System Restore & Shut Down Damaged By Virus

[seykota]

Unfortunately a virus slipped past my virus software (avast!) on Wednesday, rather the 'virus alert' was activated and I moved it to the "chest' as advised by the software. However it appears the virus still managed to damage my system. When I click 'start' to shutdown, there is no longer the 'shutdown' button only the 'log off' button, so I must push the power button to turn the laptop off. Also my 'system restore' function has been deactivated and I cannot reactivate it.

I assume there are other areas damaged but I have not found them yet. Is there anyway to fix these functions? I am rather concerned this is a 'sleeper virus' and I have more unpleasant surprises ahead of me, though I am regularly scanning and cannot find anything.

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated. I know I can save all my files and software then wipe my drives and reinstall XP but I am hoping there are other options.

Thanks

Pete

[H2oDunc]

When you next start your computer pres the F8 button to give you the safe mode options of starting. If you have the option of starting with the last known good configuration try that. If not start your computer in safe mode and try to use the system restore from there. Also try running your anti virus is safe mode to see if it can detect and clean the problem. Good luck

[JetsetBkk]

There is a registry hack to remove the shutdown button:

http://www.fermu.com/content/view/39/26/lang,us/

I have done this to stop inadvertently shutting down the PC when I didn't want to!

You could have a look at your registry and see if this "reg_dword" has been added, and simply remove it.

Also, after I made this change, I can still log out and, after logging out, I get the option to log in again or shutdown. Don't you get this option to shutdown after you've logged out? Holding the power button down is a bit drastic and may cause "Checkdisk" to run when you start again. (I'm talking Windows XP here.)

But your best bet is to try a system restore in safe mode as H2oDunc suggests.

You can also do a Kaspersky online scan of your PC: http://www.kaspersky.co.uk/virusscanner

If that doesn't work, there are plenty of Google results for "System Restore not working" (about 4 million!)

So you could try working your way through them! Good luck.

[katana]

It's just possible it was a false-positive and some valid files were removed (happens sometimes).

Try uploading the files here for a 2nd opinion.