Screensaver whacked/Tray Icons shifted - ???

[stargazer777]

Late in the evening on the day after the Blaster worm hit, I went to the Microsoft site and downloaded the patch that fixed the bugs that presumably allowed the Blaster virus to do its dirty deeds.
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It may be pure coincidence, but right after the installation of the patch, Tray icons were shuffled around and the bottom bar containing icons for open windows were reversed.
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Additionally, I have returned to my computer after a long time (I left it running) and turned on the monitor, and lo and behold, my screensaver had not kicked in. I brought up the Desktop settings and the section for Screensavers showed no changes -- it was still set for the same screensaver, and for the same time delay before initiating the screensaver. I even deselected AND re-selected the same settings and hit the Apply button, just in case. I came home this evening to find that the screensaver is STILL not kicking in.
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Would/could a Windows XP patch from Microsoft (in this case for the Blaster worm loophole) cause these strange things ? I am particularly concerned about the screensaver issue, as there is one person who has constant access to things in our household, and I would like to be able to leave my computer running AND trust the screensaver function (with password feature turned on) to operate correctly.
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Thoughts/comments ? Thanks in advance .....

- Dave G.
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Asus A7D mobo
Dual Athlon MP1800+ processors
512 MB DDR RAM
Creative Annihilator Blaster GeForce3 video (64 MB DDR RAM)
Dual WD 80 GB HDDs (7200 rpm)
Kenwood Zen True-X 72x CD-ROM drive
Plextor 40x12x40x CD-RW drive
Logitech Optical Freedom cordless keyboard & mouse
USR/3Com 10/100 NIC card
Toshiba cable modem
Viewsonic 18" UVGA flat panel monitor
Windows XP Professional (full edition)
Norton Internet Security (firewall + antivirus)