Alert: Bad Image; netsetup.cpl; invalid Windows image

[ptran]

Hi,

When I use FARR for the first time on my dual boot machine (Windows XP 32 bit and 64 bit) from my 32-bit installation, FARR displays a popup alert window with the following message:

Find and Run Robot: FindAndRunRobot.exe - Bad Image
The application or DLL C:\WINDOWS\system32\netsetup.cpl is not a valid Windows image. Please check this against  your installation diskette.

My 32-bit Windows XP is in drive E: and my 64-bit Windows XP is in drive C:.

Under Options > Search Folders, I don't have any entries that explicityly list C:\WINDOWS\system32.

So, I don't know how FARR is encountering that file.

When this alert comes up, I click OK, and the alert will come up again two more times. After I click on it for the third time, it never comes up again until after I login again, which is usually after a reboot.

[f0dder]

Hm, that's pretty interesting.

My first guess: FARR keeps a history of your launched items. Upon reading the history and trying to extract icons, FARR uses standard windows icon extraction APIs... and the 32-bit Windows version is obviously totally ignorant of 64-bit PE executables.

[ptran]

Good point. I just checked my FARR launch history and all the items are from drive D: (just data directories) or E: (the 32-bit boot drive). I don't see any entries from drive C:.

[f0dder]

Hmmmm!

Did you check the .ini file? And do your two separate windows intalls use the same drive letter arrangements?

[ptran]

I've looked at E:\Program Files\FindAndRunRobot\FindAndRunRobot.ini and see no occurrences of "C:" or "c:".

I'm not sure I understand your second question about the drive letter assignments. Maybe the information below will help.

1. My 64-bit XP was installed first in drive C: and I used D: for data files. Drive E: contained Vista 64-bit.
2. I did not know about FARR yet, so it was not installed in either C: or E:.
3. I had the E: partition formatted and replaced with 32-bit XP. When I boot into 32-bit XP, WINDIR=E:\WINDOWS.
4. In 32-bit XP, my PATH variable in 32-bit XP does not contain any paths from drive C:.

[mouser]

f0dder's guess about what is happening is pretty good.
check the search directories for FARR in its options.

you could also try clearing your farr launch history and restarting it and see if the problem is gone.

[ptran]

I think clearing my launch history may have solved the problem. I cleared the launch history. When I bring up FARR, it does not display any items. I launched Outlook, Firefox, and a batch file that launches a command window. I then clicked on the launch history tab in Options and it shows only the three items I started up. For those three invocations of FARR, I have not encountered the netsetup.cpl error.

I am doing the above remotely, connecting to my computer at work (the machine with the 32-bit and 64-bit XP). I'll be exercising FARR on that machine some more when I get back to work on Monday.

I do think it's odd that I was running into this error even though no items in my launch history (when viewing the tab and the FARR .ini file) included items from drive C:.

Thanks for all the help. If I run into it again, I'll be sure to post a message.

[ptran]

Sorry, but I'm still encountering those alert messages about "bad image".

I don't know if the following information will be useful: ProcessExplorer (from SysInternals) says the alert message window is from csrss.exe, which is described as "Client Server Runtime Process".

Here's one scenario that's reproducing the error consistently.
1. I bring up FARR.
2. I type "w" and see some entries. Here's a screenshot: http://www.box.net/s...tatic/69d0ob8kk0.png
3. I type "o" and the "Bad Image" alert comes up. I click OK and another one pops up. The alert pops up 7 times total. Here's a screenshot: http://www.box.net/s...tatic/gmrw6x7kg4.png

And here's a screenshot of the bad image message: http://www.box.net/s...tatic/mjcq3hhgkc.png

[mouser]

It sounds like one of the control panel shortcuts is confusing farr.  that might solve it

Try deleting the "FindAndRunRobot/Scripts/Control Panel (cpanel)/Network Setup Wizard (cpanel).lnk" shorcut
(dont actually delete it, move it to some temp directory on your computer outside of FARR directory).

If that dont solve it, try deleting the entire "FindAndRunRobot/Scripts/Control Panel (cpanel)" folder.

[ptran]

Hi,

Thanks for the tip about those shortcuts. I am no longer seeing those "bad image" messages when I typed the "wo" sequence as I described in my post on March 7. I followed the tips and ended up moving two shortcuts:

Network Setup Wizard (cpanel).lnk
Wireless Network Setup Wizard (cpanel).lnk

If either of these entries are in the "FindAndRunRobot/Scripts/Control Panel (cpanel)" directory under "E:\Program Files", then typing the "wo" sequence results in the "bad image" alert about "C:\WINDOWS\System32\netsetup.cpl". Now that I have moved both of them into another directory outside of the FARR installation directory tree, I no longer see the "bad image" alert when using the "wo" sequence.

This workaround looks very promising because I was able to reproduce the alert and verify my "wo" sequence no longer results in the alert.

FYI: I am running FARR v2.00.145. Sorry I did not mention this earlier.

[mouser]

I suspect the cause was close to what f0dder said -- it's just that instead of it being history items, the control panel shortcuts that you deleted are somehow pointing to the 64bit or 32bit versions, whichever are improper for the current operating system.

You should try typing just the word: cpanel and make sure you dont get any other errors on any of the other control panel shortcuts in that directory.

(ps. there is no harm in deleting those shortcuts, it just means you cant type those items to have farr launch them).

[ptran]

After typing the letter el ("l") in "cpanel", I see nine matching entries and no "bad image" alerts. The matching entries are:

Fonts (cpanel).lnk
Mouse (cpanel).lnk
Speech (cpanel).lnk
System (cpanel).lnk
Display (cpanel).lnk
Keyboard (cpanel).lnk
Add Hardware (cpanel).lnk
Date and Time (cpanel).lnk
Power Options (cpanel).lnk

So it looks like those shortcuts to netsetup.cpl are the only problematic ones for my installation.

Out of curiosity, I used the strings utility from SysInternals and found C:\WINDOWS in all of the control panel shortcuts (the okay ones as well as the ones pointing to "bad image").  See the command output below (D> is the command prompt):

 D> E:\SysInternals\Strings\strings.exe -s -q "E:\Program Files\FindAndRunRobot\Scripts\Control Panel (cpanel)" | findstr /c:"C:\WINDOWS"
E:\Program Files\FindAndRunRobot\Scripts\Control Panel (cpanel)\Accessibility Options (cpanel).lnk: C:\WINDOWS\system32\access.cpl
E:\Program Files\FindAndRunRobot\Scripts\Control Panel (cpanel)\Add Hardware (cpanel).lnk: C:\WINDOWS\system32\hdwwiz.cpl
E:\Program Files\FindAndRunRobot\Scripts\Control Panel (cpanel)\Add or Remove Programs (cpanel).lnk: C:\WINDOWS\system32\appwiz.cpl
E:\Program Files\FindAndRunRobot\Scripts\Control Panel (cpanel)\Automatic Updates (cpanel).lnk: C:\WINDOWS\system32\wuaucpl.cpl
E:\Program Files\FindAndRunRobot\Scripts\Control Panel (cpanel)\Date and Time (cpanel).lnk: C:\WINDOWS\system32\timedate.cpl
E:\Program Files\FindAndRunRobot\Scripts\Control Panel (cpanel)\Display (cpanel).lnk: C:\WINDOWS\system32\desk.cpl
E:\Program Files\FindAndRunRobot\Scripts\Control Panel (cpanel)\Fonts (cpanel).lnk: C:\WINDOWS\Fonts
E:\Program Files\FindAndRunRobot\Scripts\Control Panel (cpanel)\Game Controllers (cpanel).lnk: C:\WINDOWS\system32\joy.cpl
E:\Program Files\FindAndRunRobot\Scripts\Control Panel (cpanel)\Internet Options (cpanel).lnk: C:\WINDOWS\system32\inetcpl.cpl
E:\Program Files\FindAndRunRobot\Scripts\Control Panel (cpanel)\Keyboard (cpanel).lnk: C:\WINDOWS\system32\main.cpl
E:\Program Files\FindAndRunRobot\Scripts\Control Panel (cpanel)\Mouse (cpanel).lnk: C:\WINDOWS\system32\main.cpl
E:\Program Files\FindAndRunRobot\Scripts\Control Panel (cpanel)\Phone and Modem Options (cpanel).lnk: C:\WINDOWS\system32\telephon.cpl
E:\Program Files\FindAndRunRobot\Scripts\Control Panel (cpanel)\Power Options (cpanel).lnk: C:\WINDOWS\system32\powercfg.cpl
E:\Program Files\FindAndRunRobot\Scripts\Control Panel (cpanel)\Regional and Language Options (cpanel).lnk: C:\WINDOWS\system32\intl.cpl
E:\Program Files\FindAndRunRobot\Scripts\Control Panel (cpanel)\Security Center (cpanel).lnk: C:\WINDOWS\system32\wscui.cpl
E:\Program Files\FindAndRunRobot\Scripts\Control Panel (cpanel)\Sounds and Audio Devices (cpanel).lnk: C:\WINDOWS\system32\mmsys.cpl
E:\Program Files\FindAndRunRobot\Scripts\Control Panel (cpanel)\System (cpanel).lnk: C:\WINDOWS\system32\sysdm.cpl
E:\Program Files\FindAndRunRobot\Scripts\Control Panel (cpanel)\User Accounts (cpanel).lnk: C:\WINDOWS\system32\nusrmgr.cpl
E:\Program Files\FindAndRunRobot\Scripts\Control Panel (cpanel)\Windows Firewall (cpanel).lnk: C:\WINDOWS\system32\firewall.cpl

 D> E:\SysInternals\Strings\strings.exe -s -q "E:\Program Files\FindAndRunRobot.Scripts.Control Panel (cpanel).DISABLED" | findstr /c:"C:\WINDOWS"
E:\Program Files\FindAndRunRobot.Scripts.Control Panel (cpanel).DISABLED\Network Setup Wizard (cpanel).lnk: C:\WINDOWS\system32\netsetup.cpl
E:\Program Files\FindAndRunRobot.Scripts.Control Panel (cpanel).DISABLED\Wireless Network Setup Wizard (cpanel).lnk: C:\WINDOWS\system32\netsetup.cpl

[ptran]

Just a quick note that I haven't seen that "bad image" alert is over a week. Thanks for all the help!

[lonrot]

Thanks it worked for me too!