After using the computer for around 10 minutes the following message appears: “C:\Program Files\Common Files\supportsoft\bin\tgctisi.dll is not a valid Windows image”. How can I stop this message from appearing? The computer is running Windows XP.

The “not a valid Windows image” message means that Windows is attempting to load a particular type of file (in this case, a DLL file which are libraries of code that are shared and used in multiple different programs) but the file is not valid and therefore Windows cannot load the file. The most important part of the error message is the filename, since that will assist us in determining the file causing the problem and provide us with our best lead toward fixing the issue. The file causing the problem is “tgctisi.dll”. A search of the internet reveals that this file is related to a software utility called SupportSoft SmartIssue. From the information I have been able to gather, it seems that this utility is bundled with software packages and allows information to be gathered about a system for the purpose of troubleshooting software. This does not appear to be distributed as a stand-alone software package, so it likely came bundled with another piece of software installed on your computer.

Interestingly, I also found information indicating that there could be a bug in earlier versions of this utility (in particular, the “tgctisi.dll” file) that could cause unexpected behaviour such as this error message appearing. As a first step, we should see whether this utility is running as an individual process on your computer because if so then we may be able to prevent the process from loading on Windows startup and because it won’t be running the error should not appear. Go to the “Start” menu > “Run” and type “msconfig” (without the quotes) then click OK. In the System Configuration Utility window that appears select the “Startup” tab. This lists all items which load on startup. Look through the list of startup items to see whether there are any items matching the name of the package (SupportSoft SmartIssue) or the path where the problematic file is located (C:\Program Files\Common Files\supportsoft). If you do find an entry matching one of these criteria take note of the item and then untick the entry so it does not load on Windows startup. Click OK and then restart the computer to check whether the problem continues. Be aware, when the computer re-starts a window may appear informing you that the computer is running in selective startup mode. This is perfectly normal, as it is just telling you that you have changed which processes should load on Windows startup and thus placed Windows into a more selective startup procedure. You can safely ignore the message and tick the box to not display that message again.

If the problem no longer continues then you should be able to leave that process disabled, assuming that this does not cause any undesirable side-effect. However, if you were not able to find a relevant process in the startup list then it seems the file is being loaded as part of another software package. Unfortunately this will be much harder to track down. Close all visible programs which are running on your computer, including those in the system tray (next to the clock). After this happens, wait 10 minutes to see whether the problem occurs. If not, one of those programs was causing the problem so it will now be a process of elimination to determine which one is the cause. However, if the problem continues then it seems a background process is the cause. In this case, press CTRL-ALT-DEL to open the Windows Task Manager and click the “Processes” tab. You should see a “User Name” heading on the processes table. If not, go to the “View” menu > “Select Columns…” and tick the box to show the User Name column. Now, click the “User Name” column heading so that the table sorts by user name. Close one of the processes which are running under your user name and then wait to see whether the problem continues. If so, repeat the same procedure to close another process. Keep repeating the process until the problem stops, at which point you know that the most recently closed process is the one causing the difficulty.

Once you have identified the program or process causing the issue you should do some research to determine the nature of the program or process. If it is not necessary, you could perhaps untick its entry in the System Configuration Utility so that it does not automatically start with Windows so it doesn’t trigger the problem. Alternatively, if you do need the program then you may need to check whether an update or fix is available for the problem.

Even though this file does look legitimate, sometimes malicious files (such as viruses and malware) have been known to disguise themselves as legitimate files. Therefore, it would be worthwhile to also run an anti-virus scan (with the latest virus definition files) and an anti-malware scan using your preferred utilities for peace of mind.