Re: Problem with IE and program's
From: Malke (malke_at_nospoonnotreally.com)
Date: 11/07/04
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Date: Sat, 06 Nov 2004 18:35:12 -0800
Rubalki wrote:
> My computer decided to break again...
>
> There are several issues going on.
>
> First, start menu, no programs are showing up when the mouse is run
> over the program tab.
>
> Second, internet explorer gets a warning that it can not open a page.
> A security warning comes up (file download - security warning) asking
> if I want to save this file. However, when I try to, it doesn't work,
> so I close it down. The website address in the download box has
> underscores instead of period's.
>
> Third, I keep getting a security pop up thats about another security
> warning for the computer. It first started with Norton's, so I updated
> that hoping it would work. It didn't, so I deleted norton's and
> downloaded the SP2 hoping that would fix it. It hasn't.
>
> Fourth If I do open a program, none of them are working at all. They
> only appear as an empty box without any chance of using the program.
> Can not reach system restore either, as it is blank as well.
>
> I had a registry problem a few months ago with a .lnk problem that was
> fixxed. I'm on my other computer, which is running just fine. This
> problem is occuring on my laptop, running Win XP, SP 2.
Your computer didn't "decide to break". Its owner decided not to renew
his antivirus definitions or scan for spyware. You need to clean up the
laptop.
Before you can install a full-featured antivirus program, you should run
Sysclean on your system:
TrendMicro's Sysclean is an extensive antivirus tool which has the
advantage of not needing to be installed. It requires two parts - the
scanning engine and the virus pattern files.
1. Go to a computer that has an Internet connection and a cd burner and
is *not* connected to the infected machine. Create a new folder on the
Desktop or the C: drive named something useful like "Sysclean".
2. Go here and download the two parts of the program to that folder:
http://www.trendmicro.com/download/dcs.asp - Sysclean
http://www.trendmicro.com/download/pattern.asp - virus pattern files
The pattern files will be zipped - extract them with your unzipper (like
WinZip) or if you have XP, you can just open the folder. You need to
put the extracted files in the Sysclean folder you made. Burn to a
cd-r.
3. Go to the infected computer and restart it in Safe Mode. Get into
Safe Mode by repeatedly tapping the F8 key as the computer is starting
up to get to the proper menu.
4. Copy the Sysclean folder from the cd-r you made to the hard drive and
double-click on sysclean.com. Start the scan. After the scan is
finished, look at the log. You may need to make a note of where any
viruses were found if they were not able to be removed so you can
manually delete them.
Once you've done that, continue your cleaning:
1) Scan in Safe Mode with a full-featured current version (not earlier
than 2003) antivirus using updated definitions;
2) remove spyware with Spybot Search & Destroy
(www.safer-networking.org) and Ad-aware (www.lavasoftusa.com). These
programs are free, so use them both since they complement each other.
There is a new version of CWShredder from
http://www.intermute.com/spysubtract/cwshredder_download.html. I would
not install the other Intermute programs, however. Alternately, there
are CoolWebSearch malware removal steps at
http://www.silentrunners.org/sr_cwsremoval.html. A combination of
HijackThis and About:Buster (http://www.majorgeeks.com) works well in
removing homepage hijackers. Always read the instructions before
running a spyware removal tool. Be sure to update these programs before
running, and it is a good idea to do virus/spyware scans in Safe Mode.
Make sure you are able to see all hidden files and extensions (View tab
in Folder Options);
3) If you are running Windows ME or XP, you should disable/enable System
Restore because malware will be in the Restore Points. With ME, you
must disable System Restore completely. With XP, you can delete all but
the most recent (presumably clean) System Restore point from the More
Options section of Disk Cleanup (Run>cleanmgr).
4) make sure you've visited Windows Update and applied all security
patches. Do not install driver updates from Windows Update;
5) run a firewall.
If that all seems like a lot of work, take the laptop to a good local
computer repair shop (not a BestBuy or CompUSA type of store) and have
them fix it for you.
Malke
-- MS-MVP Windows User/Shell Elephant Boy Computers www.elephantboycomputers.com "Don't Panic"
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