hmm, unknown exclamation icon in system tray

[nudone]

i've not had my pc on for about 3 days and i'm sure i didn't download anything the last time i used it...

...today i turn it on and there's an ugly looking exclamation "warning" kind of icon in the system tray and i've no idea what it is and where it has come from - hovering over it doesn't reveal any information - shutting down other stuff doesn't remove it. i can't even identify what it is using sysinternals process explorer.

if it was something nasty then why even bother to show itself?

any ideas what it might be or best way to identify what it is?

this is what it looks like - the orange triangle icon...

[PhilB66]

How about right clicking? Do you have automatic updates on?

[nudone]

How about right clicking? Do you have automatic updates on?

this is why it's so weird; double click, right click, hover cursor - none seem to do anything. the quality of the icon doesn't look very good either so that makes me suspicious of it - it's like it's trying to look like the default windows warning icon but failing to get it quite right.

(i've got automatic updates on but i'm sure the icon looks better for that - plus it provides information when hovering over it.)

[fenixproductions]

2nudone
Did you try Process Explorer?

On my PC it shows all processes' icons and works for "trayed" applications too.

[nudone]

yeah, heheh. systinternals process explorer is the same one you mention. can't see anything in the list though that refers to the tray icon that's running.

maybe i'll just have to kill everything until the icon goes...

[Josh]

Does it go away on reboot? I've only ever seen that icon when one of my network adapters failed to attain an IP and APIPA was enabled. That is usually the same time you see the "Your system has limited or no IP connectivity".

[fenixproductions]

2nudone
Sorry, I've missed that you mentioned it already. Tiime for morning coffee

[y0himba]

You know, I have had that also, but it just eventually disappeared. I always formatted after because I could never figure out what it is...

[PhilB66]

How are you connected to the net?

Anyway, found a few forum posts describing a similar issue:
http://www.google.com/search?client=opera&rls=en&q=exclamation+icon+system+tray

[nudone]

sorry, Josh, just manage to get rid of the icon without rebooting so can't answer your question now.

still not entirely sure what's going on but this is what i did...

killed "taskeng.exe" that didn't have any description associated with it in process explorer. there is also a "taskeng.exe" still running with the description you'd expect to see "Task Scheduler Engine".

as i'm writing this "taskeng.exe" without a description has now loaded itself back in - no icon has appeared in the system tray this time though.

i wonder what it is? i'll just forget about it unless someone thinks it's likely to be dodgy.

[y0himba]

Seems related to Windows Defender.  Unfortunately, that's one of the first things I disable and remove when I format/reinstall.

[nudone]

okay. well if it doesn't appear after rebooting i'll just forget about it.

thanks for the suggestions everyone. 

[Curt]

- if the icon is what I think it is, it means "you have no firewall", or "you have de-activated UAC" or "no update scheme", etcetera, you pick your choice.

[nudone]

- if the icon is what I think it is, it means "you have no firewall", or "you have de-activated UAC" or "no update scheme", etcetera, you pick your choice.

hmm, not sure what it is - i've logged off/on and the icon hasn't appeared again.