Twitching Taskbar and Disappearing Icons

Windows XP has suddenly started behaving strangely.

First icons started to disappear, 2 the first time. I checked, the
processes are running, they exist in the startup managers, but icons are
gone. Never came back.

Then the task bar began to suddenly go off and reload again, sometimes
with a different slightly different set of icons, but often one or 2
less. They don't come back either.

At the moment what's left are the firewall, antivirus, internet
connection and volume control.

Something strange with ICQ, too. It's not set to load automatically, but
today when I open it, an error message said ICQ could not be loaded, and
then it went and loaded itself. Seems to me there are different links
all jumbled.

What is going on?

os WindowsXP pro
browser Firefox 9.3 (can the extensions be messing things up?)

ana

anneAnna

On Wed, 01 Sep 2004 21:33:25 GMT, anneAnna <>
wrote:

|>Windows XP has suddenly started behaving strangely.
|>
|>First icons started to disappear, 2 the first time. I checked, the
|>processes are running, they exist in the startup managers, but icons are
|>gone. Never came back.
|>
|>Then the task bar began to suddenly go off and reload again, sometimes
|>with a different slightly different set of icons, but often one or 2
|>less. They don't come back either.
|>
|>At the moment what's left are the firewall, antivirus, internet
|>connection and volume control.
|>
|>Something strange with ICQ, too. It's not set to load automatically, but
|>today when I open it, an error message said ICQ could not be loaded, and
|>then it went and loaded itself. Seems to me there are different links
|>all jumbled.
|>
|>What is going on?
|>

Is there any way someone could have remote access to your system?
I'd check that first.

Pennywise

Pennywise wrote:
> On Wed, 01 Sep 2004 21:33:25 GMT, anneAnna <>
> wrote:
>
> |>Windows XP has suddenly started behaving strangely.
> |>
> |>First icons started to disappear, 2 the first time. I checked, the
> |>processes are running, they exist in the startup managers, but icons are
> |>gone. Never came back.
> |>
> |>Then the task bar began to suddenly go off and reload again, sometimes
> |>with a different slightly different set of icons, but often one or 2
> |>less. They don't come back either.
> |>
> |>At the moment what's left are the firewall, antivirus, internet
> |>connection and volume control.
> |>
> |>Something strange with ICQ, too. It's not set to load automatically, but
> |>today when I open it, an error message said ICQ could not be loaded, and
> |>then it went and loaded itself. Seems to me there are different links
> |>all jumbled.
> |>
> |>What is going on?
> |>
>
> Is there any way someone could have remote access to your system?
> I'd check that first.
>
>
I've no idea..how do I check?

anneAnna

On Thu, 02 Sep 2004 05:38:31 GMT, anneAnna <>
wrote:

|>Pennywise wrote:
|>> On Wed, 01 Sep 2004 21:33:25 GMT, anneAnna <>
|>> wrote:
|>>
|>> |>Windows XP has suddenly started behaving strangely.
|>> |>
|>> |>First icons started to disappear, 2 the first time. I checked, the
|>> |>processes are running, they exist in the startup managers, but icons are
|>> |>gone. Never came back.
|>> |>
|>> |>Then the task bar began to suddenly go off and reload again, sometimes
|>> |>with a different slightly different set of icons, but often one or 2
|>> |>less. They don't come back either.
|>> |>
|>> |>At the moment what's left are the firewall, antivirus, internet
|>> |>connection and volume control.
|>> |>
|>> |>Something strange with ICQ, too. It's not set to load automatically, but
|>> |>today when I open it, an error message said ICQ could not be loaded, and
|>> |>then it went and loaded itself. Seems to me there are different links
|>> |>all jumbled.
|>> |>
|>> |>What is going on?
|>> |>
|>>
|>> Is there any way someone could have remote access to your system?
|>> I'd check that first.
|>>
|>>
|>I've no idea..how do I check?

You can start here:
http://tinyurl.com/3mpc6

Pennywise

Pennywise wrote:
> On Thu, 02 Sep 2004 05:38:31 GMT, anneAnna <>
> wrote:
>
> |>Pennywise wrote:
> |>> On Wed, 01 Sep 2004 21:33:25 GMT, anneAnna <>
> |>> wrote:
> |>>
> |>> |>Windows XP has suddenly started behaving strangely.
> |>> |>
> |>> |>First icons started to disappear, 2 the first time. I checked, the
> |>> |>processes are running, they exist in the startup managers, but icons are
> |>> |>gone. Never came back.
> |>> |>
> |>> |>Then the task bar began to suddenly go off and reload again, sometimes
> |>> |>with a different slightly different set of icons, but often one or 2
> |>> |>less. They don't come back either.
> |>> |>
> |>> |>At the moment what's left are the firewall, antivirus, internet
> |>> |>connection and volume control.
> |>> |>
> |>> |>Something strange with ICQ, too. It's not set to load automatically, but
> |>> |>today when I open it, an error message said ICQ could not be loaded, and
> |>> |>then it went and loaded itself. Seems to me there are different links
> |>> |>all jumbled.
> |>> |>
> |>> |>What is going on?
> |>> |>
> |>>
> |>> Is there any way someone could have remote access to your system?
> |>> I'd check that first.
> |>>
> |>>
> |>I've no idea..how do I check?
>
> You can start here:
> http://tinyurl.com/3mpc6
>

Thanks for the link. I got the table re RATs. Compared with
Kerio, which lists all the open ports, I found one, port 5000. However
I found www.diamondcs.com.au, which says this is not a threat since
Sockets de Troie is defunct. I've downloaded their program and will see
what comes up.
It's very frustrating because I've learned to disable Universal Plug and
Play, print and file sharing etc etc, all according to Steve Gibson, for
years. Moreover, none of the battery of scans find anything at all.

anneAnna