Expert: Brian Benosky - 1/3/2009

Question
I am having trouble loading my desktop. The background appears but no icons or start bar. Prior to this happening, a whole bunch of ads kept popping up about anti virus protection.I tried system restore but it never went thru. I'm thinking about wiping the system clean and reinstalling, however, I dont want to lose my old files. Is there some way that I can extract my files onto an external hard drive while in safe mode(because thats the only way I can use the computer)or is there some way to cure my pc and keep my files?

Thanks in advance
Sky

Answer
Hi Sky

Let's try running a Malwarebytes scan, preferably in Safe Mode.  Please download Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware to your desktop from here:

http://www.besttechie.net/tools/mbam-setup.exe

Double-click mbam-setup.exe and follow the prompts to install the program.
* At the end, be sure a checkmark is placed next to
o Update Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware
* then click Finish.
* If an update is found, it will download and install the latest version.  Do not run a scan yet.

Restart the computer in Safe Mode by continuously tapping the F8 key on boot until a black screen with a menu appears.  Choose to Start Windows in Safe Mode.  Log on as usual.  Open Malwarebytes and run a Full Scan.

* When the scan is complete, click OK, then Show Results to view the results.
* Be sure that everything is checked, and click Remove Selected.
* When completed, a log will open in Notepad.  Save that log and reboot normally.

After rebooting, please download HijackThis to your desktop from here:
http://www.trendsecure.com/portal/en-US/_download/HJTInstall.exe
Make sure you close EVERY open window and ALL browser windows. The only thing that should be open is the HijackThis program.
Double-click on the file you just downloaded.
Click on the "Install" button.
Upon install, HijackThis should open for you.
Should it not open, go to C:\Program Files\Trend Micro\HijackThis and double click on HijackThis.exe
Choose 'Do a system scan and save a log file'.
Copy the text file which opens in Notepad and paste it in your follow-up, along with the Malwarebytes log.
 * Do not fix any entries in HijackThis, as they may be harmless.

Brian