I have been having problems wwith wininet.dll All of a sudden, AVG detects a virus. "While opening file c:\windows\system32\wininet.dll Virus identified Win32/PEPatch.AV Can't open explorer, IE explorer doesn't work either. So what I did was this: I repartition the c drive, format, and put in a clean install of XP. I pick up a new copy of AVG, update it. It starts and a couple of seconds later; boom, the same message as above. explorer does not work. neither does IE explorer. What I did then was this: I executed cmd. cd\ cd windows cd system32 ren wininet.dll wininet.dl What seems to happen is this: windows puts in a clean copy of wininet.dll As soon as wininet.dll is back AVG warns again with the above message. So even after a clean install this happens. How does the virus get in? The only thing I did after a clean install was to pick up a new AVG. Any ideas? BTW. I have more computers which haven't been infected. As soon as I put in a clean wininet.dll in the infected computer, boom same message. I'm gonna partition the disk again and put in a clean XP without the internet and see what happens. Andy

Don't know if it will help, but I would suggest making sure that you have a firewall running before you go online.

I think I found the problem. Like I said above I patitioned and formatted the c drive and put in a clean XP. I downloaded AVG, installed it, but did not update AVG. Everything runs fine. No virus message. I think it's the last update from AVG. I will check the AVG site to hear what's been going on. thanks for all the help. Andy