Computer froze, and after a restart, Ad-Watch (it comes with Ad Aware) has many pop ups of something attempting to modify the registry. Naturally, I block all. Also, Spyware Guard is having pop ups of something trying to change my IE settings- says my search page has been changed and asking if I want to restore the old value or keep new value. Also, during this mess of pop ups and freezes I notice all my desktop icons and Start menu icons have changed to .ink and are no longer recognized by Windows (this prompts the "what do I open this with" Windows pop up each time). So I have since googled around looking for a solution. I have browsed several posts from this site (all from late '05 btw, so maybe old news or something). So I tried the few downloadable fixes I came across. These being the following files from a couple different fix site: xp_exe_fix.reg and linkfile_fix.reg. I followed all the instructions perfectly from previous posts of getting my crippled machine to run both of these with regedit.exe. And it seems to have temporarily helped- all my desktop shortcuts and Start menu items are recognized by Windows but I am still having a couple of issues. Every time I restart (since the begining of this dilema), I get a pop up with an 'OK' button during the black screen that is between the Dell reboot screen and the blue Windows XP Startup screen. The pop up is empty except for a couple of random characters at the top. usually a letter and two squares (the font character that is a square or rectangle). Also I am still getting the pop up from Spyware Guard about attempted change to IE and its search page. AND now each time I reboot, none of the apps I have set to run on start up are starting, this now includes Ad Watch, Ad Aware, and a few others- none are starting. SO... I am begining to wonder if the .ink thing is merely a symptom of a greater underlying problem. ANY help or advice is appreciated as I seem to be taking this issue a little further than I was able to uncover in older posts. P.S., My virus/spyware scanners haven't found aything to my knowledge. Ad Aware, Spy Sweeper, and AntiVir- I also have Sygate firewall. Please help! Thanks in advance!!!

If that were my computer I would do the following:
1) Run msconfig and disable everything under the startup tab.
2) Run regedit and go to HKLM, Software, Microsoft, Windows, CurrentVersion, Run
You might find something in there that doesn't belong. Delete it if you do.
3) Look in the event viewer
4) Uncheck automatic reboot under startup and recovery in system properties.
5) Open a command prompt and run
netstat -an
Look for any strange connections.
6) Possibly do a restore point.

don2006,
Thanks for the advice. I went to the startup tab in msconfig and the few items checked were all apps that were ok and should be running @ startup- nothing fishy here.

Went to regedit path you specified and in the Run folder is a single folder called OptionalComponents containing the following folders: IMAIL, MAPI and MSFS. I have no idea if any of this is good/bad or whatever (including the files/values within these folders), but this is what is in that location.

Also checked the event viewer and saw nothing amiss. Then again, I'm not entirely sure of what to be looking for, or if the data shown is indicating something wrong.

The auto reboot was already unchecked when I went to it.

Ran netstat in command prompt and it is still spitting out a long list of TCP connection stuff that I am completely unfamiliar with (so again, I am in the dark if something bad is going on here).

And I forgot to mention in my first post I did a system restore to the previous day and I thought I had solved the problem (this was before I used the xp_exe_fix.reg and linkfile_fix.reg). But soon after rebooting, I saw the problem was back with no change, so apparently system restore did nothing. I also have HijackThis! if it could be of any use to me.

Thanks!

Just rebooted and here's my current status: still getting that empty 'OK' pop up right before the blue XP welcome screen (empty except for those couple of characters I previously mentioned).

Still no start up apps are starting up except SpywareGuard and now Spy Sweeper (there should be others).

Also still getting the SpywareGuard pop up window saying something is trying to modify my IE settings and to restore or keep new value.

Another thing I noticed when I went to msconfig, under the General tab I have Selective Startup checked. It has been this way since you recommended I check it. Should it be on Normal Startup? I am unaware of any previous settings for this and a little unclear on why it would on anything other than the Normal setting.

Thanks in advance to anyone who can provide me any help/advice!

'Selective Startup' is normal if you've unchecked items to prevent them from loading (hence the 'selective' part). 'Normal' enables everything there to load

Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie!'... till you can find a rock

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"'Selective Startup' is normal"

Poor choice of words on my part - - 'Selective Startup' is to be expected if you've unchecked items

Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie!'... till you can find a rock

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I hav the exact same problem happening to my machine. But there is an additional associated problem. The LCD screen of my laptop goes totally blank after some time. Its preceeded by a weird flickr and visual noise (lots of black dots) and the LCDD just dies.

I even reinstalled windows and Service pack 2 for XP, but the problem remains.

Please help.