# what the heck is this background program? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 8, 2009, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-this-background-program/502363 "2009-07-08T20:06:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2009, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-this-background-program/502363/1 "2009-07-08T20:06:37Z")
I see that when I do alt/control/delete that there’s a program running on my new laptop called PTChangeFilterservice.exe and it uses over 120K of memory. What does it do for me? Can I delete or disable it? How do I do that? Should I not? Thanks, Dopers. xo, C. ---
**Author:** ![Turek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/turek/32/18782_2.png) [@Turek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turek)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2009, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-this-background-program/502363/2 "2009-07-08T20:14:01Z")
It’s part of HP Protect Tools. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2009, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-this-background-program/502363/3 "2009-07-08T20:14:48Z")
It’s a program from H/P Here’s a [page](http://forums11.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/bizsupport/questionanswer.do?admit=109447626+1247083840746+28353475&threadId=1277338) that asks the same question and gives a way to disable it ---
**Author:** ![Stathol](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/71e660/32.png) [@Stathol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stathol)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2009, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-this-background-program/502363/4 "2009-07-08T20:26:30Z")
Sheesh. **Everyone** knows that your computer needs to have its fitters changed every 30,000 petaflops. While you’re at it, make sure they rotate your CPU cores and balance the SATA cables. ---
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2009, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-this-background-program/502363/5 "2009-07-08T20:28:08Z")
That’s a great link. I’ll use one of those ways to disable it, but I can’t tell - I’m not tech savvy enough - if it’s at all dangerous to do so. Does anyone here know? ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2009, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-this-background-program/502363/6 "2009-07-08T20:35:09Z")
Looking at the updated version at the bottom of that HP forum page, it seems that the application is involved with credential and fingerprint management and drive encryption and assorted other security-related things. I’m assuming the laptop has a fingerprint reader, and that if you uninstall or disable the Protect Tools suite, the reader will not be usable. ---
**Author:** ![Bad\_Astronaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Bad\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bad_Astronaut)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2009, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-this-background-program/502363/7 "2009-07-08T20:43:41Z")
Also, 120k of memory is nothing. Your laptop probably has some multiple of 1,000,000k (1GB) of memory. There’s no reason to worry about it as long as it’s not using your CPU in a noticeable way (it should be listed as using 0% of the CPU in your task manager). ---
**Author:** ![Stathol](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/71e660/32.png) [@Stathol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stathol)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2009, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-this-background-program/502363/8 "2009-07-08T20:53:32Z")
To make a serious contribution to the thread: > [@gotpasswords](#): > > Looking at the updated version at the bottom of that HP forum page, it seems that the application is involved with credential and fingerprint management and drive encryption and assorted other security-related things. > > I’m assuming the laptop has a fingerprint reader, and that if you uninstall or disable the Protect Tools suite, the reader will not be usable. This may be the case, but it’s still not clear what actual role this executable plays in that process. Frequently, these things ship with components whose sole purpose in life is to do something utterly useless, like harassing the user for changing a particular file type association, even though the “parent” application may provide some useful function. To make a WAG, “PTChangeFilterservice.exe” sounds like it may be involved in monitoring an upper or lower filter device. These are kind of psuedo device-drivers that sit between an actual physical device’s raw driver and the kernel. You commonly see them with input devices like keyboards and mice, but it wouldn’t surprise me to see one in the context of other input devices like a finger scanner. That said, I’d be willing to bet that you can disable it without anything terrible happening, and if it were me, I would do so – if only to test exactly what the darn thing does and what, if anything, actually depends on it. If disabling it breaks the thumb reader, etc., then no harm, no foul. Just turn it back on and reboot. That should be easy enough to do if you disable it with something like the “autoruns” utility from the [Sysinternals Suite](http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb842062.aspx) (acquired by Microsoft a few years ago).