What is running?

I notice now that even when I boot up XP SP3 fresh, with just the
desktop showing, the 'hourglass' is continually blinking.
Since that indicates that something is running (or pending), how can I
discover which app is doing this?

Thanks

me

On Wed, 11 Dec 2013 07:28:51 -0500, wrote:

I notice now that even when I boot up XP SP3 fresh, with just the
desktop showing, the 'hourglass' is continually blinking.
Since that indicates that something is running (or pending), how can I
discover which app is doing this?

Thanks

me

I have to answer quickly before the smart guys answer.

Try cntl-alt-delete and click on the Processes column. Well, that
will have more than you want. Forget I said anything.

On Wed, 11 Dec 2013 05:33:53 -0700, micky wrote:

...snip...

I have to answer quickly before the smart guys answer.

Try cntl-alt-delete and click on the Processes column. Well, that
will have more than you want. Forget I said anything.

Sigh....on this Win98 doing a ctrl-alt-del yields a list of THREE
programs: explorer, osa, and systray. VERY easy to see if something's not
right. When online that jumps to: explorer, osa, systray, rnaap, and
Opera. STILL easy to see if something's not right.

Now and then, I HAVE to use the WinXP to gain access to a taxpayer based,
whizbang website [requiring MS Silverlight JUST to view a map] and a
ctrl-alt-del yields pages and pages and pages of stuff I don't think I
need, nor care about. sigh....


Just as an aside, years ago I had XP take so long to come up that people
told me about some prgram to go to and KILL, which sped things up a lot!
Seems there was some bug in XP and it went out onto the internet and
started checking/looking at ALL addresses, or something.

Only had to set this feature once, though.

"it went out onto the internet and
started checking/looking at ALL addresses, or something."

How about an IE setting to update history webpages?

"Since that indicates that something is running (or pending), how can I
discover which app is doing this?"

It probably is the windows update attempting to download the beginning
of the patches. (over 120 in multiple updates) As others suggest, task
manager shows what is running and services via control
panel/administrative tools shows other details.

On Wed, 11 Dec 2013 07:33:53 -0500, micky
wrote:


I have to answer quickly before the smart guys answer.

Try cntl-alt-delete and click on the Processes column. Well, that
will have more than you want. Forget I said anything.


Thanks for being nice.

I had already gone thru the exercise of manually deleting processes in
task manager - as much as XP would let me. All to no avail.
I have been experimenting, and find that when I do a new bootup to
desktop, the problem doesn't happen. OTOH, if I activate a single
process. such as Eudora, OEClassic, or Family Tree Maker, then it
happens. When I activate this Forte Agent though, it does not happen.
So - I am still looking and wondering.........

Thanks

me

wrote:
I notice now that even when I boot up XP SP3 fresh, with just the
desktop showing, the 'hourglass' is continually blinking.
Since that indicates that something is running (or pending), how can I
discover which app is doing this?

Thanks

me

The canned answer here ("Azeez N") suggests testing in
Safe Mode. The idea being, if the hourglass goes away,
it could be something in the Startup folder.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/w...e-b39d0ce6f0f0

You could also have a look at Sysinternals Autoruns. Which
is a convenient way of examining the myriad ways of starting
programs. Something could be trying to start, over and over
again. Perhaps a service has been set to retry, if it dies.
For that matter, it could be something your AV software
is doing. Since AV programs are like a virus, they can
affect just about any subsystem in the computer. They
get into *everything*.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s...rnals/bb963902

While programs like Sysinternals Process Explorer or Process
Monitor can also provide feedback about programs, or
about "activities" on the computer, I don't
really know in this case, what I'm looking for.
I might try a Process Monitor trace, with filters all turned
off, collect a couple seconds of data, then scroll through
looking for anything unusual. It is normal for the OS
to be pounding the crap out of the Registry by the way,
so don't panic if you see repetitive Registry reading
in your couple second trace. That's common. When your
desktop is idle, the thing doesn't actually "quiet down".
it's always busy busy busy.

Paul

Paul wrote:
wrote:
I notice now that even when I boot up XP SP3 fresh, with just the
desktop showing, the 'hourglass' is continually blinking.
Since that indicates that something is running (or pending), how can I
discover which app is doing this?

Thanks

me


Actually, the search engine if full of suggestions for
"blinking hourglass".

In this example, someone was using a U3 thumbdrive,
and decided to password protect it, which drove
shell hardware detection into a loop. Funny stuff.

http://www.techspot.com/community/to...ossibly.81015/

Paul

On 11 Dec 2013, RobertMacy wrote in
microsoft.public.windowsxp.general:

Sigh....on this Win98 doing a ctrl-alt-del yields a list of THREE
programs: explorer, osa, and systray. VERY easy to see if
something's not right. When online that jumps to: explorer, osa,
systray, rnaap, and Opera. STILL easy to see if something's not
right.

You're wrong if you that that tells you everything that's going on.

Now and then, I HAVE to use the WinXP to gain access to a taxpayer
based, whizbang website [requiring MS Silverlight JUST to view a
map] and a ctrl-alt-del yields pages and pages and pages of stuff
I don't think I need, nor care about. sigh....

If you're troubleshooting a problem, you should care. Ignorance isn't
going to get you very far.

On Wed, 11 Dec 2013 07:28:51 -0500, wrote:

I notice now that even when I boot up XP SP3 fresh, with just the
desktop showing, the 'hourglass' is continually blinking.
Since that indicates that something is running (or pending), how can I
discover which app is doing this?
Thanks
me

I have to answer quickly before the smart guys answer.
Try cntl-alt-delete and click on the Processes column. Well, that
will have more than you want. Forget I said anything.


Is not a Mouse Quicker
Then a Keyboard Micky

When DeskTop Show

Right Click
[Start ] Manu BlueTool Bar

Chick
Task Manager