Hi,
I hope someone out there might recognise this icon which appears in my tray until I hover over it whereupon it disappears!
It's a little worrying - I have scanned with Spyzooka and Avira and nothing shows up. All the others I can explain!
I managed to capture it in a screen shot but have no website to post it on, so here goes with a description:
A grey sphere with a red and yellow lightning strike through it top left to bottom right
Yours hopefully
McCourtie

If it disappears when you hover over it, it usually means that the program/application terminated improperly. Check the startup tab in msconfig (Start | Run | type "msconfig"). Go through the list and see if there is something that you do not recognize. Uncheck the box and reboot. If there are multiple ones, uncheck one, reboot, and repeat if necessary. This will help you determine what exactly it is that is starting up on your system.

Myke,
Thanks for this - I've had a quick look and I can see where to search so will explore carefully when I get a chance and I'm not supposed to be working (as now!) I haven't needed to delve down into this level of s/w before, so will tread carefully.
Bring back DOS - I think I understood some of that 25 years ago ...
McCourtie

Hi,
Just to "close the loop", I discovered what the mystery icon was - Stardock Impulse - I was uninstalling something else and recognised the icon - random eh? It seems to be a digital downloader that I had installed along with Fences - a desktop organising widget. Having no need of the so called advantages of Impulse, I uninstalled it and behold! No more pesky disappearing icon.
Thanks again - your explanation will doubtless come in useful for some other problem in the fuure ...
McCourtie