okay so here is the deal. something happened with my computer, and I know I have a virus now. I have spent 3 days trying to get rid of it but so far it has just been hopeless. When I hit Ctrl + Alt + Delete, the task manager pops up and then just disappears. If I go to START | RUN | msconfig, it doesn't even run. If I go to START | RUN | regedit or even regedt32, the window will pop up and disappear short after. I've searched everywhere about how to fix this, but I have just run out of options. I guess I was just wondering if anybody that knew what was wrong would be kind enough to give me some help? Thanks a lot!

Click Me Go to the bottom of the page and download HiJackThis. Post the log file in the Security/Virus Forum. DO NOT post it on the XP Forum. KTTD

If you go into c:\windows\system32, you should find a file named taskmgr.exe, copy this file to your desktop. Rename it to whatever you want, then double click on it and it should run. Close down the virus and see if you cant run msconfig (close down everthing under your name except for explorer). If you are still unable to run msconfig, boot into safe mode, (pressing f8 I believe on boot) run msconfig, and under startup, deselect everything, b/c most likely one of those is the virus when you boot up normally. Get an updated antivirus, scan and remove the virus. You can do the same for regedit, just copy and rename the file to desktop and it should run. When I had this virus, it did the same thing, just once you rename it, it wont close it anymore.

You have a virus. Probably the Xenosbot virus. Go to Norton's homepage. I think they have a step by step tutorial on what registry keys to look for. I used an online virus scanner to find mine. I think I used Trendmico's site. You can also download AVG antivirus scanner for Free at www.grisoft.com. Good Luck.

Norton or McAfee should have cleaned it. If you have Norton (not sure about McAfee) you can boot with the Norton Utilites disc and have it run a scan. You could also try booting in Safe Mode by tapping the F8 button while loading. This may allow you to get to your msconfig. Sounds like you have one of the Klez viruses see if you can get the cleaner at Symantec.

There are many different viruses that will cause your problems. One other thing you can try is this. Press Ctrl-Shift-Esc as if you where doing Ctrl-Alt-Del and it should force Task Manager to open. You then might be able to see what is causing the problem. How I normally resolve your type of issues by placing the HDD in another system as a slave and removing the virus(es) that way. KTTD

I had this problem too, After extensive search and much head scratching I found that the problem was the process: svshosts.exe (not svchost.exe : notice the s) That is a worm spread through IRC channels. As said earlier, go to %windir%\system32 and should be able to find taskmgr.exe, copy it to the desktop and rename to something else (e.g task.exe), run it and use to end process svchosts.exe Use msconfig to uncheck it from the startup list, then search your computer for every instance of svchosts.exe and remove them.