flickering of page header- can't type in address

[Lisa]

the page header that has the explorer emblem on it blinks
every few seconds on some of our users names and only on
occassion. As a matter of fact I have another internet
explorer page loaded that is doing it now while this one
isn't. The blinking makes it hard to type in a web site
addy because when it blinks it resets the address bar.
Any ideas why this happens?

 

[Robert Aldwinckle]

Neither of you has disclosed your OS which could be useful
if people have ideas for diagnostics for you or other OS-specific
experience that they would be willing to share.

Evidently you have some background process which is interrupting
your keyboard focus. (You can simulate this by doing some typing
in the Address bar, switching to another task, switching back and
noticing that the entire contents of the Address bar is then selected.
Hence your next keystroke will destroy the current contents unless
you press End first.)

My impression of SpybotSD and Ad-Aware is that they only
targets malware, not e.g. programs which are just malfunctioning.
Therefore, you should also be looking at the possibility of bad BHO.
You could determine if that guess was on the right track by unchecking
Enable third-party browser extensions (requires restart)
(Internet Properties, Advanced tab)

In order to satisfy the restart caveat you should make this change
using the Control Panel's Internet Properties tool with all instances
of IE closed. See this KB article for more instructions:

<title>298931 - How to Disable Third-Party Tool Bands and Browser Helper Objects</title>

If that helps but you lose some desired functionality you can reenable
the option and refine your diagnosis by using tools such as BHODemon
spybotsd and adaware.

Search this newsgroup for posts by others which refer to
spyware or bad BHO for more explanation and help.

In the meantime you can reduce the possibility of your typing
being interrupted by pretyping your URLs somewhere else
which doesn't lose character focus the same way that the Address bar
does. E.g. open a Notepad window and do your typing there
then copy and paste the full URL into an IE Address bar.
You should be able then to press Enter and go where you want
even if there are more interruptions.


Good luck

Robert Aldwinckle