h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Every 15 minutes (exactly 15 minutes) a button appears on my taskbar for just a very brief moment. It has no title, just a blank button with a window icon in the left corner. It's extremely annoying, because it grabs the focus from the desktop and interrupts my workflow. It's particularly annoying, if watching a DVD in fullscreen, to see the taskbar become visible for a brief moment.

I've tried to find what it is, but with no luck. There are no scheduled tasks that can run and I can't get to the button quick enough to maximise it and see what is going on. If I look in the task manager, 48 current processes increase to 50 for the split second this thing becomes active. It's not enough time to scan through the list of processes to see what may be getting invoked. (Believe me, I've tried to the point of frustration)

I've removed everything from the startup menu, and XP is fully patched via auto-update every day. I've now got to the limit of my technical ability, so any ideas anyone??

no idea, but sounds like it could be an automatic "See if there is a newer version of software X" thing.

2 things you cn try -= install ZoneAlarm and set it to full paranioa - this will pop up a message when anything attempts to connect to the internet - therefore you can see what it is (if it is a internet thing)

Secondly Install Tweak All (http://www.codeforge.co.uk/tweakall.php) which will allow you to see all the programs that load at start up, it is amazing how many software packages install small update checkers - it will also allow you to remove them.

Hope that helps

U91473

OK, thanks for that - I *may* try what you suggested in the morning.

However, I don't think it's a 'dial up and check for an update thing'. There is no obvious connection to the internet - I don't allow an automatic connection, ie, it must be confirmed and I don't see a dial-up connection dialogue.

I also don't install, and have never knowingly installed, anything other than a Microsoft Certified software component, so I'm a little reluctant to install the software you suggested. Do you know if these are certified for XP?

I'm convinced it must be a Windows/Office or HP component that is causing the problem - it's more or less all I have on this PC and that's what came installed from new. The *only* goodies I have installed are drivers for the ADSL modem and a new install of Photoshop. I renewed Norton when the three month trial ran out, but that's it to my knowledge. Other than internet connections, nothing else has been near this machine. I should point out that this particular problem has happened from new. Neither the HP or MS knowledge base have offered any solutions from the searching I have done.

So I'm a bit stumped!

Hmmm,

Can I make a suggestion, try unplugging the ADSL modem from the back of your machine for the 15 minute period and see what happens...

If you run Task Manager/Processes and click on the CPU header, it will sort the list of processes with the busiest one first. When your button appears, the programm running it should be top of the list.

Some of the mail protocols have a default setting of 15 mins. Turn IMAP, POP and SMTP off in the services MMC. A longshot, but worth a try...
BCNU - Crescent

Sorry for the delay in posting back.

Whisky, I tried your suggestion - it's still the same.

Gnomon - great idea and I did just that! Watching it closely (believe me, it's very boring waiting 15 minutes each time) it appears no new processes actually start although there are a couple that pop up randomly close to when the button appears (a few seconds later). So, despite what I said earlier, I think it's a process that is already running. However, when the button actually 'fires' it doesn't appear to demand anything from the CPU so the process doesn't move up the list.

Crescent, I checked those settings - none are set to fifteen minutes, so I think I can discount them.

I've done an extensive search on the MS knowledge base over the weekend and I can't see it mentioned anywhere. There is some bumph about blank buttons that appear permanently on the taskbar, but nothing about very brief appearances.

Thanks for all the suggestions!