MSAS / Spybot Icons Disappearing

[SP Goodman]

Just installed XP w/SP2 from scratch.

Right after installing this week's Windows Critical Updates (6 of em), the
icons on the right side of the taskbar reduced in number drastically.

Before:
Fix-It 5, Messenger, HP 6800 printer, TabletWorks driver, Spybot S&D
Protection, MS Anti-Spyware, Volume Control.

After:
Fix-It 5, Messenger, TabletWorks driver - though the Messenger comes and
goes at boot time. I got a message from IM saying that I had been signed
out of .NET because I was already signed in - and then I'm signed in anyway.
(This seems to have been resolved by reinstalling IM).

Beforehand the Hide Icons on the above were working. Now you can't even add
a Volume Control to the taskbar, and it was checked off to appear already
anyhow.

The most ominous is of course the Spybot and MSAS icons going missing. I
still get the Spybot protector messages, but not the MSAS. I'm on the verge
of doing a full data backup, saying the heck with the work genning this PC,
and doing another scratch install.

I uninstalled and removed the folders for both Spybot and MSAS, rebooted,
and reinstalled both apps. The icons reappeared until next bootup, at which
point it's back to the "After" above.

A number of items on this newsgroup and others have made me wonder if some
kind of attack isn't in progress, taking as much protection software offline
as possible, before hitting with all it's got. Thus my questions first,
lest repeating the scratch install is just a waste of time. Help! Thanks.

Stephen Goodman
* Cartoons about DVDs and Stuff
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[Bill Sanderson]

In this response, I'm going to focus on your remark about the IM message.

I'm surmising that (in the absence of another machine) this indicates
another login via Fast User Switching.

Can you restart the machine and lets see whether it behaves then--with only
a single session going?

 

[SP Goodman]

It's not a multi-user machine, and has never been set up to be one, but two
separate PCs with two separate IM accounts. As a matter of fact her IM was
disabled while I experienced this.

 

[SP Goodman]

But you know what? After doing the clean/reinstall on my wife's PC it
required a Logoff-Logon to get the icons all back, AND get the hiding
function to work right. But I still got the weird .NET message despite
changing my password and not being on any other 'location'. My wife does
not get the error.

 

[Bill Sanderson]

I don't understand the .NET message at all--that has to mean someone signing
on using your username and password. It probably isn't some hacker--it is
probably you, on your machine--but I can't tell from the facts as described.

 

[SP Goodman]

Given that we've sort of identified the icon-hiding problem and the
non-appearance of MSAS as being a Shell-User error, if not an Identity
corruption error as discussed elsewhere, it might follow that this single
PC, despite having had just one install of XP on it from scratch, could have
made some copy of the identity and uses it incorrectly in duplicate.

In the event that someone in the know about Identities handling is watching
this thread (despite the top-posting) it would help to know how to possibly
eliminate the 'backup identity', which might be interfering enough to cause
both these problems.