Computer idiot again -- AKICOLJ
Apr. 22nd, 2010 10:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mmegaeraI have a question. I am having trouble with an unauthorized download.
It's not my virus protection updates or automated Windows updates, which are the only authorized downloads I have on my computer, because they have neat little icons in the tray at the bottom that let me know when those are happening, and let me right click on them to shut them down or pause them if I need to.
The last few days, only in the morning (it doesn't happen any other time of day), I will go into my email program and write email, only to notice that the posts are still sitting in my outbox and not going out. I press the send button. Nothing happens. So I shut down the email program, and restart my computer. At which point a little dialog box pops up and asks me if I want to abort the current download. I say yes, and the computer reboots. But from my point of view there is no current download, nor is there anything anywhere that I can find (control panel, my computer, etc.) to shut this download down short of rebooting the computer. Everything works fine again once I've rebooted and the messages go out right away. It doesn't do it again once I've rebooted, doesn't seem to start the mysterious download again once I've shut it down. This doesn't affect anything else that I can see so far as my Internet connection goes, either -- I can websurf and not be disrupted or anything.
I turn my computer off completely when I'm not actually using it, although I do leave the DSL modem on 24/7 because I was told turning it off and on can damage it in the long run.
Where do I go to find these downloads and turn them off unless I want them to be on? And how do I find out what this is in the first place?
My computer runs XP. Yes, I have good virus protection and a firewall. And I run scans daily and am not finding anything nasty. And the computer is running just fine otherwise.
And remember the subject heading -- computer idiot -- and please spell out how to fix this in words of one syllable [sigh].
It's not my virus protection updates or automated Windows updates, which are the only authorized downloads I have on my computer, because they have neat little icons in the tray at the bottom that let me know when those are happening, and let me right click on them to shut them down or pause them if I need to.
The last few days, only in the morning (it doesn't happen any other time of day), I will go into my email program and write email, only to notice that the posts are still sitting in my outbox and not going out. I press the send button. Nothing happens. So I shut down the email program, and restart my computer. At which point a little dialog box pops up and asks me if I want to abort the current download. I say yes, and the computer reboots. But from my point of view there is no current download, nor is there anything anywhere that I can find (control panel, my computer, etc.) to shut this download down short of rebooting the computer. Everything works fine again once I've rebooted and the messages go out right away. It doesn't do it again once I've rebooted, doesn't seem to start the mysterious download again once I've shut it down. This doesn't affect anything else that I can see so far as my Internet connection goes, either -- I can websurf and not be disrupted or anything.
I turn my computer off completely when I'm not actually using it, although I do leave the DSL modem on 24/7 because I was told turning it off and on can damage it in the long run.
Where do I go to find these downloads and turn them off unless I want them to be on? And how do I find out what this is in the first place?
My computer runs XP. Yes, I have good virus protection and a firewall. And I run scans daily and am not finding anything nasty. And the computer is running just fine otherwise.
And remember the subject heading -- computer idiot -- and please spell out how to fix this in words of one syllable [sigh].
