Re: Windows unable to run explorer.exe or IE

If it would help the steps I took were
1) run Trend Micro Housecall. I was able to run it from SafeMode with
network. It was able to remove most of the junk except for 3 files needed
for Trojan.StartPage. NortonAV would not load at all or when it did load at
one point it would be disabled by Trojan.StartPage on subsequent reboot.
Still had explorer.exe.
2) Attempt to remove the 3 file associated with Trojan.StartPage that
continue to restore themselves. At that time the trojan processes running
were 2 instances of SMSSU.EXE, 1 of Tmntsrv32.EXE, & 1 of xmlib.dll. I tried
sharing drive C:\ (including Program Files, Documents and Settings, and
Windows) with my laptop which has current ver of NAV. - didn't work
3) There is such a mixed bag of sugggestions on how to remove these files
and none I tried worked. Several websites (not newsgroups) suggested use of
taksmgr or hijack to kill processes - didn't work. Another suggested using
hijack to delete files on reboot feature - didn't work. All sites seemed to
be in agreement as to the files involved so that is where I thought the
batch file would be able to run all the way through befor the trojan files
could replace themselves. All the batch file really did was copy
freecell.exe to Tmntsrv32.EXE, SMSSU.EXE, & xmlib.dll. That worked. I got 4
instances of freecell but trojan was stopped. and NortonAV loaded and was
able to clean a bunch more. On reboot this time none of my desktop icons
showed up. I was unable to run explorer.exe after that. Norton & Windows
were able to connect to web to update.

So there a few things I did befor this went FUBAR. All the files I can run I
have to start from taskmgr. Control panel files run OK. Why can't I run
explorer.exe but notepad.exe runs just fine?

Dave Sell
---------------------

> Actually explorer.exe is just the Graphical User Interface (gui). It is
> not "Windows". However, you need to have it run for normal operation.
> Here's the thing - the OP didn't know this simple piece of information
> but yet wrote a "batch file" to do who-knows-what and made numerous
> other changes in his efforts to remove the trojan (for which there are
> removal steps if you know where to look). I'm not saying this to hurt
> Mr. Sells' feelings - I'm just stating an apparent fact and being
> practical regarding remedies.
>
> At this point, the system is in an unknown state. Undocumented changes
> have been made, so unwinding from these will be most difficult. I would
> back up any data first, either with Knoppix or a Bart's, and then try a
> Repair Install. If the Repair Install doesn't work, the easiest and
> probably best solution will be a Clean Install.
>
> http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm - Repair Install
> http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html - Clean Install
>
> http://www.knoppix.net
> http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/
>
> Malke
> --
> Elephant Boy Computers
> www.elephantboycomputers.com
> "Don't Panic!"
> MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User


.

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