Pixinsight doesn't shut down completely

[chiggins]

I'm running the latest version of PixInsight (01.08.04.1193 Ripley (x64)) on a Windows 7 computer with all Windows updates installed. My problem is as follows:

1. Start PixInsight by double clicking on the Icon on the Windows Desktop.
2. Wait for PixInsight to complete loading.
3. Shutdown PixInsight by clicking the "X" in the upper right on the title bar. The UI closes. PixInsight appears to be gone.
4. Press CTRL + ALT + DEL and start Windows Task Manager. Click the "Processes" tab and you will find PixInsight.exe still active. It stays running for Minutes. Starting another instance of PixInsight will cause very confusing results. You will get errors checking for updates, your computer won't shut down correctly.

The PixInsight UI should remain up until just before (microseconds) the executable is ready to terminate.

I'm running "Bitdefender Total Security 2015" in the event you think Anti-virus might be involved.

Regards
Chuck Higgins

[msmythers]

That's odd Chuck. I had that issue back with 1.8.3.1123 but since then I have not had one case of PI not ending. Sometimes it takes maybe 5 seconds if I had a lot of images open but it always finishes.


Mike

[Juan Conejero]

Hi Chuck,

This is not reproducible on any platform. From our support experience, these problems are always caused by malwares and/or virus protection software packages not working correctly (including misconfigured packages, packages failing to detect running viruses and Trojans, and some "creative" protection behaviors). FYI, all our development Windows machines are now using McAfee Total Protection.

[msmythers]

Juan

I had this problem on my computer as of 1123 maybe 20 percent of the time but when the switch was made to the latest QT in PixInsight the behavior has gone away completely. I can still run 1123 today and this still happens. I just wanted to let you know. Also this happens when I run in safe mode with no non-Microsoft software starting. Personally I think it's more a Windows issue and then a malware/antivirus. Not every windows computer get the same official Windows updates, some are based on hardware. That is where I think this issue resides.


Mike   

[chiggins]

On the assumption that the problem is something to do with my configuration, is there some way to enable PixInsight logging with timestamp information for the shutdown path. On my computer I am only starting PixInsight and then shutting it down, I'm not doing any processing. Perhaps the code to check for software updates is not aborting during the shutdown request. Or like you say, perhaps my antivirus (Bitdefender Total Security 2015) is delaying something. It would help to be able to look at timing information in a log file. I'm on Windows 7 with all patches (except for the Windows  10 Nag) installed.

Note, the program does end eventually, it is just taking a very long time.

Thanks for any assistance you can provide.
Chuck Higgins

[Juan Conejero]

Hi Chuck,

Sorry but we can't provide that logging feature.

Perhaps the code to check for software updates is not aborting during the shutdown request.

This is impossible by design under normal working conditions. However, you can try disabling startup update checks to see if there are any differences: EDIT > Global Preferences > Main Window / Startup > Check for updates at startup (disable).

perhaps my antivirus (Bitdefender Total Security 2015) is delaying something.

Based on years of user support, this is typically the case. Besides interfering with swap file removal tasks, your antivirus application could also be detecting interprocess communication (IPC) background tasks used by PixInsight, identifying them as potential threats. IPC channels are used by the PixInsight Core application to support multiple running instances that can share data. If one of these background tasks is being blocked by your antivirus software, it will continue running until it can close its IPC channel.