Why executable names are important
Charlie Kindel kicked off an interesting discussion today amongst Microsoft bloggers about the relationship between blogs, search engines, and more formal support channels such as MSDN. As a side-effect, Raymond Chen kindly pointed me at his .Text referrer-log tools, which enabled me to scratch an itch that I've had for a month.
Namely, how much should I be charging Toshiba and/or Microsoft for all the Google hits I get for my post “What is all this stuff doing on my computer?”. As it turns out, here's what people are interested in:
| Hits | Search term |
|---|---|
| 86 | 000stthk.exe |
| 43 | tfnf5.exe |
| 35 | tabtip.exe |
| 31 | sapisvr.ee |
| 23 | wisptis.exe |
| 21 | trot.exe |
| 20 | tabbtnu.exe |
| 19 | tpwrtray.exe |
| 12 | ndstray.exe |
| 18 | tpa.exe |
| 9 | touched.exe |
| 1 | toshkcw.exe |
(If you're searching for more information about one of those executables, I explain what they do in this older post)
And here are the lessons that I draw:
- I should be charging Toshiba (000stthk, tfnf5) more than Microsoft (taptip, sapisrvr).
- 000stthk is a terrible name for a binary - maybe people are suspicious of that 000 prefix?
- toshkcw is a great name for a binary - as long as it's running on a Toshiba.
- Neither Toshiba nor Microsoft have done a great job of explaining what this stuff is.
How about you? What's the most suspicious, obscure, or just plain stupid executable name that you've ever seen?