Unable to start up in XP Home

[Guest]

I was surfing the internet the other day and opened a website that launched
several pop-ups and installed some adware or malware onto my computer. I ran
Spy-Bot and got rid of most of it, but apparently not all of it as now I can
only run my computer in Safe Mode. I didn't have antivirus software at the
time, and now that I do I can't install it (As I can only run in safe mode).
I don't know what the malware/virus might be and don't really have a way to
find out. What can I do short of a reinstall (Or should I just concede a
reinstall now)?

 

[Guest]

Try opening in safe-mode,then create a new account,close out,restart computer,
try new account,could be old is corrupted.You can/could try booting to xp cd,
select,install xp,repair this copy,this only looses xp updates.

 

[Bob Harris]

Some antivirus software can be run directly from the installation CD, which
is usually bootable. This is certainly the case for Norton. The virus
defintions will not be the latest, but there is a chance that they will fix
the problem, unless you cuaght a newly designed virus.

Bot Norton and McAfee offer free downloads of stand-alone virus removal
tools. The McAfee tools, called "stingers", cover several popular (or
should I say unpopular?) viruses.

Finally, some antivirus companies offer free online scans, which can help
you identify the virus. Do a web search with key words "online virus scan",
but without the quotes.