More Computer crap

[Altzan]

My computer is failing me...again.

I hate to post this junk here, but I have nowhere else to do this and FyberOptic is quite good at it...thanks for those previous saves, Fyber

A new (2) probs:
1) Every 5 minutes or so, a "blank page" will load in my browser, whether it is open or not, and the the system application "explorer.exe" promptly quits. Which results in loss of my toolbar and desktop temporarily.
2) I can't view anything on my toolbar. For example, if I left-click All Programs, it will show for a millisecond and then close. I can right-click and select "Open Folder" to solve this, but it is annoying.

AVG works great, but isn't solving any of the above.
These aren't computer-threatening like my previous error, but are a hindrance.
Any ideas on solution? Thanks in advance.

[FyberOptic]

I'd almost think that you might have been bumping an Internet special key on the keyboard if you hadn't said it was happening on an interval.  Whether there's anything bad left, who knows, but such things are prone to leave crap behind or broken bits which muck things up, even if the bulk of it is gone.  Luckily that's probably the worst of it in your case, because back in like Win98, some spyware would dig itself in to the point that if you removed it impoperly, your internet would completely stop working.  The equivalent of taking out a gear between all the rest.

As for the second, that's pretty strange in general.  Also makes me think some remnant is left and broken.

Honestly, without sitting down and digging through the machine myself, I don't know what to tell you, if there's even much left you could do.  Heck, even if I did dig through it, chances are it's just broken in ways which one would never figure out.  I think it's just about time for a reinstall of Windows.  After having all that junk on there, it's probably best anyway, since it can be nearly impossible to totally rid yourself of it entirely (as likely seen here)  There could even be things left that an antivirus can't detect (like a rootkit). 

If you did reinstall, make sure one of the first things you do is get all the security updates from the Windows Update site before doing anything else on the web.  Particularly if using IE to browse.

Sorry that I don't have a better solution this time around!

[Klowner]

Well if you knew what program was specifically causing such problems one could edit the registry but you don't want to do that unless you know exactly what your doing. I agree with fiber if you had some spy's and got rid of them and still have problems it would be best to do a reinstall of windows and that should restore all the windows component's back to normal. You might have to reinstall some of your programs tho afterwards I usually install avg before getting back on line after a reinstall. Most of your programs will remain if windows 98 except for directx you will have to reinstall it or it want work right. And don't forget to get all the updates from Microsoft first before anything else on line that always helps.   

[Altzan]

My computer belongs on Ripley's believe it or not~!

Yeah, a reinstallation is probably the best option, I'll give it a try soon. I hope Windows registers it as genuine though, it tried to tell me otherwise before.

[Klowner]

My computer belongs on Ripley's believe it or not~!

Yeah, a reinstallation is probably the best option, I'll give it a try soon. I hope Windows registers it as genuine though, it tried to tell me otherwise before.

Yeah I hate that genuine crap I always use the alternative method but after so many downloads it expires and you have to do it again. Some where in Internet Explorer there is a setting to have IE do it automatically I don't know if it works or not tho. Never set it I think it's in advance options.   

[Altzan]

I got it figgered out.
I reinstalled XP and it basically took me to square one. I had more popups and spyware attacks. Then i had a thought: all of these popups come through Internet Explorer, so could I rid of it? Some searching showed that this has been thought of before by Mozilla and Opera loyalists (I belong to the latter). They said it is extremely hard to rid of it without damaging Windows. But never fear! they said; you can disable it with a fancy script. Just input it into a text doc and save it with extension.bat, then run it. You will get IE unable to run! It worked like a charm for me and now I get no popups or spyware. My comp is problem free for now.

Here is the code.

Code: [Select]

@echo off
C:
cd "\Program Files\Internet Explorer"
if not exist IEXPLORE.EXE goto End
if exist IEXPLORE.EX_ del IEXPLORE.EX_
if not exist IEXPLORE.DIR md IEXPLORE.DIR
if not exist IEXPLORE.DIR goto End
attrib -r -h -s IEXPLORE.EXE
ren IEXPLORE.EXE IEXPLORE.EX_
if exist IEXPLORE.EXE goto End
ren IEXPLORE.DIR IEXPLORE.EXE
echo IE disabled.
echo If prompted, click "Cancel" then "Yes" on File Protection restore.
echo Run enable-ie.bat to allow IE to run again.
:End

[FyberOptic]

lol well I guess that's one way to do it.  Keep in mind though that that just stops the browser front-end from running.  The core of the browser is pretty much integrated into the operating system, and normal file browsing Explorer windows are still capable of showing web pages too.  But I guess killing iexplore.exe is enough to take care of some adware.