How to Perform a Windows XP Repair Install
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

[Courtesy of MS-MVP Michael Stevens]

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User

Be Smart! Protect your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/

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"snewbury" wrote in message:
...

| Hi All,
|
| I am attempting to recover from a Spyware install. I've removed the Spyware installation and most registry
entries, however, I couldn't remove the most important one until the file was gone. To only way to remove the
software was to boot into DOS and delete the file from there since the way it was being loaded was through the
WinLogon process.
|
| The problem I have now is that even though the spyware is gone, I can't remove the entry out of the
registry, because my system will no longer boot. In it's current state, when the system boots, it looks for
the spyware file during the winlogon process, but since it can't find it anymore, the winlogon process blue
screens.
|
| Before the spyware software was removed, I was unable to delete the entry in the registry, since every time
I deleted the registry entry for the spyware, it would re-enter itself. (It had a hook into the explorer.exe
process).
|
| I am now trying to copy the registry from this system to another one so that I can edit it and remove the
corrupt entry. I don't know what files the registry consists of, so I was wondering if you could point me to
the correct files.
|
| As an alternative, if any of you are aware of DOS tools I can use to edit the registry, I would also be
willing to try that. Note that the entries in the registry for the Spyware are preceeded by a null character,
so regular registry tools will not even see the entries. I had a heck of a time figuring this out, since
essentially the spyware put a null character entry in front of the entire WinLogon registry node. Normal
registry tools use the Win32 API, which ignores anything after a null character. In other words, the entire
WinLogon registry node in this case.
|
| At any rate, any suggestions to edit the registry in a non Windows mode, or by copying it to another
computer, would be highly appreciated. My understanding is that the spyware was a variation of the VX2 Better
Internet software. Nasty stuff to get rid of, or even find.
|
| Your help is much appreciated!
|
| Steve.