You'll find another Process running after SP2 called alg.exe

All of us paranoid people keep a very close eye on what processes are running in the background. We all took a look at:

Alg.exe (?)
csrss.exe
ctfmon.exe
Dfssvc.exe
dwwin.exe
internat.exe
lsass.exe
msdtc.exe
mstask.exe
nvsvc32.exe
smss.exe
spoolsv.exe
svchost.exe


http://www.iamnotageek.com/a/127-p1.php

What is alg.exe
Application Layer Gateway

What does it do?
Specific details have eluded me with googling. I have been able to find out that it is needed by both windows built in internet connection sharing and the windows firewall. It has been rumored that you will not be able to access the interet if you end this task. I however did not experince this while using XP SP2 and ending the process. YMMV. I'm going to continue looking through Microsofts site for very specific "confirmed" information.

You CAN end this process through task manager. ICS and the Windows firewall will quit working though.

More Reading

Virus Precaution:
The alg.exe which is from Microsoft is located in the c:\windows\System32 folder. We've been unable to find any threats that run as msdtc to trick you. There are however a LOT of viruses that try their best to take this application out so open you up for other attacks.

Message Edited by Disabled on 09-04-2004 05:30 PM