A friend of mine, a complete computer noob, has a dell desktop with winXP. He doesn't have ANY anti-virus or anti-spy/malware programs installed...just uses windows firewall. When booting up his computer it gets stuck in "loading personal settings".

I helped him over the phone run XP in safe mode and clear out the IE properties and his temp folder. No luck.

Since we can't install any anti-virus/spyware progs in safe mode, what can I do to help him diagnose his problem?

Can we download stuff from the internet in safe mode?

Thanks alot!~

Well in "Safe Mode Networking" you could

But don't do that, just run System Restore from Safe Mode

Or even CheckDisk

ok. We ran system restore from safe mode...at least tried. When going thru the system restore process windows rebooted and got stuck on the windows is starting up screen. We then restarted in safe mode and it said windows could NOT restore to earlier point etc.

Next, we tried running check disk but got stuck running windows as an administrator in safe mode! ( he said the screen was all black, no desktop icons)

Remember, I'm talking to my guy over the phone and can't see EXACTLY what he's doing! (Maybe I should just go over there!)

What to do?

Well I'd pull the drive out and back it up in another computer, whilst it's been scanned for Viruses\Malware (This is the safest thing to do, especially on someone else's computer!)

Other than that you could do a Repair of Windows, following these steps:
http://www.windowsxphome.windowsreinstall.com/installxpcdrepair/part3.htm

awww man...a fresh windows install? I was hoping that would be the last straw!

There's no programs on the internet that will scan his computer in safe mode?

No I said "Repair", not fresh install

If you do, do a fresh install (do do Huh! )
Then you should remove the Partition during the initial Windows setup

repair windows...ok... sorry. We'll give that a shot...stay tuned!

ah...my friend said he keeps getting a message/popup for "antivirus pro 2009". That's not good.

We tried repairing windows and got to his desktop and actually got MBAM & SAS installed but he couldn't run them cause his computer froze!

Can we run them in safe mode? Would they work?

Remember, I'm helping him over the phone,,,for now. He's giving me the tower tomorrow so I should be able to know more then.

thanks..

Um your friend may need to create their own thread in the Security and the Web forum
After they have completed all steps in UPDATED 8-step Viruses/Spyware/Malware Preliminary Removal Instructions Note in most cases if Malwarebytes finds and they then remove the found issues, it is best to re-run Malwarebytes again (which will remove the rest)