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One of my favorite Firefox add-ons is FireFTP. I use it all the time because it’s very convenient to FTP from my browser rather than firing up a separate application. That and FireFTP just works really well for me.

I went to transfer some files last evening and as soon as the transfer started, Firefox crashed. This isn’t something that happens on a regular basis, but I figured it was a glitch and restarted Firefox. Started FireFTP, connected to the web site, initiated the transfer and…another shower of sparks and the dreaded “Firefox has crashed” dialog.

Everything had worked fine last week, so I started taking inventory of what had changed since then. After a bit of thought, I realized I had installed an application called Surfboard Technologies Tracking Application on my system as part of a survey I was taking.

Step 1: get rid of the Tracking Application! I like my system setup the way it is and won’t go back to using a separate FTP application in order to accomodate badly behaved software. So, I brought up Control Panel, clicked on Programs and Features (yes, this system runs Vista ) and looked for “Surfboard”. I found the entry, clicked on it and clicked Uninstall.

Some 30 minutes later, the dialog was still there saying “Please wait while Windows configures Surfboard…blah, blah, blah”. The hard drive activity light was showing a lot of activity, so I started to wonder what the uninstall process was actually doing. I clicked the Cancel button. The dialog sat there pretty much as before.

I decided to find the process and kill it, so I ran SysInternals’ very handy Process Explorer and searched for “Surfboard” among the running processes. I found a number of entries which told me that the actual executable name is PanelApp.exe. I also got the process ID so with that I went back to Task Manager and found the ID matched up with msiexec.exe. I killed the process and the dialog went away.

The Surfboard app was still showing in Programs and Features, so I knew it hadn’t completed the uninstall process. To keep it from starting up again, I found the directory where PanelApp.exe lived (c:\users\name\AppData\Local\ of all places!) and renamed it to PanelApp.old. I also started up msconfig, found PanelApp in the list of startup programs and disabled it there. I then rebooted the machine.

Now that the Surfboard Tracking Application wasn’t running any more, I tried Firefox again and it crashed again when FireFTP started a file transfer. Firefox immediately crashed. I ran Process Explorer again to see if there was something running that I’d missed. Sure enough, I found that Surfboard had added an add-on to Firefox called PanelApp BHO. I clicked the add-on and was given the option to Disable, but the Uninstall button was greyed out. I clicked Disable, restarted Firefox and tried FireFTP again.

This time I was able to get a clean file transfer so the problem obviously was the PanelApp BHO add-on. So, with that out of the way, I tried the uninstall again from the Control Panel.

I started the uninstall and let it run while I did some other things. Finally, I went to bed and left the system running. The dialog was still there in the morning “configuring…”! I went into Task Manager, killed the process and noticed that the dialog flashed a message of some kind just before it closed.

I checked Programs and Features and the Surfboard entry is gone, so the uninstall process at least got that far. The add-on still shows up in the Firefox add-on list, but I’ll get rid of that, too.

Needless to say, I’m not a big fan of Surfboard Technologies right about now. Just a word of warning if you’re presented with the opportunity to install it on your machine. My advice is don’t!

John The Geek

The latest paid version of the Windows Secrets newsletter contains an article by editor Gizmo Richards touting the superiority of Windows Vista over Windows XP. Sorry, gang, but I couldn’t resist. Below is the email I just sent to the Windows Secrets crew:

Hi, guys,

First, let me say that I have the utmost respect for Gizmo Richards and have been a subscriber to his TechSupportAlert newsletter for some time. In general, his reviews are helpful and accurate.

So, after reading the latest column under Gizmo’s byline regarding the alleged superiority of Vista over XP, I’ve gotta ask: who is that guy and what’s he done with Gizmo?

I’ve owned a Vista laptop for almost a year and been through the initial version as well as SP1. While I will admit there are a few things about the Vista interface that are actually improvements, in general, I’ll take XP over Vista any time. The big reason: it actually works! Things do what they’re supposed to do, even if they don’t look quite as cool.

Vista’s Wi-Fi management is terrible. XP’s Wi-Fi management is simple and straightforward. Vista wants to connect to whatever network it can find despite being told innumerable times to remove offending networks from its list. Sometimes it actually connects to my own network on the occasions when the random-order generator puts it at the head of the list. In these days when virtually every Internet user has a Wi-Fi network broadcasting all over the neighborhood, the list of networks Vista finds gets pretty long and there’s no way I can find to tell it to ignore all but mine and any others I’ve approved. At least XP only connects automatically to those networks to which I’ve specifically connected in the past AND in the order I specified.

Vista’s Windows Explorer apparently has a random view generator, as well. When I create a new directory, it’s a real adventure to see which view configuration it will decide is appropriate. The defaults have the file name…period. No date/time stamp, no size, no file type, all the things XP users take for granted. I carefully set the directory view the way I want it, go into the Tools | Folder Options menu and tell it to set that view for All Folders and the little folder gnomes inside must bust a gut laughing. The next time I go into a directory it’s decided to Group things!

What genius decided that it’s necessary to group my file listings by 0-9, A-H, etc? Alphabetical order is sufficient, thankyouverymuch.

Exploring in Vista is more exciting than ever because I can attempt to access certain directories and be told that I don’t have access to them. Excuse me? This is my machine and I’m the administrator thereof. By definition I have access to whatever I want access to!

Before you ask, of course I’ve turned off UAC, another stroke of genius by the Microsofties. Apparently, there were numerous meetings of the design team to find ways to make Vista as annoying as possible for users who have a clue. If I want a machine that insulates itself from me, I’ll buy a Mac.

I could go on, but suffice to say that I beg to differ with Gizmo on this one. The only reason I haven’t downgraded my laptop to XP Pro is a lack of the required time to do so. The real improvements in Vista are so few and so far outweighed by its stupidities as to be meaningless.

All the above notwithstanding, thanks for Windows Secrets and the work you guys do.

John The Geek