HP ProtectTools Troubleshooting Guide
14 www.hp.com Technical Reference Guide
HP ProtectTools Troubleshooting Guide
HP ProtectTools Security 
Manager—Intermittently, 
an error is returned when 
closing the Security 
Manager interface
Intermittently (1 in 12 
instances), an error is created 
by using the close button in 
the upper right of the screen 
to close Security Manager 
before all plug-in applications 
have finished loading.
This is related to a timing dependency on 
plug-in services load time when closing and 
restarting Security Manager. Since PTHOST.exe 
is the shell housing the other applications 
(plug-ins), it depends on the ability of the plug-in 
to complete its load time (services). Closing the 
shell before the plug-in has had time to complete 
loading is the root cause.
To resolve, allow Security Manager to complete 
services loading message (seen at top of 
Security Manager window) and all plug-ins 
listed in left column. To avoid failure, allow a 
reasonable time for these plug-ins to load.
No corrective action is planned by HP for the 
Security Manager product.
HP ProtectTools Embedded 
Security—Guest User 
account can violate policy 
through the PSD interface
Using the Embedded Security 
Task Notification Area (task 
tray) icon, a guest user can 
bypass Security Manager 
and initialize a basic user. 
During the basic user 
initialization, the guest could 
create a PSD that 
monopolizes the hard drive.
The system administrator can resolve this by 
deleting the guest-user-created PSD.
HP is working with plug-in suppliers to be aware 
of limited/guest user capabilities for future 
product enhancements.
HP ProtectTools Embedded 
Security—Guest User 
receives message that 
PTHOST.exe has not 
been approved by 
Hewlett-Packard Company
The following error message 
appears when a guest user 
opens HP ProtectTools 
Security Manager: this 
module ‘C:\Program 
Files\HPQ\HP Protect 
Tools 
Security\PTHOST.EXE’ 
has not been approved 
by Hewlett-Packard 
Company. Do you want 
to continue?
Guest user support is not provided by HP, HP 
recommends limited user support by the 
administrator.
Future improvements are planned to prevent 
Security Manager runtime in Guest mode.
HP ProtectTools Embedded 
Security—Multiple User 
PSDs do not function in a 
fast-user-switching 
environment
This error occurs when 
multiple users have been 
created and given a PSD with 
the same drive letter. If an 
attempt is made to 
fast-user-switch between users 
when the PSD is loaded, the 
second user's PSD will be 
unavailable.
The second user's PSD will only be available if it 
is reconfigured to use another drive letter or if 
the first user is logged off.
Software 
Impacted-Short 
description
Details Solution / Workaround










