After I create a text doc with notepad the little icons do not look like they used to...you know, like little flip pads. They look totally different now, and I did not change the file associations. Also the context menu no longer contains 'create new>text document. I'm running an avast virus scan now. I looked in the file associations ant the .TXT extension is not present but I can still create text documents. The original notepad icon is there as a program to open other programs. AMD 64x2 4000+ ASUS M2N-E Mobo w/ ultra nforce 570 Arctic Cooling 64 Freezer Pro HS/F w/as5 4GIG of Crucial DDR2 800 6400 2gig x 2 2 SATAII WD 80gig Hard drives 8Mb cache 2 SATA DVD

Try this: Right click a TXT file > select 'Open With' > Choose Program > browse to C:\windows\Notepad.exe and select it. Select the 'Always use the selected program to open this kind of file'.

That's the first I done after noticing this, it didn't fix it so after that I went right to windows explorer > Tools > Folder Options > File Types tab, and the 'Text Document' entry is there with the proper icon so I click the 'change' button just to see what comes-up and it shows the right notepad icon too..., you know the normal turquoise, flip pad icon. That icon is what used to show everywhere else...win explorer, my documents...now it's different but still functions. I do not do windows update and I just noticed that the 'Briefcase' icon on the context menu has changed it's appearance also. My Avast AV scan is clean and real time monitoring is on and set to high, but this is weird. The main concern is that the option to create text documents has disappeared from my right-click context menu though I can create them under the Start button. AMD 64x2 4000+ ASUS M2N-E Mobo w/ ultra nforce 570 Arctic Cooling 64 Freezer Pro HS/F w/as5 4GIG of Crucial DDR2 800 6400 2gig x 2 2 SATAII WD 80gig Hard drives 8Mb cache Antec Neopo

Because this strikes me as the behavior of a virus I called up 'Event Viewer' and looked under 'Antivirus' and Avast did find a VBS: Malware-gen and it looks like someone accessed something they shouldn't have...hmmmm Will this Malware do any more damage or you think avast killed it ? How do I get back the right-click option to create new text doc ? AMD 64x2 4000+ ASUS M2N-E Mobo w/ ultra nforce 570 Arctic Cooling 64 Freezer Pro HS/F w/as5 4GIG of Crucial DDR2 800 6400 2gig x 2 2 SATAII WD 80gig Hard drives 8Mb cache Antec Neopo

System Restore?

various, "How do I get back the right-click option to create new text doc ?" Download the Microsoft powertoy Tweak UI, go to My Computer > Templates and you can choose which ones will show up. http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/... After you install Tweak UI you'll find it in Start>Programs>Powertoys for Windows XP>Tweak UI For your TXT icon problem go into Folder Options>Files Types tab hilite TXT, click the Advanced button, click the Change Icon button and choose which icon you want, hilite it, click OK/OK/Apply/OK. Note that the default txt icon is not the same as the Notepad shortcut or exe file icon but is the icon that looks like a notepad with a spiral wire at the top. Tufenuf

Thanks guys. I'm thinking of both actually. I'm trying to remember if I installed any...SHOOT, since this is my gaming hard-drive I turn off system restore, but the other day I turned it on b4 the install to test dreamweaver & fireworks cs3 so I have 1 restore point but it's date is after the date event viewer found the malware. Exactly Tufenuf, that icon with the spiral wire at the top is replaced with a blue notepad on like a white paper. I kinda don't want to install the power toy because this is my gaming HD (i have a hard-drive rack to swap between 2 HDs) and power toys start allocating resources as soon as windows starts. Maybe i can reinstall that. AMD 64x2 4000+ ASUS M2N-E Mobo w/ ultra nforce 570 Arctic Cooling 64 Freezer Pro HS/F w/as5 4GIG of Crucial DDR2 800 6400 2gig x 2 2 SATAII WD 80gig Hard drives 8Mb cache Antec 550w