View Full Version : Uhm... Where'd the Start button go?
Drusilla
16th August 2007, 11:30 PM
Not just Start... everything along the bottom of the screen and everything on the desktop as well... just kind of goes 'poof!' randomly. I do know that my idiot little brother tried to download some "free" software over the summer while I was gone, and that's when the adware started popping up. The whole computer seems to be infested with adware and trojans now. Any advise on how to remove it? I keep my own computer well protected, so I don't have to worry about it myself...
My dad's probably going to wipe the harddrive and leave it unplugged for a while to reset all the numbers, but if there's anything I could do in the meantime, I'd appreciate any tips people have. This computer is my only way to get online right now... HELP!
woz
17th August 2007, 10:53 AM
right click on taskbar at the bottom of the screen -> Properties -> uncheck 'Auto-hide the taskbar' -> click OK
Drusilla
17th August 2007, 11:47 AM
The taskbar isn't there, either. Everything is gone. The desktop seems to revert to a mere image for me; nothing that I right-click on responds. Anything that I have minimized disappears, too, as I just found out... This isn't some setting, this is something seriously wrong. I'm thinking that maybe it's a virus, because it's been happening rather constantly when I open up IE (which I hate... I might try to install Firefox on this thing) and try to load TPM. I don't know what effect other sites would have, and I'll probably check that out after I restart here in a few. It's just that when I get online, this is the first place I usually come to.
-/Deathborn/-
18th August 2007, 11:27 AM
First of all, UNINSTALL what your little brother put on. Install Ad-Aware (really good malware finder:the free version finds things a $40 program missed) and do a full scan. It will take a while. Mine took 2 1/2 hours and it found a ton of stuff to get rid of.
If all else fails, system restore to before your brother installed whatever it is he downloaded off the internets.
EDIT: In fact, be as cruel as to unintstall ANYTHING on the Control Panel>Add or Remove Programs page that has not been used in a while and/or serves no purpose except to take up space, and looks suspicous in any way. Update your computer once this is all over. Perferably order an XP SP2 disc from Microsoft.
Powered by vBulletin® Version 4.2.2 Copyright © 2024 vBulletin Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved.