MBAE System Tray Icon disappears w/Carbonite upgrade

[daledoc1]

Hi:

 

AFAIK This is a purely "cosmetic" issue, but I have seen this behavior now on 2 of my rigs.

(I have yet to test on the other 2.)

 

System is LT1 (specs below), running 1.03.1.1220 Free under Win7/64 with Sophos ES and MBAM Premium.

 

Problem: 

After an in-place minor software upgrade for Carbonite, the MBAE system tray icon disappears.

 

Steps to reproduce:

Install in-place, minor Carbonite software upgrade from v5.4 to v.5.5 - no reboot required.

After installation, the software automatically refreshes the desktop/system tray, as expected (I suspect it is refreshing explorer.exe).

 

Expected behavior:

MBAE icon would re-appear in the system tray, along with the other software icons.

 

Observed behavior:

MBAE icon does not refresh/re-appear in the system tray.

Program is still running in Windows Task Manager, & as confirmed by opening it from the desktop shortcut.

A check of the Win7/64 "icons and notifications" list via the "customize" link, shows the correct setting ("show icon and notifications"), but the icon itself is missing.

 

Workaround/fix:

System restart brings back the icon.

 

>>>I saw this identical behavior on my main production DT (DT1 in my sig below).

 

I presume this is one of those longstanding Windows "icon" hiccups.

However, the MBAE icon is the ONLY one which does not automatically restore/refresh itself after the Carbonite upgrade.

In that sense, the icon seems to be "unstable" during the refresh.

I will test this out on the other 2 boxes in the next day or so.

 

Thanks,

[pbust]

While looking at process explorer during the upgrade, do you see explorer.exe beeing killed and re-launched by any chance?

[daledoc1]

Hi:

 

Thanks for fast response, as always.

 

To answer your question: I don't know.

I didn't think to run Process Explorer during the Carbonite update process.

Would there be any point to run it now, after-the fact (I suspect not)???

 

Alas, I just performed the Carbonite update on "DT2", my older Win7/64 box before I saw your reply post.

So, I didn't have Process Explorer running on this box, either.  Stupid me. (A bit distracted with Patch Tuesday festivities today.)

 

Same behavior.

I need to correct the Carbonite version info -- it was 5.5.4.build4014 to 5.5.5.build4151 (but this likely does not matter).

Also unfortunately, Carbonite cleans up well after itself during an upgrade, automatically deleting its setup log file.

However, this time, I did fetch it out of the recycle bin -- it clearly logs the following (this is an excerpt):

 

1404917728    # 6032:Explorer autorestart=1
1404917728    # 6032:trying to kill running explorer.exe for all users
1404917728    # 6032:killed explorer.exe (4720)
1404917728    # 6032:finished trying to kill running explorer.exe for all users
1404917731    # 6032:_RestartExplorer succeeded. Desktop is up

 

And, just to be clear, only the MBAE system tray icon is gone.

Even without restarting the system, I can confirm that the MBAE application is still running.

So, it appears only to be a cosmetic curiosity until the next system reboot.

 

So, this is 3/3 on the rigs I've looked at.

My last rig, the old laptop, is slated for retirement soon (perhaps as soon as this week).

I will make a note to run Process Explorer during the Carbonite upgrade, just to get your data for you, before I uninstall all my software & wipe the drive.

 

>>>I can send the entire Carbonite setup log from the DT2 box now via PM, if it will help.

>>> Perhaps someone there at MBAM HQ who runs Carbonite (on a Win7 box) can reproduce this?

 

Cheers,

 

 

 

 

[daledoc1]

This appears to be a quirk that results from the fact that -- during its upgrade -- Carbonite kills and then restarts explorer.exe.

(This is strange behavior for a Windows application, to be sure, but nothing new for Carbonite -- its upgrades have always done this.  My hunch is that it relates to the Carbonite developers' intention to minimize the need for user interaction with the program -- an automatic explorer.exe kill/restart requires less "work" than a system reboot.)

 

The workaround to bring back the MBAE system tray icon is either to kill the MBAE.exe process and then restart it, or to reboot the system.

 

As Carbonite upgrades are infrequent, I guess I can live with this minor, cosmetic inconvenience.

 

Thanks to @pbust for help deciphering this.

[pbust]

Thanks for your help daledoc1.

 

I'll leave this one open so we can fix it down the road.

[Mwewe]

Just a little bump on this, Pedro: I'm still experiencing this problem with version 1.06.1018. It's an annoyance because it is definitely misbehaving.

 

 

I occasionally re-start my explorer to reset a few other mis-behaviors, and when I do, I lose the MBAE icon. It's still running, and I can bring up the program from it's shortcut, or I can kill and re-start the process, but it's still in the back of my mind and is a small irritant.

 

It's irritating mainly because all the other MB programs are of such high professional quality that this flaw pops right out!

 

So please check to make sure this problem is still in the to-do list.

 

Thanks,

Mwewe

 

Windows 7/64 Home Premium SP1, Intel Core i7-3770; 16 GB RAM, 3.4gHz

[pbust]

Thanks for the bump Mwewe.

 

MBAE's UI works from the registry's Run key, like many other software. MBAM's UI works differently as it runs from the service.