Re: PC Health by Mike
Mike
Tue Jun 29 08:15:49 CDT 2004
Andrew,
PCHealth Scheduler for Data Collection:
The PCHealth entry in MSConfig | Startup and also in the Task Scheduler,
refers to the PCHealth Scheduler for Data Collection routine (pchschd.exe)
which launches winmgmt.exe to collect software and hardware configuration data
that can be accessed using Help & Support's System Information's History view.
In other words it allows you to see changes over a period of time to your
system such as drivers. The details collected are contained in the files
CollectedData???.xml files in the folder ..\windows\pchealth\helpctr\DataColl.
Note that all that pchschd.exe is doing every ten minutes is checking if the
system is idle or not. If idle it launches winmgmt.exe to collect the
information and sets itself to run again in 6 hours, if not it continues to
run at ten minute intervals until it finds the system is idle.
As to whether you need this historic data or not, only you can decide. A
number of us have long since decided to disable pchschd.exe having no use for
the collected data. It should be noted that if you contact MS or an OEM for
help that it is possible that they might request you send them these files.
If you do choose to disable pchschd.exe it is ESSENTIAL to delete/disable it
from both MSConfig | Startup and the Task Scheduler as otherwise the startup
entry will recreate the Task Scheduler entry when the system is rebooted.
One advantage of disabling the PCHealth Scheduler is that it minimizes the
chances of winmgmt.exe causing problems. What happens is that quite often
winmgmt.exe doesn't exit correctly when it has finished but instead remains
resident and using cpu cycles.
Note also that disabling these entries does NOT affect either System Restore
or System File Protect, nor AutoUpdate or your ability to use Help & Support,
all part of what Microsoft call "PCHealth".
--
Mike Maltby MS-MVP
mcmaltby@hotmail.com
Zboing Mouflon <zboing@bigzboing.co> wrote:
> Do I actually need to let this run as scheduled? Does it actually do
> anything useful?
>
> Or can I just disable it?