disruptive application

[Guest]

I have an application that pops up in the taskbar at a regular interval every
five to seven minutes or so. It is labled only with a white box and does not
include any accompanying text that identifies what it is.

I'm pretty sure it's not spyware or a virus. I ran McAfee's virus scan, as
well as Ad-Aware, Spybot and AVG antispyware programs, and I still have this
application popping up every couple minutes.

When the program appears in the taskbar, it disrupts anything running in
full screen mode. Any ideas about how to determine what this is and get rid
of it?

 

[Guest]

When it is NOT there, open Program Manager and make note of all the tasks
running under your username. Then, when it IS there, do this again. Is
there any additional program? If so, then trace it back to where it came
from. You can use the MSCOMFIG command in a Command window (Start->Run) and
check the Startup tab. All the programs starting up on boot will be checked
in their boxes. Look at each one and verify that you want it to run at
bootup. If you find one you don't recognize, uncheck the box and reboot. If
you problem goes away, then you found it.

It could also be some sort of Service. Use the Services application under
Administrative Tools and run down the list of services started. If any look
unfamiliar, stop them. Be careful with this method though as you may stop an
essential service. Always look at the description in the left pane to see
what it does and the effects of stopping it. Don't do anything other than
Stop it though. If you mysterious white box stops popping up, then you've
stopped the service. Find out what service it is and then change it to
either "Manual" or "Disabled" as desired.

GP

 

[Guest]

Make that "MSCONFIG" instead of "MSCOMFIG". Sorry

GP

 

[Guest]

I also tried checking the tasks. Because the application only pops up for a
moment then goes away, I acutally sat here watching task manager until it
came back. It was more like 15 minutes than the 5 to 7 I reported originally.
When the box popped up in the task bar, no other tasks appeared. I'll try
troubleshooting the services. Thanks for the advice.

 

[Guest]

I checked my services and all appear to be valid, i.e. they are either XP
services or services for McAfee video card, sound card, printer etc. There
are a couple of iPod services I thought at first might be causing this, but
I've had this issue from before I got the iPod.

I suppose it still could be one of these services, but I'm hesitant to stop
any services that seem like they are supposed to be there.

 

[Guest]

I am assuming that McAffee is your anti-virus and AVG is just for spyware.
If you have BOTH of them set up for anti-virus work, then that might be the
problem. There is a good chance that this might be legitimate in that it
could be some sort of update service for McAffee or AVG that "phones home"
every 15 minutes. This is why it wouldn't appear as a new process because it
may already be running - as McAffee core or other program. It could also be
more serious if it is a trojan or virus that is phoning home. I am sure you
have the latest updates for your A/V suite, and for AdAware, Spybot and the
rest.

Try checking all your programs "tool" menus that run in the background for
anything related to "notify me if this or that happens" or "put icon in the
taskbar when (this) happens". It could be something like that also.

I have one program (ZoneAlarm) that will bust into any full-screen program
and tell me when ANY program is trying to access my other computers or web.
This can be annoying, but can also save you from a program you don't want to
get access to the web. Have you considered ZoneAlarm? It's free.

To bed. I'll check up tomorrow here.

GP

 

[Guest]

AVG is set up just for anti-virus. In fact, I downloaded it specifically to
help deal with this issue. I don't think it is an update service for either
of those applications. I've used McAffee for about two years, and this issue
has started in only the last few weeks. I updated McAffee and my various
anti-spyware programs prior to running them.

I'll check out the Tools menus for other programs I have running to see if
there are options set like you are suggesting. I hadn't thought of it before
but I'll try to see if this happens without any other applications running,
and look into ZoneAlarm like you suggested.

 

[Guest]

By the way, are you aware of any conflicts between ZoneAlarm and McAffee? I
did a quick search on this, but didn't come up with anything initially that
seemed current. I'll do some additional research.

 

[Guest]

As far as I know ZoneAlarm has no conflicts with anything. I've used it for
over five years with no problems. When you are initially setting it up and
running it, you will get many alerts as services that need to connect to the
Internet try and do so. This is normal and will be annoying, but necessary.
Look over the alert you get and then either grant access or deny access.

When you install software, a lot of it will try and access the Internet
(usually for updates). When it does this, just click the "Allow" button
without checking the "Remember this decision" box. This way, if you don't
want it to connect the next time you can deny it.

With ZA you have complete control over who connects and who doesn't. If you
make a mistake and allow something you don't want, then you can go into the
Programs tab and remove it or change it's access on the fly.

Let me do some more thinking about this strange icon.

GP

 

[Guest]

Great. Thanks for your help. In the mean time I'll install ZoneAlarm and see
if that helps.

 

[Guest]

I installed Zone Alarm, and it would appear that whatever is appearing in the
task bar isn't accessing the internet. Zone Alarm does not provide an alert
when it appears, though I suppose that isn't necessarily conclusive. Any
other ideas?