Busy cursor rapid oscillation while web browsing

[KantversusHume]

I have noticed lately that, occasionally, while I am reading an article on any number of various websites, my cursor will begin to rapidly oscillate between the typical arrow and the blue ring busy cursor for maybe a second at most in duration. I haven't noticed the webpages hanging in any way or refreshing; that is to say there are none of the blue rotating circles in any of the open webpage process tabs that would indicate any new webpage activity specific to that webpage loading into the page's process. I tend to notice this happening when I am reading a page with no additional interaction--I am typically not even touching the mouse when I see it occur.

Basically, I am wondering what different things might be causing the momentary activity. I am using Google Chrome for my browser and have nineteen extensions installed, so, I was thinking possibly I am seeing an extension occasionally updating or possibly checking for updates. That is just an uneducated speculation out of the blue. It also may be that this has always happened since loading Chrome, that for some arbitrary reason I just began to focus on it, and, having now fixated upon it, it stands out.

What different things might be causing the cursor oscillation?

 

[wallyinnc]

Hi KvH, I think it can be a thousand things, maybe not really related to the browser. I use Chrome in both XP and Seven and I have not had a similar behavior.
it could be something bad too, tracking cookies or malware for example. Have you scanned it recently?
If you really want to know you might have to disable applications or add-ons until you find the one doing it.

 

[seekermeister]

Considering the fact that it is Chrome, there is no telling what Google may be doing. One sure fire solution is to use a secure browser, like Opera.

 

[KantversusHume]

Hey wallyinnc and seekermeister, thanks for the response. Yeah, I supposed it might be just about anything. I was basically just fishing for a lucky answer on this one.

I used the TweakGuides Tweaking Companion for the basic setting up and bedding down of my OS. I have both a hardware and software firewall set up. I update daily MSE, A-squared, and SS&D, scan twice a week in regular mode and once a week in safe mode--MSE for the main and A-squared and SS&D for backstops. I use CC to clean up two or three times a week. All of my PWs are encrypted and automated via LastPass and are ridiculously long and random alpha-numeric and symbolic strings. I figure with the way LastPass handles encryption along with never actually typing out my PWs, they are fairly safe.

I am totalitarian about my email; if I don't know you or do business with you, I trash the email. And if it is a personal email and anything but text, I send back an email scowling. Also, I think I am fairly safe in my general internet usage practices. I never file share in the P2P sense, I only download files from the original website, Download.com, Softpedia.com, TuCows.com, or MajorGeeks.com. I use Chrome Flags, W.O.T. and personal research in general as far as internet usage goes.

It looks like Sandboxie now offers x64 support as of the last update, so, I figure all of the above, along with the way Chrome sandboxes everything but the extensions, and Sandboxie ought to make for a fairly safe system. That said, of course any other advice about protecting my system is gratefully accepted, but, I don't think I have any malware--besides wiping out the occasional advertising tracking cookie--on my system. If I do, I haven't yet detected it.

I am about to delve into really understanding how to use Sysinternals Process Explorer to my advantage, as it has always annoyed me to see an svchost.exe process and not know exactly what it was resourcing.

I'd like to just write it off as some benign "MS-InterGoogles ghost in the machine" and remain pleasantly ignorant, eventually forgetting about it. Then again, seekermeister has the same cynical attitude I have, evidentially more intensely. I really like Chrome, but I really am less and less trusting of Google. Especially after the whole Buzz fiasco and how that was handled, now I don't trust Google on grounds of motivation or competency.

That said, I love me some Chrome. seekermeister, or anyone else who uses Opera, tell me about it, if you don't mind. Specifically, what makes it more secure than Chrome, besides not being a product of Google, though financially dependent upon Google for the last five years?

 

[seekermeister]

That said, I love me some Chrome. seekermeister, or anyone else who uses Opera, tell me about it, if you don't mind. Specifically, what makes it more secure than Chrome, besides not being a product of Google?

There is not a whole lot that I can say, except that Opera is scrutinized and tested by the same people who test other browser's security, and if any kind of vulnerability is found, Opera fixes it right away, it does not have a long list of unpatched bugs, like most other browsers...especially IE. It does not use activex, even as an option, which is the source of many problems with IE. Perhaps you don't feel that the origin of Chrome is cause for concern, but if that is the case, there is little that I could say to convince you otherwise, so I won't try.

Security is not the only reason that I use Opera, it has more features than any other browser available, which makes it essential to me for even routine browsing. The list of these features wouldn't mean much with an understanding that could only come with personal experience, so attempting to explain them would be a futile effort, other than answering specific questions.

In general, there are only two reasons that some people have tried it and didn't like it...one is that out-of-the-box, it is not particularly impressive. It requires some customizing to make it comfortable and fully functional, but these tweaks do not require a great deal of knowledge or effort.

The second reason is that it currently is not as fast as some browsers, like Chrome, but that is soon to change, because the next release, that is now in beta is faster than any other browser.

 

[KantversusHume]

Oh, I feel the origin of Chrome is cause for concern. I am a naturally distrustful, even paranoid, person when it comes to the internet...heck, when it comes to Man's rapid technological advancement in combination with, in my opinion, our overall moral declination. When it comes to the internet, I think we are all just picking the poison of our preference, but I am no Information Age Luddite, just a pessimistic Information Age Fatalist.

Knowing my level of comp-sci expertise and looking at all the pretty bling underneath your name, I think it is fairly reasonable speculation to assert you are ten to fifty times more educated and informed than I am when it comes to which browser to choose and why. And my uses for the internet are very simplistic; for me, it is basically a chaotic, inconsistently credible multimedia library for educational use, the best shopping catalog ever, and a, for now, cheap way to keep in contact with my friends in Uzbekistan and South Korea.

All that is to say, if Opera is going to be faster than Chrome, and, from what you say and what I have just been reading, is as secure or more secure and responsive to correcting browser vulnerabilities than other browsers, why not give it a shot?

As per your suggestion, I will download it and see if I like it. Thanks.

 

[seekermeister]

Don't let the "bling" as you call it create a false impression of me. While I may be better informed on some things, there are plenty of others that I'm lacking in.

Once you install Opera, don't jump to any conclusions. Look at it objectively and determine exactly what you don't like about it, and then ask how to customize it differently, and chance are that I or someone here will have an answer.

 

[zabihullahsadid]

I had the same problem & disabled using all add-ons & extensions in the google chrome...
now I don't have this problem..../