Tag: Microsoft

How to Get Rid of Smoni – Failed to create empty document

At some point in the past several months, probably after a Windows 10 update, my PC started to display a cryptic and annoying dialog box every time I logged in. I started wondering if somehow, a virus had gotten into my computer. I hadn’t spent the time to figure out what it was causing it, and how to get rid of it, until today. A google search of “Smoni Failed to create empty document” didn’t yield any useful results. It’s so annoying to go through Microsoft forums, and find the that the only advice they can give you is reset or restore your system. No thanks. It’s a lot easier to spend a little time troubleshooting on my own, than spending hours backing up and reloading all my programs and files.

I pulled up the Task Manager, scanned the running process list, and quickly found the culprit:

Aha! What’s this BrnlPMon process? Simply right click on BrnlPMon, and select Open File Location from the menu:

Windows then pops up a File Explorer window, with the offending file highlighted:

Hmm.. so what’s BRNIPMON.exe? Right click the file, and select Properties from the context menu. Select the Details tab on the resultant pop-up window:

Bingo! It’s Brother IP Monitor, which I figured out is monitoring software for my Brother WiFi connected laser printer. Something in my recent Windows 10 updates (probably the new Creator’s Edition), caused an incompatibility, which triggers this stupid error dialog.

At this point, I could just uninstall it or delete the files, but since I now know that it isn’t malicious, I’ll just leave it for now, and look for a software update when I have time, and see if that fixes the issue.

Windows 8: How to Fix Windows Update and/or Windows Defender Check for Updates Failure

I had a very irritating problem with my Acer Aspire V5 notebook computer running Microsoft Windows 8.1 for the past several months. The computer was not able to update itself. When I launched Windows Update, it would just hang forever checking for new updates, so I couldn’t even figure out what updates were needed, let alone download and install it. At the same time, Windows Defender would constantly bug me that my virus definitions needed to be updated, but every time I tried to download the updates, it would either hang forever, or fail.

After wasting many hours trying to find a solution, I finally fixed it yesterday. It turns out that the two problems were related. It seems that Windows Defender uses Windows Update as a back end to download its virus definitions, because my fix got both of them working again. So, without adieu, here is the procedure for getting your Windows Update and Windows Defender to successfully check for updates again:

Step 1: Download Windows Update Powershell Module

Open up your favorite Web Browser, and point it to:

http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/scriptcenter/2d191bcd-3308-4edd-9de2-88dff796b0bc

Click the blue box labeled PSWindowsUpdate.zip and save the file to your computer.

(Direct download for PSWindowsUpdate.zip: http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/scriptcenter/2d191bcd-3308-4edd-9de2-88dff796b0bc/file/41459/43/PSWindowsUpdate.zip)

Step 2: Extract files from PSWindowsUpdate.zip

Extract the files in PSWindowsUpdate.zip to %WINDIR%\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\Modules.

If you do this step correctly, in most computers, you will have a folder called C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\Modules\PSWindowsUpdate

Step 3: Launch Windows Power Shell with Administrator Privileges

From the Control Panel, open Administrative Tools. Right click Windows Powershell ISE, and select Run As Administrator:

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Step 4: Import the PSWindowsUpdate Module

Type Import-Module PSWindowsUpdate into the PowerShell:

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Step 5: Change Execution Policy

In the PowerShell, type:  Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned

PS> Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned

You will get a security warning dialog. Click the Yes button. You don’t have to worry, because we downloaded the module directly from Microsoft.

Step 6: Run Get-WUInstall

In the Powershell, type Get-WUInstall:

PS> Get-WUInstall

Answer any prompts which may come up. My system had a lot of updates pending, so I let the module download and install them all. After it’s done, your Windows Update and Windows Defender will work correctly again!

Many thanks to the people who came up with this solution. The information came from: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/afc7f693-f742-402f-b513-063989b79c2f/windows-81-enterprise-windows-updates