To work, of course, you must restore to a point prior to the problem. The further, back you go,the more unwanted changes will be made. Be sure to use the System Restore feature that lets you decide what will be affected. If you are going to lose something that cannot be replaced, no key number etc. Maybe we can suggest another solution.
Scanning with AVG may give you only a partial result. Try to scan with more programs, e.g. MSE which is pretty good. You may also try to disable all startups and see what happens.
PS: Just saw someone post this list of free malware scanners: http://www.freebyte.com/antivirus/
Last edited by whs; 05 Mar 2010 at 13:39.
Taking the lead from WHS, here is a free scan from a well known company, that will not hurt to try.
Free Virus Protection, Free Virus Scan | FreeScan | McAfee
System Restore didn't quite get it... I still can't log on in Normal Mode... still "user name or password is incorrect."
I'm making manufacturer-spec system recovery disks now in hopes of solving the problem this way, as much as I didn't want to. Will keep you all posted via my handy-dandy 9-year-old came-preinstalled-with-Windows-2000 machine!
Recovery disks worked. I'm back in business.
Thanks for everyone's help. I did get a lot of resources to use for later should another problem arise.
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