Expert: Lorry - 6/9/2009

Question
Hello Lorry
I operate from a Melbourne/Victoria/Australia suburb. This evening when I got home from work there was a few messages on my desktop saying that updates are available to download. The first one (the only one I looked into at the moment)was a notification from MS that IE7 is available for download. My OS is XP Pro SP3, and I generally (>99% of the time) use Mozilla and Firefox as my browser. I use Spybot S&D and Avira (both free editions) as my rogue checkers. After the downloading was completed, and during the rogue checking, Spybot returned the following message.
Spybot-Search and Destroy has detected an important registry entry that has been changed.
Category:  Browser Page
Change:    Value changed
Entry:     Local page
Old Data:  C:\windows\system32\blank.htm
New Data:  C:\WINDOWS\system32\blank.htm
    Allow Change      Deny Change

My question to you is: What is the difference between the new uppercase "WINDOWS" entry and the old lowercase "windows" entry. is either of them a rogue or is the new entry to overcome a possible issue.
Thankyou for you help. It is currently 2000,June09 and I will be up until about 2400.  Your's sincerely,   Peter D.

Answer
Hi Peter,

Internet Explorer 7 has been available since 2006. When you run Windows Update you would be asked if you want to download it, what you downloaded was not that.

Using Internet Explorer, go to:

http://security.symantec.com/sscv6/WelcomePage.asp

Click "Continue to Symantec Security Check", in the next window click No when asked if you want to close this window, that will bring you to a window where you should click Virus Detection.

Write down exactly anything it finds, then go to: http://www.symantec.com/search/  and do a search for what was found. Symantec usually has a removal tool and/or directions for removing manually. Make sure that you follow the instructions for removal, step by step, especially the part regarding disabling System Restore.

I would also suggest downloading Malwarebytes Anti-Malware 1.37 from:

http://download.cnet.com/Malwarebytes-Anti-Malware/3000-8022_4-10804572.html

Hope this helps!
Lorry