IE disappears from taskbar on reboot

No problem at all, glad it got fixed :) If all MSE, MBAM and SAS gave a green light I wouldn't worry.

GokAy said:

Try browsing to IE folder in prog files x86 and right click send to:desktop, try pinning this new shortcut.

And regarding MBAM scan, did you enable rootkit scanning in settings - detections?

Sxcd1 said:

...Windows Explorer, Firefox and IE are all back on my taskbar....

If you are using IE10 or above on a 64bit OS, then the pinned shortcut should be pointing to the 64bit version of IE... not the 32bit version.

The first instance of IE I'll call the parent process. The parent process does not have a visible window. It launches 32bit children (which show you websites). You can tell IE's parent process to launch 64bit children. See this post.

If you pin the 32bit version of IE10 or above to the task bar, you will be telling Windows to use the 32bit version of IE as the parent process on a 64bit Operating System. Microsoft will not let that happen on a 64bit Operating System. The 32bit version of IE will load and then it will start the 64bit version of IE as the parent process instead - then the 32bit version exits RAM.

UsernameIssues: thanks for pointing this out. I did read your similar comment in the other thread but either it was after my last post here or I failed to remember

I will be more careful next time :)

It appears as if I spoke to soon. Malwarebytes found 4 items and removed them. I rebooted and I'm running it again. Something also set my DNS server to an ip address for IPv4. I reset it to obtain DNS automatically.

Did you take note of the DNS address?
OpenCandy is not serious, it is a PUP, Potentially Unwanted Program.

Unfortunately I didn't take note of the DNS address. Should I just delete the directory /program files/AdaptiveController ?

Check in Control Panel - Programs and Features, see if it is listed there. Note publisher etc info if you see it.

I don't notice any programs in the list that don't belong and nothing from adaptive controller.

Sxcd1,
Please tell us if you did this:

GokAy said:

Try browsing to IE folder in prog files x86 and right click send to:desktop, try pinning this new shortcut.

And regarding MBAM scan, did you enable rootkit scanning in settings - detections?

If you have not, then please scan again with that option enabled.

Sxcd1 said:

It appears as if I spoke to soon. Malwarebytes found 4 items and removed them. I rebooted and I'm running it again. Something also set my DNS server to an ip address for IPv4. I reset it to obtain DNS automatically.

That DNS change is scary. Even if you scanned for rootkits with Malwarebytes, please get a second opinion via WDO.

Sxcd1 said:

Unfortunately I didn't take note of the DNS address. Should I just delete the directory /program files/AdaptiveController ?

I'll let GokAy answer that.


If I might be so nosy:
1) What level is your UAC set to?
2) What version of Windows 7 is installed on this computer?
(Ultimate, Pro, .....)
You might want to update your specs:
https://www.sevenforums.com/profile.php?do=extra

** I have revised post #7 to make the correct shortcut matching the OS bit version as per UsernameIssues' reminder **

What is left in the folder? Can you take a screenshot please?

Alright, according to Malware scan of spoac.exe eba6871371dc65120662999b6baca6b485757685 - herdProtect it is PUP which runs as spoac.exe and has created a service "Adaptive Coordinator", do you see any of them in Task Manager or when you run "services.msc" respectively?