Wired digital cock has appeared on certain Windows applications
 

Sometime in the last week or so, I have had an intense magenta, six digit, 24 hour clock appearing in several programs' GUIs. The places I have found it make a strange group. It shows up in the Windows 7 games I have installed: Hearts, Mahjong Titans, and Solitaire. It appears in Adobe Bridge 64 bit, CS6. It does not appear in Photoshop CS6, in any place I have discovered, nor does it appear in Lightroom 5.7 or Adobe Camera Raw 8.7. It tracks the Windows clock, but only synchronizes when the 'host' program is clicked on.

I have tried every search description I can imagine, and have come up with at least one scary ransomware. My symptoms don't match, but I hate the unexplained in this context. I have run a battery of antivirus and malware scans, including some in Safe Mode. Norton Internet Security Full System scan turned up a string of Trojans and virus droppers, but they were all in attachments to emails in the Junk folder of Thunderbird. These were of the "You Must Appear in Court!" (click below for details), and "Hi Hun. I saw you on Facebook. Your cute!!! Chat me up and get nasty!" types. Not the sort of thing I would generally fall for.

Has anyone heard of or seen anything like this? I just did a new install of Win 7 on an SSD, and transferred my previous setup to it. I have done this type of drive-to-drive move before without this sort of intrusion.

Suggestions for search terms would also be welcome.

[QUOTE=kladner;392547]Sometime in the last week or so, I have had an intense magenta, six digit, 24 hour clock appearing in several programs' GUIs.
.......
Has anyone heard of or seen anything like this? I just did a new install of Win 7 on an SSD, and transferred my previous setup to it. I have done this type of drive-to-drive move before without this sort of intrusion.[/QUOTE]
See if the discussion in this [URL="http://www.sevenforums.com/gadgets/311180-corrupt-gadgets-after-installing-ie11.html"]thread sounds[/URL] like your problem. Did you change your version of IE or install any gadgets?

That is a very good lead, Uncwilly! Thanks! That seems to be the right direction. :tu:

Unfortunately, I still have not gotten rid of the spurious clock. :no: I did have IE 11, which rolled back to 10 when uninstalled. I played with the % size settings and Protected Mode in IE. I have only ever used one Gadget: HWiNFO Sensor Status. I took it out and put it back. I turned off the Gadget Platform, and turned it back on. No avail. (I tested the affected applications at every step.)

At least it seems that it is a Windows bug, and not the Crypto Locker Ransomware (I devoutly hope!) Must get ready for work. More anon.

Woo Hoo! A repair reinstall with just the built-in IE 8 has driven the pesky clock away. My one gadget is working fine. Now I wonder what level of Internet Explorer is safe. I don't use it habitually, but it does provide an alternate view of a site, or a quick load when I don't want to call up all my tabs and windows in Firefox. In that sense, I'd like its security aspects to be as up-to-date as possible without the clock. I think I ran on IE 10 previously, but I don't remember exactly when I went on and installed 11.

Windows Update has just about completed [I]downloading [/I]173 updates, 545 MB. I went to bed waiting for the lot of them to actually install, the last time I did one of these (which was recently.)

[url]http://xkcd.com/1328[/url]

I went a few steps too far with the Updates. Fortunately, System Restore actually worked, and I undid chunks until I got rid of the clock, again. :redface: Now I just have to put back some drivers which also got nuked.

[QUOTE=kladner;392677]I went a few steps too far with the Updates.[/QUOTE]

You might find [URL="http://www.askwoody.com/"]this site[/URL] quite useful, in terms of which updates are safe to install, and which other are better left aside. Apparently, during these last few months Windows Update has had a number of hiccups, bricking quite a number of Win machines and leading to lots of recovery/restore works.

HTH
Ric

Thanks very much, Ric!

I still have problems, and they do not [I]seem[/I] to be the same as the common explanation. That is, that IE 11 did something to bork Windows 7 Gadgets. However, I have seen the artifact disappear, both after a Repair Reinstall of Windows, and after [I]some[/I] rollbacks via System Restore. In any case, more sources of information are greatly appreciated.

It recurred most recently [I]just after[/I] a Windows Reinstall. I have run a [URL="http://malwaretips.com/blogs/malware-removal-guide-for-windows/"]multi-tool malware removal sequence[/URL], which I highly recommend, even though it has not fixed this problem. I dread the thought of doing another actual Clean Install of Windows. Even the Repair Reinstall is an hours-long process when one factors in the updating part. The Setup itself goes quickly on the SSD, especially when I ran it from a copy on a fast HDD.

Even though many others implicated Gadgets, I have gotten the artifact with the Gadgets Platform turned off in Windows. It is irritating, but also worrisome. If it isn't Other People's causes, what is it? At one point, having been through the cycle a few times, I started to suspect that the culprit was another Update, which tends to get applied about the same time as an IE update.

As to the involvement of IE 11, I currently have IE 8 installed, but the pest remains.

:davieddy:

[URL="http://www.infoworld.com/article/2610232/microsoft-windows/ie11-still-zaps-windows-7-gadgets.html"]The main article[/URL] referenced from askwoody.com, on the subject of things clockish and gadgety, laments that Microsoft has no interest in this problem, since they abruptly stopped supporting Gadgets on security grounds.

[QUOTE]Over the weekend, a longtime Windows user wrote to me with a problem I thought Microsoft had fixed ages ago. Silly me -- with the company's recent admonition to IE9 and IE10 users to [URL="http://www.infoworld.com/t/web-browsers/internet-explorer-snowman-zero-day-spreading-use-alternative-or-patch-kb-2934088-237200"]upgrade to IE11 or install the "SnowMan" Windows Fix it[/URL], IE11's infuriating tendency to clobber Windows 7 gadgets has come back on the radar screen.[/QUOTE]-from InfoWorld

Still, the symptoms seem different from mine. However, in the realm of corruption of software, who knows what bizarre results might pop out, in different installations. I did at one time have IE 11 on this machine, though it has been rolled back [I]and [/I]in-place upgraded (repair reinstalled) over since. Perhaps it is still exerting its malign influence over the system. :down:

I am becoming resigned to the idea of doing another clean install of Windows. Would that I had imaged the last one I had handy, a week or so ago.

EDIT #? Sigh. Once again, after a reboot to complete the "turning off" of the Gadgets platform, my system info gadget is gone, but the *&$%**@(! is still there.

[QUOTE=ixfd64;392676][URL]http://xkcd.com/1328[/URL][/QUOTE]
[QUOTE]$ apt-get update
$ apt-get upgrade[/QUOTE]:razz:

[QUOTE=alexvong1995;392935]:razz:[/QUOTE]

Indeed. Sometimes running Windows is its own punishment/reward. :ouch2: