Very few of my programs/applications are working (as of yesterday). The program icons and names appear on both the start menu and when I run a search for them, but they fail to open (almost universally) when I click on them. However, I am able to access Excel, Word, etc. documents that are saved under "My Files" or "My Documents." These problems coincided with the appearance of a program ("Hotporn")that resets the home page from the default page when a website can't be located (also has a redialer function). I downloaded both HijackThis and CWShredder to remove it, but am unable to open either one of them. I still have access to Internet Explorer, but not much else. (1) Are these problems related? (2) How do I fix them? Thanks for your much-needed help. Scott

I'm not sure if they are related or not, but the first problem sounds a lot like a virus that disassociates exe files from their applications, meaning you can't run much. You said you've run shredder and hijack, but don't say wether or not you've run a virus scan. As for "Hotporn" , I've never heard of it and a Google search only turns up lots of "Hot Porn". Have you tried Ad-aware? it sometimes picks up on things that shredder and hijack don't.

Hi Guys, I have a similar problem to yours. Whenever I start my PC only basic programs will open I have to wait for 5 minutes before I can use anything else. Here is a temporary fix I used that might work for you. Go start>run and type in msconfig, in msconfig click on the services tab then click disable all. You might want to enable themes to keep your taskbar looking normal until you find the proper fix. This worked well for me but it stuffed up my spell checker. I don’t have any virus protectors so I'm not sure how it affects them but if your virus software is in the services tab you might want to enable that too. When you fix it properly enable all your stuff by following the same steps but clicking enable all. Mattwizz3

"Cool Web Search" is the actual name of the program (HotPorn is just one of the associated files/folders). I can't even run a program from the Start>Run line. I did download an updated version of Norton Antivirus, but can't open that either. Should I purchase a CD of Norton and try using that? Do I have to reload the OS and the browser, or is there an easier fix? Thanks.

You can try running SFC /SCANNOW from the Start menu, if it'll execute. That will scan and repair all windows files, hopefully sorting the problem. If you can't get it to run from the Start menu, then you can boot to your Xp cd and run a repair that way (you have to go through a few options as if you were doing a fresh install, the option to repair comes up after you select the drive/partition Xp is ALREADY on).

I was able to download an .exe file association fix from DougKnox.com. It seems to have worked (Thanks, Doug!)I was able to run HijackThis and have attached the log file. Does anything in it look suspect? Thanks. Logfile of HijackThis v1.97.3 Scan saved at 11:23:10 AM, on 10/20/2003 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:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\ccSetMgr.exe C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\ccEvtMgr.exe C:\WINDOWS\Explorer.exe C:\WINDOWS\system32\spoolsv.exe C:\Program Files\Norton AntiVirus\navapsvc.exe C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\CCPD-LC\symlcsvc.exe C:\Program Files\QuickTime\qttask.exe C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\ccApp.exe C:\Program Files\Messenger\msmsgs.exe C:\Program Files\ashampoo\Ashampoo UnInstaller Suite\UIWatcher.exe C:\Program Files\Norton AntiVirus\SAVScan.exe C:\WINDOWS\System32\wuauclt.exe C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\HijackThis.exe R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer,SearchURL = http:/// R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Search Bar = http:/// R0 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Start Page = http://finance.yahoo.com/? R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,HomeOldSP = http://xwebsearch.biz/ O2 - BHO: (no name) - {06849E9F-C8D7-4D59-B87D-784B7D6BE0B3} - C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 5.0\Reader\ActiveX\AcroIEHelper.ocx O2 - BHO: HTML Source Editor - {086AE192-23A6-48D6-96EC-715F53797E85} - C:\WINDOWS\System32\DReplace.dll O2 - BHO: (no name) - {9527D42F-D666-11D3-B8DD-00600838CD5F} - (no file) O2 - BHO: NAV Helper - {BDF3E430-B101-42AD-A544-FADC6B084872} - C:\Program Files\Norton AntiVirus\NavShExt.dll O3 - Toolbar: &Radio - {8E718888-423F-11D2-876E-00A0C9082467} - C:\WINDOWS\System32\msdxm.ocx O3 - Toolbar: Norton AntiVirus - {42CDD1BF-3FFB-4238-8AD1-7859DF00B1D6} - C:\Program Files\Norton AntiVirus\NavShExt.dll O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [IgfxTray] C:\WINDOWS\System32\igfxtray.exe O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [QuickTime Task] "C:\Program Files\QuickTime\qttask.exe" -atboottime O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [ccApp] "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\ccApp.exe" O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [MSMSGS] "C:\Program Files\Messenger\msmsgs.exe" /background O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [UIWatcher] C:\Program Files\ashampoo\Ashampoo UnInstaller Suite\UIWatcher.exe O4 - Global Startup: Microsoft Office.lnk = C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\OSA9.exe O9 - Extra button: Messenger (HKLM) O9 - Extra 'Tools' menuitem: Windows Messenger (HKLM) O12 - Plugin for .spop: C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\Plugins\NPDocBox.dll O15 - Trusted Zone: *.waitsex.com O16 - DPF: {544EB377-350A-4295-9BEB-EAB8392E09C6} - http://fdl.msn.com/public/investor/v13/invinstl.exe O17 - HKLM\System\CCS\Services\Tcpip\..\{80DC1513-6850-4

Also ran SpyBot, but for non-existent web pages, I'm still being redirected to a porn search site (identified as "Cool Web Search" in Task Manager), rather than the default page for Explorer. Any ideas on what I should do now? Thanks. Scott