Setting Loss in WinXP

[handan2002]

Hi everyone!

Is it me or does XP randomly lose custom settings in the OS? For example, today, the "show desktop" icon in the quick access tray (beside "start") suddenly reverted back to its Win98 style- no warnings, no errors!

Other problems I've had:
- icons of different programs were mismatched with each other every now and then (a restart fixed that)

- the icon for dial-up internet connection permanently changed

-the colour of icons may switch from 32 bit colour to 16 bit colour (a reboot sometimes fixed the problem)

Has any of this ever happened to you? Do you have a solution to my problem?

If so, enlighten me!



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Comp Specs:
WinXP SP1 (all critical updates)
P4 3.0C
2* 512 MB PC 3200 RAM
2* 120 GB WD Cavier HDD

 

[AWS]

Years back there was a virus that would change icons randomly. It was a Win 95 virus and while it was annoying it didn't do any real damage. I haven't heard of this happening in XP, but, you never know. Might want to check for a virus.

 

[GavinO]

On every Windows system I've run since Win95, there has been a problem where the icon associated with a particular file type or shortcut will get changed. There was never a pattern, except that mismatches accumulated over time and went away on a reboot. Rebuilding a machine would fix it for a while (I rebuild consistently enough that it never really builds to be a real problem) I have yet to have it happen often on WinXP, though I can remember a couple of instances. Most times that I saw the effect was after some really intense system conditions; I'm not sure if a lack of GDI resources might contribute (and if XP, with a higher GDI resource cap, would thus suffer the problem less)

 

[handan2002]

Well, it definitely isn't a virus... I've scanned my HDD too many time to be sure of that.

As for rebooting to fix the problem- sometimes I reboot but the problem stays (i.e. my internet dial up icon). I've never ever tried rebuilding a machine to fix this problem, but that sounds like an awfully tedious way to fix such a minor problem... I don't think its worth the trouble.

Come to think of it, the problem really only ever occurs after 2 instances:
1 - When I go into full-screen (such as for gaming), and come back out again
2 - When I run a system intensive task.

Who knows? You may well be right in saying that this is associated with some sort of GDI resource cap.

Also, if this problem has occured for such a long time (as it has), shouldn't Microsoft try and do something about it (i.e. patch it up)? It seems stupid not to. Then again, it's only really a small problem...

Maybe I should just sit back and enjoy the phenomenon while it lasts

 

[vengefuldeath87]

have you tried scanning for spyware, this is different to a virus and may not be picked up by your virus scanner, you can get adaware from http://www.download.com/3000-2144-10045910.html?part=69274&subj=dlpage&tag=button

the other thing it could be is an overheating problem, as you say it only happens in extensive tasks, try and find a motherboard monitor that will tell you the system temperatures, as my 1.3 duron used to do strange things when playing games before it eventually burnt out, any temperature above 80deg C is bad and you should inest in a better heatsink

 

[handan2002]

I have adaware installed and there hasn't been anything that has shown up.

As for CPU temperature... it seems to be OK so I don't think that's the problem either.