active programs not in taskbar!!

Hi there. Im Kevin.

This problem has been looked at already quite a bit but none have so far been able to help me.

I recently noticed that I could not see any windows in my taskbar and alt+tab has been a life saver for a day now. im on xp pro btw.

i am strongly considering reformatting as I have everything on CD and I could have the problem fixed in a couple hours. But I think I would rather learn how to fix the problem then just run away from it.

I did a trojan scan with some program that I dont really know how good it was. And althought it said no trojans were on my comp it did flag listening port 5000 and something about sockets de troie, blazer 5.

Next I got a copy of NAV 2003 pro and it told me I had 2 viruses and only one could be fixed (W32.HLLP.HANDY) and the other could not be fixed. The other was called W32.IRCBOT.GEN, and it was attached to the un-needed file kernel32.exe, which i stopped in the processes screen and deleted. I have since done a full scan with NAV and come up clean and an active scan with Panda which also came up clean.

I did not accept any e-cards lately so it is not that PMEDIA FriendGreetings.com bug. To be safe I also searched for OTMS.exe aswell as winsrv/winsrv.reg etc.

So I know i have a virus clean system, but still active programs do NOT show up.

Also I have noticed in the past 2 days or so that my e-mail account has been bombarded with about 20-30 emails. Most of which are from mail-daemons saying the message could not be sent (i didnt send any message). So I was thinking this could be the w32.yaha thing, however the fix for that tells me i dont have it. I did get some emails on another account that had attachments called love.SCR, some kind of screensaver (i didnt open it, as I never do from someone i dont know).

Anyways, any ideas would help me. Thanks alot.
Kevin

 

Hi,

Did you try the removal instructions from Symantic? Or was it just that the scanner didn't automatically repair? Click here and see if the removal instructions work.

 

Actually, if you deleted the kernel32.exe file you will need to replace it.

Try performing a file search and see if kernel32.exe shows up in [C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32]. If it doesn't let me know and I can tell you how to replace it.

 

nah it doesnt show up...

i am just putting a few files onto cd now... then a reformat is comin

 

actually it didnt automatically repair, I disabled it in processes and it has since disappeared from the system32 folder

 

Got your e-mail. I want to welcome to the Washington, D.C. area. Traffic is bad and getting worst. I recommend you don't live to far out or your commute will drive you crazy.

As for your problem "Open applications no longer appear on the taskbar" I suspect adware software is causing the problem.

I recommend Spybot, see: http://tomcoyote.com/SPYBOT

 

If you haven't reformatted yet and it isn't in the system32 folder, if you have downloaded SP1 you can copy the kernel32.dll file from [C:\WINDOWS\SEVICEPACKFILES\I386] and paste it into the [C:WINDOWS\SYSTEM32] folder to restore it.

I would run [SFC\SCANNOW] after-wards also.

 

actually for u Dan O.. i am movin to n randolph... near lorcolm lane and lee hiway, and military rd etc haha

bvr01> i only deleted the .exe not the dll as the dll is required for the system to run (so iv heard)

 

is spybot much different than Adaware?

i have used adaware and it came up with nothing

 

actually i just ran spybot and it found 80!!!! problems...

i fixed them all with the program but still no active programs in taskbar

im just gonna do the reformat i guess and keep an antivirus from now on...

im just kinda a performance freak. if i have more than 3 icons in my systemtray at startup i get all crazy like (NAV is one more)

oh well.. thanks alot everyone

 

ok i just finished running the sfc /scannow

it just finished and I guess nothing was wrong as nothing was displayed.

I am just going to restart then see if anything has changed... if not, its format time

 

Would you like to hold off on the format and try one more thing?

There is a program called StartupList. It will make a list of your startups and a few other things. It generates a long text file. Please copy and paste the contents of that file into a post here. Maybe we'll spot something. Here's the link.

http://www.spywareinfo.com/files/startuplist.zip

 

hey sorry guys... i did the format.

i know what the startup list does, and I was already aware of all the processes on my computer. Anyways, I keep backups of everything (lol if anyone dont i might laff at them) so the reformat due to my impatience only took about 2 hrs...

im not too sure what crossposting is but i just wanna ask a question from u guys

should i leave norton 2003 antivirus pro on from now on?

thanks alot,

kevin

 

Yes, you should have some kind of virus scanner running.

P.S. You picked a nice place to live and the commute should not be bad.