Expert: Carolyn Meinel - 8/4/2008

Question
Hello Carolyn,
I've been facing this strange problem since yesterday.
My laptop (DELL Inspiron 6000, Windows XP) suddenly not opening firefox browser at all. I tried browser's safemode to open, but no use. I see in task manager, firefox.exe gets displayed for few seconds when I start firefox, but it soon disappears. I uninstalled Firefox and reinstalled it; but no use.
In Internet Explorer (IE 7), I am not able to login into any of the websites such as gmail.com, mail.yahoo.com, or any other websites which require login. However, without login I can browse through the web without any problem, like google-search, watching videos, reading through articles etc. Note that, even google-talk, yahoo-messenger etc work, and I can login and chat. The issue seems to be only with logging in IE browser. The messages I get indicate, the browser is not configured to accept the cookies. However, I have made sure, the cookies acceptance is configured, through 'Internet Options' -> 'Privacy' -> 'Accept All cookies'.
I am not sure the firefox problem is related to IE problem, but I am guessing so, because both the problems started together.
Is there any settings I should try and change to make these browsers work again? is it a known issue reported by other users? Are there any virus symptoms in the above-said?

Thank you very much in advance for your assistance!

Answer
I'm hoping this isn't a case of Windows XP committing suicide. Sometimes Windows type operating systems simply mess themselves up without help from any sort of malware, and in that case you might have to "nuke" your computer.

So let's start with the assumption that this is no big deal instead, maybe a virus that is so poorly programmed that it messes up browsers.  I say poorly programmed because the most successful viruses are written so well that you don't even realize your computer is infected.

If this is the case, here's what will almost certainly work.

1) Download either Kapersky Internet Security, which offers a free 30 day trial at http://kapersky.com or F-Secure's Complete Internet security suite, which offers a free thirty day trial: https://store.f-secure.com/cgi-bin/dlreg/ml=EN?ID=FSISTB&desid=TRIAL

2) Disconnect from the Internet.

3) Uninstall your current antivirus. This is absolutely essential because otherwise it and F-Secure or Kapersky will fight each other and might crash your computer. It isn't good enough to just turn off your old antivirus because it probably has been crippled by your virus infection.

4) Install your Internet Security product. Download any updates available.

5) Run a complete scan of your computer. Follow any instructions it might give you.

6) Reboot.

If this works, you can either keep your new Internet Security product or uninstall it and reinstall your old antivirus from either a download of the latest version from their website (if that's how they sell it) or from the disk it was on when you bought it. Be sure to get all the latest updates right away. Usually antivirus companies are pretty good about updating their programs whenever some new attack becomes able to evade or cripple their product.

If you weren't running an antivirus program that includes antispyware protection and a firewall, then I recommend that you not reinstall your old program. Nowadays we need total protection, and this includes antispyware and a firewall.

If this doesn't work, then we may have a case of Windows self-destructing. Norton System Works can often fix this sort of problem.

If that doesn't work, you might need to "nuke" your computer. I nuke mine every year just to get its performance back up, and this is what many sysadmins do to business computers for regular maintenance. Computer repair shops often nuke computers to fix them, too, instead of messing with fancy stuff. The way to nuke a computer is to completely reinstall the operating system, meaning using the option to reformat the hard drive. Of course you want to back up all your data first!