Two questions after reinstalling WIN XP home..

[Guest]

I installed XP Pro on my computer, and my programs refused to run. So I went
back to XP home and now I have two problems:

1. I get an error occasionally:

"This system is shutting down. Please save all work in progress and log off.
Any unsaved changes will be lost. This shutdown was initiated by NT
AUTHORITY\SYSTEM

Message- WINDOWS MUST NOW RESTART because the remote procedure call (RPC)
service terminated unexpectedly"

Looking in windows help, I see this has to do with the windows firewall...so
I go to connection setup and click my connection- where is "network tasks"?
When I try to go into properties of that connection, nothing happens. I want
to turn off that firewall!

2. When I installed XP pro and then went back to home, my old files remained
but all registry entries, shortcuts, etc.. disappeared. I still have very
important files stuck on my old user account's desktop. But when I attempt to
access them through My Computer, it gives me an "access is denied" error.
Help!

 

[Guest]

Also, there is no "security" tab on the folder I want, nor any folder on my
computer. I can't 'get ownership' of the folder I want (desktop)

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP\)]

This is the sasser worm, please see:

http://vil.nai.com/vil/content/v_125007.htm
http://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/virusencyclo/default5.asp?VName=WORM_SASSER.A

Details on the patch needed to prevent it:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS04-011.mspx

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP\)]

You need to disable Simple File Sharing in order to have the Security tab in
folder properties. If you have XP Pro, you need to open Windows Explorer,
go to Tools, select Folder Options, go to the View tab, scroll to the bottom
of the list, remove the check from "Use simple file sharing" and click apply
and ok.

If you have XP Home Edition, Simple File Sharing is hard wired into the
system at the OS level and you need to boot to Safe Mode in order to perform
the above task. Boot the system, start tapping F8, when the menu appears,
select Safe Mode, press enter and log in to an Administrator account, then
perform the above steps.