Re: No Desktop, No icons, No START, No Taskbar

OK, I bit the bullet and reloaded the computer to its original state. I'll
reload and run Norton and SpySweeper, but they didn't protect me the last
time. In fairness, they may have been disabled when/if a culprit slipped in.
I had been downloading a ton of MS Beta apps and updates all during Aug -
Oct, and Norton always interferes (evidently for good reason!).
What are the chances of the culprit surviving the reload?
I wonder if there ever was a culprit to begin with.
While writing this I just got a message from "Messenger Service" advising me
to download and install a registry cleaner from http://www.msreg.com. Should
I trust it? Hmmmmmmmmmm.


"Kerry Brown" wrote:

Depending on how many files are on your drive and the speed of the computer
each scan can take several hours. On aslow computer with lots of files I
have seen a scan with one of the scanners take 3 or 4 hours. There is
usually a cmd prpmpt window with the progress of the scan displayed.

You may be right. If you have your data backed up it will be much quicker to
format the computer and start again. This will ensure a clean system.

--
Kerry
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User
www.vistahelp.ca



lousaint wrote:
I will probably end up doing a destructive restore. I did get the
utility properly set-up and running. But only two of the four scans
would run. The other two raised file read errors (code 0).
When the scans do run, I'm prompted "want to pick folder to scan."
I've tried both yes and no. When I choose yes I tell it to scan
local drive c:. It appears to be scanning but without a progress
meter, hourglass, etc., I canenot tell what, if anything, is
happening. All I can do is sit and watch the yellow light and
"guess" when the app has stopped running. I have no idea how long a
scan should take. I have let it run for over an hour and as little
as 5 minutes.
In neither case were there any results (.txt) in the subfolders.
I've tried to scan in both Safe Mode and Normal Mode. I even went
back to the beginning and tried to scan "now" from the DOS menu.
Any idea how long should a scan take?
I'm beginning to think it's time to hit the disk with a sledge!

"Kerry Brown" wrote:

You have to use MULTI_AV several times. Run each scanner in regular
mode and download all the signature files but don't bother scanning.
Reboot to safe mode and run all four scanners. Reboot to safe mode
again and run all four scanners again. It was half way through the
second safe mode run before no more malylware was found. Once there
is no malware reported reboot into normal mode, then reboot into
safe mode and try at least a couple of the scanners again to confirm
that nothing came back. It's a real pain, it takes many hours, and
it all has to be done through a cmd prompt from the Task Manager as
Explorer is not working. If you don't get rid of the malware first
the repair install will fail. Once Explorer is working again running
the anti-spyware programs will clean the registry of most of the
entries the malware that MULTI_AV found put in there. There may be
some manual cleaning of the registry needed as well.

Once again many thanks to David Lippman for his excellent utlility.

--
Kerry
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User
www.vistahelp.ca



lousaint wrote:
Thanks Kerry,
I'll now work the links you provided and follow the steps you took.
Galen, thanks for tuning in.
I'll post what happens.



"Kerry Brown" wrote:

I just worked a customer's computer with an identical problem. It
was caused by malware. There was a lot of malware on the system but
the one causing the problem with Explorer was a randomly generated
filename in the root directory. There was other processes invloved
as that file would come back on reboot. I was able to fix it by
running a cmd prompt from the task manager and using David
Lippman's MULTI_AV program to get rid of the viruses and trojans
then doing a repair install of Windows. After the repair install
Explorer would run so I then used several anti-spyware programs to
clean up the rest of the malware.

http://www.ik-cs.com/v2/got-a-virus.htm

http://michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

http://www.superantispyware.com/

http://www.lavasoft.com/

http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html

--
Kerry
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User
www.vistahelp.ca



lousaint wrote:
Win XP Pro boots fine but when I select one of our two users, the
blue screen appears and then hangs. No icons, no taskbar, no
Start button. The cursor is the normal pointer, not an hourglass.
The only thing I can do is bring-up Task Manager via CTRL/ALT/DEL.
Poking around in Task Manager reveals 1) no processes are running,
yet 2) CPU usage is 100%.
From there I can select File/New Task and run any program I want,
so at least I can get at stuff. And, of course, I can shut down
and reboot from there.
But I cannot get to control panel or settings. I can get to
windows explore and view my directories, folders, files. I
cannot get to the internet.
BTW, a support case was opened about a week ago but I've heard
nothing.
Any ideas? Thanks.



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