Software starts and then disappears

[Guest]

Most of the programs I open (fortunately not IE and Firefox!), immediately
vanish of the screen as sooon as I open them. There is usually a brief
flicker of the software itself before the screen returns to my desktop.

Ctrl-Alt-Del Task Manager is affected by this along with my firewall and the
command prompt and many others.

Any suggestions as to what the problem is and how i would go about fixing it?

Thanks in advance

 

[Malke]

Most of the programs I open (fortunately not IE and Firefox!),
immediately vanish of the screen as sooon as I open them. There is
usually a brief flicker of the software itself before the screen
returns to my desktop.

Ctrl-Alt-Del Task Manager is affected by this along with my firewall
and the command prompt and many others.

Any suggestions as to what the problem is and how i would go about
fixing it?

Thanks in advance

Scan with a current version (not earlier than 2004) antivirus using
updated definitions in Safe Mode. If you don't have an av installed (or
it is an obsolete version and/or you allowed the subscription to lapse)
then scan with either Sysclean (first link below) or Dave Lipman's
Multi-AV (second link below). After you've done your scans (and do all
scans in Safe Mode) with one of those first-line av tools, get a
full-featured av, install it, update it, and do a thorough scan in Safe
Mode. After finishing with antivirus scans, continuing cleaning your
computer by scanning for non-viral malware (instructions at first link
below).

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware
http://www.ik-cs.com/multi-av.htm - Dave Lipman's Multi-AV

Malke