XP no taskbar/desktop icons - Malware?

[theo.aku]

Hi this problem appeared a couple of nights ago and I haven't been able to get to the bottom of it, any advice gratefully recieved. I will have to do a XP reinstall tomorrow morning if I can't fix it

After logon screen the desktop picture loads and then everything goes quiet. Ctrl-alt-del will bring up task manager and can access everythign through "run".

After about 5 mins or so, very gradually the taskbar reappears as do the desktop icons. The taskbar is never fully working though and clicking on it will cause explorer to stop responding.

I suspect malware affecting registry, dll or explorer.exe itself but cannot solve. Have been through patches on kelly's corner and have run all end of antivirus, spybot etc etc. System restore doesn't work either, it says that it is not possible to restore. I have tried replacing explorer.exe with another file from another XPSP2 system to no avail.

Any help will save me a reinstall.

Thanks, Tom

Hijackthis log:

 

[tomrca]

hi there.
you do have some undesirables on you pc. please go HERE. it is important that you follow all instruction. after this post a fresh hjt log. you should get rid of 'starware' stuff

 

[theo.aku]

Zlob virus? Any ideas on how to get rid, can't find any free scanners that will detect it save for spy sweeper who insist i buy their software to clean the virus. perhaps they made it!?

 

[howard_hopkinso]

Very Important: Before deciding whether you should clean or reformat your system, go and read this thread HERE and decide what it is you want to do.

If after reading the above, you decide you want to clean your system, do the following.

Go and read the Viruses/Spyware/Malware, preliminary removal instructions. Follow all the instructions exactly.


Post fresh HJT and AVG Antispyware logs as attachments into this thread, only after doing the above.


Regards Howard


This thread is for the use of theo.aku only. Please don`t post your own virus/spyware problems in this thread. Instead, open a new thread in our security and the web forum.