Virus Has Deleted My Desktop Shortcuts

I'm no computer expert, and I don't know the answer, but I had an older XP machine and all kind of crazy things started happening. It turned out to be a bad RAM chip. I also ended up losing a lot of data.

I can sympathize, I wish I had your answer.

At this point you may want to take it to a pro.

I'm with kramarat.

Take it to the man. You won't get frustrated, you will only be consumed with the problem until you drop it off and the money it costs you may be much less than the cost of a new computer once yours has self destructed due to something you shouldn't have done trying to fix it.

I'm an arrogant SOB, who thinks he knows almost everything, but when my PC gives me problems, I pay an expert to fix it. So should you.

Computers are not appliances. They are extremely (unnecessarily) complex systems. Blame Bill Gates for it. I do.

Re: They are extremely (unnecessarily) complex systems. Blame Bill Gates for it.

Actually, one of the few things I give some credit to Bill Gates for is simplifying computers, at least in some respects. I don't know if I could document the following opinion, but it seems he copies quite a few things from other computer systems (like Unix) and simplified them for Dos / Windows.

Some of that was no doubt done by the guy in Seattle (can't remember the name) that Bill "acquired" and sold to IBM as the basis for what became MS-Dos, but I also see evidence of him doing similar things later. Can I think of examples?

Yes, but won't take the time atm. ;-) Well, maybe a few. Compare dir (dos) and ls (*nix) (and its options). Compare the means to rename a group of files--I can't cite dos exactly at the moment, but you can use wildcards something like: rename *.txt *.bck--in *nix you have to do something like: for f in *.txt do mv f.txt f.bck; done.

Both of those might have been done by the Seattle guy. As to later examples, I've run into them, but can't recall any atm, and doubt that I've documented them.

As to other things about Bill Gates, I'll refrain from any further statements.

Somebody should mark this OT. I didn't want to do it immediately.

Bill bought the precursor for MS-DOS from Seattle Software. It was a pre-existing DOS he modified and re-packaged.

Yes. I see some typos in my post. That is part of what I was trying to say. ;-)

Maybe I'm just jealous.

If you export your favorites and shortcuts (same depending on browser) into an .htm or .csv, there is no way to infect the contents with a virus. These are simple text files. However, the file itself can be modified by a virus after the fact by attaching itself or adding lines of code.

This is simple to overcome. Export the favorites (IE) in an .htm to a new folder. Open the .htm using Notepad (assuming you don't have several thousand favorites, Notepad should work fine). Save the file as a .txt from Notepad. This file can be safely burned to a CD and imported to your "new" computer after the reload.

HTML files are text only, but are parsed by the browser automatically due to their .htm, .html, etc. extensions (there are numerous file formats that browsers will parse). Changing the file to a .txt and simply changing the extension to .htm upon copying to your "new" computer will not harm the favorites information, but will effectively strip the tag-alongs from the bit stream.

As an extra precaution, open the CD on the "old" computer after burning, checking for extraneous files that you didn't burn (use a new CD to make it easier). Open the .txt (favorites) directly from the CD and look for extras lines of code, say a Java line, that was not part of your favorites which may have been injected during the export (this is not normal and should be proud of yourself for "finding" such a unique virus). You should get a feel for what a proper favorite looks like after looking at the file for a minute, it really is a simple format. Once satisfied that you have a clean file, you can reload.

Of course, there are possibly hundreds or tens-of-thousands of other files that you may want to backup and may also be infected, but you didn't mention those in the OP. Those would need to be archived and scanned off-line to prevent infecting the "new" machine.

At some point, reformatting and reloading is the easiest way to go. You may spend days or weeks trying to salvage a system with a virus that spreads by the mere fact that a folder is accessed through any method including virus scanners. Some trojans will drop a payload when a specific product like McAfee or Symantec tries to peek in.

It's fun, and I enjoy doing this for friends, and have salvaged many computers. Some...it's just easier to reload.

Or, you could take it to Geeks-R-Us and pay (no guarantees). Your choice.

I'm not a pro either, but I do clean, fix, and "grease" alot of systems. Here's my generic method for cleaning.

1) Install some type of active registry protection (I prefer spybot search and destroy, it works good and its free). This isn't going to solve the problem, but it often helps things from getting worse.

2) I will then install some type of anti-virus. (I prefer the person to agree to pay for McAfee, but if the person doesn't want to shell out any money for it, I'll use AVG which is also free)

3) Run full scans with both the anti-virus and anti-spyware programs at the same time.

4) repeat step 3 until the scans come up clean.

Don't give up just yet... give the above a shot and you should be back up and running.

Just like the free software mentioned here, the advice is free. Remember...you get what you pay for.

I could crap in a box and slap a guaranteed sticker on it and that's what you would have. A guaranteed piece of crap.

It seems you have some better insight into what would work. Why not post something constructive? Like try product X, it'll cost you $Y, but it'll work great!

I'm always eager to learn.

I wouldn't recommend buying or installing a specific product to anyone on this board. It has the appearance of advertising which is in direct violation of the rules of conduct.

One never knows if a poster has a vested interest in the product they are recommending, whether it is free or not.

For example, AVG only goes so far. The full guaranteed version costs a minimum of $39.99, MSRP. So the free version is just a guaranteed piece of crap, so to speak. Plus, any AV product is only as good as the latest signature file.

The only "guarantee" to this problem would be to reload the system, and even that has its drawbacks, perils, and caveats.

I'd agree that there is nothing guaranteed. In fact, even all the major anti-virus companies agree their product will not catch 100% of everything nasty out there.

And I do see your point about violating the rules of conduct . In this case, I am providing a testimonial to what has worked for me and this is in direct violation of the letter of the law. So perhaps I will have my first comment deleted by admin.

However, I will say that I think I'm staying within spirit of the rules. There is a problem and I posted what works for me (constructively).

I will say however, that the rules do not specify positive or negative testimonials, so by saying the products I suggested don't work, isn't that violating the same rule?

A clean install is a solution (that the OP is aware of), but as you say there are headaches with that solution. Not to mention it is the equivalent of tearing down a house and rebuilding it because of pest control problem. Sure it works, but is it the best way??

So I challenge you unregistered Anonymous Poster #1 who fears repercussions from the Admin for posting solutions to problems that might be construed as advertising, teach us your methods! How do YOU clean a system? What method works?

Reload.

I don't think there's a problem.

There's a difference between members sharing products that they've found to work and obvious advertising spam junk.

I wouldn't worry about it.

As we can see AP's are still anonymous cowards

Still there is certainly some truth in AP's observations. There is plenty of questionable advice given out by "experts" which is no more than 1/2 baked opinion...

Personally, I gave direction for how to repair the XP install, using a common sense method , I have used successfully on many occasions, which doesn't require any special computer skills

Security is one of the weak points of windows. Using a common registry & letting every Tom, Dick & Malware access it is a recipe for infection. Both Apple & linux have a better way. Generally you don't see OSx being installed on hardware other than Apple, so I mentioned the possibility of using Linux.

Whether or not AP's are cowards doesn't really make any difference. Using an avatar and a handle are the same.

Windows, MacOS, Linux, Unix, VMS, whatever all have weak points. Their popularity is what makes them lucrative targets.

Fortunately for most of us, posting on this board doesn't require any special computer skills either.

So-called "experts" design the ships that sink, airplanes that crash, nuclear reactors that melt down, and automobiles that crash due to poor engineering. It's the spectacular failures that really catch one's eye.

If common sense were common, we would all have it.

install google toolbar & let it export your favorites to it

your bookmarks [favorites] will not longer be tied to any one computer

do a full as delivered from the factory system restore

or put in a a better more secure operating system,

any of the approximately 400 linux deviations is going to be better than Redmond's best

A registry cleaner will sometimes delete the desktop icons after an infection. Try Windows Vista Easy Transfer for files and program settings to another computer. You might have to then put the icons back on the desktop, however.

Did your virus scanning actually find a virus?

windows XP has an app built in that cleans up unused desktop icons. It comes up periodically unless you shut it down. It can be set to either save unused icon to a desktop directory or delete them. check your desktop for a directory called "unused icons" or something similar. there is more than one verison of the app.

I don't know what prompts the app to run but if you are not paying attention and hit the return key you could easily delete not recently used icons from your desktop.

Check your recycle bin!

Start by booting in safe mode and running antivirus and a spyware program.

look in C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator (or your log on account)\Desktop

and see if all your desktop items are there. If so, just copy and paste to your desktop. If not you need to go to each application and copy .exe file and paste shortcut on desktop.

Hope this helps