There has been a lot of brouhaha with the ctfmon.exe. Many think that it is a virus program. ctfmon.exe is actually a CTF loader that has been propagated wrongly as a malicious software by many anti virus companies. ctfmon.exe is a program often used by Microsoft Office to activate and function the Alternative User Input Text Input Processor (TIP) and also the Microsoft Language Bar. The function runs in the background. Hence, ideally, it should not appear in the forefront and annoy you.
CTF loader function
comes into play when a user uses the recommended settings and functions of
Microsoft Office. Sometimes, this program fails to function the way it should.
In such situations, the program does not stop automatically when Office apps
are closed and sometimes, it starts automatically even if Office applications
are not open.
Now the question is
whether ctfmon.exe is really a virus? Well, no. It is not. It is a genuine
loader file used by Microsoft office. But, hold on! Many users have reported a
virus with the same name. So, any
dtfmon.exe file is not a virus, but there can be a virus with the same name.
How to differentiate between the actual file and the virus program? The
original ctfmon.exe file is located in C:WindowsSystem32. So, if
you find a file with the same name at some other location, then, it can be a
malware or a virus program.
To find out whether the
function running is the original one or a virus with same name, open the
process in the Task manager. Right click on the process and select Open
location. If the location is the original System32 folder, then the file is definitely
genuine. Else, you must be alert and run a full system, anti-virus scan right
away.
Can You Disable ctfmon.exe on Windows 10?
If the ctfmon.exe file is a virus, then you know
what to do. But if it is a genuine folder and not functioning properly, then
also it can piss you off. So, you can always disable the file.
The possibility that
cftmon.exe could be a virus isn’t the only problem with the process. Users have
reported many more annoyances with it. For permanent removal, you can use
regsvr32 tool for registering, and un-registering OLE controls like DLL
and ActiveX (OCX) controls in the Windows operating system. You can use the Run
window and type the following commands one after the other.
regsvr32.exe /u msimtf.dll
regsvr32.exe /u msctf.dll
Restart the system and
that’s all!