Missing Folder Options and Regedit Disabled

Hi Everyone,

First of all i want to apologise if the following sounds stupid as i am a
complete novice to all this. However, i would really appreciate if anyone can
please help me or point me in the right direction.

Recently, it came to my attention that the 'Folder Options...' menu is
missing on my laptop.
I tried to find help using a number of different sites (including
microsoft). One of the step-by-step guides on the microsoft website
instructed me to go to the Start Menu -> Run ->Regedit.
Unfortunately, I realised that this has also been disabled! I got an error
message saying "Registry Editing Has Been Disabled By Your Administrator"
after which it automatically shutsdown my laptop without any warning! I know
there are alot of posts on the internet which try and help you re-enable the
Regedit. I tried running a number of VB scripts which i found (on this site
and others -including the. VBscript created by Doug Knox), which were
supposed to re-enable the regedit. Unofortunately none of them have worked
for me so far!

I am using Windows XP Professional. There is only one account on my laptop
(so i am definitetely supposed to have sys admin privilidges). I have had
this laptop for couple of years i think. I'm not sure how long this virus has
been on my laptop or what else has been affected/disbaled on my laptop! It
was only by chance i came across this.

I use the AVG anti-virus software and did a full scan but unfortunately that
did not pick anything up! Therefore, due to my lack of knowledge in this, I'm
not sure what checks i can do to see if anything else has been affected!

I would be very grateful and would really appreciate it if anyone can please
help me with this.

Thanks in advance for your time and help.

Kind regards,

z4f786 wrote:

> Recently, it came to my attention that the 'Folder Options...' menu is
> missing on my laptop.
> I tried to find help using a number of different sites (including
> microsoft). One of the step-by-step guides on the microsoft website
> instructed me to go to the Start Menu -> Run ->Regedit.
> Unfortunately, I realised that this has also been disabled! I got an error
> message saying "Registry Editing Has Been Disabled By Your Administrator"
> after which it automatically shutsdown my laptop without any warning! I
> know there are alot of posts on the internet which try and help you
> re-enable the Regedit. I tried running a number of VB scripts which i
> found (on this site and others -including the. VBscript created by Doug
> Knox), which were supposed to re-enable the regedit. Unofortunately none
> of them have worked for me so far!
>
> I am using Windows XP Professional. There is only one account on my laptop
> (so i am definitetely supposed to have sys admin privilidges). I have had
> this laptop for couple of years i think. I'm not sure how long this virus
> has been on my laptop or what else has been affected/disbaled on my
> laptop! It was only by chance i came across this.
>
> I use the AVG anti-virus software and did a full scan but unfortunately
> that did not pick anything up! Therefore, due to my lack of knowledge in
> this, I'm not sure what checks i can do to see if anything else has been
> affected!

Your computer is infected, probably with non-viral malware that AVG can't
deal with. I'll give you the usual cleanup instructions but since you say
you are a novice, a better course of action might be for you to take the
machine to a competent local computer tech. I don't recommend using a
BigComputerStore/GeekSquad type of place.

Go through these general malware removal steps systematically -
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/...moving_Malware

Include scanning with David Lipman's Multi_AV and follow instructions to do
all scans in Safe Mode. Please see the special Notes regarding using
Multi_AV in Vista.

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Multi-AV - instructions
http://tinyurl.com/yoeru3 - download link and more instructions

When all else fails, get guided help. Choose one of the specialty forums
listed at the first link. Register and read its posting FAQ. PLEASE DO NOT
POST LOGS IN THE MS NEWSGROUPS.

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ