Chris

Thank you for posting this!

I had to kill the service when it was insisting on backing up to a drive that I had disconnected.  Seemed to be no other way to stop the service so I could reschedule the backup for a time when the drive would be connected.

-- Cici. 

To get rid of the icon in the system tray, start Ghost and click the "Options" button at the top of the window.  The dialog box will have several tabs, one labelled Tray Icon.  You can disable it there.  I think the icon will remain until you restart your PC or you can fire up the Task Manager and select GhostTray.exe from the list of processes and kill it with "End Process".

--Larry