Can't tell if this is a virus or spyware.

For about the past week or so, every time I boot up my computer, I have this very, very small window open up. In the titlebar is the name "iexplore.exe ", and in the box itself, is a single button labeled "Command1 ". I wish I could get a screenshot for you, but it disappears by the time I'm able to capture it. Also, once it disappears, there is no "iexplore.exe" in the task manager; just when I run Internet Explorer, which isn't often.

Now, whenever I run a Norton program (SysWorks, PF, etc.), I get a dialog popping up, saying that it's running the installer to configure Norton GoBack, and eventually says it can't find "Norton.msi" and wants the source disk. Now, I had run Norton dozens of times prior to this week and I have never had a problem. And all things considered, Norton GoBack is running just fine. To check that, I told my PC I wanted to revert to an earlier time, and during the bootup process, Norton GoBack had several recent times, one as recent as five minutes before the reboot. So obviously, it's fine.

I ran AV, and nothing came up as a virus. I ran System Mechanic's TotalCare, and nothing came up as a virus, spyware, adware, keylogger, or anything.

Does anyone know what this may be? Is there another program I should try?

 

HI there JPaterson000.

What type of window is it that pops up? Is it a command window? An IE window or some other form of Windows pop up? Have you tried to press the button or is it merely a label?

Let us know.

 

It looks like a Windows window, like if you were browsing My Documents or a directory, or any file. As I said, the title of the window is "iexplore ", and in the window is a solid white background, with a silver button labeled "Command1 ". It doesn't appear to be a browser window, as right-clicking brings up the usual right-click menu (create new, delete, rename, etc.)

The button appears to be an actual button, just not a label. I clicked on it and held it down, and it depressed, but I moved the mouse off it before letting go. I don't want to actually click it and possibly activate something worse.

 

When this pop up appears, can you get task manager up and see if there are any new processes running?

Have you made any additions to the system be they soft\hardware recently?

 

No, nothing unusual shows up in the task manager. The only time I get the "iexplore.exe" in the manager is when I'm using Internet Explorer.

The only software changes I've made were installing a couple games, but these are games I bought from a store by big-name companies, so I doubt they'd do anything.



But some good news. I never had Ad-Aware installed, and figuring this was a good time, I went and bought their Professional edition not more than two minutes after posting that last message. It scanned, and found two objects; one diaremover and h@tkeyh@@k. One is a data miner, the other was malware. I removed both, restarted the PC, and voila, no more popup!

Thanks for the help anyway.

 

Good news all around, tho I would have tried the free version first, but all that matters is you resolved the problem.

Good work.