hello!

I have two problems that I am unable to solve.. hope someone here can help me out with this.

First,
When I click on the taskbar button of my uTorrent or Firefox window, it does not minimize it, instead the window just loses its focus. All the other programs behave as expected. I have tried restarting explorer.exe and system restart as well, but still the problem persists.

sometimes they work as expected, but with the next system restart, the same problem happens again..

there aren't any problems when I right click the taskbar button and minimize..

Second,
When I terminate a program which has an icon in the notification area, say VLC player, through Task manager instead of the close button, then the icon in the notification area does not disappear unless i move the mouse over it, though the application itself is successfully terminated. This does not happen when I close the apps normally..

what could be cause of these problems? Maybe some corrupt/missing registry entries??

I am running XP SP3 Home edition, have scanned my entire system with Avira AntiVir and found it to be 100% clean.

Hi,
There are a lot of possible reasons for your problem. One would be you need to do a SFC scan. Sometimes, some of the windows protected files can be lost or changed. To detect any problems run the program “System File Checker” (SFC). Before you run it you should purge your PC’s cache:-

Go to “START”
Click “RUN”
Type or “copy and paste”.. sfc.exe /purgecache

Note:- the space after “exe”.

The “purgecache” in this command will empty the cache before you run the file checker. You should always purge the cache before scanning with the System File Checker (SFC). That way, you can be sure that system files are copied from your Windows installation media, and are not infected with malware or corrupted. After the cache has been purged, run System File Checker.

Go to “START”
Click “RUN”
Type or “copy and paste”… sfc.exe /scannow

Note:- the space after “exe”. You may be required to use your installation disk.

This could take a long time to complete, when finished, reboot and see if the problem still exists.

Thanks for the suggestion, but I can't try it out right now, so, I will try to do it tonight and let you know about the results.

Hi again,
As I said , there a number of causes for your problem and therefore a number of fixes. I hope that this will fix your problem, please, do come back and tell us how you get on. If it has not fixed your problem, go to spyware, viruses and other nasties and read the sticky notes at the top on cleaning your PC. I know you said that your virus protector found no problems but the best virus protector is not 100% and a lot worse if you have bad surfing practices. In fact, even if SFC fixes your troubles, it is worth going there and reading the info there.

Hi bob!

before running the SFC program, I managed to get rid of the taskbar buttons problem, just by exiting and then restarting the said applications and it seems to be working as expected (for now atleast), so I couldn't really test your suggestion on that, sorry...

On the other had the notification area problem still persists after successfully running the SFC program and rebooting.

And regarding your advice to take a look at the virus/spyware.. section,
I did and found some very good guidance material there, but, with me being a slightly, above average windows user (especially in keeping my OS clean), I already practice most of those methods, so nothing new for me there

so what now? any more suggestions as to the cause of the problem?

just a note: I usually google away my problems and manage to solve them successfully, but somehow, the solution to the above problems evade me

Hi,
The only thing I could offer you do try is a major repair from your windows OS CD. As your problem is minor and it may still not be fixed by the repair it I do not recommended trying it. But if you want to and do not know how, there are many good sites on the net showing you how with photos. You should not lose any information from your PC, just all your updates you have downloaded since your loaded windows to your PC till now. You will have to download them all again. You do not have it but a "AVG free" password will disappear as well.
Weather you decide to do a install/repair or not, this would be a good time to update your OS CD by splipsreaming it with the SP3 and the latest hotfixes, your PC drivers and even the windows serial number. This will make a repair or reinstall much easier if you ever have to do one.
http://lifehacker.com/386526/slipstr...nstallation-cd

That's right.
It wasn't a big issue anyway, just trying to find the cause and save myself from frustration during serious browsing

wow! how did I miss that?? Too bad I did, it could have made my life a lot easier a couple of years back...
Anyway, thank you very much for this link and for all your help!!

No problems, I an glad that I could help you in at least one way. if you are happy to stop looking for more assistance with this situation, please mark this thread as "Solved" and enjoy life.