A process named Agent.exe is active in Task Manager to a ridiculous
degree. The name pops up as a running process and during several
seconds appears to make scores of read/write calls to the registry.
Then it disappears for several more seconds until it comes back up and
repeats the process (over and over and over...).

I tracked the program to:
C:\Program Files\Common Files\InstallShield\UpdatServices\.

I renamed it to ZZZagent.exe and rebooted. The machine goes thru a
frenzy of trying to find Agent.exe which I renamed. It tells me to
insert the ScanSoft Omni Page SE 4.0 disk and etc. Finally I keep
cancelling the requests and it tells me that the Windows installation
cannot continue and I should visit http://consumer.installshield.com
for more information.

Then it give me back my computer for about two minutes and the whole
process starts over.

I visited the page but found nothing of immediate help.

Since I renamed agent.exe the LED for my HD only flash about once per
second; with agent.exe active it flashed about three times per second.
Once a second intuitively seems extremely excessive but it's still
better than three times per second.

My question: Do I really need this Windows Installation thing? If I
can get along without it I would prefer to. How can I keep it from
trying to reload? There must be a reference to "Agent.exe" in the
registry that I could find and erase.

Or, probably smarter, there is ScanSoft Omni Page SE 4.0 listed in the
"Add and remove programs" thingy in Control Panel. Would I regret
removing that???

Any advice appreciated.