Hello, everyone. I have just resolved a crppy problem I had. Taskmanager would disappear, and icon would remain in systray until mouse was pointed at it. Then it too would disappear. Also, I could not get into regedit. Well, downloaded prcview.exe, a freeware utility for viewing running processes. Found a booboo process called: EXPLORES.exe. Well, when I killed the process, all was well again. Unfortunately, I killed it before I traced its source. Dang me. I have been kiking myself very hard for this, as a command line utility comes with prcview.exe that allows you to trace running processes. I did a scan of my registry with hijackthis.exe, and the following is the log. I am having troubles with it, as it looks like a completely diferent language to me. Can anyone here give me a clue? Any help would be very apreciated. Running processes: C:\WINDOWS\System32\smss.exe C:\WINDOWS\system32\winlogon.exe C:\WINDOWS\system32\services.exe C:\WINDOWS\system32\lsass.exe C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost.exe C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe C:\WINDOWS\system32\spoolsv.exe C:\WINDOWS\Explorer.exe C:\WINDOWS\System32\pctspk.exe C:\WINDOWS\System32\ctfmon.exe C:\PROGRA~1\Grisoft\AVG6\avgserv.exe C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\VS7Debug\mdm.exe C:\WINDOWS\system32\pavsrv.exe C:\WINDOWS\System32\AVENGINE.exe C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe C:\Documents and Settings\Half Gallon\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5\NCCV2HRX\PrcView[1]\PrcView.exe C:\Documents and Settings\Half Gallon\Desktop\HijackThis.exe R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings,ProxyServer = 12-226-231-10.client.attbi.com:80 O2 - BHO: (no name) - {06849E9F-C8D7-4D59-B87D-784B7D6BE0B3} - C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 6.0\Reader\ActiveX\AcroIEHelper.dll O3 - Toolbar: &Radio - {8E718888-423F-11D2-876E-00A0C9082467} - C:\WINDOWS\System32\msdxm.ocx O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [PCTVOICE] pctspk.exe O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [windows auto update] msblast.exe O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [AVG_CC] C:\Program Files\Grisoft\AVG6\avgcc32.exe /startup O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Microsoft Tray] C:\My Shared Folder\Games.exe O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Winsock2 driver] EXPLORES.exe O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [APVXDWIN] "C:\Program Files\Panda Software\Panda Antivirus Titanium\APVXDWIN.exe" /s O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [MSMSGS] "C:\Program Files\Messenger\msmsgs.exe" /background O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [ctfmon.exe] C:\WINDOWS\System32\ctfmon.exe O4 - HKCU\..\RunOnce: [Winsock2 driver] EXPLORES.exe O4 - Global Startup: Microsoft Office.lnk = C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office10\OSA.exe O8 - Extra context menu item: E&xport to Microsoft Excel - res://C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~2\Office10\EXCEL.EXE/3000 O9 - Extra button: AIM (HKLM) O9 - Extra button: Related (HKLM) O9 - Extra 'Tools' menuitem: Show &Related Links (HKLM) O16 - DPF: {9A9307A0-7DA4-4DAF-B042-5009F29E09E1} (ActiveScan Installer Class) - http://www.pandasoftware.com/activescan/as5/asinst.cab O16 - DPF: {9F1C11AA-197B-4942-BA54-47A8489BB47F} (Update Class) - http://v4.windowsupdate.microsoft.com/CAB/x86/unicode/iuctl.CAB?37844.8213194444 O16 - DPF: {D27CDB6E-AE6D-11CF-96B8-444553540000} (Shockwave Flash Object) - http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab O17 - HKLM\System\CCS\Services\Tcpip\..\{2D5A6919-DDF0-49E3-9BB1-5392D6A065AE}: NameServer = 209.244.0.3 209.244.0.4 Computing.net rocks. ---HG---

You have 2 viruses.. W32.Blaster.worm and W32.Spybot.worm Download and run the Blaster removal tool from here: http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.blaster.worm.removal.tool.html And install the MS patch: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/security/bulletin/MS03-026.asp To remove W32.Spybot, Boot into safe mode and run HT again. Place a check in the box next to the following entries and click fix checked. O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [windows auto update] msblast.exe O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Microsoft Tray] C:\My Shared Folder\Games.exe O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Winsock2 driver] EXPLORES.exe O4 - HKCU\..\RunOnce: [Winsock2 driver] EXPLORES.exe Delete the following files: Games.exe EXPLORES.EXE Reboot to Windows.

Hello, Tom41. Thank you very much for your help. I did all that you said. This is what happened: I downloaded the blaster removal tool. I was given the message that I wasn't infected. (I'm still scratching my head over that one, as I know that--sometime in the past few weeks--I have seen a process running that was called 'msblast'.) I downloaded and installed the patch from microsoft. Rebooted into safemode and ran HT. Checked only two of the reg entries, as they were the only ones still present. They were: 04-HKLM.....Games.exe 04-HK**......EXPLORES.EXE Could not find the one for msblast.exe or the other one that ends in 'EXPLORES.EXE'. I will later go into regedit and very carefully look for/delete those entries if still present, as HT did not pick them up the last couple of go rounds. I found and deleted 3 files called 'games.*' (.exe, .inf, and I can't remember the other extnsion.) I could not find explores.exe . My system is not backed up, system restore not enabled, but after doing all of this, I noticed that there are now 2 new backup files on my desktop. They are small (one is 66bytes;4k on disk. The other is 66bytes; 4k on disk.) Does this sound odd? I haven't the foggiest. The following is my new HT scan: Logfile of HijackThis v1.96.4 Scan saved at 9:36:36 AM, on 9/4/2003 Platform: Windows XP SP1 (WinNT 5.01.2600) MSIE: Internet Explorer v6.00 SP1 (6.00.2800.1106) Running processes: C:\WINDOWS\System32\smss.exe C:\WINDOWS\system32\winlogon.exe C:\WINDOWS\system32\services.exe C:\WINDOWS\system32\lsass.exe C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost.exe C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe C:\WINDOWS\Explorer.exe C:\WINDOWS\system32\spoolsv.exe C:\WINDOWS\System32\pctspk.exe C:\Program Files\Grisoft\AVG6\avgcc32.exe C:\Program Files\Panda Software\Panda Antivirus Titanium\APVXDWIN.exe C:\Program Files\Messenger\msmsgs.exe C:\WINDOWS\System32\ctfmon.exe C:\PROGRA~1\Grisoft\AVG6\avgserv.exe C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\VS7Debug\mdm.exe C:\WINDOWS\system32\pavsrv.exe C:\WINDOWS\System32\AVENGINE.exe C:\Program Files\Panda Software\Panda Antivirus Titanium\pavProxy.exe C:\Documents and Settings\Half Gallon\Desktop\HijackThis.exe R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings,ProxyServer = 12-226-231-10.client.attbi.com:80 O2 - BHO: (no name) - {06849E9F-C8D7-4D59-B87D-784B7D6BE0B3} - C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 6.0\Reader\ActiveX\AcroIEHelper.dll O3 - Toolbar: &Radio - {8E718888-423F-11D2-876E-00A0C9082467} - C:\WINDOWS\System32\msdxm.ocx O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [PCTVOICE] pctspk.exe O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [AVG_CC] C:\Program Files\Grisoft\AVG6\avgcc32.exe /startup O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [APVXDWIN] "C:\Program Files\Panda Software\Panda Antivirus Titanium\APVXDWIN.exe" /s O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [MSMSGS] "C:\Program Files\Messenger\msmsgs.exe" /background O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [ctfmon.exe] C:\WINDOWS\System32\ctfmon.exe O4 - Global Startup: Microsoft Office.lnk = C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office10\OSA.exe O8 - Extra context menu item: E&xport to Microsoft Excel - res://C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~2\Office10\EXCEL.EXE/3000 O9 - Extra button: AIM (HKLM) O9 - Extra button: Related (HKLM) O9 - Extra 'Tools' menuitem: Show &Related Links (HKLM) O16 - DPF: {9A9307A0-7DA4-4DAF-B042-5009F29E09E1} (ActiveScan Installer Class) - http://www.pandasoftware.com/activescan/as5/asinst.cab O16 - DPF: {9F1C11AA-197B-4942-BA54-47A8489BB47F} (Update Class) - http://v4.windowsupdate.microsoft.com/CAB/x86/unicode/iuctl.CAB?37844.8213194444 O16 - DPF: {D27CDB6E-AE6D-11CF-96B8-444553540000} (Shockwave Flash Object) - http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab I don't know if it is clean now, but it is certainly much cleaner now, thanks to your kind help. Thank you, Tom. Be well. --Half Gallon--

It's clean... Those two backup files are from HijackThis, you can delete them. The Symantec tool must have removed the Blaster registry entry.