Weird problem with taskbar

[explodinghead75]

Let's see if I can describe this; it's kind of hard:
This guy showed me his computer today and things are popping up from his taskbar where the icons are usually, but above it, in a grew window. I've never seen this before and he says it started happening after a Microsoft Update. Does anyone know what I'm talking about? lol

[bobbyraw]

is it from the quick launch or the time clock side on the task bar, and i assume you mean a grey box, what is in that box

[explodinghead75]

is it from the quick launch or the time clock side on the task bar, and i assume you mean a grey box, what is in that box

Yes, a grey box popped up from the quick lauch side. Well, I wasn't sure what was in it from looking, because he had some asian translation program in it that time, but if I understand him correctly, he says everything pops up there in the grey box. I've never seen a grey box pop up from there before.

[bobbyraw]

sounds like your friend PC has been jacked. let him elaborate more maybe it has some thing to do with the asian program he is running., if he shuts down the program, does the box still comes up? what is in the box, instruction, notification?

[explodinghead75]

Well, I realize I might not have enough information; I told him I would ask around and call him if I had any suggestions; he said he asked some other people and nobody else knew either. Another problem is it was difficult to understand him, but he said "everything" was popping up, and I remember him mentioning email. It might have helped if I could see an example in English. lol Maybe I could ask him if he shuts down the translation program if the problem is still happening.

[caperjack]

i read thin and all i can think is ,quick launch ,the fact it gray means nothing ,everything pops up of course it does ,icons for all the program he install and didn't uncheck when asked if he wanted to install a shortcut in start programs and quick launch

[explodinghead75]

i read thin and all i can think is ,quick launch ,the fact it gray means nothing ,everything pops up of course it does ,icons for all the program he install and didn't uncheck when asked if he wanted to install a shortcut in start programs and quick launch

But I never see a grey (or any color) box ABOVE the task bar, when you don't highlight anything, besides Windows Messages and this is much smaller than a windows message box; there's no way to close it that I could see either. I've never seen that on Windows XP. He doesn't mind the programs in the quick launch he said he just wants them to stay in there. lol

[caperjack]

But I never see a grey (or any color) box ABOVE the task bar, when you don't highlight anything, besides Windows Messages and this is much smaller than a windows message box; there's no way to close it that I could see either. I've never seen that on Windows XP. He doesn't mind the programs in the quick launch he said he just wants them to stay in there. lol

tell them to go to www.filehippo.com and get spybot search and destroy and ad-Aware and run them to clean up computer of spyware and trojans

[bobbyraw]

Well, I realize I might not have enough information; I told him I would ask around and call him if I had any suggestions; he said he asked some other people and nobody else knew either. Another problem is it was difficult to understand him, but he said "everything" was popping up, and I remember him mentioning email. It might have helped if I could see an example in English. lol Maybe I could ask him if he shuts down the translation program if the problem is still happening.

see red section

if its email he is probably running outlook 2003 or google mail with auto notification turned on but that should only be on the right side by the time clock. i would do as caper suggest get scan for trojan

[explodinghead75]

Thanks for the suggestions; I haven't called him yet because I've been pretty busy but I will suggest that he do a scan for trojans.