Hmm I've a slight clue but not sure right now. I suggest that you update your virus definitions and run a full virus scan or run an online virus scan.
When you open System Configuration Utility [MSCONFIG], Registry Editor or Task Manager, they flash for a second and quit. This symptom is caused by Viruse(s). These three are important system utilities which the viruses target. A quick workaround is to rename the files and run them. Extracting new copies of these files with the same name will not help.
Steps to be performed:
1. Rename Taskmgr.exe and run it. Try to terminate NETSTATT.EXE. Or, acquire
Process Explorer and terminate the running process NETSTATT.EXE. XP Pro users can use Taskkill. Type Taskkill /? at Command Prompt for more details to terminate a process.
Note: Make sure that you rename them to a completely different name (so that the filename does not contain the string "Task", "Regedit", "MSConfig".
2. Acquire
Hijack This and run a scan. Fix NETSTATT.EXE entries from Startup (Caution: It may load from 2 or more locations).
The startup entry title might be misleading (as if it is related to Yahoo Messenger, but not actually). Delete all occurrences of NETSTATT.EXE using HijackThis.
XP Pro users can get the Tasks list by running the command
Tasklist /M >C:\Tasks.txt and then open C:\Tasks.txt in NotePad to inspect the contents.
3. Temporarily you can use
ProcExp instead of task manager. With this program you can even kill some processes that are dubious.
Do you know what I mean? Mike