Program to view what another Program is doing when it is run?
 

Hi all,

I am not sure what to call what I am looking for but here is some info for what I need as I am not even sure it exists.

I have a program on a PC (plfe.exe) that is running an Arcade Machine (UltraPin) Frontend, this Machine was built by a Manufacturer (Global VR) with a set Hardware design, I have just had to replace the GPU in it as the old one failed and the newer one is presenting some problems.

I am using a nVidia GPU now (9800) and when the program opens it is making changes in the nVidia Control Panel changing the Digital Vibrance setting from 50% to 20% and once I close the program and even reboot this setting stays the same and I have to manually change it back again which is telling me it makes changes in the registry, and once I fix it and rerun the program it just changes it back, its throwing all the colours out so I need to try and find a way to fix it.

I am looking for a program that I can run my program through so I can see what it is doing when it opens so maybe I can stop it making the changes to the GPU settings, I don��t have the source code for the original program either and cannot get it.

So if anyone has any ideas what I can do I would like to know, my Operating System Specs are Windows XP Embedded SP2 x86.

Thanks for reading and the help.

Kind regards,

Kevin

I guess "Process Monitor" is what you are looking for:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645.aspx

You can log (and live-view) the activities of any program. This may help you to find out what the program in question does to change your settings.

Have fun.

Best regards
*Remedy*

Thanks *RemedY*,

Will download it and give it a go tomorrow and post back my results, have a good one.

Kind regards,

Kevin

Ok just a quick update, I downloaded and ran process monitor, was missing a dll at first but fixed that problem then the first time I ran it windows instantly shutdown then rebooted, then I tried opening process monitor again and it does open but I get a error saying "Unable to load Process Monitor driver" so all capturing is disabled, have googled this and tried what people suggest but can't get it to work, any ideas? Thanks.

Kind regards,

Kevin

Just read its not compatible with XPe looking for another solution now, cheers.

Kind regards,

Kevin

OK, just saw you are running XP Embedded. Any chance to run Python there?
If so, I maybe have some script laying around to help you with your problem.

Best regards
*RemedY*

If you want a general purpose custom solution, just go for PIN and write a small PIN tool that instruments all APIs whenever an image is loaded. This way you have maximum control over what you want to output whenever an API is hit.

Hi guys,

Thanks for the replies, mcp I am a bit of a noob when it comes to programming but am looking into it, *RemedY* haven't tried any python on it yet but am looking into it also, have found 2 debugging applications I am going to try tomorrow "FileMon & RegMon" from what I have read they will do a similar thing to "Process Monitor" but are said to work on XPe, will post my results with these, cheers.

Kind regards,

Kevin

If only there was a working equivalent of linux's strace/ptrace for windows. I think RemedY has something like that which can help you.

Yep, exactly! :)

I will download Python and install it later today after work, hopefully it installs without any issues, just looking at the versions available and can see there is quite a few, should I just go with the latest (3.2.3)? Thanks.

Uuuh, NO!

Python 3 is another language.
Take Python 2.7.x if it is available.
In Python 3 a lot of things changed compared to Python 2 and a great deal of Pythonistas refused switching to Python 3 (so did I). That's why they maintain two branches of the language for a really long period. In the long run everyone should switch to Python 3, but actually I'd measure this period in decades rather than years.

*RemedY*

Hi *RemedY*

Thanks for the reply, ok Python 2.7.3 installed without a problem, having never used it before I don't know what to do with it now, am doing some reading about it though while I wait for your reply, cheers.

Kind regards,

Kevin

sojourner353 - and all new members to the Forums:

You do not need to Quote the post you are responding to, especially when it is right about your Post and will still be visible to those reading the Thread. It simply adds to the volume of the database without adding any additional information to the readers. The can easily see what you are replying to right above your response. ;) You should only Quote the post if it is far enough above your post, or on a different page, that quoting may be necessary for your post to make sense.

Regards,

Ah, good. Python is running, that's fine.
I've just setup XPe in an emulator to test the scripts with it.
If all is well, I'll upload them somewhere for you, because your postcount doesn't allow you to download attachments from here.

Stay tuned.

*RemedY*

Sorry been away for a while, thanks *RemedY* for looking into the Python scripts, I have been testing a few things myself and the problem varies depending on the nVidia drivers I am using, some don't have the problem at all but are too unstable to be used and the ones I need have the problem, very strange.

I just tried Comodo Firewall which has feature to monitor what a program does to your system, he can block access to those you do not want.
I am not sure if it is the one you look for, but who knows :p

Thanks ivanov, will download it and give it a go tomorrow hopefully XPe is supported will post back my results.

Ok so I tried Comodo Firewall and it worked a treat however it didnt show me what I needed to see, I have just noticed that with the nVidia drivers that cause the problem the digital vibrance default setting got changed from 0% in older drivers to 50% in the newer ones.

I guess there is something in the program that calls for the default settings to be used and because the newer drivers were not around when the software was written its making the new 50% default change because 50% wasn't the default when the software was written 0% was.

My only option is to use older drivers which isn't the best because they are buggy with the software but the but the newer ones run great apart from the digital vibrance problem.

Have spleen some time googling this problem and it seems I'm not the only one suffering from it, other gamers have reported it happening when they run older software on the newer drivers also.

Have been in touch with the developers of the plfe.exe program and they explained a way for me to make the changes I needed so it now works fine on the latest nVIDIA Drivers and the Digital Vibrance problem is gone when opening the program now.

Thanks to everyone who helped with the issue, I appreciate the input.