I ran sfc /scannow and no text is seen on explorer

gregrocker · 05 Jul 2013

Sounds like you are infected. Move into the boot mode to work though these same steps for Troubleshooting Windows 7 Failure to Start to disinfect, then once its known to be clean run SFC /SCANNOW Run in Command Prompt at Boot.

You don't need anything starting with Windows except your AV which should be one of the recommended lightweight ones. All other startups are freeloaders on your system which don't need to run until you open them.

Britton30 · 05 Jul 2013

Daemon Tools is a very common cause of BSODs and other issues, I recommend removing it too. AMD Overdrive is an overclocking utility likely from your motherboard disk.

Kaktussoft · 05 Jul 2013

Aapo said:

Kaktussoft said:

F8 seems to be the boot device selection button as well on your machine. Select hard drive there (and probably press enter). Now it boots from harddisk. Press IMMEDIATELY f8 a couple of times. Works?

You can now select "safe mode" and "safe mode with command prompt".
even "repair your computer"->"system restore"

- I did just like you said and managed to get into windows repair mode. From there I selected the system restore option into past point two weeks ago. It gave "undefined error" (0x80070002), but when I rebooted the system the icon texts and other stuff are now back! You have my eternal gratitude. Having to reformat would have lost me hundreds of gigabytes of data, schoolwork and memories. There's still some windows updates to do, but I'm confident the disaster has been avoided.

Thank you.

"undefined error" (0x80070002), =>you did that from windows recovery? (so repair your computer boot option)?

I system restore should work are doesn't. There no such thing as a half system restore!
Did you get that error when still in recovery environment, or after reboot to normal win7?

Kaktussoft · 05 Jul 2013

Do sfc/scannow again as Greg told you.

Aapo · 05 Jul 2013

I selected "repair windows" boot option and from there used system restore point. At the very last step of that it gave the error message. Then I rebooted and the problem was fixed. There are no errors and everything works (as far as I know) like it did 2 weeks ago.

Now I've done full system scan with AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 2011. Found only 2 tracking cookies. AVG caused the old Explorer bug that still persists to this day, but it's not that bothersome. I may do Malwarebytes scan tomorrow after buying another usb stick for proper backups. One nervous breakdown per day is enough for me. One thing I've learned from this ordeal is to not fix what isn't broken.

I tried that sfc /scannow for bluescreen error. It's really a subject for another topic. I have the logs available. One BSOD happened today and another 19th of March 2013. There's no more log for today's bluescreen since the restore, but I checked it's the same module ntoskrnl.exe

gregrocker · 05 Jul 2013

Use MSE or Avast. No one has recommended AVG for ten years since it bloated up and never slimmed back down.

I'd also run a full scan with Malwarebytes . There is no worry doing a scan, but you should always have your data backed up. A modern free method is here: Sync, Backup and Store your Files to the Cloud with Skydrive - Windows 7 Forums

Go over the Troubleshooting Steps for Windows 7
to check for any remaining issues.

Kaktussoft · 05 Jul 2013

Aapo said:

I selected "repair windows" boot option and from there used system restore point. At the very last step of that it gave the error message. Then I rebooted and the problem was fixed. There are no errors and everything works (as far as I know) like it did 2 weeks ago.

Now I've done full system scan with AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 2011. Found only 2 tracking cookies. AVG caused the old Explorer bug that still persists to this day, but it's not that bothersome. I may do Malwarebytes scan tomorrow after buying another usb stick for proper backups. One nervous breakdown per day is enough for me. One thing I've learned from this ordeal is to not fix what isn't broken.

I tried that sfc /scannow for bluescreen error. It's really a subject for another topic. I have the logs available. One BSOD happened today and another 19th of March 2013. There's no more log for today's bluescreen since the restore, but I checked it's the same module ntoskrnl.exe

Are you sure it did the system restore? All settings/applications are in state as it was two weeks ago? Anything installed last 2 weeks is gone?

Aapo · 05 Jul 2013

Kaktussoft said:

Are you sure it did the system restore? All settings/applications are in state as it was two weeks ago? Anything installed last 2 weeks is gone?

- There was a different image loaded to DaemonTools and .mp4 file association had gone back to music player (I had changed it to video player recently), so yes I think full restore took place. I have my recently created files, which didn't have registry modifying properties, intact.

Edit: Firefox is now version 21 and there's no add-ons listed. Ad-block plus doesn't work and I can't seem to be able to reinstall it. Automatic updating tool for Firefox loads indefinitely.

Kaktussoft · 05 Jul 2013

Aapo said:

Kaktussoft said:

Are you sure it did the system restore? All settings/applications are in state as it was two weeks ago? Anything installed last 2 weeks is gone?

- There was a different image loaded to DaemonTools and .mp4 file association had gone back to music player (I had changed it to video player recently), so yes I think full restore took place. I have my recently created files, which didn't have registry modifying properties, intact.

Edit: Firefox is now version 21 and none of the add-ons work. They don't seem to be listed and I can't re-install them either.

So indeed system restiore did its job. uninstall firefox. Delete firefox folder somewhere under c:\users\<yourname>\appdata. Reinstall firefox and addons.