weird dissapearing taskbar and icons...

pug_in_a_bed

As per another post I wanted to change my printer to print pages in reverse order. I went to control panel, clicked on printers etc.

But, nothing happened, the control panel closed, the task bar on the bottom dissapeared and left em with just my big photo wallpeper with nothing on it, for a few seconds then it came back to my normal screen with all cons, taskbar etc.

I've noticed that the pc does this occasionally when i try something particular, anyone know the reason for this?

terrymats

Hi,

From your description, I would say that your system ran into a critical error and explorer.exe restarted itself. Explorer.exe is the main shell file of Windows which would be considered the mother of all processes. Any cricital errors and it will close all running applications and restart itself without restarting the computer from the scratch. You would say it was close to a crash.

Suggestions would be to use a software like registry mechanic to check errors in the registry. I would also suggest you to check for adwares/spywares using the software "hijack this" to see if your system is infected by any rogue elements. You may have other anti-spywares installed, but they won't detect the newest of all.

A check in the event viewer is also recommended to check why and where the error is occurring. You can reach it via Control Panel > Administrative Programs.

Cheers
Terry

pug_in_a_bed

wow thanks for that, very comprehensive and although i'm alright on the pc, normally the techie answers i get from the web are a bit beyond me!

I checked the events viewer and in system there is a error today, the source states 'atapi', category is 'none', number is '9'.

this weird dissappearing act doesn't happen often, just a few times.

could this give me any clues as to what's going on? soon after when i tried to access the printer properties again, all was well....i do use mcafee regularly, the only thing that comes up is 'surfsnoop' which I just 'clean'. any relation to my problem?

Reluctant_spender

I am not sure about the disappering icon/taskbar, but

A quick search reveals that, surf snoop, it is a stealth keylogger that records all websites visited, keystrokes typed and current window titles.

A bit more digging indiactes that it is either spyware, bad, or installed parent spying on their childrens surfing habits, better.

I noted that McAffe cleaned it - is it still appearing if so try the below.

For removal you could try add/remove programs, however I don't think it will appear there - defeats the object of being stealth.

Or.

Try running updated spybot, adaware and microsoft spyware remover from safe mode.

terrymats

Smam,

Download HijackThis i think from lop.com. Turn off system restore and reboot xp. Then hit F8 before the actual XP screen appears & select safe mode. Then run hijackthis and remove all entries for surfsnoop. If you get confused, paste the log here and I'll try to help you.

Remember to turn system restore on again when you are finished cleaning the spyware.

Cheers
Terry

Rex_Mundi

Download HijackThis i think from lop.com

Do a search for lop.com and it seems there are many issues with them and spyware. This is the last place I would download any security software from. It's a crazy idea to download anything (let alone security programs) from a site that is reknowned for installing spyware on computers. You can't be sure that they haven't added anything to the program.

Hijackthis is a very powerful and good program. Download it from a reliable source. Try HERE .

For the results, you can paste your log into THIS page and it will give you an idea of what you need to remove.

terrymats

Thanks Rex, didn't know lop was a blop, lol. I dunno where I downloaded from. Was a long time back. Maybe downloaded via some p2p.

Cheers
Terry