Proxy desktop???

[Angelo Campanella]

Dear All"

I just had a crazy event, likely repeated in the past without my
recognition.

I routinely enter XP via the Administraor auto login at startup (I am
the big cahuna; I'm the only user!). Anyway, I often use Windows
Explorer to do basic directory searching. This last time, repeated
clicks on my Exporer icon brought naught. After 1/2 hour of desparate
jabbing, I logged of all in sight to shut down ad start from scratch.
When along comes some things also to shut down including a dude called
"proxy desktop" (say what???".

So then I resatrted and found my dozens of requests for Explorer to be
nicely posted all over like wallpaper. WHAT'S GOING ON. XP has a
no-sense sense of humor.

Please explain "proxy desjktop" to this single one-cylinder user!

Angelo Campanella

 

[Angelo Campanella]

You have posted a plethora of issues and suggested actions.

First, let me say that 1- I have NOT to my knowledge installed SP3,
though an auto update might have done so without my knowledge, though I
try to track such events.

2- Another VRRY disturbing problem just disappeared again: MS WORD,
when printing via HP Software HAS and HAS NOT behaved well when the HP
"Prevew" is presented (WORD only). Like the un-viewability of the
Explorer screens referenced, the Print Preview would not present on my
laptop screen. I had previously discovered that these screens were
prenent only in alternative user's screen ("guest" or my 'personal' screen.

At one point, I thought I had eliminated them by always logging in as
the admisistraor, but the past 6 months, that Word/HP"preview" has been
hidden, which in turn caused a print cue jam: I had to use PrintSpooler
repeatedly to pruge the jammed documents, then re-print without preview.
But now that has subsided thanks to the recent proxy desktop elimination.

Proxy desktop can be an error message when Explorer is just
acting up, you probably have some other problem and this is
just a symptom.

Likely so.

Start by running memtest86+ for a few hours, then booting
windows and running Prime95 (Or Orthos if you have a
multi-core CPU) for 30 minutes. If both of those pass w/o
any errors, run chkdsk on the drive - you may have to reboot
when prompted.

Also check background tasks, killing any you don't recognize
and if there are doubts about malware infection, scan the
system. We need more info about what else is malfunctional
on the system, in rare cases you might have just came upon
an Explorer bug but the system otherwise works ok.

Check Event Viewer and any other logs that seem created or
updated to coincide to the time of the problem.

Did you recently install XP's Service Pack 3? If so, did
the problem seem to start soon thereafter?

Also check the hard drive with the manufacturer's utilities,
available from the respective website. I have written about
hardware tests because it is a hardware newsgroup, but it
may easily be a windows and/or software problem better
handled in a Windows XP-centric newsgroup, though it would
be prudent to check memory before scanning the hard drive
with either chkdsk or manufacturer utility to greatly reduce
the potential for it finding fantom errors that don't really
exist.

A very long (to me) shopping list! I will print out your instructions
and use them as backup actions when more such troules arise.

Thanks,

Angelo Campanella