Worm or Virus?

[Pete]

I had a coworker bring in his kid's laptop, an Inspiron
with XP Home. It boots up to the Windows desktop; no
icons, no taskbar, no response to RMB or any of the
Windows key commands, just the empty screen. I brought
it up in Safe Mode as Administrator, I can get the
taskbar when I modify toolbars, but can't put My Dox, My
Computer, etc on the desktop. I've been trying to run
some of Symantec's removal tools, but it's tedious. Can
anyone help me zero in on this?

Regards

 

[Rock]

I had a coworker bring in his kid's laptop, an Inspiron
with XP Home. It boots up to the Windows desktop; no
icons, no taskbar, no response to RMB or any of the
Windows key commands, just the empty screen. I brought
it up in Safe Mode as Administrator, I can get the
taskbar when I modify toolbars, but can't put My Dox, My
Computer, etc on the desktop. I've been trying to run
some of Symantec's removal tools, but it's tedious. Can
anyone help me zero in on this?

Regards

Run these programs to check for spyware/malware. After installing
update them, then boot into safe mode and run them. You should update
and run them weekly.

Cwshredder
http://aumha.org/freeware/freeware.php#cwshred

Ad-aware SE
http://www.lavasoftusa.com

Spybot Search and Destroy
http://www.safer-networking.org

Bazooka Adware and Spyware Scanner
http://download.com.com/3000-2144-10247783.html

Pest Patrol Free Pest Scanner
http://www.pestscan.com/ScanOrTrial.asp

If you’re still having problems after running these then run HijackThis
and post the log to one of the specialty forums, _NOT_ this one.

HijackThis
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=3155

Forums to Interpret HijackThis Logs:

http://www.spywareinfo.com/forums/
http://forum.aumha.org/viewforum.php?f=30
http://forums.tomcoyote.org/
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/

For viruses start with Trend Micro's Sysclean:

Trend Micro Sysclean
http://www.trendmicro.com/download/dcs.asp

Trend Micro Signature File
http://www.trendmicro.com/download/pattern.asp

Turn off system restore, boot into safe mode and then run Sysclean.
After that reboot, turn system restore back on and run a full virus
scan. You can also use one of these online scanners:

Panda ActiveScan
http://www.pandasoftware.com/activescan/com/activescan_principal.htm

Bit Defender Online Virus Scan:
http://www.bitdefender.com/scan/license.php

Symantec Online Virus and Security Scan:
http://security.symantec.com/ssc/home.asp

McAfee Online Virus Scan:
http://www.mcafee.com/myapps/mfs/default.asp

RAV AntiVirus - Scan Online
http://www.ravantivirus.com/scan/

F-Secure:
http://support.f-secure.com/enu/home/ols.shtml

After your system is clean use these programs to help keep it clean:

Spywareblaster
www.javacoolsoftware.com/sbdownload.html

Spywareguard
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/sgdownload.html

IE-SPYAD
http://www.staff.uiuc.edu/~ehowes/resource.htm

 

[Ron Martell]

I had a coworker bring in his kid's laptop, an Inspiron
with XP Home. It boots up to the Windows desktop; no
icons, no taskbar, no response to RMB or any of the
Windows key commands, just the empty screen. I brought
it up in Safe Mode as Administrator, I can get the
taskbar when I modify toolbars, but can't put My Dox, My
Computer, etc on the desktop. I've been trying to run
some of Symantec's removal tools, but it's tedious. Can
anyone help me zero in on this?

Regards

Get Stinger (free) from http://vil.nai.com/vil/stinger and run it to
detect and remove the most common of the current crop of viruses.

Good luck


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much."