ctfmon.exe causing wierd things to happen

[Mark Mills]

Hi. I have an Acer c111tci tablet PC running fully updated xp tablet pc
edition. I have recently done a clean install to try to sort this problem
out but it has reappeared. When office 2003 is running, ctfmon.exe process
starts up. In any office program, if I try to edit a hyperlink, the dialogue
box doesn't appear properly on the screen - just the left most combobox with
no buttons etc displayed. If I disable ctfmon.exe everything returns to
normal. I understand that ctfmon.exe has something to do with the TIP and
speech recognition but I don't want to disable this service because I use
both regularly. I wonder whether this problem is reproducable on someone
elses machine or if it is just restricted to mine? Hope someone can help -
it's driving me mad!
Mark

 

[Mary Sauer]

Frequently asked questions about Ctfmon.exe
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=282599

 

[Mark Mills]

Thanks for your quick response.

Problem is that I think I need to keep alternative user input methods
because I use speech and handwriting recognition through the input panel.

At the moment, I am using a freeware application called Process Tamer to
kill the ctfmon.exe process each time it starts (which is every time a new
window or the start menu appears). This seems to work.

Interestingly, with ctfmon.exe running, changing properties on the start
menu takes about 30 seconds before the dialogue box vanishes, whereas without
ctfmon.exe running, it clears immediately. Other things seem to be running
faster as well. Strange.

1. Is ctfmon.exe required by the tablet pc input panel and office inking
support?
2 What does it actually do?
3. Is it not needed at all on tablet pc as this has alternative ways of
doing things?
4. If I remove alternative text services as suggested by the kb article, all
my character recognition and speech recognition support vanishes - not good
for me.
5. If I unregister the process as suggested by the kb article and things
don't work, can I reregister it again?

Sorry for so many questions! Hope you can answer them all!
Thanks
Mark