I've been having this problem since installing an IE update several months
ago, and I wondered if anyone else has ever seen it.

Whenever a web page opens a popup window, about 80% of the time, the toolbar
in the popup window is covered with drop-list arrows. These are the same
little downward-pointing triangles that appear at the right edge of a combo
box or drop list, inside a little 20x20-pixel shadowed rectangle frame. The
arrows are tiled a packed grid over the entire toolbar area. The arrows are
drawn in front of the normal contents of the toolbar (actually, *all* the
toolbars - the "standard buttons" toolbar, menubar, address bar, and "links"
bar; the address text box is the one thing drawn in front of the arrows,
presumably because it's a separate window). The arrow boxes are drawn with a
transparent background, so the buttons and menu labels are still visible
behind the arrows.

The arrows go away in a given popup window if I right-click the toolbar and
show or hide a toolbar. They won't come back in that window from that point
on. Like I said, this happens about 80% of the time - every so often a popup
window comes up normally, but usually they have the weird tiled arrows.

Has anyone seen this before? Any guess about what's going on?

Hi,
You might have a conflict between third-party toolbars or add-ons.

[XP SP2] From IE> Tools> Manage add-ons. Disable non-microsoft add-ons to
see if one of them is the culprit.
[Non SP2] Internet Options> Advanced> uncheck "Enable third-party browser
extensions." If either of these helps, you still need to find the
troublesome program. BHO or add-on.
ToolbarCop from [url down] will help identify
and remove add-ons.

You might try the REG file at [url down]
to reset the IE toolbar to defaults.

A thorough check for malware (spyware, adware, parasites, etc.) may be in
order.
See these sites for help:
The Parasite Fight [url down]
Dealing with Unwanted Spyware and Parasites:
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm
Malware Removal and Prevention Overview - CastleCopsWiki:
[url down]
Bugs, Glitches & Stuffups: [url down]
Removing Malware:
[url down]
What you can do about spyware and other unwanted software:
[url down]

Hope this helps,
Don
[MS MVP- IE]

"Mike Roberts" <Mike Roberts[at]discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:50dd
> I've been having this problem since installing an IE update several months
> ago, and I wondered if anyone else has ever seen it.
>
> Whenever a web page opens a popup window, about 80% of the time, the
toolbar
> in the popup window is covered with drop-list arrows. These are the same
> little downward-pointing triangles that appear at the right edge of a
combo
> box or drop list, inside a little 20x20-pixel shadowed rectangle frame.
The
> arrows are tiled a packed grid over the entire toolbar area. The arrows
are
> drawn in front of the normal contents of the toolbar (actually, *all* the
> toolbars - the "standard buttons" toolbar, menubar, address bar, and
"links"
> bar; the address text box is the one thing drawn in front of the arrows,
> presumably because it's a separate window). The arrow boxes are drawn
with a
[..]