Control Panel Locking Up After MS Antispyware Install

[Bowen]

I was working on someone's computer adding some
antispyware programs like Microsoft's Antispyware. Well
after I installed it and ran it the Control Panel started
locking up when you clicked on certain categories like
Appearance and Themes for example and it wouldn't unlock
it either unless you manually shut it down via
Ctrl+Atl+Del.

It removed quite a bit of spyware too. Is it possible it
removed some critical Windows files when it did this? Or
perhaps some of the spyware was so dug in that when it
was removed some infection went to some system files that
controlled the Control Panel perhaps?


I tried everything to fix it even the Windows File
Restore command (SFC /Scannow) to no avail. I even used
the repair console and it didn't work either. I also
reinstalled her copy of Windows XP Pro and it still
didn't fix it. I finally had to reformat the drive and
reinstall Windows in order to bring back full
functionality to Windows XP Pro. I also tried System
Restore and none of the restore points would work and
there were about 10 or 12 days and maybe 60 restore
points. She has recently bought WinXP Pro and it had
only been installed about a month. I would just like to
know if the Microsoft Antispyware was responsible for
this problem.

Thanx,
Bowen

 

[Steve Wechsler [MVP]]

Bowen,

At this point it would be just be speculation as to what caused this
behavior.

Specifically, which spyware programs were installed , in what order, and
what files were removed from the system ?

My first thought resolves around damaged .cpl files due to "something"
hooking into them. It might have been the malware; it could have been a
spyware program.

Steve Wechsler (akaMowGreen)
MVP Windows Server

 

[Bowen]

Yes that is all it is, speculation and I don't think it
was the actual MS Antispyware utility, only the spyware
that it removed. Unfortunately I don't have the
information regarding what spyware/malware was removed
but I know there was plenty of it.

I'm running it on my system too but I've not had any
problems and I too have WinXP Pro but I haven't installed
SP2 yet. I only have SP1 because of all the complaints
I've heard about SP2. Anyway I think the Antispyware
utility is quite good. It's found more spyware/malware
than Spybot, Adaware and Spysweeper all together. It
still doesn't
find all the spyware but to it's credit it is still only
in the first beta stage. I look forward to see what it
can do once version 1 has been released!

 

[Bill Sanderson]

If you run into similar issues in the future, there is a cleaner.log text
file in the directory where the program is installed--i.e. c:\program
files\microsoft antspyware for many folks. This contains details on removal
operations, and can be a useful trail when things have gone wrong.