Proxy Desktop? in XP Pro 1

[scarton1]

Some time (minute, hours, days, it varies) after a reboot, I try to open Windows Explorer. The arrow changes to an hourglass for a few seconds, then nothing happens. In order to open Explorer, I have to reboot. When I shut down, a dialog box appears with "Proxy Desktop" in the blue title bar which says it is ending the task, and giving me the option of ending the task now. What is this and why is it happening?

Thanks

Steve

 

[linney]

When did this first start? Can you trace it back to any program you have installed. Read what others are saying about it.

There are plenty of similar stories at Google but not much in the way of solutions.

http://groups.google.com/groups?q="...0207090603.5ebf507e@posting.google.com&rnum=4

http://groups.google.com/groups?q="...s+xp&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&start=0&sa=N

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q="Proxy+Desktop"+windows+xp

This seems to be one of these mysteries where you are going to have to solve it by a process of elimination and careful observation until you can pin down the cause.

See some of the suggestions at Google. Post back here with a list of Start Up programs and your Running Processes at a time this problem is occurring.

 

[bcastner]

It sounds very much like a virus.

Update your virus definitions and do a complete scan of Drive C.

If no joy, do an on-line virus scan:

http://www.antivirus.com/

If still no joy, try a restore point from before the problem started.

If still no joy, run all three of these, stopping after each to see if the problem is gone:

Hijack This!
SpyBot Search and Destroy 1.2
AdAware

All three can be found from this link:

http://www.spywareinfo.com/articles/hijacked/#removal

 

[linney]

Let's hope it turns out to be a virus, trojan or spyware that would be easier to fix.

Some more thoughts on it, incase it turns out to be not a virus etc.

To get further information about the error look in your Event viewer.

Look in the System or Application folder. You can get to the Event Viewer via right click My Computer icon and select Manage.

Any errors logged in the Event Viewer can be expanded by double clicking on the error line.

Take any event error I.D. number and search for it on this site.

http://www.eventid.net/events.asp

If you want the highly technical cause of a crash look in the Documents and Settings/ All Users/ Application Data/ Microsoft/ Dr Watson/ Drwtsn32.log

Find the entry that is relevant by date and time to the crash you are investigating. The exact cause of the crash is indicated by "FAULT ->" on the left of page next to line of code causing crash. This, if your as cluey as me, wont tell you much but you can use it to see if it is the same fault all the time, and further up the log you can find "what processes and modules are running". This I feel will be the clue to solving it.

 

[topspeedjmv]

I had the exact same error in W2K Pro, and I'm most certain it isn't a virus, though I'm still not positive of the cause; (I had just upgraded to W2K SP4). I first tried uninstalling Spybot S&D, removed the ebay toolbar, then removed a number of services from services.msc, but I found uninstalling ZoneAlarm and reinstalling ZoneAlarm cleared things up for me; still not sure where "proxy desktop" comes from, and not sure if this will work for you...

 

[bcastner]

Linney,

Thanks for the search results. It is possible it is not a virus, as topspeedjmv suggested above as well.

But something is opening multiple instances of explorer and not closing them, or hanging so that the instance of explorer cannot close.

It seems as if the "fix" is to ensure that all applications are not in a hung state on shutdown, otherwise the error state will repeat on next startup.

Start, Run, shutdown -f -s

 

[bcastner]

One other possibility, that I am sure could not be an issue for members of this Forum.

I reviewed recently the electronic distribution security for an application because the software manufacturer was frustrated that the application was appearing all over P2P sites.

The workaround the crackers were using was quite clever. It installed a proxy authentication server that "appeared" to the security side of the application as the real authentication server of the company. The proxy would respond with valid authentication sequences when queried.

But I'm sure no one here would be using such a software crack.

 

[topspeedjmv]

Hi again;

I think Bcastner's comments are right on the money:

"...something is opening multiple instances of explorer and not closing them, or hanging so that the instance of explorer cannot close.

It seems as if the "fix" is to ensure that all applications are not in a hung state on shutdown, otherwise the error state will repeat on next startup."

I couldn't find this answer anywhere else on the web with regard to "proxy desktop", so thanks again Bcastner for your indepth reply; hopefully it will help out those in need...

j

 

[shinytop]

I have been receiving the same message, but not on startup. Sometimes, not always, when I go to shut down I get a message saying that Proxy Desktop is shutting down. It never does so successfully, but rather ends up as "not responding". I can simply "end now" and it shuts down OK.

I was intrigued by bcastner's comments about attempting to open multiple instances of explorer and not closing them. I check task manager when the problem occurs, but have never found any running tasks. I use a popup blocker. Is it possible that the popup blocker is allowing an explorer window to begin to open, then terminating it before it can normally close? I am not familiar with how popup blockers work, but this would explain the helter-skelter occurrence of the problem. It would vary depending on which sites had been visited.