MJW

I've been bashing my head against the wall most of the night trying to sort out my eldest's PC, which is normally riddled with spyware. I ran Ad Aware which removed wsaupdater.exe from Blazefind - I managed to fix the registry entry it had altered and replace wsaupdater with the proper file - sorted it, I thought. However, when Windows now boots and trys to load explorer, I get the following message 'The procedure entry point SHRegGetValueW could not be found in dynamic link library SHLWAPI.dll'.
The wallpaper image is displayed, but no taskbar or desktop items. I am beginning to suspect SP2 now - I bought the PC 2nd hand with Win XP pro already on it, but with no install disc. Windows Update was set to auto install, so I'm wondering if SP2 has deliberately b0rked the system due to the OS having dodgy key (if it is a dodgy key that is - no sticker in the case or on the back with a key no. on it like on my other systems)
I can run programs such as cmd and regedit etc. so I was wondering if anyone knew anything about this problem or some sort of workaround so I don't have to flatten the entire system and lose all her homework and other files. Any help greatly appreciated ...

AudiMan

I've not had problems with SP2 picking up any sort of dodgy copy before, so long as XP was running then the service pack would have installed ok, you could try getting hold of "stinger.exe" from the Macaffe web site and run that, make sure you take off the system restore option before you run it as the AV stuff can't change the files in that directory as they are protected if it's on. It sounds like the spyware cr*p is still on the machine (it gets embedded in all sorts of places), you could try installing XP over the top using the repair option (assuming you have/borrow a cd). If you have a floppy drive and can get a command prompt then you can copy files onto that.

Hope one of these options sorts your problem, but you may be looking at a format/reinstall.

Ian

MJW

I'll give it a go tonight, thanks for the suggestion. I'm not sure I'll be able to turn system restore off though, as I'm limited to running things by creating a new task in task manager.

AudiMan

What about booting in safe mode (can you do that in XP ??), if you can that will get you into it to turn sys restore off.
You need a good AV tool though (like stinger) to get shot of and dodgy code.