Add/Remove programs and virus problems

I have just helped a friend to get his winXP Home laptop computer running faster after fixing approx 5000 registry problems (by running Registry First Aid) and by removing 12 of 14 viruses (he was running his laptop with no virus protection - so I installed AVG Anti-virus free edition). The two remaining viruses could not be removed. I also observed something I have not seen before - when I used control panel, settings, add remove programs there was a list of say 30 or so programs and then a long black unpopulated screen area before other programs were listed. Could it be that he had tried to uninstall by deleting items showing in the list rather than running uninstall? I also suspect the location of the remaining viruses/worms are crucial to windows and removing them will cause windows to crash completely. He has many programs installed and he only has a restore disk for his laptop, with no OEM WindowsXP home to attempt a repair. Advice would be very welcome

 

Also scan for spywares - run Adaware, Spybot and Microsoft Antispyware.

The blank space in Add/Remove programs could be caused by your removing the entries in registry through the utility. I would not be much bothered about that. You can also try to remove junk and compact the registry - I use Easycleaner 2.0 http://personal.inet.fi/business/toniarts/ecleane.htm to clean the registry and NTRegOpt http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt to backup/defrag it.

 

Ran across references for this at Wilders:
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=113807&highlight=Add/Remove
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=47155&highlight=Add/Remove

Neither was caused by malware.

It might also have been caused by Reg1stAid. I understand your circumstances in this case, but using any reg cleaner when confronted by a massive amount of entries, should be done a little at a time to evaluate the effects in order to have a chance to un do a situation like this.

Regards - Charles