Please Help!

[Madboy]

Just had more problems with my computer and my avast! Antivirus scanner packed in, i lost a whole load of program files, including avast! itself, just had to re-download, now im stuck with my 60 day trial. IE wouldnt load, nor My Computer, i kept getting errors such as "ActiveX could conflict with this environment - would you like to continue without this component running?" press Yes or No and Windows keeps crashing.

Seems i had some malicious virus that had got into my Resident scanner, hiding from the actual avast! program

Now i lost a whole load of programs and other stuff, and now when ever i load windows avast! Antivirus is erroring and crashing the system. I again can no longer access IE, My Control and i cant even access the Control Panel to remove the crap. Ive been in the registry - the only thing that is working to seek the locations and remove them. Also tried removing the class ID and ActiveX references from the registry - succesfull, but with no change. AOL doesnt even work, im replying on someone's computer here.

All im after now is a quick alternative to AntiVirus protection - FREE which runs in the background all the time (to pick up opened apps etc).

And finally, does anybody know how to Un-install a program if you cant access the Control Panel, My Computer or Explorer?!

Thanks for the help

[visualAd]

Whatever it was that happened it sounds like your computer has been completely screwed over. If I were in that situation I would just re install and not bother with AntiVirus or anything. Probably wise to ditch Win98 in favour of Win2k too. If a virus is set loose on Win98 it can do pretty much what it likes. Windows 2000 however is a lot more secure.

With regards to getting your control panels back. Windows provides access to control panels via .cpl files. You can access some of your control panels by doing a search for files with a .cpl extension and double clicking them. It may also be worth checking out Winguides.Com. They've got lots of registry tips and information and also have a registry mechanic, which claims to be able to fix a corrupted registry (never tried it though)

Norton Anti virus runs in the background checking files as they are opened. You can find a 15 day trial download here. Don't know of any virus scanners who do this for free though.

[Madboy]

Well, i just managed to create a toolbar on the Taskbar to allow me to go into the C: shortcut way, found the Uninstall and as suspected some how these virus(es) have over run my scanner, and the way it works has been totally manipulated by this virus crap.

Format seems the wise thing to do right now, because as soon as the system is stable, another problem occurs. I cant seem to figure where i could of gotten infected, i never read emails i dont know who they came from, never download illegal software or anything which is likely to be infected.

I found AVG or something which is a FREE virus scanner, dont know if its a background runner one. As for using Win2K, dont have the money to buy it, nor do i paticularly want to. Id rather run it on a much better reliable computer, in fact im thinking of trashing the whole thing and spending more time in pubs, as opposed to using this some nights.

Only my dad needs this really, and thats for looking at jobs etc

Thanks for the help anyway, ill let you know what happens next, and luckily i can return to AOL now, least thats something

[Madboy]

AVG FREE was a waste of time, after taking the time to register the damn thing and download 6Mb in 15Minutes, the program crashed and didnt load anything.

Looking for another substitue now.........

[Madboy]

This says it all, see attachment:

Normally when you single click a file in Explorer, it shows the type of file, size, date/time created etc? Well its not anymore

It should be to the left, im sure you will know where the missing info is

[Madboy]

could i have the netsky virus?

[john tindell]

Have you tried scanning your computer online using Norton?

http://securityresponse.symantec.com

[Madboy]

Didnt work, my IE is screwed

Anybody know how to do that Detect and Repair thing with IE?

[john tindell]

Im not 100% sure about this but in add/remove programs there is sometimes the repair option for programs, but i dont know if IE has that ability.

[Madboy]

Worked thanks, just restart - see if it worked

[Ideas Man]

Use NOD32, it wins lots of tests hands down. Much better than norton, faster and chews up less resources and very effective. Greatest thing is it's not too well known and most viruses don't disable it. Best virus scanner i found. www.eset.com

[Madboy]

the Repair IE worked, but now it attracts loads of spyware, even off simple Google searches.

And that website IdeasMan seems the program is for Linux only

[Ideas Man]

www.nod32.com or www.nod32.com.au? They are definatly not linux, it's a Windows thingy, i'm running it right now. Try those two, i know the .com.au one work.