Hello there folks.

We have a client that we have installed the latest version of ClamWin 0.92 to their desktop systems (WinXP Pro, fully upgraded with the latest patches). However, we have one system that upon reboot states that ClamTray cannot find python32.dll. The suggestion is to reinstall it and go from there. This is a simple fix, however upon reboot, the same error message comes back up for this particular user.

Thoughts and suggestions are welcomed. TIA.

Linux ETC

The Python23.dll should be in the clamwin bin folder (program files\clamwin\bin). Check if it is there. If it is not, something went wrong during installation.
While installing ClamWin, you can look at the Details (click the Detail button when install is done) and see if there are any comments on copying this file. If ClamTray is in the same folder as python23.dll, it should be able to find it.

Not to sound rude, but yes...we noticed that. My apologies for the typo earlier too, it should be python23.dll NOT python32.dll for the error.

Upon reboot, after the reinstall (yet again), the error message again, did check to see if C:\Program Files\Clamwin\bin\python23.dll was still there, and it still was.

We hit the ClaimTray.exe file and it came up manually, so perhaps it is something with the Startup folder as a thought.

More thoughts are welcomed.

Linux ETC

The Python32.dll in my ClamWin\bin directory is 957KB and it was last modified 2/08/2005. It has an MD5 hash of:
2f5ca9322cee79409188b751a2773400. Is yours the same?

Regards,

The file size and MD5 matched.

What I am leaning towards is that upon startup ClamTray.exe is just not finding the python23.dll file. However, upon doing a manual "click to start", it comes up without any errors. Simpler work around vs. reinstalling it, but still I would like to find why this error is still coming up.

Thanks for the MD5 check thought.

Time for some process of elimination.

If the problem is isolated to the startup launch mechanism, we need to troubleshoot that. So... how do we do that?

If I remember correctly, clamtray.exe should be launched from the registry's Run key under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run. Inside of that registry key there is going to be a value called "ClamTray" or something similar. If you double click on that value, and copy out the path that is used to launch clamtray, you may be able to paste it into the "run" box on the start menu to attempt to regenerate the error.

If the error does come up again, you should repeat the launch attempt, but this time use a tool called "Filemon" to monitor clamtray.exe's file actions. Filemon canbe found at https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896642.aspx. When you run filemon, click on the "filters" button which looks like the funnel. Put "python23" in the include box without quotes. That will enable all file accesses to that name to be logged.

When you attempt to launch clamtray via the startup mechanism again, you will see clamtray.exe attempting to access python23.dll in the log during load. The log should contain all the paths that failed when searching for python23.dll. This should shed some light on the problem.

As a temporary solution, one could remove the startup registry key, and instead place a shortcut to clamtray.exe in the users "StartUp" start menu folder.

On doing this of cutting and pasting things to the command prompt shell, the error was not reproduced.



Nice tool, thanks for the referral on it! This showed some nice information that I am use to see via Linux related tools.



This is where I noticed the possible culprit. In the "C:\Documents And Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup" I went to remove the ClamTray.exe. What I noticed was this was the actual file vs. a Shortcut (or "soft link"). What I suspect is that the actual file was looking for the python23.dll in the same directory, but since it is not there...errors out.

What I tried (and did not work) was to put the Shortcut to ClamTray.exe (from the "C:\Program Files\ClamWin\ClamTray.exe" location) in this same location for "All Users", reboot. No error message, but ClamTray.exe did not come up on the Toolbar either. So I went one step further and copied the same Shortcut to all of the users on the system, rebooted, and success.

I am labeling this as "Semi-Solved" due to that the installation apparently put the actual ClamTray.exe file within the Startup folder versus a Shortcut which is more a installation bug IMHO. If this should be closed out and put in a Bugzilla report, please advise.

Thanks to b0ne for assisting on the ideas which lead to finding the culprit and everyone else on their recommendations as well.

Linux ETC

This is odd.

I checked the installer script and my own Startup folders, just to be sure: ClamWin does not install shortcuts in the startup folder, it only uses the Run entry in the registry. There must have been some manual action involved here.

Anyway, if it's fixed now, there's no use in further investigations.

regards,
peter

Nope, no manual action involved with this. Just installation and re-installation of v0.92.

The only manual changes was the above noted "fix" to make things work by adding the Shortcut to the Startup folder for all users vs. the actual file that was there originally.

Linux ETC

Okay, then the question is: should this be "fixed" in ClamWin or should it be written up as a FAQ? I don't imagine it comes/will come up very often, but a FAQ/answer may help someone in the future.

Regards,

I am open either way since I am new to the ClamWin forums. It is valuable info any which case and should be available to the general masses.

Linux ETC