Windows 2000 SP4

[Hodsocks]

I have been working on a machine this week that had virus's and spyware all over the place, I removed all of them (I hope), installed IE6 and also updated SP1 to SP4. Since doing this I seem to have noticed some peculiarities like:
The search feature on the START menu doesn't work
If I open Add/remove programs a box appears but is empty ie. no programs listed.
If I open My computer and try to open files like Program Files or the Windows file it opens but there are no files listed, other files will open without a problem though.
There may be others I have not found yet but generally everything else seems to be working OK.
Am I missing something basic or are these typical problems with SP4 and can I easily correct the problem?

 

[MYOB]

None of these are SP4 problems - I've been running 2000 SP4 on my Windows box since it came out. However, *all* of those problems are symptomatic of spyware or viruses. Particularly not being able to list Program Files and Windows, the Search button not working, and so on.

I'd suggest a full system scan with both Ad-Aware (www.lavasoft.se) and Spybot Search and Destroy (www.security.kolla.de). If the problems are still there, report back here and I or one of the others will see what we can do.

 

[Rick]

Add/Remove programs being blank is a Windows 2000 problem which is not specific to just SP4. It also affects XP. Search the Microsoft knowledge base for more details. Editing your registry should fix that problem.

I haven't seen the search feature problem before.

I think I have seen something simliar to no files being listed in the Windows folder. What "Windows" and "Program Files" folders have in common are they are "protected" by an HTML template which requires you click some silly link to remind you there are risks to viewing system files.

This link may not appear. If you right click in the blank space (where your icons should be) a menu will appear and you can click on "View". Choose something like "Icons" and your icons should appear.

Again, that has only worked in 98 for me. Not sure about 2000.

The search feature also relies heavily on "view as webpage" templates. It wouldn't surprise me that problem is linked to you inability to view Windows and Program Files.

 

[Hodsocks]

MYOB.... I have ran Ad-aware, Spybot and NAV which found virus's and lots of other rubbish. I can only assume that they have caused some corruption of the windows software which is causing the problem.
Rick.... I tried all sorts of things to try and get back the icons like you suggested but to no avail. I tried to go on the internet but it told me I had no connection so I went to the DUN folder and sure enough it was empty.....no Make new connection....nothing just blank.
I guess I will now just reformat and reload all of the software, a pain but at least it clears out all the rubbish.

Thanks guys for the help.