geggytah Posted January 24, 2005 Share Posted January 24, 2005 for the last month or so every few minutes (sometimes seconds) a "New Folder" pops up on my desktop. i don't want it there...obviously. after i put it in the recycle bin, within a few minutes or sometimes instantaniously, a new "New Folder" pops up. why??? and how do i make it stop? my guess is that i have a program that tries to save something to that directory, but nothing actually ever gets put in it so i have no clue what program would be doing it. any guesses? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fezmid Posted January 24, 2005 Share Posted January 24, 2005 Have you run virus and spyware scans on your system? http://www.fezam.com/security Barring that, you can try doing a google search to see if you can find any info. Otherwise, reinstall Windows. You'll generally get at least a 10% boost in system performance if you do (and I'm not making that up either). CW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geggytah Posted January 24, 2005 Author Share Posted January 24, 2005 i am trying to avoid reinstalling windows because it is only a slightly annoying problem...nothing major. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fezmid Posted January 24, 2005 Share Posted January 24, 2005 i am trying to avoid reinstalling windows because it is only a slightly annoying problem...nothing major. 216837[/snapback] You have to consider the fact that there's a process running on your computer that you have no idea what it does but it randomly creates a folder on your desktop... What else is it doing? Logging keystrokes and emailing them to some hotmail account somewhere? Reporting what websites you hit and for how long? Mailing copies of your Word and Excel documents out? Infecting other machines? Waiting for a master computer to tell your computer to send out useless garbage on the network in order to crash a site like Amazon? All of these things are very real possibilities (and all have been done before). If this were happening to me, I'd reinstall for the security of my system and my personal information. I hope you don't do any online banking. Read the link I posted, it's a security presentation I give. CW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fezmid Posted January 24, 2005 Share Posted January 24, 2005 http://www3.ca.com/securityadvisor/pest/pest.aspx?id=27652 http://www.pestpatrol.com/pestinfo/n/new_folder.asp There ya go. I still recommend reinstalling. And installing anti-virus software. And installing anti-spyware software. And not downloading things from untrusted sites. But that's just me. CW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevestojan Posted January 24, 2005 Share Posted January 24, 2005 You have to consider the fact that there's a process running on your computer that you have no idea what it does but it randomly creates a folder on your desktop... What else is it doing? Logging keystrokes and emailing them to some hotmail account somewhere? Reporting what websites you hit and for how long? Mailing copies of your Word and Excel documents out? Infecting other machines? Waiting for a master computer to tell your computer to send out useless garbage on the network in order to crash a site like Amazon? All of these things are very real possibilities (and all have been done before). If this were happening to me, I'd reinstall for the security of my system and my personal information. I hope you don't do any online banking. Read the link I posted, it's a security presentation I give. CW 216868[/snapback] good advice. It's not "just making a new folder on your desktop". Why in the world would someone bother making a program that would do that, and ONLY that. You're probably lucky that this is one of the symptoms, as its readily noticable. I would make backups of what's important, format and start over. I format my machine every other month or so. I have a DVD burner, so its wasy to transfer data, but with all this spyware crap out there, a good format always leaves you running faster and smoother... its almost like getting rid of the "not so fresh feeling"... for your computer... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fezmid Posted January 24, 2005 Share Posted January 24, 2005 I format my machine every other month or so. There's software called "Ghost" that you might want to look into. You install Windows, run the patches, then make a "Ghost image" of the drive. Then when you want to reinstall Windows, it's as easy as plopping the ghost image down. Much quicker than reinstalling all the time. You can even install all of your applications before making the ghost image (just make sure they're TRUSTED applications), so you can save a TON of time in the future. Food for thought. CW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moose Posted January 24, 2005 Share Posted January 24, 2005 and how do i make it stop? 216745[/snapback] You could get a Mac as your next computer! Sorry, I haven't done that in a long time and I just couldn't resist. Hope you get it figured out. Listen to Fez; he knows what he's talking about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevestojan Posted January 24, 2005 Share Posted January 24, 2005 Fez, being our resident computer geek, I couldn't help but notice you didn't have any input on my 'help choosing a notebook computer" thread... any advice? Right now, I've narrowed it to a Dell m700, m600, or IBM ThinkPad R40... take a look at the thread when you get a chance: http://www.stadiumwall.com/index.php?showtopic=16763&st=0 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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