I have an older Dell Windows ME system my kids use. They were having trouble with it, so we went to shut down and restart, and it hung. Forcing the shutdown, when it restarted we got the Windows splash page followed by a message about installing Windows ME and asking for my product code. Any idea what happened here? What is my next step as I'd like to be able to save the files stored on the system.

Thanks,
Dave

lol are you sure your kids didn't insert the cd of windows me thinking it was a game and click on intall windows me and didn't know what else to do when they got to the product code so they just turn it off well your data will still be on your hardrive if you didn't format the hardrive just put in the code of the cd of windows me and click next and its fixed. Unfortunately if you lost your key/code i cant tell you here how to get it back.

Mess with the best, die like the rest!!!!

if you did not try to reinstall OS then you might have a virus.

No, the Windows CD was not accessed.

Virus protection was on and current, so I'd think it was unlikely. Pest Patrol was also functioning.

Ya, it's a virus. Unfortunately none of the virus trackers seem know about it.

If you could restore a previous version of the registry ...

Best

It is most definitely an infestation. Download the usual spyware/adware/virus /trojan scanners and fix your system.

You can avoid many of these Windows problems with Linux. Linspire eases the transition for new users

It is most definitely an infestation. Download the usual spyware/adware/virus /trojan scanners and fix your system.

You can avoid many of these Windows problems with Linux. Linspire eases the transition for new users