I've lost admin privs, and I can't stop what's happening!

I'm running Windows XP Home edition.

My pc was attacked by a virus. PCTools Spyware Doctor With Antivirus cleared
the conglomerate of viruses out, or so it claims, BUT

when it took over, it made a bunch of changes, AND removed my admin privs.

Now:
1) "Settings" on the Start Menu no longer allows me access to Control Panel
or to the printers. It shows me only "Taskbar and Start Menu"
2) "My Computer" does not see the CD-Rom/DVD player
3) I have no access to Task Manager. Instead, a box pops up that says "Task
Manager has been disabled by your administrator"
4) The computer plays horrible music that I cannot stop.
5) I cannot access the Display Control panel (i.e., when I right-click on
the desktop) -- the computer tells me that this has been disabled by the
administrator. So I cannot change the desktop or the screen saver - both of
which are under the control of the malware. (The desktop now consists of a
blue screen and a box in the center that says "Warning! Spyware Detected on
your Computer! Install and Antivirus or spyware remover to clean your
computer"
6) The time display at the bottom-right corner says "19:42: VIRUS ALERT!"
and I cannot change this either, though I can open Time and Date Properties
dialog box.
7) There are probably other things I have not discovered yet.

Someone, please help me!

Mordechai Housman

Have you tried to roll your computer back to a time before the virus attack
occured using system restore?

"Andy Max" <nobody@nowhere.com> wrote in message
news:3i00k.795$BV.285@trndny05...
> I'm running Windows XP Home edition.
>
> My pc was attacked by a virus. PCTools Spyware Doctor With Antivirus
> cleared the conglomerate of viruses out, or so it claims, BUT
>
> when it took over, it made a bunch of changes, AND removed my admin privs.
>
> Now:
> 1) "Settings" on the Start Menu no longer allows me access to Control
> Panel or to the printers. It shows me only "Taskbar and Start Menu"
> 2) "My Computer" does not see the CD-Rom/DVD player
> 3) I have no access to Task Manager. Instead, a box pops up that says
> "Task Manager has been disabled by your administrator"
> 4) The computer plays horrible music that I cannot stop.
> 5) I cannot access the Display Control panel (i.e., when I right-click on
> the desktop) -- the computer tells me that this has been disabled by the
> administrator. So I cannot change the desktop or the screen saver - both
> of which are under the control of the malware. (The desktop now consists
> of a blue screen and a box in the center that says "Warning! Spyware
> Detected on your Computer! Install and Antivirus or spyware remover to
> clean your computer"
> 6) The time display at the bottom-right corner says "19:42: VIRUS ALERT!"
> and I cannot change this either, though I can open Time and Date
> Properties dialog box.
> 7) There are probably other things I have not discovered yet.
>
> Someone, please help me!
>
> Mordechai Housman
>

Andy Max wrote:
> I'm running Windows XP Home edition.
>
> My pc was attacked by a virus. PCTools Spyware Doctor With Antivirus cleared
> the conglomerate of viruses out, or so it claims, BUT
>
> when it took over, it made a bunch of changes, AND removed my admin privs.
>
> Now:
> 1) "Settings" on the Start Menu no longer allows me access to Control Panel
> or to the printers. It shows me only "Taskbar and Start Menu"
> 2) "My Computer" does not see the CD-Rom/DVD player
> 3) I have no access to Task Manager. Instead, a box pops up that says "Task
> Manager has been disabled by your administrator"
> 4) The computer plays horrible music that I cannot stop.
> 5) I cannot access the Display Control panel (i.e., when I right-click on
> the desktop) -- the computer tells me that this has been disabled by the
> administrator. So I cannot change the desktop or the screen saver - both of
> which are under the control of the malware. (The desktop now consists of a
> blue screen and a box in the center that says "Warning! Spyware Detected on
> your Computer! Install and Antivirus or spyware remover to clean your
> computer"
> 6) The time display at the bottom-right corner says "19:42: VIRUS ALERT!"
> and I cannot change this either, though I can open Time and Date Properties
> dialog box.
> 7) There are probably other things I have not discovered yet.
>
> Someone, please help me!
>
> Mordechai Housman
>
>
Unless they've plugged this hole with SP3, there's an easy way to do
this. Boot up in Safe Mode, and sign on as Administrator. Then you can
go to Control Panel->Users and whatever you wish. Give your ID admin
privileges, then boot up in normal mode.

Okay, everything has been fixed, except for one thing: in "My Computer"
neither the hard drive nor the CD/DVD drive is showing up.

This also means that the Search function will not search the C: drive or the
CD drive, because it doesn't see them. And another result is that autorun no
longer works when I insert a CD or DVD.

When I open "My Computer" all I see are "Shared Documents" and "User's
Documents" ("User" is the name of the user -- I didn't personalize it).
Below that, it says "Scanners and Cameras," and my webcam shows up. My
scanner shows up when I turn it on and engage it.

I can access the C: and D: drives themselves if I force it by typing c:\ or
d:\ into the address line, but that doesn't really solve my problem
entirely. That's not how it should work.

Can anyone please tell me how to reinstate these drives?

Thanks!

[roseanne]

Originally Posted by Andy Max

Okay, everything has been fixed, except for one thing: in "My Computer"
neither the hard drive nor the CD/DVD drive is showing up.

Did you ever find a fix for this? I'm pretty much in the same boat right now. Got all the nasty stuff cleaned out (I think) but neither the C drive nor the CD/DVD show up in My Computer. Yes, the data is there, CD works, and yeah I can type C:\ in the address bar and get to what I need, but neither C nore the optical drive show up by default in My Computer.

Give this a try..
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/scripts_d...cd_dvd_fix.htm

"roseanne" <roseanne.3arjbf@DoNotSpam.com> wrote in message
news:roseanne.3arjbf@DoNotSpam.com...
>
> Andy Max;3775404 Wrote:
>> Okay, everything has been fixed, except for one thing: in "My Computer"
>> neither the hard drive nor the CD/DVD drive is showing up.
>>
>
> Did you ever find a fix for this? I'm pretty much in the same boat
> right now. Got all the nasty stuff cleaned out (I think) but neither
> the C drive nor the CD/DVD show up in My Computer. Yes, the data is
> there, CD works, and yeah I can type C:\ in the address bar and get to
> what I need, but neither C nore the optical drive show up by default in
> My Computer.
>
>
> --
> roseanne
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> roseanne's Profile: http://forums.techarena.in/members/51303.htm
> View this thread: I've lost admin privs, and I can't stop what's happening!
>
> http://forums.techarena.in
>

[roseanne]

I ended up downloading PowerToys TweakUI from the Microsoft site and used it to Unhide C and D. Of all the drives listed, only those two were hidden.

Gotta love those folks who make spyware. Grrrrr.

I downloaded and installed PowerToys TweakUI but when I tried to run it I got
"Tweak UI has been disabled by you administrator." I have run AV software in
safe mode and regular mode, I have checked my administrator rights and I am
the administrator! I went back to safe mode and ran tweakUI and C: drive was
checked; thought I would avoid the problom by setting the machine to start in
adminstrater mode but that did not work! Anybody have any sugestions?
PS the virus that attacked me was "antivirus 2008" and I am currently
running iolo sytem mechanic pro.

"roseanne" wrote:

>
> I ended up downloading PowerToys TweakUI from the Microsoft site and
> used it to Unhide C and D. Of all the drives listed, only those two
> were hidden.
>
> Gotta love those folks who make spyware. Grrrrr.
>
>
> --
> roseanne
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> roseanne's Profile: http://forums.techarena.in/members/51303.htm
> View this thread: I've lost admin privs, and I can't stop what's happening!
>
> http://forums.techarena.in
>
>

Yes, I downloaded Tweak UI, which is apparently part of "Powertoys for
Windows XP" and one of the things it allowed me to do was "unhide" the
drives that were hidden.


"roseanne" <roseanne.3arjbf@DoNotSpam.com> wrote in message
news:roseanne.3arjbf@DoNotSpam.com...
>
> Andy Max;3775404 Wrote:
>> Okay, everything has been fixed, except for one thing: in "My Computer"
>> neither the hard drive nor the CD/DVD drive is showing up.
>>
>
> Did you ever find a fix for this? I'm pretty much in the same boat
> right now. Got all the nasty stuff cleaned out (I think) but neither
> the C drive nor the CD/DVD show up in My Computer. Yes, the data is
> there, CD works, and yeah I can type C:\ in the address bar and get to
> what I need, but neither C nore the optical drive show up by default in
> My Computer.
>
>
> --
> roseanne
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> roseanne's Profile: http://forums.techarena.in/members/51303.htm
> View this thread: I've lost admin privs, and I can't stop what's happening!
>
> http://forums.techarena.in
>

Have you tried Spybot?


"ken" <ken@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:396CD8E6-4B95-45FB-A5C3-DDFCAEED52C4@microsoft.com...
>I downloaded and installed PowerToys TweakUI but when I tried to run it I
>got
> "Tweak UI has been disabled by you administrator." I have run AV software
> in
> safe mode and regular mode, I have checked my administrator rights and I
> am
> the administrator! I went back to safe mode and ran tweakUI and C: drive
> was
> checked; thought I would avoid the problom by setting the machine to start
> in
> adminstrater mode but that did not work! Anybody have any sugestions?
> PS the virus that attacked me was "antivirus 2008" and I am currently
> running iolo sytem mechanic pro.
>
> "roseanne" wrote:
>
>>
>> I ended up downloading PowerToys TweakUI from the Microsoft site and
>> used it to Unhide C and D. Of all the drives listed, only those two
>> were hidden.
>>
>> Gotta love those folks who make spyware. Grrrrr.
>>
>>
>> --
>> roseanne
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> roseanne's Profile: http://forums.techarena.in/members/51303.htm
>> View this thread: I've lost admin privs, and I can't stop what's happening!
>>
>> http://forums.techarena.in
>>
>>

[Justheretohelp]

Dear all,

I have encountered a similar problem i.e. attack on desktop, control panel, time and date system tray etc...

This is a pretty serious case of virus attack.

The following are a list of options:

1. Do a system restore (might not be full proof)
2. Do a complete reformatting of C: drive (of cos you should have a backup before that)
3. Download the following anti virus programs and spyware removals:
a. Avast anti virus
b. Smitfraudfix
c. Trojan remover
d. Malawarebytes
e. Ewido
f. Adware
g. Spybot s&d
h. CWshredder
i. Spyware doctor
j. Panda active scan

This step should probably clear most if not all of the viruses and finally,
4. Send your hijack log file to the IT expert analysts and have them take a look for a full proof solution. (And of cos, give them some time, since they are doing you a favour)