I have a virus on my computer. I'm going to give you the whole story in hopes that some minute detail will give someone a clue. It started awhile back when I noticed on my desktop that pornographic links would pop up on my desktop whenever I started Windows. I would delete them, but as soon as I started Windows again, they would come back. Another weird problem was that I noticed that Internet Explorer was always open in task manager, even if I didn't have an IE page open, and was usually on the top of the memory usage list. And if I tried to end process, Windows would freeze. So I kinda shrugged it off, hoping it would magically fix itself or something (big mistake). My computer eventually got so bad that the first thing you did when Windows opened would cause the computer to freeze. So I decided to just reformat and start fresh. I inserted the XP reinstall cd that came with my (Dell) computer and pressed F8 on startup to boot from disk. I deleted the partition that Windows was on, and created a new. I installed Windows, and things seemed to be going fine for awhile. Then, after I installed Norton 2002 it started detecting traces of the virus Win32.Parite. I noticed that IE seemed to be infected again, as it was doing the same thing in task manager (though the pornographic links weren't popping up). So I did some research on the virus and found a link to manual removal instructions from Symantec (on this forum actually), and did as instructed. It told me to deactivate system restore and delete a certain file from my registry, which I did. I also downloaded a removal tool from pandasoftware. Neither of these two ideas seemed to work as a little bit later I checked the registry, and the pinf file I was told to delete from the registry was back, and Norton was still detecting traces of the file all over the place. I want to know how it is that it can survive through a complete reformat, and how I can get rid of it! Please note that any ideas of ridding this problem would help, including involving another reformat; I have already lost all my files from the first one. At this point it's more of a salvage mission than a rescue mission.

Most likely you are getting re-infected through the Internet. "They" have your IP address. Do the format/Install with the Internet connection disconnected, as in unplug the cable from the system. Then enable XP's built in Firewall before connecting to the Internet the first time (it is disabled by default = dumb).

Do what you can before connecting, including installing the Nortons AV if you can. Then, connect to the Internet, update your AV first and then go to the Windows UpDate site and install all of the Windows XP updates.

The objective is to get the firewall enabled, your AV running and the Windows Updates done before the Worms on the Internet can infect your system again. And that can happen very quickly. The updates are required to block some of these threats.

Ohhh, I didn't even think that the reason I got reinfected was through the internet. The thing is, I just got cable the day before I reformatted, so I wasn't in the broadband mindstate. That is a good idea though, thanks for the help. I will try that soon, so keep your fingers crossed! But in case this doesn't work, does anyone else have a second opinion?