Arghhh... this is doing my nut in, for some strange reason active windows of applications, like FF, Excel, etc - all seem to be sporadically turning themselves inactive - so there I am typing, or building an equation, and then all of a sudden things "stop" and I have to click back into the window to continue. Any one ever had the same thing?

I suspect I might have contracted something nasty so I'm doing a sweep now with AVG, but they're newer (free) releases aren't supported on 2K so I think I might need to hunt out an alternative AVS app. - any suggestions?

Are you on a laptop?

If so, do you have the tap to click turned on for the mouse pad?

I used to rest the palm of my hand on the mouse pad (unintentionally) and it would click the mouse on the desktop and change the active window.

Im sure this is prob not the problem but thought I'd check

Alas no, it's a plain old "desktop".

Does it happen at regular intervals? If so, the most obvious cause is a badly implemented trojan key-logger which takes focus to send information to organised criminals. I've seen one that exhibits exactly this issue. It flashed up for a fraction of a second in task manager every ten minutes or so, stealing focus and then vanishing like a sneaky ninja.

Run a full SpybotSD scan, and also a netstat to see if you have unexplained network connections.

Right on the money JJ - downloaded Spybot and BOOM, there they are, a whole little merry band of them...

Thing is, it successfully "fixed" them - but then AVG goes and finds issues (for the first time) with an lssas.exe file.... which I couldn't (at first) see because something was keeping me from choosing to show hidden files, so I fixed that with the aid of the answer (to that) in this link - but then I can't delete it, "fix" it with AVG. It doesn't help I can't kill it's process in task manager.

And so it continues...

The analogy I use is that catching the burglar doesn't fix the windows he broke...

It's usually easier to reinstall Windows than it is to fix all the damage, so unless you relish the challenge...

Life's too short... just back up your files and re-install Windows. Then, (after you've installed all of the drivers and visited www.ninite.com to install any apps you need such as AV software, Flash, etc) make a system restore disc, to save you having to start from scratch next time.

One of these days I might even make a system restore disc when I install Windows. Naaah, who am I kidding! I'm too lazy!

Nuke the hard drive from orbit; it's the only way to be sure.

JJ, since you suggested it here, I'll ask here...

Now that I've running tickety boo, and resumed user a power user account for day to day activities (where I used to use the Administrator account before! ) SpybotS&D won't update definitions on login, and reports a failure to do so each time, with the ever-so-condescending suggestion that I don't have the right rights, and that I should setup a scheduled task.

So I have, logged in as the Administrator I've set an update check to run on each "system startup" (I've also tried "on login") - but so far neither seem to sidestep the error message - despite being set to run as the Administrator (and yes, I entered the password) - and so far, my efforts to find a solution in the help file has proven fruitless.

Sooooo... what's the deal? Obviously I'm pitching for the cleanest/fastest load time to the desktop from the off before I set to making a restore image of everything - but this, this is a PITA.

I didn't know you could schedule one at startup to run as a different user. Are you doing that from within Spybot?

I usually set it to update and scan over night, and untick the "run only if logged in" option. When you edit the schedule, it checks the username and password before it lets you save it. Obviously schedule the update before the scan, and be sure that you've added any exceptions before you set it off automatically deleting stuff.

Well I'm trying to!
I've taken to turning my computer off - even after the deep clean it's still too noisy for me, I must be getting old.

If you're on Win 2K then the only option I can think of is to manual "run as" Administrator every so often. Always re-immunise after an update. Provided you're immunised, you really shouldn't catch anything although of course the bad guys are always one step ahead.

BTW - I use ClamWin on older PCs as a free anti-virus. Just be sure to change the settings before you spend hours running a full sweep, because the default action is to "report and do nothing"