Spyware appears to be removed but desktop background still locked

[Guest]

A few months ago some spyware got onto my computer and altered the background
wallpaper of my laptop to a blue screen with a spyware warning message.
Whilst I was able to clear all other presented problems and delete the
background wallpaper, what ever was downloaded is preventing me from changing
the background wallpaper to anything besides various colours. When I right
click on the desktop and go to change the wallpaper, it is slightly greyed
(i.e. locked) and so cannot be changed. However, the wallpaper that was
present before still appears briefly when the computer starts up and shuts
down (perhaps when desktop isn't loaded?).

Additionally and perhaps related, when I right click on the desktop I am
presented with the options "Arrange icons by" "Refresh" "New" and
"Properties" as usual. However, three of the other options (whatever they
should be) are "Can't find requested string." I believe this has something to
do with some monitor settings, which is why I believe the problems are
related.

Cheers for any help you can offer!
Dan

 

[Bill Sanderson]

You might search these groups for references to SMITFRAUD and look at the
recipes for curing that infection and the related stuff it often brings with
it.

Aside from that idea, are you using the current, beta2 version, now called
Windows Defender?

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...E7-DA2B-4A6A-AFA4-F7F14E605A0D&displaylang=en

run the download--it will upgrade and remove the current version.