The Conservative Cave
The Help Desk => Computer Related Discussions & Questions => Topic started by: The Village Idiot on March 15, 2010, 02:01:03 PM
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I had a virus and I finally got rid of it. The problem is that none of the icons on my desktop and menu work. I don't even know how I got this browser open after fifteen minutes of trying different things.
The virus must have done a number on my INI and DLL files and I don't know what to do. I cannot reinstall Windows, before anyone suggests it, because this computer did not come with the discs to do that.
This is really really bad.
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Reboot, press F8 after the POST screen, boot into Safe mode. After that, hopefully the icons will show up and then try to restore to a restore point.
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Reboot, press F8 after the POST screen, boot into Safe mode. After that, hopefully the icons will show up and then try to restore to a restore point.
The icons are there, the computer just doesn't know what they are supposed to do. This is very annoying, to say the least. Apparently the INI and DLL files have been messed up by the virus(es). At least 30 of them yesterday!!
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Windows used to have a utility that would allow you to extract a single file from the installation CD, but I haven't seen it since 2000 Pro. I'm not sure if XP or Vista has it. You may be able to recover the file from microsoft.com or possibly from another computer.
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Windows used to have a utility that would allow you to extract a single file from the installation CD, but I haven't seen it since 2000 Pro. I'm not sure if XP or Vista has it. You may be able to recover the file from microsoft.com or possibly from another computer.
I don't know what file is missing or corrupted
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If your desktop icons aren't working - do they display an error message when clicked upon ?
Check what file they're pointing to - and then see if you can find that file.
It's possible that the application's / etc you're trying to use have been negated or that your user profile is corrupt.
What steps did you take to remove the virus ?
Windows used to have a utility that would allow you to extract a single file from the installation CD, but I haven't seen it since 2000 Pro. I'm not sure if XP or Vista has it. You may be able to recover the file from microsoft.com or possibly from another computer.
Extract was included as an optional component of XPSP2 - More info (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/838079)
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That explains why I don't remember it. I installed XP when it was released in 2000; it sucked so I switched back to 2000 Pro until SP3 was released.
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I ran MalWare Bytes.... all is fine and dandy again!!
Thanks everybody