I used to think I was resonably good with computers, but I give up with this!

With System Restore enabled, AVG gives me the following list of infections;

Trojan Horse Downloader.Small.40.AK
Dropper.Agent.LJ
Downloader.Generic.FTC
Downloader.Generic.EQT
Dropper.Generic.AJH
Clicker.01
Startpage.19.AO
Generic.BXY
Virus I-Worm/Maslan

One more and I get a set of Whiskey tumblers!!!!!!!!!

Symptoms include the 'about:blank' thing, Spybot S&D running VERY slowly, Ad-Aware taking forever to start, blah blah blah.

I started to try and eradicate Startpage by surfinb the net and trying to pick up useful tips, which have resulted in me disabling System Restore, downloading 1-2-3 Spyware (it says it's got rid of everything) and CWShredder (it says there's nothing on my system), and I know get a message during boot up which says "WININIT.EXE missing/unable to load".

I've also followed the advice elsewhere on this site about going to Komando.com, except my 'Trusted sites' list says I haven't got any, and I'm back to square one!

Anyone out there brave/bored enough to try and sort this, or should I just throw the thing out the window?!

Download the trial version of Ewido Security Suite:

http://www.ewido.net/en/download/

· Install Ewido.
· During the installation, under "Additional Options" uncheck "Install background guard" and "Install scan via context menu".
· Launch Ewido.
· It will prompt you to Update click the OK button and it will go to the main screen.
· On the left side of the main screen click Update.
· Click on Start and let it update.

Restart your computer into Safe Mode by restarting your PC and immediately pressing F8 and choosing safe mode.

Run Ewido:

·Click on Scanner
Click on complete system scan
Let the program scan your pc
Click OK when prompted to clean files
With the first file it prompts to clean, select the option - "Perform action on all infections" - & choose remove and click OK.

Let me know what ewidos finds

Also...before booting to SAFE mode, make sure your other virus tools are updated...and also use these if you do not already have them.

SpyWare Blaster
CWShredder.

Run them while in Safe Mode. That makes a big difference.

However, sometimes stuff gets so burrowed in that a reformat and reload is faster than hours of picking through files and registry lines.

Hopefully the scans will do.

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Thanks for your suggestions so far, unfortunately Ewido does not run with Windows ME, and now another problem has come to light........my PC will not start in Safe Mode, either by holding down F8 or Control; another symptom of what's hiding in there?

WindowsME...(Uuugh)

Do you have another computer...or a friend's?

If so...try taking out your drive, install it in that other PC as a slave drive. Also, the computer you install it in needs to have the above mentioned utilites loaded and updated (except maybe for AVG, if they already an updated antivirus program).

Then, scan your drive completely with those tools, included the antivirus, from that PC. It will have a drive letter other than C (e.g. E, F, G, H, etc).

HTH

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