i had problems with my machine shutting down randomly so i ran a virus check with AVG and it found "windriv.exe" to be a virus and not healable so i deleted. from that point on, the computer has run perfectly EXCEPT for.. at startup, the welcome screen hangs for about 30 seconds and then i get a "can't find windriv" message box. i press ok and everything proceeds normaly. the computer is working really well, but this message is annoying and 30 seconds of extra startup too. plus, i don't want this to cause malfunctions later. any ideas what is causing this message? is windriv an important file or does this message just need to be turned off and how would i go about doing that?

First, Disable the System Restore Utility 1. Right- click the My Computer > Properties 2. Click on the System Restore tab. 3. Put a check mark next to 'Turn off System Restore on All Drives'. 4. Click the OK button. 5. You will be prompted to restart the computer. Click Yes. Next run one or both of these online Antivirus scanners 1. HouseCall Scan Now OR 2. Panda ActiveScan Next run spyware removers: Trend Micro™ Anti-Spyware for the Web • Ad-Aware SE Personal Edition 1.06 • SpyBot Search & Destroy • M$ Antispyware Beta Next re-enable the System Restore Utility, follow steps one to five shown first and on step three remove the check mark next to Turn off System Restore on All Drives. Hope this helps. M

This happens 'cos there is a left over reference to the .exe in a startup section of the registy. The entry for this will show up in a HijackThis log. If you still have this problem after taking the steps outlined in the post above then post a HJT log in this thread.

just wondering, is AVG not that good as an anti-virus program? i keep it updated. is it just generaly better to do scans with several different products?

AVG is a Very Good AVP (I use it in one of my PCs)and if kept regularly updated it does prevent /catch most of the virus and Trojans. So are other leading AVPs like Norton, Panda, etc. But no single AVP seems capable of catching 100% of the Virus all the time as the Antisocial Virus makers are hard at work turning out and releasing more and more viri/trojans/Worms and other malware to the Internet at an alarmingly faster rate than the AVP vendors can cope with. More over a significantly large number of computer users around the world are ignorant about Virus threats and Computer safety. Many PC owners who buy a Brand name PC with installed AVP with 3-6 month "free" subscription or buy or build their own Custom PC either fail to include AVP as an essential software. Many don't even bother to renew their subscription when it runs out and even fail to perform regular free updates of their installed AVP to keep them current. Remember, all thses computers cohabit with yours in the Internet! Even if you have an AVP you are still at some risk:-( For all these reasons there is no perfect 100% protection and when the PC is infected it is safer to scan with more than one Good AVP to make sure it is clean. M