Annoying "Downloading..." Tab!

[KeithMcL]

Hi folks, hope you're doing well :)

I need your help. I have this really annoying thing happening on my computer that I can't seem to stop.

Whenever I start Windows XP, this program/spyware/virus keeps taking away the focus of the active window. Nothing appears on the screen... just the current window stops being the active one. If I press ALT+TAB I see an item that reads "Downloading..." with a default windows icon.

If I switch back to the previous window (using ALT+TAB or simply clicking it with the mouse), the "Downloading..." tab disappears.

A few minutes later, the current window will lose focus again (it's happening right now, making writing this thread a pain :D). This usually only goes on for 10-15 minutes and then it mysteriously stops happening (maybe the download -if any- has finished).

So far, I've ran AVG Anti-Spyware, Spybot Search and Destroy and AVG Anti-Virus, none of which found anything suspicious (except some advertisers cookies).

I tried downloading a Task Monitor program to see if I could see what it was, but got nowhere with it :(

I've searched the HD to see if porn images or movies or something alone those lines is being downloaded, but came up empty handed.

I'm stumped :-| Has anyone got any clues as to what I can try next?

I've included a hijackthis log with this thread, which I hope will help.

[gerbil]

go to this link and get TCPView. Install it into its own folder cos you may find it worth keeping along with like troubleshooting gear.
Start it by dclicking the .exe. Now have a look and see what is using your connection.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/networkingutilities.mspx [a source of very good stuff]
By the way, why do you have hp as a home address? Personally i would fix/remove all your R1 and R0 entries [with hijackthis]... but you may think otherwise.
-I do not think that your problem is spyware based, rather that an autostart pgm is trying to download updates. Or something like that.
For example you have a time synch auto start. XP with defaults already does that for you every time you connect to the web, or at least once per week.
So i would remove those R's, and run TCPView. Come back with what you find.

[KeithMcL]

Well, it seems to have stopped now. I removed all R0 and R1 entries and unchecked an option to check for updates in Download Accelerator Plus and it seems to have sorted the problem.

Thanks for your help gerbil :)

[gerbil]

good stuff. Google have a bad "web accelerator" also, if you are unlucky enough to be landed with a dud IP number that they assign. It actually does not work, and they will not fix it!

Glad you are on your way again.