The hazard of deleting & disabling old programs

13 years ago

I went on a hard drive cleaning frenzy today. I was getting rid of old programs, then unchecking stuff in Start-up, and then decided to get rid of what I thought were junk "processes". Oops!

I ended up losing my ability to print. Even worse, I couldn't view printers in the control panel, nor reinstall anything. Yikes.

My clue for recovery was an error that my print spooler was disabled. After more googling, I discovered that I had shut off a couple critical items from the processes tab. Here was the recovery process from another poster that I followed and thankfully got back our printing functions:

Posted:

"Liberty, i had the same problem and FIXED THE PROBLEM

1. Start>Run>Type"services.msc"

2. Under Services look for "LexBce Server">Properties>Under General Tab go to "Start up type" and select Automatic. (My problem was it was Disabled)>click ok

3. go down to "Print Spooler" verify that Startup Type is set to Automatic>then Start the Service Status.>click ok

4. Control Panels>Printers>add>voila!!!"

I had assumed that the "LexBce Server" process was for an old lexmark printer, but it ended up being critical to our HP6400 officejet and everything else somehow!

Just in case anybody else was wondering....Cheers!

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Comments (11)

grandms
13 years ago
It pays not to be overzealous in "cleaning" out a computer. I once uninstalled something on my old Windows 98 machine and really messed things up. It has been so long ago I've forgotten how I fixed it, but that experience taught me to be very careful how and where and when I click on something.
DA_Mccoy
13 years ago
First of all, I am glad that you resolved your concern as nothing can be more frustrating than an occurrence you shared. Second, this appears to not really be a by-product of removing installed applications, but rather a breaking of the old adage, "if you are not certain what it is leave it alone". Welcome in joining all of us who have done it, and learned from it.

DA
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owbist
13 years ago
Perhaps next time you experience the need for a 'cleaning frenzy' you could create a Restore point before starting, just in case...............
zep516
13 years ago
I had assumed that the "LexBce Server" process was for an old lexmark printer, but it ended up being critical to our HP6400 officejet and everything else somehow!

It's not critical for the HP6400 really... And you were right assuming "LexBce Server" was for Lexmark Printer or any printer made by Lexmark.

Description:"LexBce Server"----> This is installed by Lexmark printers, and some Dell printers which are made by Lexmark, to configure the onboard network print server. Disabling this service will make it so that print spooler service will no longer startup which effectively disables printing on your computer.

This fix would have also worked and may have been the better way.

This can be fixed by removing the LexBceS dependency. To remove the dependency you should use the following command and start the print spooler service:

sc config spooler depend= RPCSS

Note: Notice the space after depend=

So you have a Lexmark file running to keep the Print spooler started because of the dependency that was created.

I give you credit for fixing this and your way works, just keep in mind what's going on here for the future, It's these type of issues that can go unresolved and cause a lot of headaches for you and helpers...
homebound
Original Author
13 years ago
@Zep516,
Thanks for that clarification - good info. At this point "if it ain't broke...."

(This week I'm occupied by the next problem - a browser hijack that isn't quite terminated after HijackThis, Malwarebytes, AVG, Avast, Windows Defender. Almost got the darned thing(s), I think, but they're especially pesky (Anti Malware Doctor (bogus everyone!), CoolWebSearch and another ad generator.

I blame teens on facebook, but that's just my perception.
big_al_41
13 years ago
Just my 2 cents on various bad guy checkers, I have among many on my machine but one really seems to stand out lately and that is a program called A-Square made by emsisoft. They have both paid and free programs. I use the free one and it has trapped some nastys when the others did not. Is it the only one I use no, but it helps to have more then one.

I would love to hear what other people who have used this have to say about it.

Here is a link that might be useful: A-Square
owbist
13 years ago
"Best" in malware detection and/or prevention is always a moving target. What is best today my slip tomorrow. Practically all do a good job, how long since anyone has seen a report on a better known product failing miserably?

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homebound
Original Author
13 years ago
I was talking to a computer securities consultant who does work for Fortune 100 companies. He gave kudos to McAfee and Kaspersky, among others. He also says "yes, he does online banking, etc." but only on his secure computer. An especially not on computers that any kids use or where anyone has visited porn sites due to all the nefarious spyware, etc that inevitably comes along for the ride.
ravencajun Zone 8b TX
13 years ago
I can not agree with the McAfee praise I had horrible problems with it.
Kaspersky is an excellent pay for AV program.
I would never allow anyone on my pc to have admin rights especially kids they should all have very limited accounts and no access to the admin account that would stop a lot of the problems.
I do all my bill paying online through my bank, I do it on my linux computer. I have not had any problems. Choosing strong passwords is essential also for any important sites and changing them from time to time is a good practice.

Many banks are now considering offering free linux live cd's to their customers to do their online banking, when you put the linux live cd into the computer and boot from it you have access to firefox browser and can go online and do your banking while on the cd so that when you are done and you eject the cd and reboot to your regular windows all traces of what you did are gone. Very much like sandboxing.
Here are some recent articles about this. I really urge people to pick up a linux live cd to have on hand they can be used for a lot of stuff, most all linux magazines you find in bookstores will have a free cd of some flavor of linux in it and you can of course burn one free online or order them for free.
Can Ubuntu save online banking?
Avoid Windows Malware: Bank on a Live CD
E-Banking on a Locked Down (Non-Microsoft) PC
bpgreen
13 years ago
Frankly, I think banks should use a token. It's a bit of a pain, and there's expense involved, but a token based security system would put a Linux live CD to shame for security. It's less convenient, but far more secure.
azinoh
13 years ago
"but a token based security system would put a Linux live CD to shame for security. It's less convenient, but far more secure."

I'd be very interested in hearing an example or explanation of why this is so.

The hazard of deleting & disabling old programs

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The hazard of deleting & disabling old programs

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