A
alan
Flightless Bird
I wonder if anyone can make any guesses at what has happened to my
computer, a Pentium 4 running XP, with Avast antivirus software, and
connected to the Internet via prepay wireless broadband (T Mobile).
This morning, when I switched it on, all I got was a black screen.
After a lot of fiddling about (I know very little about computers) I
finally got it running in Safe Mode, went to Help, and chose System
Restore, setting it to a point a couple of days ago. After it started
up again, it only got as far as the desktop, with no icons.
I started it up again and left it for quite a long time with the empty
desktop showing. Finally, up came a message box:
"PC TOOLS SPYWARE DOCTOR
2 threats + 13 infections
1) Applications.TrackingCookies (11 infections)
2) Adware.Advertising (2 infections)
Your free trial version scans and detects threats. To
remove threats and gain comprehensive protection,
subscribe online now."
When the desktop finally loaded, this Spyware Doctor program had
already been installed! Now, I've never been near a site called
Spyware Doctor, and from what I've just read on the Web, it seems the
product is a respectable one, so what's going on?
I tried to run a scan with Avast, but couldn't. I then uninstalled
Avast, downloaded it again from the Web, then did a full scan with it,
which found nothing.
My computer is still going wrong - opening up to just a black screen,
or to an empty desktop. I finally got the proper desktop, but I've a
feeling that when I switch on again, it'll be back to the same
problem.
Any thoughts on this matter would be very gratefully received.
Thanks in advance.
computer, a Pentium 4 running XP, with Avast antivirus software, and
connected to the Internet via prepay wireless broadband (T Mobile).
This morning, when I switched it on, all I got was a black screen.
After a lot of fiddling about (I know very little about computers) I
finally got it running in Safe Mode, went to Help, and chose System
Restore, setting it to a point a couple of days ago. After it started
up again, it only got as far as the desktop, with no icons.
I started it up again and left it for quite a long time with the empty
desktop showing. Finally, up came a message box:
"PC TOOLS SPYWARE DOCTOR
2 threats + 13 infections
1) Applications.TrackingCookies (11 infections)
2) Adware.Advertising (2 infections)
Your free trial version scans and detects threats. To
remove threats and gain comprehensive protection,
subscribe online now."
When the desktop finally loaded, this Spyware Doctor program had
already been installed! Now, I've never been near a site called
Spyware Doctor, and from what I've just read on the Web, it seems the
product is a respectable one, so what's going on?
I tried to run a scan with Avast, but couldn't. I then uninstalled
Avast, downloaded it again from the Web, then did a full scan with it,
which found nothing.
My computer is still going wrong - opening up to just a black screen,
or to an empty desktop. I finally got the proper desktop, but I've a
feeling that when I switch on again, it'll be back to the same
problem.
Any thoughts on this matter would be very gratefully received.
Thanks in advance.