Problem with minimising programs

Thank you Ann. My problem is difficult to describe.
I transcibe the 1891 census for Freecen and use "Counties Gazetteer" as well as LDS Family Search. I have used these two programs for years with no problem, but now suddenly I am in trouble.
I open both programs and then minimize them on the task bar so that I can quickly access them. But now when I try to open one program, it opens but cancels out the other program on the taskbar and when I try to open Yahoo news also, it will start to open as Family Search or Counties Gazetteer, just for a second or two and then open as the Yahoo News that I asked for. It is really weird.
I have reformatted my hard drive many times but this problem persists in spite of that. I dont know what to do next except work around it but it is annoying to say the least.
My computer keeps having little annoying problems, which made me suspect a worm or virus but my anivirus programs cannot detect anything although when I looked in Registry I found an entry "unknown" with a list of rows of numbers and I wondered if this entry is usuall on Windows 98 or if that could be the worm. What do you think?
I hope this is clearer Thank you for your interest ..Thelma
PS Actually, I had just had "Family Search" and only that program minimized on the taskbar and decided to edit my question in Windows BBS but when I opened that program it cancelled out Family Search on the taskbar. I do hope someone can help me

 

Hi thamer1,
I have noticed that members are looking into your post and then backing out. I have done this myself. While I'm most happy to try to help you sort this out I have no clear picture in my head of the problem your having based on your description. You may want to reword this, being as specific as you can using a "blow by blow "_ "step by step" (program, what your doing at the time, what it does when you do it, and possibly what you expected it to do).

It may just be me, the time of night and my mental capacity at this time. So.. if any others reading this has a better grip or take on what is going on here, can you fill me in????

 

Do you by any chance have "powertoys" tweakui and have you set your mouse to use the "xmouse" options....ie; "activation follows the mouse" and second option; "autoraise when activating "? If so disable this!

Do you mean when you open one of the programs it closes or causes the other program to exit. (Icon disappears from the taskbar). Please clarify, what do you mean by the words "cancels out "?

If you mean when you open "Counties Gazetteer" and then open the the "LDS Family Search" it replaces the "Counties Gazetteer" pane, this would be correct. One is the "Active Pane of the Program that has the focus" and it will cover the "Inactive Pane" of all others. Based on the size and position of the windows, one, both or all panes may be visible........but I can't believe you don't already know the fundamentals of task switching, program focus and multiple window finesse. This must be something else.... (I say to myself as I scratch my head).

Maybe I need to take a break and grab a couple of hours of sleep. I will get back to this in a bit. I'm sorry but this is still a little fuzzy for me.

I'm beginning to feel more and more like an idiot by the minute but since I have already exposed myself and am obviously trying to fumble around here until I can better understand what's going on....
"Counties Gazetteer "/ "LDS Family Search ", are these "software programs" or IE pages/sites? I was trying to find a little background information on these and am unsure of what I am looking for.

 

Windows seems to need a new install of your specific software,
regards

 

trouble wih minimizing

Dear Ann, you are not an idiot you are very kind to spend so much time on my problem. (am I answering your message in the right way by the way, I am the idiot, I couldnt find any other way to reply).
Just to be sure I checked my mouse (I do not use power toys) and everything is normal there.
Yes Ann I do mean that when I open one program, the other closes and exits the taskbar, that is what I meant by cancels out. you have grasped what I meant in my fumbling description. I am not sure what you mean about all the technical terms mutiple finess and program focus etc Ann but I do know that previous to this problem I could have five or six programs minimized on the task bar and even the same program monimized twice, in case I wanted to look up another county etc.
You seem not to think it is worm though, right???
Counties Gazetteer and LDS Family search are downloaded from the Internet and are trusted sites. I also use Yahoo News headlines which I download from the Internet to see the morning news and it also seems to be affected, but other programs minimize with no problems.
I do appreciate your help Ann but if it is giving you a headache (as it does me) please do not be afraid to back out, I may have to live with this problem or buy Windows XP ( although I cannot be sure this will eliminate the problem)
Thelma
PS.. I have just noticed something that may be diagnostically important, it is all the downloaded programs thatwill not minimize, the programs from disc are fine, or..all the programs in my Favourites list, does that help at all ?????? With gratitude..Thelma

 

Hi again thamer1,
There are so many reasons why this may happen, I'm having a hard time trying to decide where the place to best place to start is.

*What version of win98 are you using?
*Is it up to date with Microsoft patches and updates?
*Is it up to date with your Original Equipment Manufacturers offered updates and patches? (OEM=The support site for the make and model of your computer.)
*Have you updated other components of windows such as Internet Explorer, Directx, etc that microsoft offers, again at "windows update" support.
*Are you using a good reliable "Virus Scanner ". Preferably a newer version and definitely with the latest "dat file "=(virus info file) for the program?
*Since you seem to suspect infection, how about an on-line scan? Confirm whether you are infected or not. Knowing this for sure, should make you rest easier: Here's a few of the more popular ones:
http://www.windowsbbs.com/showpost.php?p=196763&postcount=2

How old are these programs? Do they offer patches or updates? When you say this happens only with the programs you have downloaded, how many would that be or are we still talking about the same two? When your program icon disappears from the taskbar, have you tried a cntl/alt/del to bring up taskmanger to see if the program is still running in the background and it's just the icon that vanished? Any errors or recent history of errors or problems other than this?

What do you have running in the background or loaded at startup? Perhaps one or more of these is conflicting or causing compatibility problems. Have you tried an msconfig diagnostic startup to disable "startups" and then testing the two apps multitaskng functionality? Are there option "setting or preferences" in either of these programs that designates or sets the behaviors for minimization or background behaviors? Do these programs behave if you do not minimize them to the taskbar, (switching from one to the other).

Are you using or enabling "Active desktop "? Using any of those "Bells and whistles" personal preferences such as animate windows, show window while dragging, sounds associated with minimize/maximize open/close etc.

I may be able to pin this down if I could get access to these programs so I can find out what settting "options or preferences" these have, how they run, if there's known problems, etc. ie;anything that could make them bug out. Can you give me the "Proper names" of these programs and the exact place where they can be down loaded from?

What did you use to download them with? Did you install these or are you running them from within the archive or zip of some sort?
NOTE: As yet, I can't find "Countries Gazetteer" and the closest I can figure "LDS Family Search" to be is something called "Personal Ancestrial File" or "PAF" for short:
download
PAF Is this even close???

That should be enough questions for now. Until I know at least these specifics any other suggestions I would make would tend to be the generic "maintenance and cleaning" routines or the standard uninstall/reinstall advice. I'm assuming, until told otherwise, that you have done these already and they have not helped.

This will never happen on my part. I do this fun and get a kick out it. Since I very rarely wave the "whiteflag ", you must decide when you have had enough and let me know.

 

trouble minimizing programs

Sorry I have not written for a while but what with Christmas and all then my husband was diagnosed with cancer, I have not felt like it.
However my son came here and suggested that I use Netscape instead of Internet Explorer and the problem on minimising programs disappeared, unless I used Internet Explorer, so I think perhaps Explorer has become corrupted. I have no idea what to do about that, I prefer Explorer to Netscape so if you can tell me how to delete IE and reinstall I would be deeply grateful. I dont just want to delete it myself and mess up my computer again
Thank you for all your help Thelma