Hey guys, ive acquired an unknown virus that wont allow me to open any programs in my computer. It prevented my access to the internet, control panel,evrything. the virus changed all my files to .lnk(?) and the only icon on the bottom right of my toolbar is a star. ive lost all my icons in my toolbar. Is there any other way i can get rid of the virus? if that doesnt help how do i reformat my laptop?

If you have an antivirus and spyware program installed, tap the f8 key at startup and go into safe mode. Run the programs from there. Before you scan the computer, turn off system restore points. Virus's will hide themselves in certain windows files and by turning off system restore, you will prevent them from returning when you go back into windows.

the thing is i cant reboot my laptop to safemode. everytime i choose safe mode some multidisk(0)..partition1..system32...blahblah scrolls up and then blue screen real fast and then back to choices safe mode, safe mode with networking, safe mode with command prompt. i managed to find my way to get through the internet. so now i have internet access but really slow.is there any other way? i installed AVG virus remover to try and hopefully get lucky and removes the virus. your help is much appreciated. i dont know whats wrong and what im doing wrong.

If you have restore disks that came with the laptop, use those to restore it to it's original state. Some laptops ask you to make restore disks when you first used it. Did you make the disks. If so, use those.