I've had some strange quirks on my new home computer. This thing is about 2 months old so I couldn't have done all that much to it yet.

Every once and a while, I'll be typing something and a random word or two gets inserted where the cursor is. It only happens about once every day or two, and it's not really offensive (there are no obscene words or anything), just random words, usually in all caps.

I ran Norton Antivirus 2002 which came with my mobo and had the latest update downloaded. It found no viruses.

The only other thing I could think of was that it was ad or spyware, and so I downloaded and ran Ad-Aware (hey, I just set up my PC, didn't have time to get it ). The problem is that I don't really have any way of knowing if one of the 20 components it found was causing this. I could be patient, but sometimes I don't even notice when it happens. Plus, sometimes it doesn't happen for several days, then there will be like a single word and it'll stop again.

It's a bit weird really. That's all. It's not too obtrusive, just weird.

Have you considered that it might be some latent schizophrenia?

Definitely sounds like a virus. I'd try a different virus scanning package.

And when you ran Ad-Aware, did you run it to completion and let it remove everything? Not that adware would do that sort of thing, doesn't sound logical.

Another thing would be some kind of keyboard macro software. Do you have a programmable keyboard, or do you have any macro software loaded?

A final possibility is that your system has been compromised with a remote control back-door, and it's a hacker typing the words in "live".

Running XP by any chance? This is a known problem in XP Pro IIRC. It has built in voice recognition that is turned on by default I think. Even though you have the mic turned off, it can pick up interference, and sometimes "insert" what it thinks you said. I will try to find a link about this.

If you want to try another AV program, AVG Antivirus is free. I refuse to pay for Norton every year, so I use this at home. It seems to work good.

Housecall from TrendMicro is also free, but it scans through your web browser. Who knows what info it sends back home.

Here is a link to a Microsoft article that explains it. You could have some other problem, but this sounds like it to me.

Wow.

I didn't know XP shipped with VR.

That's funny as hell.

Have you considered that it might be some latent schizophrenia?

That is certainly always a possibility

Tony, I'll try a different virus scan software. Norton should be pretty good, shouldn't they? Oh well, I'll try another.

I don't have a macro keyboard. normal Dell Quietkey

Every time I run AdAware I run it to completion and remove everything. Should I not always do this?

I suppose a system compromise is always possible. Not sure how many people here would waste their time though

Running XP by any chance?

Nope, I've got Win2K Pro. Love it.

Sorry, I should have been more accurate. The VR is in Office XP, not Windows XP. So it affects Office XP regardless of OS.

Are you sure there's not a nut loose on the keyboard? That can cause all sorts of problems, including the one you'd described.

Ah, I see. No, I've got Office 2000.

A loose nut? That would be uncomfortable.

I told that to a client once...Took him a few seconds to get it Good thing he had a sense of humor Also helped that it was regarding one of his cow-orkers too.

If the computer is connected to the network, put up a firewall to not let traffic in and out, and see what happens. Also go ahead and try another anti-virus package too.

It could simply be out of date virus definition files. I don't use Norton, but there ought to be a way to check the date of your virus definitions.

-Zeke

A few years back, I was working on a project at a busy, chaotic institution in (where better for busy and chaotic?) New York.

A female staffer called in a panic. She had hit a keystroke in Excel and a cell in the spreadsheet nearly exploded with text along the lines of "Hey, if we could hook up I'd really be interested in <INSERT VERY DETAILED SEXUAL ACTIVITIES HERE> and, man, I could really dig it if I could <INSERT EVEN MORE DETAILED FUN HERE> and <SO ON AND SO ON>...

We were concerned. We thought: Virus? Back Orifice? Other exploit??

After 2 hours the verdict: PCs in this department had been shuffled around quite a bit and this woman inherited a particular Gateway "smart" keyboard from a gent across the hall who had apparently inadverdently programmed one of the function key combinations with a snippet of his ICQ.

ROFL

Ahh, the Gateway programmable keyboards. Those were loads of fun when about every computer in my school had them. Being the admin of a few systems, I quickly knew the reset sequences on those things.

I quickly knew the reset sequences on those things.

Like, ctrl-alt-SuspndMacro?

I would be hard-pressed to get by on my work computer without my Gateway AnyKey keyboard.

I have 29 different keys programmed with macros, some of them pretty extensive (see below) and it would be an unusual week where I didn't use each and every one of them multiple times. Some will be used 20, maybe 30 times per day. Gateway technical support once told me that I was the only person that had ever complained to them that the maximum storage of 1024 total keystrokes as macros wasn't enough.

I did an unscientific estimate one time and I think I came up with an average of about 3500 keystrokes generated by my macros each day.

Here is a sample of just one of the macros that some days will get used as many as 10--12 times:

.
.
.
52
.
.
.
.
.
1
2132132132132
2
241324132413241324
3
121121
4
3232323
5
232323232
6
212121212
7
232123232
8
542135421354252135421354
9
54545454545
0
2132132132132
.
.
.
.
.

(I put periods in place of the carriage-return-only lines; and there are escape-key entries that don't show at all.)

And of course anybody familiar Wicks Broadcast Solutions radio traffic management software will immediately recognize this macro as setting up the default template for Total Audience Plan commercial distribution, so there is no need to explain it. Right?

tanstaafl.