All of a sudden I'm getting a little circle flashing on my screen next to the cursor indicating that something is busy. I've traced it to the winstep update process. How do I get rid of it?

Eh?

A 'busy' circle in the mouse cursor itself or a small window with a rotating busy circle?

Also, exactly how did you trace it to the update process? How often does this happen?

The Winstep Update Manager will at most check for updates once every 24 hours and the process itself is very quick, usually only lasting a couple of seconds. You shouldn't even notice it.

Using Process Explorer I see two (and sometimes 3) WSUpdate processes. One is there all the time and the other 2 come and go every few seconds.
If I exit Winstep Extreme the problem disappears.

1. Are you sure about the name of the process? WsUpdate.exe?

2. Are you sure this is the *Winstep* update manager process and not someone else's process with the same name?

3. Open WorkShelf Preferences, go to the Advanced tab. Enable 'Prompt me before checking for updates'. Press Ok and exit Winstep Xtreme if you need to so that WsUpdate is no longer running.

The Winstep Update Manager will now prompt you every time it runs. Let me know what happens.

4. What version of Winstep Xtreme are you running? Did you download it from the Winstep web site (or Cnet's Download.com)?

5. Right click on WsUpdate.exe in C:\Program Files (x86)\Winstep\, select Properties, Details tab. What is the version number?

6. If one version of WsUpdate.exe is always running and the others come and go, what happens if you kill the WsUpdate.exe process that is always running (using Process Explorer or Task Manager)? Do this after turning on the prompts above.

I guess those are all the questions I have for now.

Hi Jorges
Thanks for your help. I think the best way to solve this problem is to un-install WinStep Extreme and re-install it because it's behaviour has become very unstable. It seems to have started when I ran JVPowerTools16 to clean up my system. All of a sudden after that I had to run several programs as Administrator in order for them to run properly. Indeed, I just ran WinStep Extreme as Administrator and it then behaves fine (except for your warning about running it with elevated provileges). Is there maybe a less drastic method?
Thanks
Garry
PS I have answered most of your questions below.

1. Are you sure about the name of the process? WsUpdate.exe? YES

2. Are you sure this is the *Winstep* update manager process and not someone else's process with the same name? YES

3. Open WorkShelf Preferences, go to the Advanced tab. Enable 'Prompt me before checking for updates'. Press Ok and exit Winstep Xtreme if you need to so that WsUpdate is no longer running.OK

The Winstep Update Manager will now prompt you every time it runs. Let me know what happens.

4. What version of Winstep Xtreme are you running? Did you download it from the Winstep web site (or Cnet's Download.com)? 15.7 downloaded from your site.

5. Right click on WsUpdate.exe in C:\Program Files (x86)\Winstep\, select Properties, Details tab. What is the version number? 4.2.0.116

6. If one version of WsUpdate.exe is always running and the others come and go, what happens if you kill the WsUpdate.exe process that is always running (using Process Explorer or Task Manager)? Do this after turning on the prompts above. When I try to delete it, it quits before I can confirm the deletion

Yeah, well, that is the problem with most 'cleanning' utilities: they end up cleanning what they should and what they shouldn't, then nothing works quite right from then on...

Since right now you are runnning the software in an 'unknown/untested' state try uninstalling then re-installing, but don't forget to make a backup first (you will need to backup NextSTART and WorkShelf settings separately, and save those settings outside the Winstep folder structure, into a temp directory of some kind).

Also, the tool might have made a Windows Restore point before applying the changes it made to the system, have you considered going back to that?