andre said:
I have a PC installed with Win XP Home. When I try to
open the taskmanager, it opens and then immediately
closes again. I have found that the same happens with
regedit. I have applied SP2, but this has not helped. Is
this a problem with Win XP or is it a virus?
This is symptomatic of virus infection. This could happen if you did not
have a full-featured antivirus installed, had an older antivirus
version, weren't updating its definitions or didn't renew your
subscription. The usual way to deal with this is to:
1) Take the infected machine off the Internet and any lan immediately.
2) From a different, clean machine download Stinger
(
http://vil.nai.com/vil/stinger/) and run it in Safe Mode. Stinger is a
limited virus checker, but its advantage is that it is standalone and
doesn't need to be installed.
3) Hope that Stinger cleans up the machine enough to be able to
reinstall your av or install a new, current one. Update its definitions
and do a full scan.
4) Continue the cleaning process by removing any spyware with Spybot
Search & Destroy (
http://www.safer-networking.org) and Ad-aware
(
http://www.lavasoftusa.com). These programs are free, so run them both
since they complement each other. You may also want to run CWShredder
and HijackThis from
http://aumha.org/freeware.htm. Although CWShredder
is no longer being updated, it will still clean older variants of the
CoolWebSearch malware. Be sure to update these programs before running
them. Always read the instructions before running a spyware removal
tool. It is best to run antivirus and spyware removal tools in Safe
Mode.
5) Make sure you are running a firewall.
6) Go to Windows Update and apply all security patches for your
operating system. Do not install drivers from Windows Update.
Malke
