Calling All Computer Whiz's

[Cory Wolfe]

So... I got the classic Trojan Horse virus. My anti-virus software caught it and quarantined it, but not before it did some work to my PC. It apparently replaced some important Windows files which caused it to become unstable. In other words, my entire desktop is gone. Icons, start menus, toolbar... all of it. I have to use the task manager to open anything. The exact message I get is "Files that are required for Windows to run properly have been replaced by unrecognized versions. To maintain system stability, Windows must restore the original versions of these files. Install your Windows XP Professional CD 2 now." The problem is, I never got a disk. It was bought at Best Buy where Geek Squad does all the set up so all you have to do is plug it in and turn it on. Well, that must include keeping the all the discs and whenever you have a problem, you'll have to go through them and get robbed. Everything still works, besides the desktop... It's just a pain in the ass manually opening everything.

Anyways, I'm not sure what to do. What would you guys suggest? I'd like to find the disc I need, but I certainly don't want to pay for one. I also thought about going for the Vista upgrade, but even with a $50 rebate, I don't imagine it'll be cheap. I also wonder if a Windows update could recognize the files I need and download them...? Ideas? Suggestions? Other help?

[VenSeattle]

You should be able to perform a system restore without a disk. Check the system restore file to see if anything is there. If not, can you get into IM (msn messenger or AIM) so we can chat?

[04monteintimidator]

weird... i got all the disks for my computer when geek squad did mine...

i agree with ven tho... try to find the files in the system restore thing

[z28luvr01]

Your explorer.exe is damaged and not loading. Some installations of Windows leave an i386 directory on the computer, which contains compressed versions of the files you probably need.

1) Go into safe mode, open up DOS prompt (from the task manager, run "CMD").

2) In the DOS prompt (which should give you a C: prompt), type "cd \i386"

3) If this fails, skip to the end of this list. You're probably screwed.

4) If it works, type "expand explorer.ex_ explorer.exe" to build a new explorer.exe from its compressed version.

5) Now, copy it to its correct location. type "copy explorer.exe c:\windows". Say yes when it asks you if you want to overwrite.

6) Reboot, and see if it works.

If you don't have an i386 directory on your computer, you'll have to get the file from another location. You could borrow someone else's XP CD and copy the i386 directory to your computer, or just steal the explorer.exe file from a working computer and put it in c:\windows.

Hope this helps.

[loki]

d/l a torrent of an sp2 disk and use daemon tools to "mount" the image and run it like that..... my idea is slow and prolly complicated since you're asking for advise.

[jcgable]

Sorry, I couldn't help myself. But in all honesty, I went through my sister's computer yesterday and had to clear 3 viruses off of her computer. If viruses even existed for Apple, it hypothetically would have taken me 5 minutes to delete the files once isolated. It took me almost 2 hours with her NEW Vista installed Dell. Mind you, I have also sufficiently upgraded her computer (IE 2 Gigs of Ram, Plenty of Hard drive space, regular defragmentation, etc) so speed is not the issue at hand here. Every time I would go on to another step in deleting the file (there are FOUR, and you you can only delete ONE at a time), it would ask me to cancel or allow the task. It was awful.

So really hon, just buy a nice refurbished Mac. It really is so much easier and fun to work with. Plus it's pretty...

Edited January 21, 2008 by jcgable

[Cory Wolfe]

Is a system restore my only choice?

[FAPTurbo]

Be careful with system restore though, because in quite a few cases, your computer may have saved a restore point with the virus in it.

[Drew Dowdell]

Is a system restore my only choice?

do not do system restore

[vonVeezelsnider]

do not do system restore

Especially the ratty Windows OEM one... *Cringes*

[Oracle of Delphi]

Vista has more issues than your Trojan infected version of XP. I wouldn't go that route.

[Intrepidation]

1. This is the danger of porn sites
2. Or downloading pron from Limewire
3. This is why I build my computers so I have all of the disks, drivers, and files.

You should try a torrent site for XP SP2. I don't know any off hand but I know they are around, complete with activation cracks

System Restore may be worth a try, as I've used to to restore damaged files. Just use a restore point that is earlier than the virus infection date.

Also, Macs suck. No virus is a major plus but there are so many other compromises it's not worth it IMO.

Edited January 21, 2008 by Dodgefan

[Intrepidation]

Sorry, I couldn't help myself. But in all honesty, I went through my sister's computer yesterday and had to clear 3 viruses off of her computer. If viruses even existed for Apple, it hypothetically would have taken me 5 minutes to delete the files once isolated. It took me almost 2 hours with her NEW Vista installed Dell. Mind you, I have also sufficiently upgraded her computer (IE 2 Gigs of Ram, Plenty of Hard drive space, regular defragmentation, etc) so speed is not the issue at hand here. Every time I would go on to another step in deleting the file (there are FOUR, and you you can only delete ONE at a time), it would ask me to cancel or allow the task. It was awful.

So really hon, just buy a nice refurbished Mac. It really is so much easier and fun to work with. Plus it's pretty...

:rotflmao: Easier and more fun? Better looking? x100

[VenSeattle]

For BV's situation, system restore should be fine. I believe he knows exactly when he acquired the virus. We'll see if the other solutions work. If so, great. If not, it's an option.

[Oracle of Delphi]

You might also want to invest in an external hard drive that's bigger than your C: Drive and do a complete backup of your C: drive to the external drive. That's what I do at home. At work I backup my whole C: drive to a network drive just in case.

[jcgable]

:rotflmao: Easier and more fun? Better looking? x100

Spend a week with OSX Leopard, then a week with Vista. I had both on my laptop (via parallels, I just had to do a very basic mod to allow vista to be used) and the advantages and ease of use is clear. Additionally, Leopard uses roughly 1/4 the code to do the exact same thing and in most cases runs faster because of it.

That said, sorry about your Computer Hon. I don't know TOO much about Windows, but it might be easiest if you back up the files you want, wipe your drive, and reinstall your OS. Sometimes it is good to just get a clean slate for your drive and get off all of the excess files you don't need.

I would recommend that only if the above steps do not work.

[siegen]

Do you use IE and is that how you received the virus? Or did you open an executable file? Chances are if your program detected that one virus, there are likely many more, plus other malicious software. Acquire an XP-SP2 disk and start over, it is the only way to get rid of it all completely. Once you have a clean install, use Firefox or go through the tweaks to disable IE's problems (MS calls them "features").

And above all, stop lookin at the porn!!

[capriceman]

what brand is it?

since some have a built in recovery partition which you can boot from and it will either wipe your system clean to the day you got it or it will allow you to do a restore and keep your my document files. normally to access it you press F10 F11 Or F12 at the BIOS loading screen.

Macs get viruses, I know this because i make a lot of them and email them to my mac friends. I will take a Dell XPS one over the IMAC any day of the week. based on looks alone.

And Im rockin Vista Ultimate with no problems. have yet to have a virus or unexpected crashes.

Custom built Windows Machines FTW.

Asus crosshair

AMD 6000

4 gb of mushkin

8800 ultra

2x 150 raptors raid 0

Agiea Physx

[daves87rs]

Interesting....system restore could work...

My computer also did not come with the disk...so BV wasn't the only one screwed by best buy...

My problem is with my internet-somtimes if I open another window-it closes all of them...

Or when I close the window-it tells me it encountered a problem and needs to close (and tell microsoft)

I can't tell if it is a windows issue or if I need to re-install my internet provider's disk....(just gotta find that one...)

[capriceman]

Interesting....system restore could work...

My computer also did not come with the disk...so BV wasn't the only one screwed by best buy...

My problem is with my internet-somtimes if I open another window-it closes all of them...

Or when I close the window-it tells me it encountered a problem and needs to close (and tell microsoft)

I can't tell if it is a windows issue or if I need to re-install my internet provider's disk....(just gotta find that one...)

Have you ever tried http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/

download Firefox and never use Internet Explorer ever again

Edited January 21, 2008 by capriceman

[Intrepidation]

Spend a week with OSX Leopard, then a week with Vista. I had both on my laptop (via parallels, I just had to do a very basic mod to allow vista to be used) and the advantages and ease of use is clear. Additionally, Leopard uses roughly 1/4 the code to do the exact same thing and in most cases runs faster because of it.

That said, sorry about your Computer Hon. I don't know TOO much about Windows, but it might be easiest if you back up the files you want, wipe your drive, and reinstall your OS. Sometimes it is good to just get a clean slate for your drive and get off all of the excess files you don't need.

I would recommend that only if the above steps do not work.

I've spent years on Macs and years on PC's. Easier to work with? Surely not.

Let's start with file organization. Mac OS doesn't allow you to arrange them buy type, size, name, etc. It does it the way it wants and to hell what you want. When you drag files into a folder it places them where ever you let go of the cursor, and doesn't organize them into a grid, unless you have it as a list. It doesn't let you view thumbnails either, you have to wait for the preview image to show up, something that doesn't always happen.

Let's move on to ergonomics. How long did it take Apple to finally put USB port of the FRONT of the damn tower? You still have to turn the freakin' IMAC around to plug the USB device in the back of it, because the idea of one mounted on the front is a concept they can't seem to grasp. Sure, There's USB ports on the Keyboard, but since there's only 2 in back often times one of the keyboard's ports are being used by the mouse. Let's not forget that they are $h!ty USB 1.0 ports, and half of the devices you plug into give you the pop-up error that there's not enough damn power.

Let's move on to stability. I cannot tell you how many times I've gotten the error "The Application has quit unexpectedly" I've had PhotoShopcrash more times than I can remember, and I've had Maya completely lock up. Then there's the real fun stuff when a program crashes with no warning at all, and not so much as an error. And no this isn't on one computer, or an old Mac. This has happened from G3's up to G5's and IMACs.

How long did it take them to finally build a mouse with 2 buttons and a scroller? Welcome to 10 years ago! Yes you can buy a third party mouse, but why should you have to? Every PC that comes with a mouse has 2 buttons and a scroller. Easier to push Cntrl+Click? In what world?

As for looks, I'll admit they are clean and minimalist, but they're all the same. What's beautiful about PCs is there infinite customizability. There are Hundreds of styles of ATX Towers to choose from. You build a PC and then upgrade various parts with newer parts that will fit to it and choose between many brands and types. Far more freedom than a Mac. And of course Macs cost more than a comparable PC. Do they even have Quads yet?

A silver box is nice, but I'll take my Tower and OS over it any day.

Edited January 21, 2008 by Dodgefan

[daves87rs]

Have you ever tried http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/

download Firefox and never use Internet Explorer ever again

No. How well does it work? I know I've heard people loving it here....

Will it help my dial up issues?

[FAPTurbo]

Hah. I have a Raidmax case, the 'Smiloden' ; looks great powering Media Center.

http://www.cpusolutions.com/mm8004744CPU/I...M-SMILODON6.jpg

Self-built computers are great. I've made mine a real media-hub: connected to a TV, and it pipes out music to 14 rooms via a receiver.

Edited January 21, 2008 by Captainbooyah

[Guest YellowJacket894]

No. How well does it work? I know I've heard people loving it here....

I'm using it right now, and I know I'll never use Idiot Exploder again.

[regfootball]

Vista has more issues than your Trojan infected version of XP. I wouldn't go that route.

vista=sucks

[Intrepidation]

No. How well does it work? I know I've heard people loving it here....

Will it help my dial up issues?

Once you try Firefox you will never go back to IE again. It's more secure, more user friendly, and has far more features and add-on features than IE.

Every person who has been skeptical about switching to IE that I convince to try loves it after they try it and never goes back to IE. My girlfriend for example, hated it when I first put it on her computer and told her to try it instead of IE. Now she wonders what she'd do if she ever had to go back. Fortunately, she'll never have to. :AH-HA_wink:

--

I lived with Vista basic for a week and found it to be perfectly acceptable. Had no problems putting Firefox, Avast! Antivirus and Ad-Aware 7 on it.

Edited January 21, 2008 by Dodgefan

[capriceman]

I've spent years on Macs and years on PC's. Easier to work with? Surely not.

Let's start with file organization. Mac OS doesn't allow you to arrange them buy type, size, name, etc. It does it the way it wants and to hell what you want. When you drag files into a folder it places them where ever you let go of the cursor, and doesn't organize them into a grid, unless you have it as a list. It doesn't let you view thumbnails either, you have to wait for the preview image to show up, something that doesn't always happen.

Let's move on to ergonomics. How long did it take Apple to finally put USB port of the FRONT of the damn tower? You still have to turn the freakin' IMAC around to plug the USB device in the back of it, because the idea of one mounted on the front is a concept they can't seem to grasp. Sure, There's USB ports on the Keyboard, but since there's only 2 in back often times one of the keyboard's ports are being used by the mouse. Let's not forget that they are $h!ty USB 1.0 ports, and half of the devices you plug into give you the pop-up error that there's not enough damn power.

Let's move on to stability. I cannot tell you how many times I've gotten the error "The Application has quit unexpectedly" I've had PhotoShop Crash more times than I can remember, and I've had Maya completely lock up. Then there's the real fun stuff when a program crashes with no warneding at all, and not so much as an eroor. And no this isn't one one computer, or an old Mac. This has happened from G3's up to G5's and IMACs.

How long did it take them to finally build a mouse with 2 buttons and a scroller? Welcome to 10 years ago! Yes you can buy a third party mouse, but whys hould you have to? Every PC that comes with a mouse has 2 buttons and a scroller. Easier to push Cntrl+Click? In what world?

As for looks, I'll admit they are clean and minimalist, but they're all the same. What's beautiful about PCs is there infinite customizability. There are Hundreds of styles of ATX Towers to choose from. You build a PC and then upgrade various parts with newer parts that will fit to it and choose between many brands and types. Far more freedom than a Mac. And of course Macs cost more than a comparable PC. Do they even have Quads yet?

A silver box is nice, but I'll take my Tower and OS over it any day.

Then God said Amen

100% agree ^

Im rockin the antec 900 Case and a 12000 score in 3dmark06

Dave just try it out im sure it will help 100%

[Intrepidation]

Let's not forget the superior gaming support for PCs!

[Cory Wolfe]

To answer some questions... It wasn't from porn or IE. It was from Limewire.

As well, system restore and Z's ideas did not work.

[Intrepidation]

To answer some questions... It wasn't from porn or IE. It was from Limewire.

As well, system restore and Z's ideas did not work.

I had a hunch it was LimeWire

Do you know anyone with a copy of XP?

[siegen]

As for looks, I'll admit they are clean and minimalist, but they're all the same. What's beautiful about PCs is there infinite customizability. There are Hundreds of styles of ATX Towers to choose from. You build a PC and then upgrade various parts with newer parts that will fit to it and choose between many brands and types. Far more freedom than a Mac. And of course Macs cost more than a comparable PC.

A silver box is nice, but I'll take my Tower and OS over it any day.

Most PC towers are hideous, including that one (no offense :AH-HA_wink:). I would love to find a nice case similar to the Power Mac case. Lian Li makes a nice one, the V600B, but it isn't functional enough. There is an imitation Power Mac case available by a noname brand, but it is extremely poor quality. If only Lian Li made the V600B in a regular size mid-tower configuration. Btw, I use a highly modified Cooler Master C5.

Do they even have Quads yet?

Yes. They in fact have dual-quad core systems. Go price them up.

[Intrepidation]

Most PC towers are hideous, including that one (no offense :AH-HA_wink:). I would love to find a nice case similar to the Power Mac case. Lian Li makes a nice one, the V600B, but it isn't functional enough. There is an imitation Power Mac case available by a noname brand, but it is extremely poor quality. If only Lian Li made the V600B in a regular size mid-tower configuration. Btw, I use a highly modified Cooler Master C5.

Different strokes for different folks :AH-HA_wink:

But that's the beauty of PC towers, there's so many styles to choose from. There's minimalist and sleek, minimalist and boring (like a Mac but, you know, with more than one USB port in front), and over-the-top ones and every possible style in between.

Yes. They in fact have dual-quad core systems. Go price them up.

I would if I wanted one which I don't

Edited January 22, 2008 by Dodgefan

[Charger4U]

something is not right with a file called explorer.exe it normally shows up in processes through task manager if that is not running properly things that you describe happen. Good way to f with friends if you need to by ending that process. haha

[Cory Wolfe]

Do you know anyone with a copy of XP?

Not the exact same one... I'd need to find someone with XP Professional Media Center Edition 2005.

[daves87rs]

Not the exact same one... I'd need to find someone with XP Professional Media Center Edition 2005.

I wouldn't mind a disk of that either..just in case....

[daves87rs]

Once you try Firefox you will never go back to IE again. It's more secure, more user friendly, and has far more features and add-on features than IE.

Every person who has been skeptical about switching to IE that I convince to try loves it after they try it and never goes back to IE. My girlfriend for example, hated it when I first put it on her computer and told her to try it instead of IE. Now she wonders what she'd do if she ever had to go back. Fortunately, she'll never have to. :AH-HA_wink:

--

I lived with Vista basic for a week and found it to be perfectly acceptable. Had no problems putting Firefox, Avast! Antivirus and Ad-Aware 7 on it.

Interesting....I think I am going to give it a try.....

Dumb question-but I have to ask-does FF work fine on Labtops too? I'm going to be borrowing an older Dell labtop (about 2 years old) and plan to use it wireless-ly when I head out....