XP: Infected system files [including explorer.exe]?

Question

My sis's comp is infected with a virus or some sort of malware, some boots give a black screen and when it works in normal mode it has the following symptoms:

Background changed to "fake virus alert"

Fake "blue screen of death" that is a screen saver file found

Appearance and Screen saver tabs removed in properties

Some websites blocked, strangely not all.. will not load or only loads very little.

Tried using avast! home edition, it found some files, deleted them but theres still around 5 system files that are not deletable, including infected explorer.exe

Any help to restoring the computer? I Tried reinstalling windows but the c-d drive won't read the .iso files! (select which program to run this file with) Also tried replacing files with clean ones, but it does not work.

Answer 1

Could be a problem with device drivers, hardware or software. This  problem can be solved by uninstalling new software, updating device drivers and making minor configuration changes . From http://fixit.in/bluescreenofdeath.html . You can also run a free registry scan using utilities from http://re7.info

Answer 2

Safe Mode Bootup

=============

Try this, its easy and will not harm anything

Slowly tap the F8 key while the computer is powering up

Just after the screen goes blank, the F8 key will point the computer to a menu where safe mode can be selected.

Note if you mistakenly tap F8 key again, it will continue through to normal boot

Scroll and select last known good configuration.

This is stronger than doing a system restore in normal mode. See list..

System restore is the first line of restoration.

The second line is last good configuration.

The third line is system restore in safe mode.

The fourth line is repair from your disk recovery console.

The fifth line is a delete partition with clean install.

Answer 3

There are a few options.

1) reformat and reinstall your Windows ( leave it as last resort )

2) take out your hard disk and install as secondary drive in another PC that have a good anti-virus program. Boot up on that PC and scan your infected hard disk.

Answer 4

Use this page as a guide :

http://www.pcthreat.com

Answer 5

I don't think you have a virus I think you have a rogue program.

Run:

http://www.download.com/Malwarebytes-Ant...

Answer 6

It's simple.. Go into system32 and stuff, goto "arrange icons -> modified" and delete all the files named Q42342#WEQAWE,dll and exe..lol, they're named like that. do the same for system as well. =)

All done, antiviruses suck these days..

Answer 7

Goto safe mode and enter mrt into the run commands and scan for malware with windows. and also run chkdsk to restore currupt files after.