kanga2cool,
1. Yes, this is normal; the WinXP icon has slightly different color because WinXP lets us you more than standard 16 colors for tray icons....
2. To find out which providers are running, click on the icon, and click 'Details'. The VRDB is being generated whenever the screen-saver is running; once it is generated, a pause of 3 weeks is taken and then the generation (database update) starts again.
3. There is no such program in the HOME edition. In the PRO edition, you can use the ashCmd.exe program. Please note that even in the home edition, you should be able to detect all the malware by using the on-access scanner.
4. OK, thanks, we'll consider it...
Hope this helps,
Vlk