All of a sudden I've got a "Language Bar"

Not long ago I found a new icon on my taskbar and it was this little microphone, a text box with a smaller microphone, a square with a "?" in it that looked like a comic book balloon when someone says somethng, and two rectangles overlapping with a down arrow under them. I right clicked on the taskbar and it showed me that the "Language Bar" was now turned on. So I turned it off.

The next time, and all subsequent times thereafter, that I booted the machine, there were those damned icons. I have unlocked the taskbar and turned them off and rebooted and there they are. I have turned them off, locked the taskbar and rebooted and there they are. They are like junk mail. I can't get rid of them.

Anyone have any ideas? I am running XP SP1.

Thanks.

 

jim it sounds like you have a spyware infection... you need to go to the Spyware Forum, and read the STICKY entitled: READ ME FIRST BEFORE ASKING FOR SUPPORT

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=35407

follow all the steps in the thread, it might seem long and arduous but your computer will thank you... those steps outlined there should help solve alot of your problems... and if it doesn't, you can start your own post in that forum and i'm confident chaslang or bjgarric will be able to help you remove all the baddies off your system...


in the future, if you see new icons or toolbars installed on your pc (and u know you did not put them there), avoid clicking on them.... and never follow and prompts that tell you to download software or anything of that nature....

 

You could try using Task Manager to see what programs are running and see if any of them look unfamiliar, and try ending the process to see if it kills the icons. Another approach would be to use MSCONFIG and see what processes that you have loading at startup, check for unfamiliar ones, kill them one at a time and see which one is causing the problem that you describe. Hope this helps.

 

It's the Microsoft language bar. It's actually part of the XP operating system, not spyware. A program (perhaps some sort of speech recognition or voice input software?) you installed is calling it up at startup.

 

Anhedonic,

I do not believe it is spyware/adware generated. I use AdAware, PestPatrol, and AntiVir and have gotten no indications of pests or viruses. I update regularly and run each regularly.

I think Just Playin is more likely correct. I will have to do the CLICK-REBOOT shuffle for a while to find out where this is being loaded.

I will, however, do all of the things at your recommended post as they look to be of great value.

 

sorry about misdiagnosing your problem Jim... it sounded like spyware to me based on the fact that you did not recall installing whatever it was that you were seeing and they kept coming back when you tried to remove them... i guess it's a good thing that it wasn't...

 

Anhedonic,

No harm, no foul. It is important that we get scolded once in a while to read the "Go here first" files.

Thanks.

 

Any updates to this? I wan to get rid of it myself. Thanks

 

Tried several things but the icons still show up. I looked at the task manager and did not correlate any program with the icons. So far, I have just continued to turn them off. It is better than the "turn-off-a-program-and-reboot" forty times scenario until the culprit is found.

 

Hold your cursor over the icon, what does it say?

Steve

 

Not sure if this is the same language bar I'm thinking of, but anyway, try this:

Click Start, Setting, Control Panel
If XP, double click "Regional and Language Options"
Go to the Language tab, then click the details button, then click the Language Bar button.
Uncheck everything you see here. Then click ok, ok, ok. Try rebooting and see if it comes back.

 

I just tried this and the thing is still popping up. Thanks for your help though.

 

Hovering over the microphone, it says "microphone". Hovering over the microphone on a page it says "Speech tools". Hovering over the ? is says "Help".

 

EDIT: Never mind...seems like you're experiencing a weird problem with the bar. I was just able to right click and close it...hasn't come back since.