Every programmer at OMS Online uses Adobe Creative Suite’s Photoshop, Acrobat, Fireworks, Flash, etc while they are building eCommerce apps / websites for our clients. 

We recently discovered that installing CS3 also makes this mysterious service show up in windows called ##Id_String1.6844F930_1628_4223_B5CC_5BB94B879762##.  It also installs a program called Bonjour under C:\Program Files\Bonjour.  Bonjour is Apple’s open source implementation of zero-configuration networking software.

Not sure exactly what data this sends back to Adobe.  Adobe claims no data is sent back to them.  But I do know that it is always trying to connect to the Internet.  Anyway, I don’t like this ugly name appearing in my list of services.  So here is how you fix it:

On Vista, Run CMD.exe as Administrator.

Goto C:\Program Files\Bonjour folder and run “mDNSResponder.exe -remove” followed by “mDNSResponder.exe -install”. 

Reload the Windows Services and it will now be listed as Bonjour instead of “##Id_String1.6844F930_1628_4223_B5CC_5BB94B879762##”.

I personally have this service disabled with no side effects.  But I don’t use Adobe Cue CS3 or Apples iTunes, so not sure if those two get effected if you disable this.

Bonjour, also known as zero-configuration networking, enables automatic discovery of computers, devices, and services on IP networks. Bonjour uses industry standard IP protocols to allow devices to automatically discover each other without the need to enter IP addresses or configure DNS servers.

If you’ve installed software by Apple such as iTunes, software by Adobe such as Premiere Pro, Photoshop CS2, Dreamweaver CS3 the chances are there’s already a Bonjour folder in your Program Files. This service starts automatically and runs a process named mDNSResponder.exe which cannot be ended by Windows Task Manager. If you do not want Bonjour to be in your computer and want to uninstall it, sometimes you can’t find any uninstaller for it! Even if you go to Control Panel’s Add or Remove Program, you can’t find the uninstaller there as well.

Here’s how to safely uninstall and remove the Bonjour service and files (mDNSResponder.exe and mdnsNSP.dll). Just follow the few simple steps below to remove Bonjour from your computer.

NOTE: Make sure you have administrator privileges before executing these commands. You might have to delete the quotes and input them manually, because WordPress.com is outputting them as smart quotes.

1. Go to [Start > Run] and type the following command and hit OK.
   • “%PROGRAMFILES%\Bonjour\mDNSResponder.exe” -remove
2. Go to [Start > Run] again and type the following command and hit OK.
   • regsvr32 /u “%PROGRAMFILES%\Bonjour\mdnsNSP.dll”

After you restart, you can safely delete the Bonjour folder without errors.

To know if you have actually uninstalled Bonjour. Open services.msc and see if there is a service similar to: “##Id_String2.6844F930_1628_4223_B5CC_5BB94B879762##”. If it is not there, then it has been uninstalled. But the folder and files remain in the program files folder. Just in case you want to install it again.

If you encountered problems after uninstalling or removing Bonjour, you can download and reinstall Bonjour. [Download Bonjour for Windows]

If you have any problems, let me know. I will do my best to help you.