Member Avatar for blackbelt27

Forgive me for elaborating but this is very weird

I recently installed nero 7 and it was working fine and i turned my computer off for the night. I turned it on the next morning and it said "Installing windows update (1 of 1)" and then something like "saving settings dont turn off your computer" and it went back and fourth for a long time untill i eventuly turned off the computer. I turned it on and it worked, i logged in and the background was blue and none of the programs that usualy run on the task bar run except "sound" "Norton antivirus" and remove "hardware safely". i cant change the background, or anny SETTINGS for that matter. but i can delete and modify files. My internet is reset every time i get on it, but it still has my favorites. The start menu has nothing on it except "all Programs" and the right pannel. i cant pin annything to the start menu. I ran a full system scan on norton and nothing came up. norton auto protect was off and i couldnt turn it on. i did a system respawn to 2 months ago, and that fixed norton, but i still cant change any settings
... oh and google says my browser cache is full when its not

Help... please

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by caperjack

Dani AI

Generated

Symptoms like an inaccessible Settings UI, a stripped Start menu, and some system tray apps missing usually point to either a corrupted user profile or malware that changes per-user policies and shell components. The quick diagnostic that suggested — creating a new account — is exactly the right first step because it isolates whether the problem is profile-specific. confirming a new account showed different behavior also strongly supports a per-user issue rather than a full disk hardware failure.

Practical next steps:

  • Isolate the machine (disconnect network) so the infection cannot spread.
  • Boot into Safe Mode and run offline scans from trusted rescue media. If the machine cannot download tools, use another PC and a USB stick (as recommended) or build a bootable rescue USB to run scanners before Windows starts.
  • Repair system files with the System File Checker from an elevated prompt: sfc /scannow. If the profile is the problem, create a fresh local administrator account and migrate documents only after scanning them.

If a shop has already reinstalled or overwritten the drive, stop using that disk to avoid overwriting recoverable data. For lost files, try recovery tools that work from another system or a bootable USB (recovery success drops after writes). For persistent, hard-to-remove rootkits or where core OS components are damaged, a clean reinstall from known-good installation media is the safest long-term fix; only restore personal files that have been scanned on a clean system.

Cautions: do not trust old System Restore points as a guaranteed cure (malware can hide there). Back up everything before making major changes. If unsure about recovery or you need critical data, consult a professional data‑recovery service rather than repeatedly reformatting the disk.

Recommended Answers

All 10 Replies

Member Avatar for caperjack

go to control panel/users ,and`create a new account ans see what happens

Member Avatar for bobbyraw

your pc is infected with some malware. you should run adaware, spybot Search and destroy. just so you know malware and trojan alwas target system restore point, so that if you restore you are still infected

Member Avatar for blackbelt27

i cant download anything

Member Avatar for bobbyraw

use another pc and a flash drive

Member Avatar for blackbelt27

the new account worked and im running spybot and its finding crap left and right

Member Avatar for caperjack

the new account worked and im running spybot and its finding crap left and right

great to hear the new account idea! worked for you

Member Avatar for blackbelt27

my dad decided to restart the compy... completely f***ed up... cant start, took it to circut city and various local computer genuises and from what they tell me its f****d they say its happened once before to some unfrotunate soul...they say whatever virus it was completely wiped out the entire hard drive

Member Avatar for caperjack

my dad decided to restart the compy... completely f***ed up... cant start, took it to circut city and various local computer genuises and from what they tell me its f****d they say its happened once before to some unfrotunate soul...they say whatever virus it was completely wiped out the entire hard drive

how can that be ,in the last post you say you were running virus scans !
did they all try and sell you a new computer !

Member Avatar for blackbelt27

the virus is brand new and dosen't even have a name yet...

Member Avatar for caperjack

the virus is brand new and dosen't even have a name yet...

lol

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