Possible malware or paranoid

[Guest]

Every two minutes or so my mouse/curser shows the hour glass for a split
second, like the system is busy or a process is working. This happens even
when the system is idle. I don’t recall this happening with my NT systems.
Is this normal for XP pro? I’m paranoid of malware.

Thanks.

 

[Pennywise]

Every two minutes or so my mouse/curser shows the hour glass for a split
second, like the system is busy or a process is working. This happens even
when the system is idle. I don’t recall this happening with my NT systems.
Is this normal for XP pro? I’m paranoid of malware.

download and run Process Explorer
http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/ProcessExplorer.html

Let it run for a bit, then click on the CPU panel in the upper right,
drag your curser over the history and see what's running at those
times.

If maleware:

Double click on the process(s), reading it's image and command line
will tell you where to find them. stop the process and delete the
file/directory.

Run Regedit and search for the file name(s) deleting them as you find
them.

Right clicking on the Process and selecting Google will describe the
process.

 

[Guest]

Seems to happen when service 'msmsgs.exe' is accessing the CPU. Normal or
what, thoughts...

 

[Guest]

Right on... narrowed this down to windows messenger (msmsgs.exe) as I
suspected. UI does not allow you to remove or uninstall, however, you can
prevent service from loading. If msmsgs.exe is an issue, MS Article 302089
is the answer. Allows you to stop service from start up but run when needed
for remote assistance, et al.