There are two issues with my Windows Vista computer and I am unsure whether they are related to each other. First, when booting up the computer the following message regularly appears: “APPLICATION ERROR. Exception EAccessViolation in module dd.exe at 0003a423. Access violation at address 000431423 in module dd.exe. Read of address 00000008”. Clicking the OK button removes the message, although it is irritating and interrupts the boot-up process so I would like to eliminate this nuisance if possible. Second, when I am logged onto the internet the internet screen duplicates itself at around one or two second intervals, each screen overlaying the previous like playing cards. The only way to stop this endless overlaying is to log off the internet, and even this can be difficult as the log off menu is often obscured by another overlay. This overlaying behaviour has also occurred when not logged onto the internet. Can you suggest a fix for this problem?

While it is possible that these two problems are related we will first look at dealing with the error message relating to dd.exe that appears when you start the computer. Searching the internet for information on this particular problem yielded other users who have encountered this error message, but unfortunately none of the information which was provided gave a clue as to the root cause of the actual problem or the purpose of the dd.exe utility! Therefore, we will need to do some investigative work ourselves to find the root cause of the problem. Most likely the computer is (for some reason) starting the dd.exe program when Windows loads but it is disagreeing with your computer (due to a potential conflict or perhaps other files associated with the program are missing). So our first procedure will involve trying to track-down how the dd.exe program is starting on Windows startup. On your computer press the Windows Key + R combination to open the “Run” box and then type “msconfig” (without the quotes) and click OK. This will open the System Configuration Utility which allows us to view, enable and disable items which load on Windows startup. This is particularly useful for our current troubleshooting as we can attempt to track down how the dd.exe program is loading on startup. In the System Configuration Utility window click the “Startup” tab. This will list all programs which load on startup. Look through the list of items, paying particular attention to the “Command” column which shows the actual file being loaded – you may need to expand the column in order to see the full path and filename. If you happen to find an entry for the “dd.exe” file untick that entry which will disable it from loading on startup. It would also be worthwhile at this point to note down the location (path) to the dd.exe file as we may wish to check that out later. Once this has all been done, click OK to save and close then restart the computer to check whether the problem has been fixed. If the error message no longer appears on startup then it seems the problem has been resolved, although keep reading below as it would be worthwhile doing some clean-up and additional checks to ensure that this problem is gone for good.

Before doing so though, we should deal with the situation whereby you were not able to find a specific entry for dd.exe in the Startup tab and thus were not able to disable that entry. In this situation it is more likely that some other entry is loading the dd.exe file, so it is now a matter of tracking down exactly which entry is doing the loading. Unfortunately the only way to test this theory is trial and error. Write down all of the entries on the Startup tab which are currently enabled and then disable all of the entries, effectively disabling all items from loading on startup. Once this has been done, click OK and then restart the computer. When the computer reboots if the message does not appear then one of those items was causing the dd.exe file to load and, because everything has now been disabled, it is no longer loading and therefore the error does not appear. So, we will now need to determine exactly which item is causing the problem. This will involve re-enabling each item one at a time, restarting the computer after this is done and then checking whether the problem re-occurs. When the problem starts happening again you know that the most recently enabled item is causing the problem and you should be able to leave that item disabled while re-enabling the remaining items. As mentioned previously, once you have found the specific item which is causing or triggering the problem write down the location of that item so we can undertake further investigation.

Hopefully by this point the problem has been fixed as you have successfully determined the startup item which is causing dd.exe to load, and subsequently disabled that particular item. However, we should do some follow-up checks. Looking at the path to either the location of the dd.exe (in the event that this actual file was listed in the Startup tab and you disabled it’s entry) or alternatively the path to some other file (which seemed to be loading the dd.exe file, as disabling that other file stopped the error message appearing) you may be able to tell the purpose of the files since the folder name may give some clues. If it seems to be a legitimate program then it could be worthwhile doing some additional investigation on the internet to check whether this is a known problem and whether there are any ways to resolve the issue. Alternatively, if the path to the file seems to be towards a system path or generally strange path then this could indicate that the file is potentially malicious, since generally malware and viruses store themselves in such locations in an attempt to avoid detection.

This also links across well into your second question. You mentioned that the “internet screen” duplicates itself when you are using the internet (and also when you are not using the internet). I am a bit unsure what you mean by the term “internet screen” but I presume that you are referring to the web browser window, such as the Internet Explorer window duplicating itself. This type of behaviour is indicative of malware (such as adware) being installed on the computer since they often cause the internet browser windows to appear to display unsolicited advertisements. This could be linked back to the first question since files which are difficult to identify (even when searching the internet) such as the dd.exe file which we have encountered can be related to malware. As such, I would recommend that you complete a full antivirus and antimalware scan of your computer to check whether any such threats are present. If you don’t have an antivirus scanner then I recommend Microsoft Security Essentials (…) which is a free antivirus (and antimalware) tool provided by Microsoft. Additionally, it would also be worthwhile scanning your computer using Ad-Aware Free (www.lavasoft.com) and Spybot Search & Destroy (www.safer-networking.org) which are two of the more well-known antimalware tools.

Should any viruses or malware be detected on your computer then you should follow the steps to remove these. However, as you may have read in my previous columns, I am always very concerned once a system has become infected since, even if you use tools to clean the system, you can never be totally certain that the threats have been completely removed. Therefore, if the infection was significant you may wish to consider backing-up all of your data you wish to keep then formatting the hard drive and completing a clean reinstallation of Windows, as that will be the only way to guarantee that the threat is completely removed from your computer.