An internet friend of mine is having problems with her computer. She says that the cursor will start moving on it’s own and windows open up on their own. Sounds to me like someone has control of her computer. She said she had it taken in and had it reformatted and reloaded, but it’s still happening.
So I start doing a little research. I find something called Back Orifice, but what I read on that said it affected Windows 98 (she’s running XP). That article was really old though, so I start checking to see if there’s a XP version.
Where do I turn for info, but the Straight Dope, of course. Here’s where the strange part comes in. Whenever I do a search for “Back Orifice” on the board, nothing happens. Other searches return threads, or a message saying nothing found. But Back Orifice does nothing.
So my question is two fold. Does anyone have a suggestion of what’s happening to here computer, and why can’t I search for Back Orifice.
Back Orifice is a remote administration tool (sometimes used for nefarious purposes). While I don’t see any reason it shouldn’t run on later Microsoft operating systems, it doesn’t mean it has to be the problem.
Does she connect her PC directly to the internet? If her PC didn’t get all the latest Windows Updates installed before she did, then it would have been easy to get re-infected with something. (Thought the chances of it being the exact same thing are small).
Is her keyboard or mouse wireless? Sometimes those can pick up random signals which lead to mystery mouse movements and keypresses.
There’s also a feature in XP that uses the microphone as input, so the user can talk to their PC. If you have a bad microphone (or none hooked up at all), this can result in random typing that could have effects similar to those you describe. I forget how to check for this or turn it off however.
I’m not sure why you’re having that problem with the search engine. My guess is some timeout value being reached with that combination of keywords. I’m sure it could happen with other text, but I don’t have time to test it. Perhaps post that in ATMB?
Did you try another mouse? Especially if it’s wireless, a malfunction can cause it to send out random signals. Even a wired mouse can act strangely when it’s about to die.
Random browser windows opening is usually an indication of spyware.
It sounds like erronious input by a keyboard. Use a different keyboard for a while to check it out. A button could be sticking or a wireless conection be erratic.