Solved New and odd systray icon

[OvenMaster]

Try resetting the Notification area icons to Default to see if it goes away. If not see exactly what is listed for it and disable the listing. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/13102-notification-area-icons-reset.html

Then we'll need to find the folder and/or reg key which contains these so it can be further traced and deleted.

It's only shown up the once, long enough for it to catch my attention, see that there was no balloon which appeared when hovering the cursor over it describing it, no left- or right-click options, and hit PrintScrn for a screen capture. It vanished five seconds later. It never showed up in the Control Panel or Customization window for icons, so there's no listing.
At this point, I'm pretty satisfied that this is just yet another Windows hiccup, and now I need to find why SAS keeps crashing on me.

 

[Callender]

I wonder if?

I'm left wondering if you unchecked options to install any extras when updating/ installing flash player:

I've reinstalled flash player myself today just to see if i could replicate the issue - and I couldn't. The installers for the extras that come bundled with flash player run under conhost.exe so don't show up as separate processes in event log.

The last two times I checked flash player came bundled with either Google Chrome or Mcafee security scan. Maybe one of those installed itself?

As for SAS - full removal, reboot and reinstall should hopefully sort it out!

As for icons - it didn't show up so it looks like something that ran from a temp directory then vanished!

 

[OvenMaster]

Nope, I unchecked every option when updating Flash.

Here's what I did regarding SAS this evening:

1. Uninstalled the version I had on my PC
2. Downloaded the latest version of SAS Free and installed it.
3. UNinstalled SAS.
4. REinstalled the same latest version of SAS.
5. Ran a C: drive scan.
6. Had no problem at all! Here's the log:

SUPERAntiSpyware Scan Log
http://www.superantispyware.com

Generated 11/02/2014 at 08:32 PM

Application Version : 6.0.1158
Database Version : 11586

Scan type       : Custom Scan
Total Scan Time : 00:48:24

Operating System Information
Windows 7 Professional 32-bit, Service Pack 1 (Build 6.01.7601)
UAC Off - Administrator

Memory items scanned      : 735
Memory threats detected   : 0
Registry items scanned    : 37469
Registry threats detected : 0
File items scanned        : 147289
File threats detected     : 0

============
 End of Log 
============

So, thanks much for the guidance, and I will tentatively mark this dual issue solved.

 

[OvenMaster]

Greg, Callender, I tried to rep you both but the forum says I have to spread some around to others. Ah, well.

 

[gregrocker]

I have to remove the SAS service from Startup every time I install it, declining trial since I wont' buy it though am very pleased with it's free scan. It's good enough I am willing to put up with the service to remove.

Glad you got it solved and sorry that SAS service caused you concern. I honestly believe they only plant it to make sure that scans are followed up upon. It's not really an obtrusive program from what I've seen using it for several years.

Let us know how this pans out over time.

 

[OvenMaster]

Didn't take long. A scan crashed again this morning. I've gone into Services and disabled !SASCORE and will see what happens. If this keeps up, I'm uninstalling the program. In all the years I've used it, it's caught absolutely nothing for me.

 

[kodi]

That icon is "Avast secure line VPN" icon.

 

[Callender]

!SASCore service disable

Didn't take long. A scan crashed again this morning. I've gone into Services and disabled !SASCORE and will see what happens. If this keeps up, I'm uninstalling the program. In all the years I've used it, it's caught absolutely nothing for me.

You might want to take a look at posts in this thread:

Post #27

There's information provided by an SAS employee in this post:

Post #52

I'd say that if you get no further crashes - re-enable/ disable on an as and when needed basis.

 

[OvenMaster]

That icon is "Avast secure line VPN" icon.

Kodi, you are a GENIUS. Thank you so very much! That mystery is solved!

 

[OvenMaster]

Didn't take long. A scan crashed again this morning. I've gone into Services and disabled !SASCORE and will see what happens. If this keeps up, I'm uninstalling the program. In all the years I've used it, it's caught absolutely nothing for me.

You might want to take a look at posts in this thread:

Post #27

There's information provided by an SAS employee in this post:

Post #52

I'd say that if you get no further crashes - re-enable/ disable on an as and when needed basis.

I totally disabled SASCORE and got another crash. Funny, all the crashes occur in C:\Windows\winsxs.
I'm going to re-enable SASCORE, exclude the winsxs folder from scanning and try again. If I crash again anywhere else, SuperAntiSpyware is getting the heave-ho on my rig.

 

[gregrocker]

Based on their track records here I would be much more suspcious of Avast which hardly anyone recommends here any longer due to it bloating up and causing issues. Now I only see recommendations here for MSE and recently Panda Cloud free which I am using and find more aggressive but just as lightweight as MSE.

You can test this by uninstalling Avast and running MSE to see if the problem persists. You'll need to use the Avast Uninstall Utility | Download aswClear for Avast Removal which is required for uninstalling the worst bloatware AV's.

If that doesn't do it then try uninstalling SAS completely to test without both.

I'd run SFC /SCANNOW Command to see how System files survive this.

Just my 2 cents free advice.

 

[OvenMaster]

Well, I uninstalled Avast, reinstalled Avira (which I trust and never had a problem with), and ran SAS with SASCORE service enabled. Sure enough, SAS crashed - again - in C:\Windows\winsxs.
I instructed SAS to exclude C:\Windows\winsxs and four scans completed and showed no malware.
There's something in C:\Windows\winsxs that SAS chokes on now. Since in the at least five years that I've used SAS, it's never found anything except a couple of cookies. Now it crashes on Windows files? Psh. Out it goes.
SFC /SCANNOW found no errors except my changed startup .wav file.
Thanks for the help, Greg.

 

[gregrocker]

First time I've heard that about SAS in five years.

An alternative is AdwCleaner which many here prefer actually.

I'd still bet there's some latent corruption somewhere causing this.

Did you get rid of the icon?

 

[OvenMaster]

Whoops. Sorry for the delay, Greg.
AdwCleaner scan results:

# AdwCleaner v4.101 - Report created 15/11/2014 at 22:37:06
# Updated 09/11/2014 by Xplode
# Database : 2014-11-13.1 [Live]
# Operating System : Windows 7 Professional Service Pack 1 (32 bits)
# Username : user - FUZZY
# Running from : C:\Users\user\Desktop\AdwCleaner.exe
# Option : Clean

***** [ Services ] *****


***** [ Files / Folders ] *****

[x] Not Deleted : C:\Program Files\GreenTree Applications

***** [ Scheduled Tasks ] *****


***** [ Shortcuts ] *****


***** [ Registry ] *****

Key Deleted : HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Ext\PreApproved\{02478D38-C3F9-4EFB-9B51-7695ECA05670}
Key Deleted : HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Ext\PreApproved\{EF99BD32-C1FB-11D2-892F-0090271D4F88}
Key Deleted : HKCU\Software\APN PIP
Key Deleted : HKCU\Software\systweak
Key Deleted : HKLM\SOFTWARE\PIP

***** [ Browsers ] *****

-\\ Internet Explorer v11.0.9600.17420


-\\ Mozilla Firefox v33.1 (x86 en-US)

[k9xq9nrb.default\prefs.js] - Line Deleted : user_pref("[email protected]", false);
[k9xq9nrb.default\prefs.js] - Line Deleted : user_pref("extensions.wrc.SearchRules.ask.com.style", ".WRCN {display:none} #yui-main .tsrc_vnru .title + .WRCN, #yui-main #teoma-results .title + .WRCN {display:inline !important; background: url(\"I[...]
[k9xq9nrb.default\prefs.js] - Line Deleted : user_pref("extensions.wrc.SearchRules.ask.com.url", "^hxxp(s)?\\:\\/\\/(.+\\.)?ask\\.com\\/.*");
[k9xq9nrb.default\prefs.js] - Line Deleted : user_pref("extensions.wrc.SearchRules.rambler.ru.style", ".WRCN {display:none} .search-results .title + .WRCN {display:inline !important; background: url(\"IMAGE\") right no-repeat}");

*************************

AdwCleaner[R1].txt - [1835 octets] - [15/11/2014 22:35:10]
AdwCleaner[S0].txt - [1813 octets] - [15/11/2014 22:37:06]

########## EOF - C:\AdwCleaner\AdwCleaner[S0].txt - [1873 octets] ##########

And yes, the icon disappeared after I uninstalled Avast.

 

[gregrocker]

Nice to hear. How is overall performance now?

 

[OvenMaster]

I'd have answered this yesterday but my DSL was out. Zero problems, to be honest. I'm content.