CTFMON.EXE ... whats this??

[iinfi]

when i press ctrl+alt+del, under processes i find ctfmon.exe running.
and userName is the username with which i m currently logged on to my local machine .
my machine is a stand alone machine running on WinXP pro + SP2 .....

is this process a normal one or is it some trojan or something ...
quite a few times i find that this process doesnt automatically close when shutting down the system ..... i have to press "end task" to close it ...

 

[chinmay]

When you run a Microsoft Office XP program, the file Ctfmon.exe (Ctfmon) runs in the background, even after you quit all Office programs.
Ctfmon.exe monitors the active windows and provides text input service support for speech recognition, handwriting recognition, keyboard, translation, and other alternative user input technologies.
you can learn more about this file an how to uninstall it on this link - *support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q282599

BTW i browsed some of the famous web sites for this file and in some cases i found out that if this file is outside c:/windows/system 32 folder then it can be a virus....so jus check its locatin also...

 

[sreevirus]

nothing to worry about. its not a bad process.

Process File: ctfmon or ctfmon.exe
Process Name: Alternative User Input Services
 
Description:
ctfmon.exe is a part of the Microsoft Office suite. It activates the Alternative User Input Text Input Processor (TIP) and the Microsoft Office XP Language Bar. This program is a non-essential system process, but should not be terminated unless suspected to be causing problems.

Source: *www.liutilities.com/products/wintaskspro/processlibrary/ctfmon/

 

[iinfi]

oh .... thanks for the info ...