Strange behavior when I send an email with GPG4Win installed.

I have Windows 10 1809 x64, Thunderbird 52.9.1 with GnuPG, GPG4Win 3.1.11. I have a wierd problem that seems completely unrelated to email.

When I send my first email for a session (after starting up my PC), I am asked for my passphrase, even though I set it to “never ask”. After entering the password I get a folder created on my boot drive…

C:\nVidia Corporation\umdlogs.

It’s only created the first email I send after starting up my PC.

I’ve been trying to track this down for weeks, and I know it seems impossible, but I’m sure that after entering my passphrase and sending the first email that folder gets created.

How would I even begin to troubleshoot that? To stop it from happening.

Can you please tell me what information/logs etc would assist in troubleshooting this?

Hi, Tanya!

I found this when googling the folder name.

https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/forums/geforce-graphics-cards/5/386887/folder-being-created-on-c-drive-started-a-week-ago/?topicPage=1

Thanks for getting back to me.

That is my post :slight_smile:
You would also find posts on tenforums.com as I searched for causes and solutions. I came here because this is the home forum of GPG4Win.

I originally thought this was an nVidia issue - given the folder is called c:\nVidia\umdlogs. hence my posts on the nVidia forum. Then when that was clearly not the case I moved to tenforums. Again, no lock until I sat here watching my C:\ drive and bang! As soon as the passphrase dialog appears, the folder appears.

I can 200% guarantee this folder is created every time the GPG4Win passphrase is requested, and at no other time, and by no other application or system process. Perhaps I should record a video. Except it will be too big to upload anywhere.

EDIT: Sorry, I also forgot to mention. I had reason to restore my system to an older image when I was testing something else. That image was pre-GPG4Win. At no time when running that system did the folder ever get created, even when I sent emails (Enigmail and GPG4Win were not installed).

I was curious so I looked. I have that folder too, but it is dated 2/4/20.

I guess mine is dated the current date because every time it is created I manually delete it. I don’t leave rubbish sitting on my drives.

What I get from your response though is that this is not an isolated problem.

That could be… I have not deleted mine yet though. Is (was) there anything in that folder? Mine is empty even after using GPG4Win.

No, it’s completely empty. I delete it immediately it’s created.
With all due respect, it’s just shoddy programming. DVDFab and several other programs do the same rubbish.

If this is the “official” forums for GPG4Win, don’t any devs ever venture here? How does one report this so that it can get fixed if they don’t read these posts?

As Kim already posted in the first reply.

This is an NVIDIA Graphics card driver logging folder. Our passphrase entry creates a GUI using the Qt framework. This probably triggers the logging.

No wonder that other software does the same because it is not the software that creates the folder. Its the Graphics card driver.

Gpg4win is not to blame here.

Ok, I’ll uninstall GPG4Win. That will fix it.

btw: When I said DVDFab created folders, I did not mean this folder. DVDFab creates a folder called “C:\Convert Edit”. Reported that to them and they are looking in to fixing it.

GPG4WIn is the only program I’ve seen in 30 years of computing that creates the C:\nVidia Corporation\umdlogs folder. I’d much rather go without the functionality of this software than to have to delete a folder every time I send an email.

Hi Tanya,
a short followup remark:

From searching the web it seems that this file is written by windows itself, probably when called by code from the nvidia driver. See https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/display/user-mode-driver-logging

https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/forums/geforce-graphics-cards/5/386887/folder-being-created-on-c-drive-started-a-week-ago/

Also this also seems to be happening with some other applications, so it is not just Gpg4win that is affected, but the low number of search entries seem to assume that it rarely happens.

Possible workarounds:

  • Using a different pinentry. (We used to have a gtk based one, but I have to check if it is still shipped.)

Best,
Bernhard