Did Microsoft just do something or were we just hacked?

SkScotchegg · 13 Dec 2009 at 01:11

Guys, me and my cousin just noticed something, something dodgy just happened, this is really strange. Me and my cousin were on Ventrillo talking away and all of a sudden our desktops both changed to some sort of basic look, like the GUI changed to a windows default basic look, looking pretty bland and awful and we were both like wtf?

And then when I looked in the task manager this thing was doing something called "winSAT.exe" and it was using 50% of my CPU and in the description it said "windows system assessment tool" and it lasted for like 30 seconds and then disappeared, I dont know if that had anything to do with it but once this "winSAT.exe" stopped the GUI went back to normal so seems like it to me?

He lives in Middlesbrough, I'm in Leeds, and we both have windows 7, he has full version of windows 7, I have beta version.

Did this happen to anyone else?

Thanks in advance.

Doz007 · 13 Dec 2009 at 01:13

I'm running Vista SP2 and nothing weird has happened all night.

HumbleCoder · 13 Dec 2009 at 01:16

winSAT is how Windows works out your experience score (or whatever it is called). It has been known to set you in to 'basic' look, it is run via a scheduled task so it would explain why both seen at the same time.

It didn't happen to me but it is perfectly explainable.

Mr.Fantastic · 13 Dec 2009 at 01:17

It's called Windows Experience Rating, it's set in the task scheduler to go off at 1AM.

look at this post here, gives details how to disable it

SkScotchegg · 13 Dec 2009 at 01:26

Cheers guys, that explains it, we thought we were under attack, lol!

gillywibble · 13 Dec 2009 at 10:52

Haha

DampCat · 13 Dec 2009 at 11:11

Doz007 said:
I'm running Vista SP2 and nothing weird has happened all night.

I wish people would stop doing this. You post a problem, and people respond with how they've got the same stuff but no problem with it. That's great, thanks for the information. Do you walk into a Cancer Ward and say "hey guys, there's nothing wrong with my Skin Cells"?

Glad you worked it out OP. That would have confused me somewhat too :/

Doz007 · 13 Dec 2009 at 11:16

DampCat said:
I wish people would stop doing this. You post a problem, and people respond with how they've got the same stuff but no problem with it. That's great, thanks for the information. Do you walk into a Cancer Ward and say "hey guys, there's nothing wrong with my Skin Cells"?

Glad you worked it out OP. That would have confused me somewhat too :/

Sorry for my input :rolleyes:

I was making the op aware that it wasn't as widespread as he initially thought.

The op didn't seem to have a problem with it, yet you enter a thread posting zero relevant information after the problem had been solved.

Well done sir

SiriusB · 13 Dec 2009 at 11:21

The OP asked if it happened to anyone else.

Doz replied with no.

What's the issue again?