zHotkey.com   Abnormal program termination.  Windows XP SP2 what is
going on?  Problem at startup.

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Clarification of Question by billfrisinger-ga on 22 Sep 2004 20:52 PDT

I mis-typed.  The problem is with zHotkey.exe not zHotkey.com
When I use msconfig I find there is a file called zHotkey.exe being
loaded at start up.  If I disable it the probem goes away.  I find
that this file is not being loaded at startup on another of my
machines so it aparently is not critical but I am pusalezed by what it
is and if not needed, how can i get rid of it permanently from the
list of files being run at startup.

Sounds like spyware or malware. If you installed SP2 on top of a copy
of windows that was already infected, then chances are many of SP2's
new security features didn't have a chance to protect you. You may
consider downloading a spyware cleaner like adaware from lavasoft.nu
or some other alternative. Your second option may be to do a clean
install of windows xp and install SP2 before connecting to the
internet. You may also decide to use an alternative internet web
browser such as Mozilla/Netscape/Firefox, or opera. Hopefully this
helps.

I do not think the problem is spyware.  I have a copy of Pest Patrol
on the computer prior to istalling SP2.  It admitadly was not up to
date.  I updated it and cleaned out 20 spyware programs but the
problem continues.

I do not think it is anything to do with Windows Explorer because I
get the error on boot up, well before I launch Explorer.  It might
just be a random file gone bad but I am not certain how to restore
windows (probably SP2) files.

billfrisinger

Click Start
Click Run...
Type msconfig
Click OK

and see what are the programs are getting started with xp.
just diable all and then enable one by one, and see which program is
giving u this error.

I have had the same problem since I upgraded to Windows XP SP2. I
believe that this problem is related to a keyboard driver. If you look
at the properties for the file c:\windows\zHotKey.exe you will see
that it is made by Chicony, who make keyboards. The keyboard that I
have is an eMachines KB-0108, which is made by Chicony.

Just because you have a spyware cleaner doesn't mean it catchs all the
spyware to date. Sure they do a pretty good job, but there are still
many types of spyware they miss and fail miserably to remove. I
wouldn't trust such programs to catch all spyware that exists. As for
getting the error before explorer starts up, remember that explorer is
just a shell, another program that starts as part of the XP boot
process. You can try to use msconfig to gradually re-enable
components, but Microsoft itself recommends you install SP2 on top of
a clean install of XP in order to ensure there is no spyware that
interferes with its security features.

zHotKey is not spyware or malware - it is used for special keys on
fancy multimedia keyboards. For example, the volume +/- keys, the
play/pause key, etc. When you have this program running you will see
information on the bottom right hand side of your monitor showing the
keys you press, for example it will show the text "Play/pause" when
pressing this button.

After some more investigation, I decided to remove Windows XP SP2 from
my machine as it had been doing some other annoying things as well.
Internet explorer was no longer as stable as it used to be. I think I
will wait for SP3 to come out and try that one day!