The process porttalk.sys is known as Port Talk - Beyond Logic I/O Port Driver that belongs to the application PortTalk by Beyond Logic. It is the Windows NT/2000/XP device driver. Direct access to IO ports is prohibited for protected systems like Windows NT/2000/XP since it will cause a priveleged instruction exception. To address this problem a device driver has to be installed. The PortTalk usermode programs come with a self-installer that is built into allowio.exe that grants the program access to IO ports. The IO ports on the outside of the computer are referred to as the IO ports because they connect output and input devices to the computer. The PortTalk Driver combined with allowio.exe grants certain programs exclusive access to IO ports in Windows NT/2000/XP systems. Handles to the driver can be estblished by opening the "\usblptpd11_x" where x defines the LPT port minus 1. When opening a handle to the driver, it will acquire a port from parport.sys. which, if successful, creates a handle to the driver. If this is not successful, another program will access this driver handle, or there is a parallel port device using the same parallel port. On closing the handle to USBLPTPD11, the driver will release the port so other parallel devices can access the parallel port.
How can I stop porttalk.sys and should I?
Most non-system processes that are running can be stopped because they are not involved in running your operating system. porttalk.sys. is used by PortTalk, If you shut down porttalk.sys, it will likely start again at a later time either after you restart your computer or after an application start. To stop porttalk.sys, permanently you need to uninstall the application that runs this process which in this case is PortTalk, from your system.
After uninstalling applications it is a good idea to scan you Windows registry for any left over traces of applications. Registry Reviver by ReviverSoft is a great tool for doing this.
Is this a virus or other security concern?
ReviverSoft Security Verdict
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Please review porttalk.sys and send me a notification once it has been reviewed.
What is a process and how do they affect my computer?
A process usually a part of an installed application such as PortTalk, or your operating system that is responsible for running in functions of that application. Some application require that they have processes running all the time so they can do things such as check for updates or notify you when you get an instant message. Some poorly written applications have many processes that run that may not be required and take up valuable processing power within your computer.
Is porttalk.sys known to be bad for my computer's performance?
We have not received any complaint about this process having higher than normal impact on PC performance. If you have had bad experiences with it please let us know in a comment below and we will investigate it further.
What can I do if porttalk.sys is causing errors on my computer?
The first thing you should do if porttalk.sys. is causing errors on your computer is to run a Windows registry scan with Registry Reviver If you are still seeing errors after this you should uninstall the program that porttalk.sys, belongs to, in this case PortTalk