Computer on the fritz...help!!?

Question

Ok recently I got a virus on my computer...(I wont say from where, but it rhymes with "ewe cube") Good news is I got rid of it, bad news is somehow my screensavers tab is now gone when I go into the properties window. Any ideas how to get it back?

I checked the add or remove windows programs, but it still says the screensavers are installed under the Windows Digital Media Enhancements block.

I'm running Windows XP, if that helps.

Thanks for any answers.

Answer 1

Please, explain to me how one gets a virus from YouTube? That's utterly ridiculous. It's like saying you got throat cancer because you read a letter that came in the mail. I'm quite confident that you have no idea what you're talking about.

Secondly, Windows Digital Media Enhancements is nothing but a tool-set for converting digital media like WMAs and MP3s. They have nothing to do with screensavers.

Screensaver functionality is built into the Windows core. You cannot simply uninstall them. In your case, there is a registry key set telling Windows not to display the screensaver tab. These malware programs sometimes do this just to p**s you off. When you get rid of a virus, you most likely don't fully reverse it's actions.

— Bust open RegEdit. Start > Run... > "regedt32"

— Navigate to here: HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies \ System

— Change the key "NoDispScrSavPage" to 00000000 (all zeros). Notice how it's shorthand for "No Display Screen Saver Page", and is set to 1 (binary "on"). Set to 0 (zero, binary "off") and it won't "not-display" the screensaver tab.

That's it.

Next time, be careful what you download. And use a secure browser like Firefox. And no, you cannot get viruses from YouTube. All you're doing is playing Flash video... Flash is inherently safe; nothing is being executed.

Now if you downloaded something nasty that was linked to by another YouTube user, it's your own d**n fault. YouTube had nothing to do with it.