Problem with Windows IE 8 security update KB2482017

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While the Windows Secret newsletter reported no problems with the February cumulative update for IE8 (KB2482017), I have had issues. This happened the first time I did the update, so I restored from an earlier time and checked to make sure everything was working fine before trying again, when I got the same exact symptoms. Right after the reboot following the update, the icon for the program “What’s My Computer Doing (WMCD)” appears in the task bar on the left hand side of the screen where the Windows Explorer, WMP, and IE icons normally stay, as if the program was running. But there is no window for it visible. (I am running Windows 7 Ultimate x64.) When I click on this icon, nothing happens, and the task manager does not show the program is running. (There is a process in the process list.) I have to start the program from my desktop icon, and then exit it to get rid of the icon. But that is only the beginning. From that time on I start to experience weird behavior suggesting something deep inside the system is amiss. For example, when I click on a link from a Thunderbird email, nothing happens – unless I reboot and try again. Other programs also do weird things seemingly at random.

I do have WMCD installed, and it normally sets up an easy recall icon in the list on the right end of the task bar when the system boots up. I have never had any issues with it before. I did not install any of the many other updates in Windows Update because there were suggestions to hold off on them. The only ones I accepted were the IE 8 update, the malicious software removal tool (KB890830) and Outlook Junk Mail Filter (KB2492475).

Has anyone experienced anything like this? At this point, I have restored twice, and I guess I will have to avoid this update.

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Did you disable your AV and shut down other apps as suggested by MS? These can potentially cause problems during an update. I woudcheck with MS about this update.

Have you attempted to rebuild the icon cacheafter the update to see if this woud solve your problem?

You do not specifically state, is your system a 32 Bit or 64 Bit system? If a 64 Bit system have you attempted to start IE from the Strat Orb, All Programs, both 32 Bit and 64 Bit browsers? Does either of these work? If a 32 Bit system does the Start Orb, All Programs IE shortcut work?

I hope something here may help.

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Thanks for the input. I am running 64 bit Windows 7 Ultimate (x64). The only A/V software I have is Microsoft Security Essentials. I did not try disabling that because it is a Microsoft product I assumed would play well with Windows Update — but I can. I don’t use IE8 regularly. I don’t believe I explicitly tried to run IE 8 after I had the issue. However, as far as I could tell, programs would run kind of OK. As I noted, if I started Whats My Computer Doing from its Desktop icon, it would run fine. It was one of those situations where things work most of the time, but from time to time strange things happen with a number of programs and will not work without rebooting. That made me think it was not really the WMCD program or any other program (including IE) that is an issue, but some kind of conflict occurred during the update that corrupted the system. For some reason, perhaps order of startup, that WMCD icon symptom showed up immediately. The abnormal behavior beyond that was noticed only as I tried to work normally and continued to see strange things happening. I had not heard of rebuilding the icon cache, but I will try that.

Since I don’t like using a computer that is corrupted, I restored again to before the update — so I cannot explore the specific state of the problem. Unfortunately, my Windows 7 came with my Asus Laptop, so I have to call Asus rather than Microsoft for support. Asus tends to say to reinstall the operating system any time there is a strange problem like this, which does not make sense to me now since I have a restore before the update that has had no issues. I don’t know if I wait for a while and just install Win 7 SP1 if that will cover me. At this point, I had to take the time to restore twice, and I am gun shy about trying the IE update again.

Thanks again. Any other ideas are appreciated.

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MSE has been known to cause problems with SP1. Any AV product can do so. I have no idea what WMCD app is so I can not comment on it, sorry.

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Just an update. I recently installed another update using Windows update, and I had exactly the same symptoms. I therefore assume that there was nothing connected to this particular update that was causing the problem, but rather something wrong with Windows Update itself — even though I had seen no other anomalous behavior. Unfortunately, I am not sure when the problem occurred. I decided to restore to a time two months ago when I know I had run Windows Update successfully. This was a major task because I had made many changes on the computer since then. Just to be safe, I did remove the What’s My Computer Doing program, and I turned off Microsoft Security Essentials when I ran updates. However, since I did the rebuild, I have had no problems with KB2482017 or any other updates I have done. Everything seems to be fine now. I just wish Windows had better protection to prevent programs damaging key system files like that or at least something that would recognize the problems as soon as they happened. Thanks again for the advice.

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