Can't log in to WindowsXP

Mutant_Fruit · 06-09-2005 5:00pm #1

Had a bit of spyware on the computer (one of the family got it on :rolleyes:) and so i spent a few hours getting rid of the b*****d. So after getting rid of the bugger, i rebooted my computer. But it won't get past the login screen now!

I can type in the password.. it begins to log in, but it almost immediately cancels the login, and puts me back to the login screen again. Does the WindowsXP disc have a repair option, or is there any way to repair the installation as opposed to a format/reinstall.

I'm hoping to avoid the format/reinstall option because then i'll have to ring M$ for the feckin activation, and thats hassle i'd prefer not to do.

Velcrow · 06-09-2005 5:04pm

Yes xp does have a repair option.

Last time I used it it had the effect of messing up the user profile and with it the user setting e.g when you log on it will be like a new user...

yeah - ms and their activation....

But to be fair they are ver good on the phone

davmigil · 06-09-2005 5:06pm

Two things to try:

1. Press CTRL-ALT-DEL twice and log in as administrator
2. Start up in safe mode ( Press [F8] -- I think, correct me if I'm wrong) and try it from there

Mutant_Fruit · 06-09-2005 6:28pm

davmigil wrote:

Two things to try:

1. Press CTRL-ALT-DEL twice and log in as administrator
2. Start up in safe mode ( Press [F8] -- I think, correct me if I'm wrong) and try it from there

I can't log in as normal profile OR admin profile when i go into safe mode, i already gave that a shot. Its possible that i deleted a needed file when i was clearing the spyware, but i can't remember what i deleted now :P (I'm fairly good at this, so removing a needed file accidently is not a likely thing to have happened).

Is there a known virus type thing that auto-logs people out?

Wandering Dazed · 06-09-2005 6:48pm

These any use?:

http://www.lavasofthelp.com/articles/v6/04/06/0901.html

http://www.winxptutor.com/wsaremove.htm

Mutant_Fruit · 06-09-2005 7:48pm

While i didn't have that particular spyware, those links did give me an idea. I searched around for the wsaupdater thingy, which i didn't have. So rather than waste some good advice, i just copied the userinit.exe from my windows disc to replace the existing userinit.exe on my computer. Now it logs in again. Still one or two things left to quash i think.

Thanks for the help.

Mutant_Fruit · 06-09-2005 9:52pm

Right... login problem solved. But i still have "PSGuard Anti-Spyware" (no, it ISN'T an anti-spyware program) loading up automagically every time internet explorer starts up.

I've tried spybot and adaware. Also tried manually removing all references to the files from my harddrive and registry, but to no avail. I've tried searching around the net for a fix that actually works, but after trying two more fixes, the bugger is still there.

Has anyone here gotten this, and if so, how did ye remove it? Its driving me demented!

Sully · 06-09-2005 10:49pm

Im guessing that its only an Internet Explorer problem? Have you tried using HijackThis - its a program developed to remove Internet Explorer Hijacking which seems to be what you have (or near to it). Id give u the link but the results Google are giving me dont seem to give me the offical site so I cant verify those other links.

Iv done a tutorial on manually removing Spyware (http://www.thenet2k.com/forums/index.php?act=tutorials&CODE=03&id=41) which may be of help to ya.

aaf · 06-09-2005 10:59pm

Also try RegCleaner but make sure you know what you're deleting before you do. You can delete startup programs from there aswell.

smeggle · 06-09-2005 11:06pm

Sully04 wrote:

Im guessing that its only an Internet Explorer problem? Have you tried using HijackThis - its a program developed to remove Internet Explorer Hijacking which seems to be what you have (or near to it). Id give u the link but the results Google are giving me dont seem to give me the offical site so I cant verify those other links.

Iv done a tutorial on manually removing Spyware (http://www.thenet2k.com/forums/index.php?act=tutorials&CODE=03&id=41) which may be of help to ya.

you can get hijack this over at www.lurkhere.com - let the page load and click the 'Nice Files' link in the top left corner of page. Few other nice tools in there as well. I'd advice any new user to post a copy of the log file first for advice on just what to remove. You can seriously bork I.E. if you remove the wrong thing and re-installing back ups won't allways work.

edit: comment on i.e. removed due to moderator request

Apoligies - thought that only applied to Linux/os x stuff

Sully · 06-09-2005 11:09pm

smeggle wrote:

switch browsers to Firefox or Opera - far less likelyhood of getting hijacked in the first place. Only thing I.E. is good for is ms updates other than that it's a piece of junk - allways has been - allways will be imho...

Have you not read the forum charter? You get banned for saying that here. Id remove it if I were you..

Charter! wrote:

Unhelpful comments (e.g. "switch to linux" when encountering a windows problem) will result in a one day ban.

smeggle · 06-09-2005 11:34pm

oh yeah btw don't forget that option when you boot to safe mode 'Start From Last Known good Configuration'. Will get you out of a heck of a lot of problems. very handy option in xp

greglo23 · 06-09-2005 11:50pm

remember that you must turn off system restore before deleting any spyware or virii because they hide themselves in the protected system folder. go to system properties, system restore, turn off system restore on all drives. when you finally get rid of your problem turn system restore back on again. hope this helps.

Mutant_Fruit · 07-09-2005 8:18am

System restore is one of the first things i disable after reinstalling windows, so thats off.

I do use firefox, but unfortunately its a family PC, and other people occasionally try to decide that IE really is better, and we end up with some kind of s**t stuch on the computer. This happened before, and i had to reinstall windows to get rid of the spyware. This time they can live with it for a few weeks.

I've never had to use hijackthis before, but i'll give it a shot. I know theres a site somewhere that has "experts" on it. I'll go searching for that. I'll pop my log up there and see what they say.

I've also gone through the startup programs in the registry and msconfig and disabled all dodgy looking ones (i.e. ones that i don't know what they are). But this ain't a startup program by the looks of things. Its latched itself on to IE pretty tightly.

Mutant_Fruit · 07-09-2005 3:13pm

Rightio then... i've managed to disable and remove all DLL's relating to the spyware. Its done and dusted. However, theres a (minor) problem left. Really, i couldn't care if it gets fixed or not...

IE won't start up anymore. I'm assuming the malware replaced an IE dll with one of its own that made sure that the malware was started every time IE started, and now that i've removed those dastardly DLL's, IE crashes every time it tries to load it.

So what i need to do is to reinstall IE6 (or is there a beta of IE7 out?) in order to replace the old DLL's with fresh copies from the installer. Is it possible to do this on Windows XP Pro?

greglo23 · 07-09-2005 3:58pm

Mutant_Fruit wrote:

Rightio then... i've managed to disable and remove all DLL's relating to the spyware. Its done and dusted. However, theres a (minor) problem left. Really, i couldn't care if it gets fixed or not...

IE won't start up anymore. I'm assuming the malware replaced an IE dll with one of its own that made sure that the malware was started every time IE started, and now that i've removed those dastardly DLL's, IE crashes every time it tries to load it.

So what i need to do is to reinstall IE6 (or is there a beta of IE7 out?) in order to replace the old DLL's with fresh copies from the installer. Is it possible to do this on Windows XP Pro?

see here http://www.theeldergeek.com/repair_reinstall_ie_and_oe_6.htm

2 handy tools you could also use are spywareblaster and spywareguard. see here http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/

Mutant_Fruit · 07-09-2005 5:36pm

Perfect. I ran the SFC command, and now everything is hunky dorey once again. The only thing is i'm begining to question my judgement... was it really a good idea to make IE work again? Probably not....

On a more forum-wide note, i think that suggesting that people use a NON-MS browser is a damn good one. Its not like suggesting that someone should change to linux because they don't know how to get OE to register a new email account. Its just that currently, any non-microsoft browser is 10x less likely to automagically pick up crap from the net.

Of course, nothing is a substitute for knowing what you're doing, and not blindly clicking "install" to every popup that appears.

Thanks for the help.

Thomas_S_Hunterson · 07-09-2005 5:43pm

Justfor your information, AFAIK, the repair option in XP requiresyou to re-activate it once its done. As far as i know, all ifeffectively doesis rewrite the windows folder

greglo23 · 07-09-2005 6:00pm

if you use spywareblaster it puts a killbit in ie and firefox which block any spyware being installed on your computer. it also puts a list of blocked sites in ie. spywarelaster is regularly updated. spywareguard stops any bho's (browser helper objects ) installing themselves without your permission.

blorg · 07-09-2005 6:15pm

Definately stop using IE and start using Opera or Firefox instead. This is ridiculously easy to do, nothing like saying 'switch to Linux'.

Sully · 07-09-2005 11:24pm

Blorg: Its not that easy to switch "non-computer-good-people" to a browser there not used to using. I know all the problem with using IE but if people still want to use it, then we gotta work a way around fixing the problems it creates without saying "Move browsers".

Trust me on that!

Mutant_Fruit; Anyway. Glad you got it sorted and I understand your fustration regarding family PC and they gotta use IE. I tried introducing Firefox to the family but it didnt work out (some sites wouldnt work with it, didnt want to switch to a new program etc etc) so I did something else instead. I set up AVG Virus Scanner and Microsofts AntiSpyware Scanner (MS haters - dont dis the product. It is pretty good!) and set them up to do a scan every night at 2AM. MS Anti Spyware runs in the background like most virus scanners so will stop / prevent most of the Spyware coming in from IE and any other application as your family uses the PC (real time 24hr protection).

If IE has to be re-installed to fix a problem, go ahead. I would stick with IE6 for the moment however - Im using IE7 Beta and its got a horrible design, problems with Windows Updates not working with IE7 Beta and other issues - so my personal recommendation is: Dont switch to IE7 just yet!

And "Switch to FireFox" etc. comments aint that helpful. Some people simply dont want to switch to another browser and we should try work around it if possible

Hope all is sorted!

blorg · 08-09-2005 8:11am

Sully04 wrote:

Blorg: Its not that easy to switch "non-computer-good-people" to a browser there not used to using. I know all the problem with using IE but if people still want to use it, then we gotta work a way around fixing the problems it creates without saying "Move browsers". Trust me on that!

And "Switch to FireFox" etc. comments aint that helpful. Some people simply dont want to switch to another browser and we should try work around it if possible

Point is, it is a lot _simpler_ and _easier_ for all concerned to simply switch to Opera or Firefox, when the alternative is to seek out install and configure a whole load of anti-spyware stuff. www.getfirefox.com or www.opera.com, click on the big 'download' link and you are done. They will both import all your bookmarks. Have used Opera myself for the last five years or so and these days there are very few sites that don't work with it, so that's not much of a problem. If anything I believe Firefox is even more compatible. And IE is still there for when I need it.

"Non-computer-good-people" are unlikely to be using many advanced browser features anyway, and the basics are all the same in all three browsers (e.g. they all have a URL box, bookmarks menu, back/forward/stop/refresh/home buttons - what else do you need?) You can even skin them so they look entirely like IE if you want.

Can't log in to WindowsXP

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