# How to find Windows program location? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 29, 2000, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-find-windows-program-location/31194 "2000-08-29T15:53:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2000, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-find-windows-program-location/31194/1 "2000-08-29T15:53:37Z")
I noticed in my Win95 task list that there is an application called “Robot” which I don’t recall being there before. This is the task list you see when you hit Crtl-Alt-Del. I can end the Robot task, and I don’t notice anything changing, and nothing disappears from the System Tray. So I’m wondering where this program came from, what it does, and whether I can get rid of it. What caused me to look in the first place was that I was having some problems where my browser couldn’t find many web servers. It started with Opera, so I uninstalled Opera and re-installed it, and the problem moved to the Netscape browser. It appears there each time I reboot. I have looked in the Registry, in the HKEY\_CURRENT\_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Run and RunOnce, also similar keys in the HKEY\_LOCAL\_MACHINE, but I can’t find anything that loads something I don’t know about. Is there a way to determine where the executable is? I assume that if I know the executable name, I can I got a DSL line a couple of months ago, and recently I got a hardware gateway/firewall. So there were a few weeks where my PC was not entirely protected by a firewall, though I don’t think there were any listening sockets during that time, and I didn’t have NetBEUI enabled. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2000, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-find-windows-program-location/31194/2 "2000-08-29T16:19:33Z")
Um, did you do a “find”? ---
**Author:** ![Crusoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2000, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-find-windows-program-location/31194/3 "2000-08-29T16:33:21Z")
As **lissener** said: **Start** \> **Find** \> **Files or Folders…** ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2000, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-find-windows-program-location/31194/4 "2000-08-29T16:40:32Z")
could be a virus or trojan in which case you may need more but as a first step check other places where programs can start: folder C:\windows\start menu\programs\startup Windows\Win.ini Registry: HKey\_Users / Default / Software / Microsoft / Windows / Current Version / Run ---
**Author:** ![Meephead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b782af/32.png) [@Meephead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meephead)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2000, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-find-windows-program-location/31194/5 "2000-08-29T16:43:00Z")
Robot is a program that I have seen on many name-brand PCs. I don’t know what its function, but I think it loads in System.ini on the load= or the run= line. Try that and see if that helps. ---
**Author:** ![Meephead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b782af/32.png) [@Meephead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meephead)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2000, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-find-windows-program-location/31194/6 "2000-08-29T16:44:02Z")
Oops… that would be Win.ini ---
**Author:** ![JSexton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@JSexton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JSexton)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2000, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-find-windows-program-location/31194/7 "2000-08-29T16:50:36Z")
Find is one option, as mentioned. Add/Remove Programs is another. That’s in control panels, if you aren’t aware. You might also check your startup sequence. ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2000, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-find-windows-program-location/31194/8 "2000-08-29T19:16:37Z")
Yes, I’m suspicious of a Trojan Horse program. There are no files on my system with “robot” in the name, other than the ones making up the Robotz sound scheme. Also, there is nothing in the registry containing the string “robot”, other than the Robotz sound scheme. And it’s not in the win.ini file either. There is a program somewhere which is loading when Windows starts. The program idenitifies itself as “robot” when I do a Ctrl-Alt-Del, but the file name of the program is not “robot”. What I would really like is a way to correlate the “robot” program that’s running to its file name. Then I can look through the registry for that file name if I want to kill it. ---
**Author:** ![Joe\_Cool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecb155/32.png) [@Joe\_Cool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joe_Cool)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2000, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-find-windows-program-location/31194/9 "2000-08-29T20:16:07Z")
Robot is not a virus or trojan or anything like that. It is fairly common (I forget which brand…HP? Compaq?) program that I believe has something to do with winmodems. Sorry, but it’s been a few years since I quit AOL tech support. But that’s when I encountered it most often. More detail when I find it. ---
**Author:** ![Meephead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b782af/32.png) [@Meephead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meephead)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2000, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-find-windows-program-location/31194/10 "2000-08-29T20:21:56Z")
I did a little digging: According to this website, [http://members.aol.com/tsrlst/](http://members.aol.com/tsrlst/) Robot is the “Scripting part of the IBM Aptiva Reminder to Register app” That being said, I bet the culprit program is the Remind.EXE that loads in Win.ini or in the startup folder. ---
**Author:** ![Joe\_Cool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecb155/32.png) [@Joe\_Cool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joe_Cool)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2000, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-find-windows-program-location/31194/11 "2000-08-29T20:23:24Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Meephead \* > \*\*I did a little digging: > > According to this website, [http://members.aol.com/tsrlst/](http://members.aol.com/tsrlst/) > > Robot is the “Scripting part of the IBM Aptiva Reminder to Register app” > > That being said, I bet the culprit program is the Remind.EXE that loads in Win.ini or in the startup folder. \*\* Crap, you beat me to it! I just found the same thing here: [http://www.groovyminds.com/tsr.htm](http://www.groovyminds.com/tsr.htm) ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2000, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-find-windows-program-location/31194/12 "2000-08-29T20:32:10Z")
yeah, some programs do that, they install some program that reminds you to register. I am trying to install an HP CD writer and it also does it. One more piece of crap to run in the background. You can delete the program itself but I would also try to find where it is being launched and correct it. You should find it in one of the places already mentioned.