System Configuration Utility Problems

[singh]

Hi

this is my first post to this forum. hope you guys ll help me out.

i m explaining from the starting

my cousin played online games on my laptop and next day so many adds and stupid websites started opening automatically.

i tried many things. finally got relief of those adwares. but also tried installing macfe and kaspersky but those wee not properly installed . i deleted and uninstalled them in safe mode and deleted all registry files with the online help by commands regedit etc etc...

i also tried stop running some programs by msconfig and the problem started from that point.

now everytime i start my laptop it ask me to select normal mode of system configuration. when i select normal mode so many things starts running on next reboot and also it says u can do it coz u need to login as admin but i am the admin but still it says that. another major effect happened is that the laptop screen look wider than before, everything is stretched. and when i scrol down the screen shakes and its very slow too.

and when i open some websites, no icon appears.

and i cannot install kaspersky coz it says ur admin has blocked privileges.

i can provide more details if u need to knw more abt this problem.

here is the screen shot when i open any website, no image is displayed.

[Pete_C]

<font color="Red" Size="+3"><b>Why you should not use MSCONFIG to control startup entries in XP</b></font>

<a href="http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=149804">If you have been using MSConfig as a startup manager please read this.</a>

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310560

The first method you should always try is to see if the application itself has an entry under edit / preferences or tools / options or a similar location to control its startup behaviour. The software author knows his product better than anyone else; and he went to a lot of extra effort to include these entries if they are there. You must therefore consider that he may know what he is doing (if not why do you use his product) and included these for a specific reason (rather than just a note in the readme.txt file or help file telling you to type msconfig and uncheck the entry there).

Back in the days of DOS, you had to add a line in say the autoexec.bat file to launch something on startup. You could just rem out that line and it would not start ; or delete it since you probably knew what it was and could add it back if you wanted.

But gradually windows became more complex. Win95; 98 ; and ME not only use the autoexec.bat , and files like config.sys and system.ini but primarily use a registry consisting of two files user.dat and system.dat. This makes controlling startup entries more complex; but since most programs just put in one run entry in the registry ; disabling that with a startup manger or msconfig generally was enough (although some you really should also check the system ini files and autoexec.bat especially with things like antivirus and firewall applications). Just unchecking the msconfig entry leaves the possibility of overlooking components which continue to run invisibly , eating up resources and often not allowing the resources of the associated program to be released and reused if you open the program and then close it ( a Memory Leak, or at least one variety ).

But Windows continued to get more and more complex. XP does not use just two files to save and open the registry. The XP registry is built from scratch each time you boot based on five or more hive (.hiv) files ; of which the msconfig startup entry HKLM_run is just one of many places an application may load components. In fact; generally an application loading at startup loads different components at different times during the boot sequence based on which hive the entry is in. Some may load before you log in , some after. In addition there are many other places (Services, SSODL entries , etc) where a program may include startup entries which may not show in your registry; but will nonetheless load components of the application . Thus it is not adviseable to use simple techniques like unchecking MSCONFIG entries ; you may not have disabled as much as you think.

Startup managers; like codestuff starter tend to be more "complete" in their dealing with an application and its "dependencies" but you should still check first to see if the author included control options in his application. (Tip, with Code Stuff Starter, you can "edit" startup entries to move them from the Current User- which loads after you login - to All Users which loads before to speed up how quickly you can use things after the desktop loads).

Yes, there are still programs out there which do not really install. You could just copy their folder to a removable drive and run it from there on any computer; and there are still programs out there which only have the single registry entry. Generally you can recognize them because they have no option in the program itself to control startup (big surprise that if the author does not think there is a need to include this extra work you generally can just uncheck the entry). And yes; it is not always disasterous to incorrectly disable a programs startup. But if you are trying to improve performance; it is best to do things correctly.

In XP I strongly advise against disabling anything using MSCONFIG. While in older versions of windows there was a single registry used by all users and the startup entries were just one location which you could check and uncheck in msconfig with relative safety ; this is no longer so.

IN XP the registry is built from scratch each time you start up based on five or more files called hives which load at different times during startup. Some do not load until you login with your username and password. The MSCONFIG entry is just a single place where a program may enter startup entries. It could have appinit dlls, ssodl entries, windows service entries, scheduled tasks, and several other startup entries ; all designed to load different portions of the application at specific points during windows bootup. MSCONFIG disables just one of these. This can lead to far worse problems than the one you are attempting to combat. So please unless specifically told to do so as part of a trouble shooting proceedure by someone who actually knows what they are doing do not disable anything with msconfig.

The proper way to disable startup entries , whenever present , is to use the applications own edit/ preferences or tools/ options. The author went to a lot of extra effort to include these entries and did so for a specific reason.

So the best thing to do is to look in the system tray at lower right.

Any of the programs running there at startup? Check to see if they have an edit/preferences or tools/ options entry or other method included in them to control their startup behavior. If so , use it.

You can also check in the start/ programs / startup folder

If you find an entry there for something which does not include a method of controlling startup within the program itself, go and move them out of it by dragging and dropping them into their own folder.

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Given your symptoms I suspect that you have not fully removed the malware.

Did you do it yourself?

If so please reconsider, go to the malware board and post your hijackthis log after re enabling all those msconfig entries you unwisely unchecked (so the analysts can see what is there )

If you had expert help can you post a link to that thread where you were helped so that we can see what you had so we know what it may have done so we know how to fix it.