The "End Task" box sometimes appears when one of our family members logs off
the computer. We have XP Home Edition with SP2.

Any reason for this problem?

It doesn't happen all the time and it only recently started.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
Tony

Tony V wrote:

> The "End Task" box sometimes appears when one of our family members
> logs off the computer. We have XP Home Edition with SP2.
>
> Any reason for this problem?
>
> It doesn't happen all the time and it only recently started.
>
> Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
> Tony

Hi - This means that something running in the background is refusing to
exit gracefully. Most commonly it is malware, but can also be caused by
an antivirus that is set to scan floppies at shutdown or perhaps your
family member is forgetting to log out of an instant messenger or
something. Unless you recently installed or updated your av, that
probably isn't it because you say it just started happening. Here's an
excellent shutdown troubleshooter:

http://www.aumha.org/win5/a/shtdwnxp.htm

Of course, you will want to do the normal scanning for malware:
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/...moving_Malware

Some malware can be active in just one user account, although it usually
affects the whole system. You didn't mention any scanning, so if you
did - great. If not, that's always a good thing to do anyway.

Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User