ctfmon.exe won't die!

[robertliguori]

I may have a variant of CWS, but the shredder can’t see it. Neither can Ad-Aware or Spybot. Symptoms:

1. Ctfmon.exe is in my startup list. If I remove it, it comes back.
2. Ctfmon.exe is in my system32 directory. If I delete/rename it, a new copy appears momentarily.

Now, is this normal behavior? I don’t see why a program should naturally be this persistent. I’m tempted to just nuke every registry entry to ctfmon.exe and see what happens. Is there a better way to get rid of it?

[Dragwyr]

From Microsoft

**What Is the Ctfmon.exe (Ctfmon.exe) File? **
Ctfmon.exe activates the Alternative User Input Text Input Processor (TIP) and the Microsoft Office Language Bar.

**What Does the Ctfmon.exe File Do? **
Ctfmon.exe monitors the active windows and provides text input service support for speech recognition, handwriting recognition, keyboard, translation, and other alternative user input technologies.

**Can I Remove the Ctfmon.exe File? **
Removing the Ctfmon.exe might cause problematic behavior in your Office XP programs, so removing it is not recommended.

They do have steps included to remove it if you really want, just be careful.

[Dead_Badger]

@robertliguori

Now, is this normal behavior? I don’t see why a program should naturally be this persistent. I’m tempted to just nuke every registry entry to ctfmon.exe and see what happens. Is there a better way to get rid of it?

It’s normal - it’s part of MS Office. It doesn’t do anything particularly useful (assuming you don’t use weird input devices) and can be turned off. While you’re doing it, you can turn off Office Assistant if you like.

Apparently there’s a variant of CWS that uses the executable “ctfmon32.exe”, though - if that’s what you’ve got, delete the relevant file.

[Dragwyr]

I also came across This site that claims to have a tool to remove ctfmon.exe .

[bashere]

cftmon.exe is not spyware, although it is difficult to get rid of. Here are a couple of articles on the subject that may clear things up:

http://www.boredguru.com/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=427&forum=24

http://www.liutilities.com/products/wintaskspro/processlibrary/ctfmon/

typing “cftmon.exe” into google will give even more information on the subject.

[ouryL]

@robertliguori

I may have a variant of CWS, but the shredder can’t see it. Neither can Ad-Aware or Spybot. Symptoms:

1. Ctfmon.exe is in my startup list. If I remove it, it comes back.
2. Ctfmon.exe is in my system32 directory. If I delete/rename it, a new copy appears momentarily.

Now, is this normal behavior? I don’t see why a program should naturally be this persistent. I’m tempted to just nuke every registry entry to ctfmon.exe and see what happens. Is there a better way to get rid of it?

SEE: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=282599