Member Avatar for amadpig

Hi,

I've noticed a massive slow down in my system lately, in particular while playing an online game (Counter Strike Source...great game).

When I checked a few things out, I have noticed that the are 9 instances of OBE*.exe (OBE32.exe, OBEE.exe, OBEMail.exe x 4 & OBEServ.exe x 3), services running in the background, each of an average of 43,000K in memory usage (& while writing this they have increased to an average of 48,000K).

I quite often see what services are running in the background & have never noticed these before. I've checked an alternative machine I have running XP & they are not on there either.

I've done some looking around & believe that they are something to do with Outlook, but I don't have Outlook installed as I use Thunderbird for emails.

I've tried ending the processes, but they just keep coming back immediately. I've looked in Add/Remove Programs, but Outlook is not listed there. I've run the "services.msc" command from the run menu, but none of these OBE services are listed. :eek:

Is there someone out there that might know how to stop these from running?

I would appreciate any help I can get...thanks :o

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by Gnome_101

Dani AI

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Nice troubleshooting by and well done on the fix, . For anyone who lands here later: persistent background executables that keep restarting are usually either legitimate client/service components left registered to start, or the result of an installer/repair script recreating them. The safe approach is: identify precisely what is launching them, remove or disable the start mechanism, then verify the files are not part of a protected system component before deleting.

Quick, practical checks to identify the source (run from an elevated command prompt, or use Process Explorer for GUI details):

tasklist /v | findstr /I "obe"
tasklist /svc | findstr /I "obe"
reg query "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run"
reg query "HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run"

Look in Autoruns (Sysinternals) and the Scheduled Tasks folder, and inspect the process properties (file path, publisher, timestamp). If the file is signed by Microsoft or located in a protected system folder, it may be a system/OS component — do not delete it without a recovery plan.

Safe removal workflow:

  • Back up registry keys before any edit:
    reg export "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run" run-backup.reg
  • Boot to Safe Mode and rename/move suspicious executables to a quarantine folder rather than deleting immediately.
  • Remove startup entries with Autoruns or delete the specific Run/RunOnce values.
  • Reboot normally and confirm the processes do not restart. If something breaks, restore the exported .reg or use System Restore.

Final notes: run a full antivirus and anti‑malware scan after removal to rule out reinfection, check Event Viewer for clues if items reappear, and prefer repair/uninstall via Add/Remove Windows Components or the original installer rather than manually deleting core files.

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Member Avatar for Gnome_101

Are the OBE*.exe programs running when you play counterstrike?

Have you done a search for OBE*.exe from the search to see where the exe is being stored?

Just some ideas....

Member Avatar for amadpig

Hi Gnome,

Yes, they are running in the background while playing CSS, but I know for a fact they have nothing to do with the game because they have only appeared in the last week or two...& slowing the game down dramatically. Last night was probably the worst it's been.

Good thinking regarding the search, I tried it & the results are below.

OBEServ.exe - C:\Windows
OBEMail.exe - C:\Program Files\Outlook Express
OBEE.exe - C:\Windows\System32
OBE32.exe - C:\Windows\System

I still can't find a way of stopping them running in the background though...

While I'm typing this I just though of booting to safe mode & seeing if I can use CleanSweep to uninstall the *.exe files...yeh I'll give that a go & post the result.

Thanks very much for the reply & ideas.
:cheesy:

Member Avatar for amadpig

Gnome...your a legend.

Got there in a round about way, but I got there.

Couldn't get Cleansweep to work in safe mode, so I just moved the offending files to another drive & rebooted normally. The files weren't running when the system rebooted so I ran a registry fix to delete the items from the registry.

I've rebooted again & no sign of them in the running processes & the system seems to be working fine (touch wood)......your a genius.

The test will be playing CSS to see how it runs, but thanks very much anyway for the ideas.

Cheers
:D

Member Avatar for Gnome_101

Just trying to run ideas off you. Glad something worked out :)

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