no icons, taskbar upon start up

L

lbeham

I have been reading and trying a bunch of things to get my icons and taskbar
back with no luck.
I can bring up my task manager. Under processes, explorer.exe is NOT there.
Under my registry under Winlog I doubled checked and "Shell REG_SZ
explorer.exe is there. I have typed explorer.exe, but is says "Windows
cannot access the specified device, path, or file. You may not have the
appropriate permissions to access the item."

I have also tried it in safe mode and still no icons/taskbars and typed in
explorer.exe and it still says the same thing.

I have also tried system restore, last know good configuration, defragment
and error check, and nothing brings them back. I have Norton Antivirus and
can run that and everything is okay. I also have Malwarebytes, but it will
not let me run that. I have downloaded it again and then click on run scan
and it works for about 3 seconds and then disappears.

I have windows XP with a HP 712N computer. Everything worked fine and my
son said the screens all froze up so he just turned the computer off. Then
he rebooted and the icons, taskbar were gone. Nothing new on the computer
and we don't keep anything of importance in the computer.

We can get on the internet and other things, but we have to do it through
task manager. Can someone please help?!?!?!?
 
E

Elmo

lbeham said:
I have been reading and trying a bunch of things to get my icons and taskbar
back with no luck.
I can bring up my task manager. Under processes, explorer.exe is NOT there.
Under my registry under Winlog I doubled checked and "Shell REG_SZ
explorer.exe is there. I have typed explorer.exe, but is says "Windows
cannot access the specified device, path, or file. You may not have the
appropriate permissions to access the item."

I have also tried it in safe mode and still no icons/taskbars and typedin
explorer.exe and it still says the same thing.

I have also tried system restore, last know good configuration, defragment
and error check, and nothing brings them back. I have Norton Antivirusand
can run that and everything is okay. I also have Malwarebytes, but it will
not let me run that. I have downloaded it again and then click on run scan
and it works for about 3 seconds and then disappears.

I have windows XP with a HP 712N computer. Everything worked fine and my
son said the screens all froze up so he just turned the computer off. Then
he rebooted and the icons, taskbar were gone. Nothing new on the computer
and we don't keep anything of importance in the computer.

We can get on the internet and other things, but we have to do it through
task manager. Can someone please help?!?!?!?

The permissions message suggests to me that malware has taken control..
I could be wrong, of course. Burn BitDefender, or another program
listed at the link below, to a CD (using a working machine) and test the
infected machine with it. BitDefender also has a Rootkit checker on the
Linux Desktop; run it if you think that's the problem:

http://www.techmixer.com/free-bootable-antivirus-rescue-cds-download-list/

Download the executable rather than the .iso image, if one is
available.. it prompts you to insert a CD and burns the file, no problem.

Then run these:

Malwarebytes© Corporation
http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam/program/mbam-setup.exe

SuperAntispyware
http://www.superantispyware.com/superantispywarefreevspro.html
 
L

lbeham

Can I just buy some sort of CD and do it? The only other computer I have is
at work and I don't think I am allowed to download anything to a CD.
 
E

Elmo

lbeham said:
Can I just buy some sort of CD and do it? The only other computer I have is
at work and I don't think I am allowed to download anything to a CD.

Here's a trick that can get Malwarebytes to run:

- Press Ctrl/Alt-Delete to open the Task Manager.
- Stop any process that you can with a right-click, click "End Process
Tree".
- (If you try to stop the wrong process, Windows might not allow it, or
the computer might freeze up. No worries, just reboot and try the
procedure again, ignoring the services that caused problems.)
- Once the right processes are closed, you might be able to run
Malwarebytes.

You can also rename Malwarebytes to Gitterdone.exe (or whatever) and it
might run.
 
P

PaulM

Have a friend download it for you on a CD. The same with Malwarebytes, but
you will have to rename Malwarebytes to setup.exe to run.
 
J

Jose

I have been reading and trying a bunch of things to get my icons and taskbar
back with no luck.  
I can bring up my task manager.  Under processes, explorer.exe is NOT there.
 Under my registry under Winlog I doubled checked and "Shell REG_SZ
explorer.exe is there.  I have typed explorer.exe, but is says "Windows
cannot access the specified device, path, or file. You may not have the
appropriate permissions to access the item."  

I have also tried it in safe mode and still no icons/taskbars and typed in
explorer.exe and it still says the same thing.

I have also tried system restore, last know good configuration, defragment
and error check, and nothing brings them back.  I have Norton Antivirusand
can run that and everything is okay.  I also have Malwarebytes, but it will
not let me run that.  I have downloaded it again and then click on run scan
and it works for about 3 seconds and then disappears.

I have windows XP with a HP 712N computer.  Everything worked fine and my
son said the screens all froze up so he just turned the computer off.  Then
he rebooted and the icons, taskbar were gone.  Nothing new on the computer
and we don't keep anything of importance in the computer.  

We can get on the internet and other things, but we have to do it through
task manager.  Can someone please help?!?!?!?

I have been reading and trying a bunch of things to get my icons and taskbar
back with no luck.
I can bring up my task manager. Under processes, explorer.exe is NOT there.
Under my registry under Winlog I doubled checked and "Shell REG_SZ
explorer.exe is there. I have typed explorer.exe, but is says "Windows
cannot access the specified device, path, or file. You may not have the
appropriate permissions to access the item."

I have also tried it in safe mode and still no icons/taskbars and typed in
explorer.exe and it still says the same thing.

I have also tried system restore, last know good configuration, defragment
and error check, and nothing brings them back. I have Norton Antivirus and
can run that and everything is okay. I also have Malwarebytes, but it will
not let me run that. I have downloaded it again and then click on run scan
and it works for about 3 seconds and then disappears.

I have windows XP with a HP 712N computer. Everything worked fine and my
son said the screens all froze up so he just turned the computer off. Then
he rebooted and the icons, taskbar were gone. Nothing new on the computer
and we don't keep anything of importance in the computer.

We can get on the internet and other things, but we have to do it through
task manager. Can someone please help?!?!?!?

If MBAM downloads and installs, launches for a few seconds and quits,
your malware may have recognized mbam.exe as a process and keeps it
from running or displaying. It knows what mbam.exe looks like.

If mbam.exe is still running in Task Manager, terminate the process,
make a copy of mbam.exe to some random name.exe and run the copy.
MBAM even has a tool to create a copy of the executable with a random
name to help you if you hit a creativity snag. I think they must have
heard of this before.

Sometimes the MBAM installer will not launch until renamed.
 
L

lbeham

I know when I originally put the malwarebytes on my computer, I had to go
into malware properties and rename all of it to get it to run. I also have
Superantispyware on my computer and cannot get it to run. Norton will run
but won't pick anything up. I will try and rename the files and see if that
will let it run.

One more question....a friend of mine has a malware cd, if I get it, will it
let that run?
 
E

Elmo

lbeham said:
I know when I originally put the malwarebytes on my computer, I had to go
into malware properties and rename all of it to get it to run. I also have
Superantispyware on my computer and cannot get it to run. Norton will run
but won't pick anything up. I will try and rename the files and see if that
will let it run.

One more question....a friend of mine has a malware cd, if I get it, will it
let that run?

The Linux Live CD's that I referenced will run without a hard drive
being connected. The advantage with these is that no malware can start
and get control. Whether your friend's CD is this type, we don't know.
If it's an install CD for McAfee or Norton, or that type, it may not
install or outside of Windows, so may not be immune to malware that
loads with Windows.
 
J

Jose

I know when I originally put the malwarebytes on my computer, I had to go
into malware properties and rename all of it to get it to run.  I also have
Superantispyware on my computer and cannot get it to run.  Norton will run
but won't pick anything up.  I will try and rename the files and see ifthat
will let it run.

One more question....a friend of mine has a malware cd, if I get it, willit
let that run?

The problem is that some malware is smart (or silly) enough to to
recognize the name of the MBAM and SAS installation files and the
resulting executables. This is why renaming the one that will not run
allows it to run.

Malware will prevent you from running things that will help you find
and deal with it. Other popular examples of programs that suddenly
"don't work" are:

mbam-setup.exe (MBAM Installation)
mbam.exe (MBAM Executable)
SUPERAntiSpyware.exe (SAS Installation and Executable)
taskmgr.exe (Task Manager)
rstrui.exe (System Restore)
cmd.exe (Command Prompt)
regedit.exe (Registry Editor)

It is usually not too difficult to outsmart it and I think you will
have the best results with MBAM and SAS. Outsmart it, then fix it.

Their definition are updated frequently/daily. I don't use or know
anything about any others - except Microsoft's MSRT which is updated
once a month. I did use AVG once, but I think in that situation the
resolution was a fluke/coincidence and did not occur at my hands and
the owner could not remember the order in which he ran things.

If you download MBAM or SAS and install them from a CD, will they
install with different names? I don't think so.

If you mean some sort of bootable malware CD, if you made it a couple
hours ago it might work, or you can have more unproductive cycles.
Some people swear by them. I swear at them and don't own one.

You need to get MBAM and SAS to run clean, then just wipe up any
remaining residue.
 
M

MowGreen

lbeham said:
It will not let me rename it. It says access denied. Any other thoughts?

IF you are in the US or Canada, contact MS for ***no-charge*** support
for getting the system cleaned of malware:
https://consumersecuritysupport.microsoft.com/default.aspx?productkey=pcsafetymalware&faq=1

Doubt highly that the system can be scanned by the OneCare safety
scanner: http://onecare.live.com/site/en-us/center/howsafe.htm
Give it a shot and when it fails, just include that info when you submit
the support request.

Frankly speaking, for malware infections such as these the only method
that will give one 100% Trust in regards to the integrity of the OS is
to format and reinstall it.


MowGreen
===============
*-343-* FDNY
Never Forgotten
===============

banthecheck.com
"Security updates should *never* have *non-security content* prechecked"
 

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