Help center directions for safe mode can't be followed

[Guest]

Long story short, am loaded up with spyware and want to start in safe mode
and delete some of them that way if possible.
But XP help center instructions on Safe Mode do not match what's on my
machine. Help center sez click Start and then "click Shut Down" but no "Shut
Down" option as such appears after I click on Start. There is that "Turn Off
Computer" button at the bottom that gives option to Standby, Shut Down or
Restart but they all work directly with no intermediate drop-down of any
kind. What am I missing?
I know there's a key you can hold down during startup that will get you into
safe mode but I forget what it is. I tried F8 but that spawned "keyboard
failure" and I had to force shutdown and restart.

 

[Wesley Vogel]

Click Start, click Turn Off Computer then click Restart.

2. When the machine first starts again it will generally list some
equipment that is installed in your machine, amount of memory, hard
drives installed etc. At this point you should gently tap the F8 key
repeatedly until you are presented with a Windows XP Advanced Options
menu.
3. Select the option for Safe Mode using the arrow keys on your keyboard.
(NUM LOCK must be off before the arrow keys on the numeric keypad will
function.)
4. Then press enter on your keyboard to boot into Safe Mode.
5. Do whatever tasks you require and when you are done reboot to boot back
into normal mode.

If Windows launches before you can choose a safe mode, restart your computer
and try again.

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In

 

[Ted Zieglar]

Forget it...You can't delete spyware on your own. You need a spyware
scanner/remover...And you'll probably need to try several before you
finally rid yourself of all the spyware. Good luck, it's not easy.

 

[Guest]

Thanks Wes! Actually after I posted this I snooped around in some of the
other newsgroups and found a post about running MSCONFIG and selecting safe
mode under the BOOT.INI tab. Seems to have done the trick.

I'm scared of the F8 key now because last time I tried that during startup
it froze my machine!

A

 

[Guest]

Ted:

Yeah, I know it's not optimal but frankly I'm so ticked that I spent good
$$$ on Ad-Aware and it doesn't even do a whole job! I certainly don't want to
spend anything more. To be honest I feel like asking Lavasoft for my bucks
back... only of course now I have their software on my machine so why would
they believe me?

I do seem to have succeeded in removing one of the worst offenders -
pmmon.exe (and pmsmgr.exe - not sure about the spelling) that does poker
popups. The file can't be removed from Windows Task Manager but I do seem to
have deleted it successfully in safe mode. Time will tell, I suppose, but if
it does come back at least now I know how to handle it.

A

 

[Wesley Vogel]

Don't forget to...
Start | Run | Type: msconfig | Click OK |
UNSelect: /SAFEBOOT under the boot.ini tab | Click Apply |
Under the General tab Select: Normal Startup - load all device drivers and
services | Click Apply and Close

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In