woofus said:
Desktop shortcuts to websites ONLY stop working or require several left
double clicks to open link. Rebooting resolves, but after a time, same
problem returns.
Running XP, other shortcuts to C drive work fine, mouse troubleshoot shows
no problems, current driver installed. Anybody else experience this? Could
spy or ad software be causing? Have had computer since March, but this just
started a month or so ago. Thanks
I've found that usually when a computer that works ok for a few minutes and
then after a short while begins to act erratically, and starts running
slower and slower, it is launching "spawns" of an infection. Check your TEMP
folder to see if hundreds of temporary files exist there (if so, it's almost
always a sign of an infection). To discover where your temp folder is
located at, right-click My Computer and select Properties, then the Advanced
tab, and then the Environment Variables button. Or you can do this: Run |
cmd | OK and in the dosbox type the letters SET and press the Enter key.
The entry that says TEMP shows the path, then type EXIT and press the
Enter key to close the dosbox. If you suspect an infection then seek help on
the "microsoft.public.security.virus" newsgroup, where the experts hang out
just waiting to help malware victims. A quick fix for infections is to put
the HDD into another NTFS based computer (a good computer repair shop can
also do this for you) as a slave on the Primary IDE channel, or as a master
or as a slave on the Secondary IDE channel, and run an updated antivirus
program check against that HDD. And make sure your built-in XP firewall is
turned on (better yet, also install and configure the ZoneAlarm firewall
too, in case your computer is a zombie and so you can then obtain security
utils and updates while still blocking undesired zombified outgoing network
traffic - which the pre SP2 built-in XP firewall will not prevent).
