I've lost admin privs, and I can't stop what's happening!

[Andy Max]

I'm running Windows XP Home edition.

My pc was attacked by a virus. PCTools Spyware Doctor With Antivirus cleared
the conglomerate of viruses out, or so it claims, BUT

when it took over, it made a bunch of changes, AND removed my admin privs.

Now:
1) "Settings" on the Start Menu no longer allows me access to Control Panel
or to the printers. It shows me only "Taskbar and Start Menu"
2) "My Computer" does not see the CD-Rom/DVD player
3) I have no access to Task Manager. Instead, a box pops up that says "Task
Manager has been disabled by your administrator"
4) The computer plays horrible music that I cannot stop.
5) I cannot access the Display Control panel (i.e., when I right-click on
the desktop) -- the computer tells me that this has been disabled by the
administrator. So I cannot change the desktop or the screen saver - both of
which are under the control of the malware. (The desktop now consists of a
blue screen and a box in the center that says "Warning! Spyware Detected on
your Computer! Install and Antivirus or spyware remover to clean your
computer"
6) The time display at the bottom-right corner says "19:42: VIRUS ALERT!"
and I cannot change this either, though I can open Time and Date Properties
dialog box.
7) There are probably other things I have not discovered yet.

Someone, please help me!

Mordechai Housman

 

[Jim]

Have you tried to roll your computer back to a time before the virus attack
occured using system restore?

 

[Andy Max]

Okay, everything has been fixed, except for one thing: in "My Computer"
neither the hard drive nor the CD/DVD drive is showing up.

This also means that the Search function will not search the C: drive or the
CD drive, because it doesn't see them. And another result is that autorun no
longer works when I insert a CD or DVD.

When I open "My Computer" all I see are "Shared Documents" and "User's
Documents" ("User" is the name of the user -- I didn't personalize it).
Below that, it says "Scanners and Cameras," and my webcam shows up. My
scanner shows up when I turn it on and engage it.

I can access the C: and D: drives themselves if I force it by typing c:\ or
d:\ into the address line, but that doesn't really solve my problem
entirely. That's not how it should work.

Can anyone please tell me how to reinstate these drives?

Thanks!

 

[Ricky]

Give this a try..
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/scripts_desc/xp_cd_dvd_fix.htm

 

[ken]

I downloaded and installed PowerToys TweakUI but when I tried to run it I got
"Tweak UI has been disabled by you administrator." I have run AV software in
safe mode and regular mode, I have checked my administrator rights and I am
the administrator! I went back to safe mode and ran tweakUI and C: drive was
checked; thought I would avoid the problom by setting the machine to start in
adminstrater mode but that did not work! Anybody have any sugestions?
PS the virus that attacked me was "antivirus 2008" and I am currently
running iolo sytem mechanic pro.

 

[Andy Max]

Yes, I downloaded Tweak UI, which is apparently part of "Powertoys for
Windows XP" and one of the things it allowed me to do was "unhide" the
drives that were hidden.

 

[Andy Max]

Have you tried Spybot?

I downloaded and installed PowerToys TweakUI but when I tried to run it I
got
"Tweak UI has been disabled by you administrator." I have run AV software
in
safe mode and regular mode, I have checked my administrator rights and I
am
the administrator! I went back to safe mode and ran tweakUI and C: drive
was
checked; thought I would avoid the problom by setting the machine to start
in
adminstrater mode but that did not work! Anybody have any sugestions?
PS the virus that attacked me was "antivirus 2008" and I am currently
running iolo sytem mechanic pro.