Has anyone seen this before?

[Atomsmasher544]

I noticed this little blue box in the corner of my windows screen

screenshot

If I drag it out of the corner with the mouse, it looks like

this

I ran some spyware programs and it didn't get rid of it, and I removed some weird stuff out of my start menu, but it is definitely loading up right on start up, everytime. Is this something I should be worried about? Also, if I alt f4 when that little box is selected it closes like any normal window.

 

[Netopia]

Wierd! Never seen it.

Joe

 

[John]

Check the control panel > display > desktop > customize desktop > web > delete all URL's listed & uncheck 'lock desktop items'

 

[Atomsmasher544]

doesnt look like theres anything listed in there

 

[John]

Try pulling up task manager and end processes until it disappears.

 

[Atomsmasher544]

so do you think this is something i really need to worry about?

 

[imported_Ned Flanders]

Maybe. I sure wouldn't leave it there.

 

[spherrod]

Do you see it if you log in with another account?

 

[Kevinthewise]

yeah i have ummm if you got an LCD screen it could be a dead pixel or any other monitor for that matter. or it could be the video card itself that is not working properly.

 

[brikis98]

i've never seen that and seems a bit sketchy to me...

aside from killing processes with ctrl + alt + delete, you can try to remove unnecessary stuff from startup. click start > run and type "msconfig" and push enter. click on the startup tab. uncheck anything that you don't recognize. usually, you need nothing in there except your virus scanner. see if upon reboot the box remains.

 

[Atomsmasher544]

Is it safe to just kill processes like that? It gives that nasty "this might screw up your computer" message whenever I do that, so I was hesitant

 

[Brazen]

I say we nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

 

[cubby1223]

Originally posted by: brikis98
i've never seen that and seems a bit sketchy to me...

aside from killing processes with ctrl + alt + delete, you can try to remove unnecessary stuff from startup. click start > run and type "msconfig" and push enter. click on the startup tab. uncheck anything that you don't recognize. usually, you need nothing in there except your virus scanner. see if upon reboot the box remains.

That's not very good advice. Most people don't recognize anything in there. For example, the typical user buys Norton from the store, and they have no idea what ccApp.exe is, they're going to remove it from startup. This is also why I never give people hijackthis to fix their spyware problems. Because whenever someone would get fed up and make us give them hijackthis to use, they just wipe everything out and now it's a much worse situation they're in.

There are dozens of little programs people need to have on startup for various other things to work properly, and they have no idea what they're looking at.

The advice to kill processes in the task manager is far better because you can then identify exactly what put that window up, and remove just that one program from starting.

 

[cubby1223]

Originally posted by: Atomsmasher544
Is it safe to just kill processes like that? It gives that nasty "this might screw up your computer" message whenever I do that, so I was hesitant

It's safe. Usually you won't be able to end the tasks that are marked under the user name SYSTEM, LOCAL SERVICE, or NETWORK SERVICE. But just keep at it and watch for the window to go away.

After you do all this, just reboot the computer before opening any other programs, so that all the processes you shut down will be reloaded.

 

[brikis98]

Originally posted by: cubby1223

Originally posted by: brikis98
i've never seen that and seems a bit sketchy to me...

aside from killing processes with ctrl + alt + delete, you can try to remove unnecessary stuff from startup. click start > run and type "msconfig" and push enter. click on the startup tab. uncheck anything that you don't recognize. usually, you need nothing in there except your virus scanner. see if upon reboot the box remains.

That's not very good advice. Most people don't recognize anything in there. For example, the typical user buys Norton from the store, and they have no idea what ccApp.exe is, they're going to remove it from startup. This is also why I never give people hijackthis to fix their spyware problems. Because whenever someone would get fed up and make us give them hijackthis to use, they just wipe everything out and now it's a much worse situation they're in.

There are dozens of little programs people need to have on startup for various other things to work properly, and they have no idea what they're looking at.

The advice to kill processes in the task manager is far better because you can then identify exactly what put that window up, and remove just that one program from starting.

all you have to do is google the name of the program and pages upon pages of info come up telling you exactly what it is. the same goes for processes in task manager. you can also see the "command" that is being called, which often shows the directory of the file, which provides still more info. plus, since you're not actually deleting anything, but just unchecking it, you can always put it back if something goes wrong (after reboot). and as i mentioned, the virus scanner should obviously not be removed.

however, i do agree with you, this is not a tool for total newbies. you should be fairly familiar with windows to comfortably use msconfig... i'm guessing most anandtech users are competent enough, but it's certainly not garaunteed.

 

[Atomsmasher544]

Well I've been through the msconfig and disabled everything that isn't necessary, and I checked the remaining ones on google and they're all microsoft services of some kind. I'm not at home right now, so I'll try removing processes from the task manager when I get home. Just hoping I don't have to do a full reformat, even though I probably should since its been awhile.

 

[Smilin]

use alt-tab to flip around until you figure out what it is. Then use alt-space to bring up it's menu so you can maximize it to look.

 

[BladeVenom]

What do you get when you right click on it?

 

[Atomsmasher544]

Nothing happens when I right click on it, all I can do is drag it around or alt+f4 to close it.

 

[nervegrind3r]

you've been x'd

 

[Atomsmasher544]

Alright, well I found the process on the first thing that I tried. It was an iexplore.exe

Soooo.. what do I do now?

 

[QueZart]

What Version of IE you got Installed? In add/remove check the box that says show all updates, and see if there are any "updates or anything for IE you can uninstall. Also Check IE for Plugins or what not clear cache check what applications it has set to use for the various things. If you haven't already Try installing IE7, if you need/use IE at all your better off with IE7 anyway

 

[kmmatney]

Originally posted by: Atomsmasher544
Alright, well I found the process on the first thing that I tried. It was an iexplore.exe

Soooo.. what do I do now?

I lot of spyware programs use iexplore.exe as their filename. That last one I dealt with did that. for example, see here:

http://www.boredguru.com/modules/articles/article.php?item_id=88

I'm pretty sure you have something. The one I had was a pain to get rid of - none of the spyware programs worked. I had to get rid of it manually, and boot up in safe mode, etc...

Here's an example of the symptoms, and how to get rid of it, if it is a virus of some sort:

http://www.boredguru.com/modules/articles/article.php?storyid=87