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Taskbar+ Notification icons+Defender: Problems!



 
 
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  #1  
Old October 31st 18, 05:28 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Terry Pinnell[_3_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 732
Default Taskbar+ Notification icons+Defender: Problems!

Posting this in between a series of restarts in an attempt to resolve
sudden problems.
- Clicking the bottom right Notification icon does nothing.
- Right clicking my own taskbar icons does nothing
- Defender not working. Showing its yellow exclamation tray icon but
left clicking (or right clicking and choosing an option) just pops up
its blue window which promptly closes. When I was able to scan with
Malwarebytes earlier there were a few suspicious items which I
quarantined

I've done one System Restore (to last night) and reluctantly about to go
back further.

WU is up to date. I'm on 1803 build 17134.376

Anyone seen/heard of anything relevant please, or any suggestions on
isolating?

My best guess, so soon after my recent post 'All tray icons greyed out',
is that's a Classic Start Menu issue. I'll uninstall it shortly, unless
I can temporarily disable it first.

Terry, East Grinstead, UK
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  #2  
Old October 31st 18, 06:21 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Terry Pinnell[_3_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 732
Default Taskbar+ Notification icons+Defender: Problems!

Terry Pinnell wrote:

Posting this in between a series of restarts in an attempt to resolve
sudden problems.
- Clicking the bottom right Notification icon does nothing.
- Right clicking my own taskbar icons does nothing
- Defender not working. Showing its yellow exclamation tray icon but
left clicking (or right clicking and choosing an option) just pops up
its blue window which promptly closes. When I was able to scan with
Malwarebytes earlier there were a few suspicious items which I
quarantined

I've done one System Restore (to last night) and reluctantly about to go
back further.

WU is up to date. I'm on 1803 build 17134.376

Anyone seen/heard of anything relevant please, or any suggestions on
isolating?

My best guess, so soon after my recent post 'All tray icons greyed out',
is that's a Classic Start Menu issue. I'll uninstall it shortly, unless
I can temporarily disable it first.

Terry, East Grinstead, UK


Not looking good.

Inexplicably, no earlier SRs available before last night, and that
didn't fix it.

Uninstalled Classic Start Menu but issues remained. So re-installed it.

Registry Clean with CC Cleaner made no difference.

Nor did updating Intel Graphics 530

Out of ideas apart from attempting my first image restore, from either
Win 10 or DataNumen Image. (Not yet made one with Macrium.)

Terry, UK
  #3  
Old October 31st 18, 06:41 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Paul[_32_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 11,873
Default Taskbar+ Notification icons+Defender: Problems!

Terry Pinnell wrote:
Terry Pinnell wrote:

Posting this in between a series of restarts in an attempt to resolve
sudden problems.
- Clicking the bottom right Notification icon does nothing.
- Right clicking my own taskbar icons does nothing
- Defender not working. Showing its yellow exclamation tray icon but
left clicking (or right clicking and choosing an option) just pops up
its blue window which promptly closes. When I was able to scan with
Malwarebytes earlier there were a few suspicious items which I
quarantined

I've done one System Restore (to last night) and reluctantly about to go
back further.

WU is up to date. I'm on 1803 build 17134.376

Anyone seen/heard of anything relevant please, or any suggestions on
isolating?

My best guess, so soon after my recent post 'All tray icons greyed out',
is that's a Classic Start Menu issue. I'll uninstall it shortly, unless
I can temporarily disable it first.

Terry, East Grinstead, UK


Not looking good.

Inexplicably, no earlier SRs available before last night, and that
didn't fix it.

Uninstalled Classic Start Menu but issues remained. So re-installed it.

Registry Clean with CC Cleaner made no difference.

Nor did updating Intel Graphics 530

Out of ideas apart from attempting my first image restore, from either
Win 10 or DataNumen Image. (Not yet made one with Macrium.)

Terry, UK


When you look in Settings : Windows Update and then look
at the update history, did the last Windows Defender definitions
install OK ?

I had to find and install a copy of a newer VS C++ 2010 something-or-other,
and after that was installed, as near as I can tell, Defender was
able to process the definitions file OK. I can't be 100% sure until
the next definitions come out, and the process happens again, whether
it's fixed.

Other than that, your symptoms aren't encouraging. Either multiple databases
are messed up (causing notifications and tile cache to be screwed up), or
something is wrong with the Desktop Window Manager, which is always possible.

If some service had shut down, and was a dependency for
desktop operation, how would we know ?

Check your Event Viewer again for hints.

Check Reliability Monitor for hints (within the last day or two).

Paul
  #4  
Old October 31st 18, 07:18 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Terry Pinnell[_3_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 732
Default Taskbar+ Notification icons+Defender: Problems!

Paul wrote:

Terry Pinnell wrote:
Terry Pinnell wrote:

Posting this in between a series of restarts in an attempt to resolve
sudden problems.
- Clicking the bottom right Notification icon does nothing.
- Right clicking my own taskbar icons does nothing
- Defender not working. Showing its yellow exclamation tray icon but
left clicking (or right clicking and choosing an option) just pops up
its blue window which promptly closes. When I was able to scan with
Malwarebytes earlier there were a few suspicious items which I
quarantined

I've done one System Restore (to last night) and reluctantly about to go
back further.

WU is up to date. I'm on 1803 build 17134.376

Anyone seen/heard of anything relevant please, or any suggestions on
isolating?

My best guess, so soon after my recent post 'All tray icons greyed out',
is that's a Classic Start Menu issue. I'll uninstall it shortly, unless
I can temporarily disable it first.

Terry, East Grinstead, UK


Not looking good.

Inexplicably, no earlier SRs available before last night, and that
didn't fix it.

Uninstalled Classic Start Menu but issues remained. So re-installed it.

Registry Clean with CC Cleaner made no difference.

Nor did updating Intel Graphics 530

Out of ideas apart from attempting my first image restore, from either
Win 10 or DataNumen Image. (Not yet made one with Macrium.)

Terry, UK


When you look in Settings : Windows Update and then look
at the update history, did the last Windows Defender definitions
install OK ?

I had to find and install a copy of a newer VS C++ 2010 something-or-other,
and after that was installed, as near as I can tell, Defender was
able to process the definitions file OK. I can't be 100% sure until
the next definitions come out, and the process happens again, whether
it's fixed.


Glad to have you on the case. Defender looks OK:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/tuvyji9e9q...ms-1.jpg?raw=1

Later...

Other than that, your symptoms aren't encouraging. Either multiple databases
are messed up (causing notifications and tile cache to be screwed up), or
something is wrong with the Desktop Window Manager, which is always possible.

If some service had shut down, and was a dependency for
desktop operation, how would we know ?

Check your Event Viewer again for hints.

Check Reliability Monitor for hints (within the last day or two).

Paul

  #5  
Old October 31st 18, 07:33 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Char Jackson
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 10,449
Default Taskbar+ Notification icons+Defender: Problems!

On Wed, 31 Oct 2018 16:28:40 +0000, Terry Pinnell
wrote:

Posting this in between a series of restarts in an attempt to resolve
sudden problems.
- Clicking the bottom right Notification icon does nothing.
- Right clicking my own taskbar icons does nothing
- Defender not working. Showing its yellow exclamation tray icon but
left clicking (or right clicking and choosing an option) just pops up
its blue window which promptly closes. When I was able to scan with
Malwarebytes earlier there were a few suspicious items which I
quarantined


Grasping at straws, but is that a clue? By chance, did you quarantine
one or more files that Windows needs?

MalwareBytes has a generally good reputation around here, with the
notable exception of the guy who worked for them for a number of years,
but it has been known to flag a false positive now and then. Use it with
care.


  #6  
Old October 31st 18, 08:47 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Terry Pinnell[_3_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 732
Default Taskbar+ Notification icons+Defender: Problems!

Char Jackson wrote:

On Wed, 31 Oct 2018 16:28:40 +0000, Terry Pinnell
wrote:

Posting this in between a series of restarts in an attempt to resolve
sudden problems.
- Clicking the bottom right Notification icon does nothing.
- Right clicking my own taskbar icons does nothing
- Defender not working. Showing its yellow exclamation tray icon but
left clicking (or right clicking and choosing an option) just pops up
its blue window which promptly closes. When I was able to scan with
Malwarebytes earlier there were a few suspicious items which I
quarantined


Grasping at straws, but is that a clue? By chance, did you quarantine
one or more files that Windows needs?

MalwareBytes has a generally good reputation around here, with the
notable exception of the guy who worked for them for a number of years,
but it has been known to flag a false positive now and then. Use it with
care.


I'll grasp any straws I'm offered! But I don't think Malwarebytes is the
issue here. I've temporarily let it quarantine even stuff I'm 99%
confident is OK, like a dozen NirSoft tools.

A much more likely clue seems to be this one I discovered after
following Paul's suggestion to check the Reliability History: none of my
'Apps' are working.

I never consciously use any of them, at least not via that menu list,
but the dozen I've just tested all pop up an empty window and then
promptly close. Just like the Defender icon, and the Notifications icon
at the far bottom right of the tray:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/savfsy5pbq...king.jpg?raw=1

Terry, East Grinstead, UK
  #7  
Old October 31st 18, 08:58 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Terry Pinnell[_3_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 732
Default Taskbar+ Notification icons+Defender: Problems!

Terry Pinnell wrote:

Paul wrote:

Terry Pinnell wrote:
Terry Pinnell wrote:

Posting this in between a series of restarts in an attempt to resolve
sudden problems.
- Clicking the bottom right Notification icon does nothing.
- Right clicking my own taskbar icons does nothing
- Defender not working. Showing its yellow exclamation tray icon but
left clicking (or right clicking and choosing an option) just pops up
its blue window which promptly closes. When I was able to scan with
Malwarebytes earlier there were a few suspicious items which I
quarantined

I've done one System Restore (to last night) and reluctantly about to go
back further.

WU is up to date. I'm on 1803 build 17134.376

Anyone seen/heard of anything relevant please, or any suggestions on
isolating?

My best guess, so soon after my recent post 'All tray icons greyed out',
is that's a Classic Start Menu issue. I'll uninstall it shortly, unless
I can temporarily disable it first.

Terry, East Grinstead, UK

Not looking good.

Inexplicably, no earlier SRs available before last night, and that
didn't fix it.

Uninstalled Classic Start Menu but issues remained. So re-installed it.

Registry Clean with CC Cleaner made no difference.

Nor did updating Intel Graphics 530

Out of ideas apart from attempting my first image restore, from either
Win 10 or DataNumen Image. (Not yet made one with Macrium.)

Terry, UK


When you look in Settings : Windows Update and then look
at the update history, did the last Windows Defender definitions
install OK ?

I had to find and install a copy of a newer VS C++ 2010 something-or-other,
and after that was installed, as near as I can tell, Defender was
able to process the definitions file OK. I can't be 100% sure until
the next definitions come out, and the process happens again, whether
it's fixed.


Glad to have you on the case. Defender looks OK:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/tuvyji9e9q...ms-1.jpg?raw=1

Later...

Other than that, your symptoms aren't encouraging. Either multiple databases
are messed up (causing notifications and tile cache to be screwed up), or
something is wrong with the Desktop Window Manager, which is always possible.

If some service had shut down, and was a dependency for
desktop operation, how would we know ?

Check your Event Viewer again for hints.

Check Reliability Monitor for hints (within the last day or two).

Paul


Apart from the non-working 'Apps' in my reply a moment ago, the
Reliability History showed scores of failures today (and some yesterday)
from each of these EXE files:

backgroundTaskHost
ShellExperienceHost
SearchUI
SecHealthUI
HxTsr
ReminderServer

....and others.

Any clues emerging from all this please? I really don't want to have to
try those image restore options ;-(


Terry, East Grinstead, UK
  #8  
Old October 31st 18, 09:29 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
😉 Good Guy 😉
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,483
Default Taskbar+ Notification icons+Defender: Problems!

On 31/10/2018 17:21, Terry Pinnell wrote:


Uninstalled Classic Start Menu but issues remained. So re-installed it.


First: only the idiots would install that crap so why you re-installed
it is beyond me. Next time when you buy a new washer/dryer, change it
to 1950 model so that you know how horrible it was in those days.



Registry Clean with CC Cleaner made no difference.


Who told you that it would make any difference in the first place. Do
you know what that Crap-Cleaner does? It clears crap as its name
suggests so there is no pint to complain that it didn't solve any
windows problems. Its job is not for such purposes.

crap deleted


_*Suggested Solution:*_
Create a new Windows profile (some call this new Windows Account) and
then see if this problem has disappeared from that new profile. If that
new profile works as normal, then you need to think of repairing your
old profile that has this problem. This is a subject of a new thread to
avoid any confusion. Some people here have low IQ.

--
With over 950 million devices now running Windows 10, customer
satisfaction is higher than any previous version of windows.

  #9  
Old October 31st 18, 10:08 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
GS
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 179
Default Taskbar+ Notification icons+Defender: Problems!

My best guess, so soon after my recent post 'All tray icons greyed out',
is that's a Classic Start Menu issue. I'll uninstall it shortly, unless
I can temporarily disable it first.


FWIW
I'm currently running Classic Shell Start Menu v4.3.1 on 3 systems, all with
latest updates, without issue!

--
Garry

Free usenet access at http://www.eternal-september.org
Classic VB Users Regroup!
comp.lang.basic.visual.misc
microsoft.public.vb.general.discussion
  #10  
Old October 31st 18, 10:53 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Paul[_32_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 11,873
Default Taskbar+ Notification icons+Defender: Problems!

Terry Pinnell wrote:
Terry Pinnell wrote:

Paul wrote:

Terry Pinnell wrote:
Terry Pinnell wrote:

Posting this in between a series of restarts in an attempt to resolve
sudden problems.
- Clicking the bottom right Notification icon does nothing.
- Right clicking my own taskbar icons does nothing
- Defender not working. Showing its yellow exclamation tray icon but
left clicking (or right clicking and choosing an option) just pops up
its blue window which promptly closes. When I was able to scan with
Malwarebytes earlier there were a few suspicious items which I
quarantined

I've done one System Restore (to last night) and reluctantly about to go
back further.

WU is up to date. I'm on 1803 build 17134.376

Anyone seen/heard of anything relevant please, or any suggestions on
isolating?

My best guess, so soon after my recent post 'All tray icons greyed out',
is that's a Classic Start Menu issue. I'll uninstall it shortly, unless
I can temporarily disable it first.

Terry, East Grinstead, UK
Not looking good.

Inexplicably, no earlier SRs available before last night, and that
didn't fix it.

Uninstalled Classic Start Menu but issues remained. So re-installed it.

Registry Clean with CC Cleaner made no difference.

Nor did updating Intel Graphics 530

Out of ideas apart from attempting my first image restore, from either
Win 10 or DataNumen Image. (Not yet made one with Macrium.)

Terry, UK
When you look in Settings : Windows Update and then look
at the update history, did the last Windows Defender definitions
install OK ?

I had to find and install a copy of a newer VS C++ 2010 something-or-other,
and after that was installed, as near as I can tell, Defender was
able to process the definitions file OK. I can't be 100% sure until
the next definitions come out, and the process happens again, whether
it's fixed.

Glad to have you on the case. Defender looks OK:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/tuvyji9e9q...ms-1.jpg?raw=1

Later...

Other than that, your symptoms aren't encouraging. Either multiple databases
are messed up (causing notifications and tile cache to be screwed up), or
something is wrong with the Desktop Window Manager, which is always possible.

If some service had shut down, and was a dependency for
desktop operation, how would we know ?

Check your Event Viewer again for hints.

Check Reliability Monitor for hints (within the last day or two).

Paul


Apart from the non-working 'Apps' in my reply a moment ago, the
Reliability History showed scores of failures today (and some yesterday)
from each of these EXE files:

backgroundTaskHost
ShellExperienceHost
SearchUI
SecHealthUI
HxTsr
ReminderServer

...and others.

Any clues emerging from all this please? I really don't want to have to
try those image restore options ;-(


Terry, East Grinstead, UK


HxTsr seems to have some interaction with AV software,
and there have been false positives. And apparently,
there is malware that uses the same name.

Microsoft won't say what it's for, but it might have
something to do with background transfer for mail and calendar
functions. Or for the modern Outlook. In a previous era,
TSR meant "terminate and stay resident", not that this
is important.

OK, here is the information on mine. I do have one.
I used nfi.exe to generate a file list of C: and it was
in there. Permissions prevented Agent Ransack from
searching inside the folder. (Everything.exe can probably
see it, but I didn't do any tests.) My C: drive in this case,
appears to have a million files.

File 79250
\Program Files\WindowsApps\microsoft.windowscommunicationsa pps_16005.10827.20186.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe\HxTsr.e xe
$STANDARD_INFORMATION (resident)
$FILE_NAME (resident)
$DATA (nonresident)
logical sectors 58178416-58178623 (0x377bb70-0x377bc3f)
$EA_INFORMATION (resident)
$EA (resident)

100 KB (103,200 bytes)

A shoot-from-the-hip comment about your situation
is "something broke in the middle of the OS". Is it a
service ? For an example of a crucial service, there
is RPC, which would just kill the OS if it went down.
You cannot disable RPC (remote procedure call) in
a modern OS. It's hooked into too many things.
In your case, what "lesser thing" has your damage
pattern ?

And more importantly, how will we generate a search term :-/

If your ReliabilityHistory has any more interesting ones
in it, post away.

HxTsr at least, has been more of a false positive thing,
as it appears to AV programs like a BackOrifice kind of
application. It would be suspicious from a heuristic
detection perspective.

*******

With regard to backups, do you have a "good" "recent" one ?

Do you have a spare boot drive to restore onto ?

So you can keep the borked setup for file retrieval later
(any files you were working on).

Paul
  #11  
Old October 31st 18, 11:55 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Terry Pinnell[_3_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 732
Default Taskbar+ Notification icons+Defender: Problems!

Paul wrote:

Terry Pinnell wrote:
Terry Pinnell wrote:

Paul wrote:

Terry Pinnell wrote:
Terry Pinnell wrote:

Posting this in between a series of restarts in an attempt to resolve
sudden problems.
- Clicking the bottom right Notification icon does nothing.
- Right clicking my own taskbar icons does nothing
- Defender not working. Showing its yellow exclamation tray icon but
left clicking (or right clicking and choosing an option) just pops up
its blue window which promptly closes. When I was able to scan with
Malwarebytes earlier there were a few suspicious items which I
quarantined

I've done one System Restore (to last night) and reluctantly about to go
back further.

WU is up to date. I'm on 1803 build 17134.376

Anyone seen/heard of anything relevant please, or any suggestions on
isolating?

My best guess, so soon after my recent post 'All tray icons greyed out',
is that's a Classic Start Menu issue. I'll uninstall it shortly, unless
I can temporarily disable it first.

Terry, East Grinstead, UK
Not looking good.

Inexplicably, no earlier SRs available before last night, and that
didn't fix it.

Uninstalled Classic Start Menu but issues remained. So re-installed it.

Registry Clean with CC Cleaner made no difference.

Nor did updating Intel Graphics 530

Out of ideas apart from attempting my first image restore, from either
Win 10 or DataNumen Image. (Not yet made one with Macrium.)

Terry, UK
When you look in Settings : Windows Update and then look
at the update history, did the last Windows Defender definitions
install OK ?

I had to find and install a copy of a newer VS C++ 2010 something-or-other,
and after that was installed, as near as I can tell, Defender was
able to process the definitions file OK. I can't be 100% sure until
the next definitions come out, and the process happens again, whether
it's fixed.
Glad to have you on the case. Defender looks OK:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/tuvyji9e9q...ms-1.jpg?raw=1

Later...

Other than that, your symptoms aren't encouraging. Either multiple databases
are messed up (causing notifications and tile cache to be screwed up), or
something is wrong with the Desktop Window Manager, which is always possible.

If some service had shut down, and was a dependency for
desktop operation, how would we know ?

Check your Event Viewer again for hints.

Check Reliability Monitor for hints (within the last day or two).

Paul


Apart from the non-working 'Apps' in my reply a moment ago, the
Reliability History showed scores of failures today (and some yesterday)
from each of these EXE files:

backgroundTaskHost
ShellExperienceHost
SearchUI
SecHealthUI
HxTsr
ReminderServer

...and others.

Any clues emerging from all this please? I really don't want to have to
try those image restore options ;-(


Terry, East Grinstead, UK


HxTsr seems to have some interaction with AV software,
and there have been false positives. And apparently,
there is malware that uses the same name.

Microsoft won't say what it's for, but it might have
something to do with background transfer for mail and calendar
functions. Or for the modern Outlook. In a previous era,
TSR meant "terminate and stay resident", not that this
is important.

OK, here is the information on mine. I do have one.


Sorry Paul, it's been a long day - you have one what?

I used nfi.exe to generate a file list of C: and it was
in there. Permissions prevented Agent Ransack from
searching inside the folder. (Everything.exe can probably
see it, but I didn't do any tests.) My C: drive in this case,
appears to have a million files.

File 79250
\Program Files\WindowsApps\microsoft.windowscommunicationsa pps_16005.10827.20186.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe\HxTsr.e xe
$STANDARD_INFORMATION (resident)
$FILE_NAME (resident)
$DATA (nonresident)
logical sectors 58178416-58178623 (0x377bb70-0x377bc3f)
$EA_INFORMATION (resident)
$EA (resident)

100 KB (103,200 bytes)


Ah, OK, I now see you mean the program HxTsr.exe. I have three here,
oddly all different sizes (and also odd that two are backups of files
that are apparently no longer present - an irrelevant distraction.)
These are weird looking paths.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/4xhr8uu5au...aths.jpg?raw=1

But do you really think this looks a clue to my problem?

A shoot-from-the-hip comment about your situation
is "something broke in the middle of the OS". Is it a
service ? For an example of a crucial service, there
is RPC, which would just kill the OS if it went down.
You cannot disable RPC (remote procedure call) in
a modern OS. It's hooked into too many things.
In your case, what "lesser thing" has your damage
pattern ?

And more importantly, how will we generate a search term :-/

If your ReliabilityHistory has any more interesting ones
in it, post away.

HxTsr at least, has been more of a false positive thing,
as it appears to AV programs like a BackOrifice kind of
application. It would be suspicious from a heuristic
detection perspective.

*******

With regard to backups, do you have a "good" "recent" one ?


Data is generously backed up. But just three images of my OS: the two I
described, plus a Macrium image I've just made before I hit the sack.
I'm sort of pinning my hopes on the Win 10 or DataNumen Image, as they
should predate whatever I've screwed up

Do you have a spare boot drive to restore onto ?


I used an empty external 2TB USB HD as destination for my Macrium image,
so the answer now is probably no. (But how would I have made that a boot
drive anyway?)

So you can keep the borked setup for file retrieval later
(any files you were working on).


I'll have to postpone thinking more about this until tomorrow morning!

Any thoughts on the non-working Apps? How to get them all back?


Terry, East Grinstead, UK
  #12  
Old November 1st 18, 01:15 AM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Paul[_32_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 11,873
Default Taskbar+ Notification icons+Defender: Problems!

Terry Pinnell wrote:

I used an empty external 2TB USB HD as destination for my Macrium image,
so the answer now is probably no. (But how would I have made that a boot
drive anyway?)

Any thoughts on the non-working Apps? How to get them all back?


I'm not Superman - I don't have the golden touch.

I would be as baffled by all this as you are.
Even if I was sitting in front of the machine, this OS is
a hulking monster of complexity, and my analytical skills
are only as good as my understanding of the component parts.

No single component immediately stands out as a candidate
for repair/tweaking. The display manager is running, but
something important underneath is borked, and I don't know
what until some breadcrumbs (like from Event Viewer) wave
hello to me. And you know how much "noise" is in there.

*******

You could re-use the external drive.

But, you need a way to prepare it.

From the current broken OS, you'd use "shrink"
on the backup partition. You need to make enough
room, so the restored partition(s) can fit.

Then, you can do the restore at your leisure.

If it wasn't actual malware, you could restore the
partitions inside the MRIMG, one partition at a time.
In the Restore dialog, you drag and drop the restore C
next to the backup partition. After the Restore is
complete, you drag and drop the Recovery partition
next to the restored C: . You work "a brick at a time",
subject to the limits on how many partitions you can
have on a drive. The three shown in the picture, fit
within the limit of four primary partitions on an MSDOS
partitioned disk. If your materials are GPT, the diagram
will look different. I don't have a lot of experience with
GPT setups. (GPT is used for quick experiments here, then
discarded.)

+------+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+----------+ - -
| MBR | (Shrunk down backup partition) | Restored C: with Active (boot) Flag | Recovery |
+------+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+----------+ - -

OK, shut down. Remove the internal drive to avoid
surprises. Leave the external drive connected.

Boot the Macrium Emergency Boot CD and use the
"Boot Repair" option from the menu.

Macrium will query you, by placing a list of candidate
partitions in the dialog. There should be only
one showing at this time. Hopefully it points
to the C: partition.

Windows boot relies on the Active (boot) flag.
That is how the code in the MBR, figures out
where the winload.exe and the BCD and \boot
are located.

On Windows 7, a partition called System Reserved
might have the boot flag. And it might contain the
\boot and BCD and so on. It's possible for a number
of modern Windows OSes to be split on two partitions.
(The two-partition split was intended to support
Bitlocker encryption of the entire C: , leaving System
Reserved boot materials unencrypted.)

My Win10 today appears to use one partition, but it
has an excessive number of "Recovery Partitions", which
should not figure into the boot process as such.

The Macrium boot repair should be able to:

1) Reload the MBR boot code.
2) Reload the partition boot sector in C:
3) Randomly assign GUIDs to the partitions. The GUIDs might
actually be stored in the Registry on C: . Making new GUID
values, prevents collisions with other hard drives.
4) Recompute the BCD boot information. By only having the
target disk present, there is zero chance of "entangling"
the wrong disk drive(s).

Once the Boot repair is done, closing Macrium
will reboot the machine. I either park the machine
by entering the BIOS, or park it by pressing F8
for the popup boot menu. Both of those options
seem to leave the hard drive in a safe state.

Now, I turn off the power, move the external drive
inside the machine.

Note: This is only practical if the external is in a
removable case, so you can move the drive
inside the machine. Then boot, and enjoy.

It is possible to "restore-by-parts" and cook up a
bootable image. You could do it...

Paul



  #13  
Old November 1st 18, 10:18 AM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Terry Pinnell[_3_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 732
Default Taskbar+ Notification icons+Defender: Problems!

Paul wrote:

Terry Pinnell wrote:

I used an empty external 2TB USB HD as destination for my Macrium image,
so the answer now is probably no. (But how would I have made that a boot
drive anyway?)

Any thoughts on the non-working Apps? How to get them all back?


I'm not Superman - I don't have the golden touch.


It's all relative; you're pretty close in my terms ;-)

I would be as baffled by all this as you are.
Even if I was sitting in front of the machine, this OS is
a hulking monster of complexity, and my analytical skills
are only as good as my understanding of the component parts.

No single component immediately stands out as a candidate
for repair/tweaking. The display manager is running, but
something important underneath is borked, and I don't know
what until some breadcrumbs (like from Event Viewer) wave
hello to me. And you know how much "noise" is in there.


After many hours of research (not counting last night's dreams) I'm
still hopelessly lost. Each idea opens up excursions into all sorts of
possibly fruitless experiments - at the risk of making things worse.

1. First observation this morning: the Apps list has shrunk:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/jtmj68ua66...ng-2.jpg?raw=1

2. Still nervous about that yellow exclamation mark on the Defender icon
and the message on hovering: 'Actions recommended'. But unlike yesterday
I was at last able to click it and do a Quick Scan, with no threats
found. Tempted to start a Full Scan but will pass for now. Anyway, the
icon remains unchanged ;-(

3. Also just downloaded and ran msert.exe, MS Security Scanner:
"The scan completed successfully and no viruses, spyware, and other
potentially unwanted software were detected." Not surprising as I
suspect it's identical to Defender's Quick Scan. Ran MBAM yesterday with
similar lack of active malware evidence.

4. Amongst many avenues of pursuit this morning I could change user
account to 'local account'. Last time I did that years ago it solved a
problem but left me with it in my main account, so don't see much point
in wasting time.

5. Want to avoid trying to restore image from either DataNumen or Win
10, although tempting as a possible 'quick fix'!

6. Considering whether I should try to roll back last WU.

7. Many threads about lost or inactive apps. Could spend the next few
hours pursuing. Currently using Settings Apps Apps & features to
troubleshoot/reset but some that appear on my screenshots are not in
list. Notably 'Windows Defender Security Center'. And 'Settings'.

8. Thanks a bunch for your carefully prepared instructions. But I'll
pass for now as I'm way short of technical confidence in stuff like
partioning/MBR/Bitlocker encryption/etc. And not sure what chance a
digression on such a major learning exercise would payoff in solving my
immediate issues.

Later...


Terry, East Grinstead, UK



*******

You could re-use the external drive.

But, you need a way to prepare it.

From the current broken OS, you'd use "shrink"
on the backup partition. You need to make enough
room, so the restored partition(s) can fit.

Then, you can do the restore at your leisure.

If it wasn't actual malware, you could restore the
partitions inside the MRIMG, one partition at a time.
In the Restore dialog, you drag and drop the restore C
next to the backup partition. After the Restore is
complete, you drag and drop the Recovery partition
next to the restored C: . You work "a brick at a time",
subject to the limits on how many partitions you can
have on a drive. The three shown in the picture, fit
within the limit of four primary partitions on an MSDOS
partitioned disk. If your materials are GPT, the diagram
will look different. I don't have a lot of experience with
GPT setups. (GPT is used for quick experiments here, then
discarded.)

+------+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+----------+ - -
| MBR | (Shrunk down backup partition) | Restored C: with Active (boot) Flag | Recovery |
+------+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+----------+ - -

OK, shut down. Remove the internal drive to avoid
surprises. Leave the external drive connected.

Boot the Macrium Emergency Boot CD and use the
"Boot Repair" option from the menu.

Macrium will query you, by placing a list of candidate
partitions in the dialog. There should be only
one showing at this time. Hopefully it points
to the C: partition.

Windows boot relies on the Active (boot) flag.
That is how the code in the MBR, figures out
where the winload.exe and the BCD and \boot
are located.

On Windows 7, a partition called System Reserved
might have the boot flag. And it might contain the
\boot and BCD and so on. It's possible for a number
of modern Windows OSes to be split on two partitions.
(The two-partition split was intended to support
Bitlocker encryption of the entire C: , leaving System
Reserved boot materials unencrypted.)

My Win10 today appears to use one partition, but it
has an excessive number of "Recovery Partitions", which
should not figure into the boot process as such.

The Macrium boot repair should be able to:

1) Reload the MBR boot code.
2) Reload the partition boot sector in C:
3) Randomly assign GUIDs to the partitions. The GUIDs might
actually be stored in the Registry on C: . Making new GUID
values, prevents collisions with other hard drives.
4) Recompute the BCD boot information. By only having the
target disk present, there is zero chance of "entangling"
the wrong disk drive(s).

Once the Boot repair is done, closing Macrium
will reboot the machine. I either park the machine
by entering the BIOS, or park it by pressing F8
for the popup boot menu. Both of those options
seem to leave the hard drive in a safe state.

Now, I turn off the power, move the external drive
inside the machine.

Note: This is only practical if the external is in a
removable case, so you can move the drive
inside the machine. Then boot, and enjoy.

It is possible to "restore-by-parts" and cook up a
bootable image. You could do it...

Paul


  #14  
Old November 1st 18, 10:32 AM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Andy Burns[_6_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,318
Default Taskbar+ Notification icons+Defender: Problems!

Terry Pinnell wrote:

After many hours of research (not counting last night's dreams) I'm
still hopelessly lost.


You could try creating a new user, logging in as that and seeing if the
problems persist ...
  #15  
Old November 1st 18, 12:35 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Terry Pinnell[_3_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 732
Default Taskbar+ Notification icons+Defender: Problems!

Andy Burns wrote:

Terry Pinnell wrote:

After many hours of research (not counting last night's dreams) I'm
still hopelessly lost.


You could try creating a new user, logging in as that and seeing if the
problems persist ...



Yep, but from my last post:
"4. Amongst many avenues of pursuit this morning I could change user
account to 'local account'. Last time I did that years ago it solved a
problem but left me with it in my main account, so don't see much point
in wasting time."

If it did not display the problem, what's the next step?


Terry, East Grinstead, UK
 




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