New
#1
Malware/Virus infection - Control Panel items missing, etc
I just reinstalled Windows yesterday - I can't believe i got infected so quickly b/c I hardly used the computer. I foolishly waited to install Avast, which I'd been using for years w/out any problems. I thought, I expected Windows Defender and Firewall to keep me safe. Guess not.
I was able to use gpedit.msc to restore Task Manager but a bunch of stuff is missing from the Control Panel. I tried running Malwarebytes in Safe Mode but it just hangs at the rootkit scan. Also Avast won't load at all, keeps giving me a "Well this is embarrassing..." message.
Can anyone suggest a way back to normal w/out resinstalling Windows? If I have to I will but I think, I hope this is a fairly easy fix.
Any thoughts you care to share will be much appreciated - thanks!
ps - I was able to run a boot-time scan with Avast from the Cmd prompt, which is running now. I did one earlier this morning, right when I noticed the symptoms of infection - before Avast kept giving me the "Well this is embarrassing..." message, but it didn't find anything at that time. It did find 2 viruses during a regular scan which it moved to the Virus Chest.
Thanks for reading... I know you guys aren't devoted to malware per se but the old sites that used to analyze HijackThis logs seem to be gone...?