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

Your computer is probably already infected. If you are getting messenger
service spam you do not have a firewall. If you connect to the Internet
without a firewall it is very likely you are already infected. Download SP2
here

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=049C9DBE-3B8E-4F30-8245-9E368D3CDB5A&displaylang=en

Burn it to a CD. Physically disconnect your computer from the Internet.
Unplug the ethernet or modem cable. Restore your computer to the original
estate again. Install SP2. Now you can safely connect to the Internet again.

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



lousaint wrote:
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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