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"DDE Server Window" at shutdown

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by jps_tech 1 view

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I have a small domain with all Windows xp machines. The users all have only "user" rights and after installing Service Pack 2 some of the computers started to hang at shutdown with the following message. "DDE server windows" and then they need to press "end now". There is no spyware on these computers. They are also only running office 2003, symantec corperate AV., ISA firewall client, and acrobat reader. Anyone seen this shutdown problem before. I have done searches and found others with this problem but never a clear anwser. Thanks.

10 replies

by sgt_shultz

put on all office updates. what happens if you disable dde service? i would call ms about this one if you can fix the problem by removing sp2

by statykserver

Info on DDE can be found here
http://www.softwaretoolbox.com/Tech_Support/TechExpertiseCenter/ObjectSoftware/DDEWhatisit/ddewhatisit.html
I am running windows xp pro with sp2 (on 6 machines as a test) on our domain and haven't seen that problem. When I check my services the network dde is disabled as well as the network dde dsdm services. Check one of the problem systems and see if the services are running, if they are then disable them. Hope this resolves your problem.

by jps_tech

Thanks for the suggestions but I do have both Network DDE and Network DDE DSDM services disabled.

by jps_tech

And I have installed Service Pack 1 and all updates for Office 2003 prior to this problem starting.

by josephpstich

How can I get the dde server not to interferwith windows shut down--the various tech support people I've called so far have not solved the problem. I would be grateful for any help I can get in the matter.

by m_o_w

This is really a workaround rather than a fix for the problem of the DDE Server not shutdown properly. Navigate to HKCU/Control Panel/Desktop within regedit and change the value of the String "AutoEndTasks" to 1 will force windows to automatically force the shutdown of the DDE server rather than asking for your input.

by uncaalby

Do we even really *need* the DDE Server?

Can it be set up in Services to not even start in the first place? What is it used for?

Like the machine doesn't take long enough starting!

I find it interesting that doing a search for "DDE Server" does *not* give me any hits over what the DDE Server *is*, but rather from people having problems when it doesn't shut down properly. This tells me it's probably just more bloatware.

by rpastor7

I went to regedit, HKEY_CURRENT_USER; Control Panel, Desktop, and changed the string value for AutoEndTasks to 1. I still get the DDE Server Window End Now or Cancel.

by ray

Hiya,
I too had this problem and traced it to the "Adobe Gamma Loader" loading at startup. I removed this permanently from the startup folder using Advanced Uninstaller (Freeware) and have had bno problems since. All associated programs work normally and without problems. Incidentely the last program I installed prior to this DDE Server problem was Adobe PhotoShop 7.0!
This continues to work normally even after the removal of the Gamma Loader.
Hope this helps anyone who has this ridiculous problem. There again, if Bill Gates kicked his apathetic nerds up the ass he may yet achieve an operatinf system that behaves as it should. Lokk at Vista Ultimate - I have consigned it to the garbage bin as it was far to bug ridden to be of any value.

by aswin85

hi,
i would like to inform you that DDE service is disabled in windows XP professional SP 2 which is the main reson for the error message that you're receiving after installing windows XP sp2.

DDE service provides network transport and security for Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) for programs running on the same computer or on different computers. If this service is stopped, DDE transport and security will be unavailable. If this service is disabled, any services that explicitly depend on it will fail to start.

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