Flash Update Flashes svchost.exe Window via Scheduled Tasks

[Guest]

Flash Update Flashes svchost.exe Window via Scheduled Tasks.

This has been going on for me since Adobe introduced silent updates way back when.

If you're not aware, Flash update runs a scheduled task every hour. It counts each time it runs. Once it reaches 25 runs or in other words, 25 hours, it connects to Adobe's site to see if your Flash is up to date.

Well for me, it many, many times flashes svchost.exe on the screen when it'd doing it's hourly count. Most of the time when the svchost.exe window flashes, it closes right away but sometimes it lingers for a bit. Other times it lingers for anywhere between 5 to 20 seconds as best as I can recall.

Please don't tell me to remove and reinstall Flash. This has been happening for me on brand new installs and different computers.

I just googled for 5 minutes or so right now and have googled in the past but found no mention of this problem. Perhaps my search skills are lacking.

Any ideas how to solve this?

Thanks

[jaclaz]

Pardon me, but I am not sure to understand the issue , can you not disable the updates?

Like:

http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1250949

and/or:

http://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/kb/administration-configure-auto-update-notification.html

http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/flash-update-settings.html

jaclaz

[Guest]

I hardly rely on it but there's been a few times that silent update has beaten me to the punch. I normally know when a new version is out before it updates itself.

Given the above, why on earth would I want to disable the auto update? Patch baby, patch!

Thanks for your reply but your solution is not a fix. It's just something to ignore the problem. :/

[jaclaz]

I hardly rely on it but there's been a few times that silent update has beaten me to the punch. I normally know when a new version is out before it updates itself.

Given the above, why on earth would I want to disable the auto update? Patch baby, patch!

Thanks for your reply but your solution is not a fix. It's just something to ignore the problem. :/

Just for the record, the previous post was NOT a fix, nor a solution, and not even an attempt to a fix, it was "asking for more info as I was not sure about your question".

A possible solution may be to disable the Adobe update and run manually (through your own Task, let's say once daily) the Flash update through command line, *like*:

http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1052745

http://www.karlhorky.com/2012/06/manually-run-autoupdate-for-adobe-flash.html

I am taking however note of how graciously you answered to such request for further info, and will surely refrain from further posting anything that may appear to you as a solution but that is not.

jaclaz

[Guest]

That's fine. Nothing lost really.

You know your stuff but most of the time all you do is post links. I do follow some and learn from them so I do appreciate you.

I on the other hand, help people with a step by step procedures to follow if necessary.

We just have different ways of going about things I guess.

Anyways, back to my bug...I'm open to a fix, not a band-aid. Any takers?

Thanks.

edited for typos

Edited November 27, 2013 by -X-

[jaclaz]

For NO apparent reason.

jaclaz

[Guest]

lol

[bphlpt]

So let me get this straight. You don't mind that Adobe runs a scheduled task every hour, and you don't mind that Adobe calls home once a day. You just don't like the Flash Update flashing the svchost.exe window? Well, jaclaz really did give you a valid solution in both of his posts, just like in the classic joke:

Patient: Doc, it hurts when I do this.

Doc: Then don't do that!

(pause for groans from audience)

Seriously, I think many folks, including me, would rather not have Adobe that active, but would rather control those actions with their own timing, even if that means being a couple of days late in getting an update, hence jaclaz's suggestions would not be considered band-aids by them. But that is my opinion. For many others, like your mother or grandfather, it is much much better that updates are always automatic, so I can see the value of either approach.

For clarification, do you mind the flash at all, or just when it "hangs"? Since I have never seen the "flash", (I don't know if being on Win7 is a factor), do you mean a cmd window that opens? I guess it might be helpful if you were able to catch a screenshot when it hangs. I understand it's very intermittent, but I'm just saying...

Cheers and Regards

[jaclaz]

just like in the classic joke:

Patient: Doc, it hurts when I do this.

Doc: Then don't do that!

(pause for groans from audience)

I was thinking more at this one :

Doctor, Doctor When I press with my finger here... it hurts, and here... it hurts, and here... and here... What do you think is wrong with me?

You have a broken finger!

jaclaz

[Ponch]

An other question is why does it happen only to you ? It's hard to tell who's spent more time in front of more computers than someone else, surely most people her are far above the average people in the street, well, I've never seen a flashing windows about Flash. Then again the big majority of PC's I've been caring for or working on were turned off at night (or like servers, don't have Flash). Are your 25 hours supposed to be continuous for the flash to show ?

[Guest]

If I'm understanding your question correctly, no, the flash occurs more than once per day. It doesn't happen at the 25 hour mark. It's the hourly count that causes the cmd/svchost.exe window to show.

There's no way I can capture it by running some sort of screen video recorder. The file size would be huge!

Perhaps I'll get lucky and manage to mash the print screen button while the window is active.

Hasn't happened since I posed the question...that's about 12 hours ago.

[Ponch]

Problems solved then.

[Guest]

Man my PC went nuts last night. Lost all my icons and I tried all the known fixes so I had to do a restore from a clone image.

Since the MD5 sum of the Flash updater changed, my firewall blocked it when it tried to connect to Adobe. End result was that the screen stayed on screen and I managed a screen grab. Doesn't really show anything exciting but here it is...

Last night, before my disaster, I tried a video capture by running the scheduled task manually but the FPS was just to low to grab the AVI frame even thought I tried to max everything out in Xvid. I even tried uncompressed video.

edited for grammer and spelling

Edited November 28, 2013 by -X-

[Octopuss]

This has never ever happened to me. Maybe it's your PC.

[Ponch]

I got Flash 11.9 today. 17.4MB !!! Woohoo, go Adobe! Do you remember two years ago when it was 2 Megs for IE and 2egs for FF? Now it's 4 times bigger. It reminds me of that other program which only purpose was to open pdf files... What was the maker again ?