Rougeware Aftershocks - HELP!

[My Computer Is Pwned]

Yes, XP Antispyware 2010 got me too.

I first became infected, very suddenly, with several FakeAlert trojans back in late October 2009. Ever since then, I've literally updated McAffe whenever possible. McAffe revealed and quarantined the infections, but not before I almost fell for it!

Since then, my computer has been pretty healthy, but while in Internet Explorer it would occasionally redirect me to a site which looked much like the interface of the rougeware that eventually got me, alerts and all.

I clicked "back" and went on my way.

On the 26th, it did it again... with a bite. I was browsing the comic strips archive at Dilbert.com, and get redirected. I click back, but my computer starts running slow as heck and suddenly, the hated popups and baloon tips reappear. I thought McAffe would deal with it again. Nope - it comes up negative not once but TWICE despite having been updated just a few hours prior. I guess that's what I get for continuing to use McAffe 2009. I'll never understand why they make you reinstall.

I left the computer on overnight, fearing that the virus would lock me out of Windows forever if I turned it off, and I would lose hundreds of (not backed up!) pictures which I haven't gotten around to putting on the internet. The next morning, on advice gleaned from a blog comment, I wrote down the name of the process from the Task Manager, then found and deleted the program. Boom, virus gone. Popups, tips, slowness, all of it gone. I could even use the internet again!

However it seems I'm not finished yet. The virus decided to throw a final wrench in the works, either to make the faked infection more realistic or simply as a parting shot. The start menu is ruined. I can't open My Computer, My Docs anything like that from the start menu. It says it can't find Explorer.EXE (It's there - I checked). I also can't open most applications - Microsoft Word* and Ad-Aware are two notable examples. It says "Application not found" or asks me what to open the file with. Outlook and IE were somehow spared.

How do I fix this? I'm hoping it's a file association and not something more sinister...

*I can get Word to open, but only by opening an existing document. I can't get it to start blank though.

[sho-dan]

Hello My Computer Is Pwned and Welcome to Malwarebytes.org

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[My Computer Is Pwned]

The malware is already removed - I'm looking for help with something else it screwed up

[marktreg]

As this is the aftermath of a malware related problem, we are unable to give advice about it in the general forums.

If you follow sho-dan's advice above, one of the malware removal experts will help you to fix the problem.