Disappearing Taskbar in Windows XP

[jdogg707]

I am having an issue with a few systems at work and need some help. All of the systems are using Windows XP SP2, have no viruses and no spyware. When the users return to their computers after being gone for a period long enough for the screen saver to come on, they will log back in and the XP taskbar is completely gone. We can get it back by ending the explorer.exe process and running it again, but not until then. The system runs fine otherwise, and you can use alt-tab to switch between programs, but the taskbar is gone. Is there a fix for this?

The system is a Dell Optiplex 270 running the A06 BIOS.

 

[scottws]

Is auto-hide enabled?

Sorry, simple stuff first.

 

[jdogg707]

No.

 

[scottws]

Hmm... I did some quick searching and it does appear that this can be a problem. You might try going here: http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_abc.htm and then pressing T for Taskbar. There is a taskbar fixer script on there, if you want to try that.

 

[Pirotech]

And what antivirus software do you use?
The point is that I had like virus on my PC. The problem was eliminated when I installed avast antivirus whereas symantec wasn't able to detect it for example.
I guess you have a virus too. It is known as

Trojan-Downloader.Win32.Small.bfq (Kaspersky Lab)
BackDoor-AZV (McAfee),
Trojan.Vicsfram (Symantec),
Trojan.DownLoader.2489 (Doctor Web),
Trj/Downloader.DVZ (Panda)

Trojan.Vicsfram description

Fortunately virus was removed by avast and my Task Manager got back immediately