Mystery program brings up desktop

[DingusQ]

I have a strange problem with one computer running XP Home SP 2. There is some program running that regularly causes the desktop to come up. This can happen while playing a game or when the screensaver is running (I don’t notice it happening while working with other apps). I can't really tell what it is. I have noticed a blank taskbar button appearing momentarily. I've done some experimenting with programs that run all the time, such as Spysweeper (shutting it down doesn’t stop the problem). Since I regularly sweep the computer for spyware and viruses, I don't think it's that sort of a problem. Can anyone recommend a way of tracking this thing down?
Clark


DingusQ

 

[Rick998]

Use something like HijackThis (recently sold to Trend Micro:

http://www.merijn.org/programs.php#hijackthis)

or a2 HijackFree (

http://www.hijackfree.com/en/).

These will show you all the programs that are run automatically from startup.

The Windows Task Manager doesn't always show you all processes that are running. I also suggest you use something like Process Explorer (

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/utilities/ProcessExplorer.mspx)

which will show you all the programs that are running, even if they are hidden from Task Manager.

Hope this helps...

 

[linney]

Try some third party process monitor which will give you a shout every time some process or application attempts to run, you then have the opportunity to examine that processes credentials and allow or disallow the process. I am sure there are other similar applications around, here's two to look at.

System Safety Monitor 2

http://www.syssafety.com/product.html

PROCESSGUARD

http://www.diamondcs.com.au/processguard/

A note about PROCESSGUARD, while the program is excellent, the company may be having other support problems, so don't go further than the free version without extreme caution.