Strange Virus Problem

Sleepy

I got a virus message recently which crashed my machine. I can get into Windows and access the Task Manager to open programs but there's no Start Menu or Desktop Icons. It was giving me a message indicating that explorer was corrupt and offering to send an error report to Microsoft so I replaced the copy of explorer.exe in the windows folder with the explorer.ex_ files stored in the I386 folder of my DELL reinstall disk (obviously, I renamed it during the copy command).

I've run AVG, Microsoft Anti-Spyware and Adaware. Adaware and MAS both picked up some sort of browser hijack attempts which they removed but there's still no task menu, start bar or desktop links.

I'm running Windows XP with Service Pack 2.

Anyone got any ideas?

mad m

Try going into safe mode and see if there is something running you dont recognise.

Infini

Try running scans of your system in safe mode with the internet disconnected. That might remove all the redundant files of the virus as well.

Sleepy

Safe mode isn't booting any better than normal.

Chalk

bit extreme but if you can put the driveinto an external case and scan it from a clean machine, for virii and spywayre.
that way youll pick up everything and be able to remove them as the files wont actually be in use.

if that doesnt improve things windows wise at least youll be virus freand you can perform a repair install from your xp disc.

thats what i would do.

Sleepy

It's a DELL Reinstall Disk I have and the boot menu offers a repair function but it only seems to give you access to a DOS prompt and some DOS commands to try and fix it.

I was thinking of creating a partition on the disk, placing all my files onto that and reinstalling into a clean partition but there only seems to be 8mb of unpartitioned space on my disk and I don't know how to transfer free space from one partition to another?

Infini

If the drive is large enough you can use partition magic to create a large enough partition on your drive to store all your files in then wipe the main drive and reinstall.

Chalk

the dell reinstall disc "should" be an xp disc,
especially if it gives you the dos prompt - google for some commands to try from there.

if it is the xp disc, you can continue with the instllation and it will detect your current xp install, you then press "R" to repair the installation

fatherdougalmag

It does sound like Explorer.exe has been clobbered. Explorer, in its initial instance, runs as the shell - your start menu, desktop items, etc. You might be able to use the rescue console to retrieve a good explorer.exe from your Dell CD and then boot into Windows OK.

Sleepy

Infini wrote:

If the drive is large enough you can use partition magic to create a large enough partition on your drive to store all your files in then wipe the main drive and reinstall.

Partition Magic?

Sleepy

fatherdougalmag wrote:

It does sound like Explorer.exe has been clobbered. Explorer, in its initial instance, runs as the shell - your start menu, desktop items, etc. You might be able to use the rescue console to retrieve a good explorer.exe from your Dell CD and then boot into Windows OK.

That's pretty much what I tried but without any success

Infini

Sleepy wrote:

Partition Magic?

linky

nutzboutstuff

Putting the drive in an external harddrive and scanning it with anti-virus is a good idea, its what i do when a machine in work is infested with viruses, that or i boot up from a windows xp boot disc, or the six floppies, and manually go through the places where i'd most likely find the virus and remove or rename the files to something i'll remember. The restart the machine. Kaspersky will pick up almost anything even spy ware. and if you buy it, its not costly they usually screw up the license and send you 100 instead of one...