Disable Infocenter 2015?

[itsupport]

Hi there,

Is there an updated script or method to disable infocenter for 3dsmax 2015?

3dsmax crashes on me at random times(even when computer is idle).

Checking the Application log, I see alot of this:

Faulting application name: WSCommCntr4.exe, version: 4.0.3.0, time stamp: 0x50dcb523
Faulting module name: ntdll.dll, version: 6.1.7601.18247, time stamp: 0x521eaf24
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x000000000004e4e4
Faulting process id: 0x3298
Faulting application start time: 0x01cfefc1afc7521a
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files\Common Files\Autodesk Shared\WSCommCntr4\Lib\WSCommCntr4.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\ntdll.dll
Report Id: edd56d8a-5bb4-11e4-8b64-74d02b29f642

From what I understand this is Infocenter. Since I do not really use it i'd like to disable it permanently to see if that is the cause of my annoying crashes.

The actual 3dsmax crash looks like this:

Faulting application name: 3dsmax.exe, version: 17.2.259.0, time stamp: 0x53d87291
Faulting module name: ntdll.dll, version: 6.1.7601.18247, time stamp: 0x521eaf24
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x0000000000027b0b
Faulting process id: 0x23c0
Faulting application start time: 0x01cfefc1a82c4c9a
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2015\3dsmax.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\ntdll.dll
Report Id: d653a630-5bb7-11e4-8b64-74d02b29f642

Thank you,

[Steve_Curley]

Before you do anything drastic try this possible fix - it's for Autocad but ought to work for Max too.
http://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/WSCommc...

[spacefrog_ · Accepted solution]

This is no drastic fix in my eyes , it's the base "after install" setup work required to not get bothered by the many silly things Max comes shipping with. To disable the info center i do the following ( works great in Max 2015 too)

* rename WSCommCntr4.exe to WSCommCntr4.exe_ or similar, so that it does'nt get started

   there's a chance that you got more versions of this little gritter installed ( by different Max versions)

   so just look for them and rename everyone of them

* use the following snipped in an CloseInfocenter.ms script placed in the scripts\startup folder

(
    UIAccessor.CloseDialog (for c in (windows.getChildrenHWND #max) where c[5]=="InfoCenterHwndSource" collect c)[1][1]
)

Result: never getting bothered by that stupid thing ...

[Steve_Curley]

Yep, and I do both (rename the file and hide the UI - thx for the script btw), but if there's a way to have the infocenter work properly then for many users that would be a preferable solution. Plus, assuming the linked fix does work, it will be a useful link to add to my collection 😉

[itsupport]

Thanks guys!

I will try these out today on a few of my stations and report back.

At this point, I am not sure whether InfoCenter is the one to blame, but I have nothing else to go off aside from the error log i posted above.

It is worth noting the observations of the crash:

1. crashes manifest themselves more often when I go to save/save as a file, or during auto-save times

2. when I say "crash", i refer to 3dsmax closing itself completely without any errors. The way my colleague put it "Pooof...gone".

It is also worth noting that we run SRP (Software Restriction Policy) in our environment which restricts execution of any suspicious executables(exe, bat, msi...etc) unless the user is an administrator. In our case, I belong to that adminsitrator's group.

[itsupport]

Hi there,

So disabling the infoCenter the way you described helped quite a bit with the random crashes.

Thanks for the script!

Now my 3dsmax crashes almost everytime I go to save/autosave. I'll create a separate thread for this.

[5vil]

No longer works in max2020. Would you mind dropping a new script or trick to disable InfoCenter in 3ds max 2020 and up? Thanks a lot. (rename *.exe, run script, regedit modify... nothing works so far).