Frozen out of all accounts

Best thing is to do a Windows XP Repair install, hopefully you have your XP installation disk.

Boot from the WinXP CD (you may have to change a setting in your BIOS that allows you to boot from the CD). Do not choose the option to repair an XP installation using Recovery Console when prompted, choose the option to To set up Windows XP now press ENTER.

After more files have been copied, you'll get another selection screen where you should select the current XP installation, & the option To Repair the selected Windows XP installation, press R.

 

You will probably need to visit Windows/Microsoft Update to repatch the system and your OE problem may be solved here ....

An Outlook Express basic repair kit, particularly the section on re-registering.

 

As Arie posted in your other thread OE does not appear in Add/Remove - it is part of IE and IE does not appear either as that cannot be removed - it is 'integrated' into Windows.

Re-register the files as I suggested.

 

Well worth defragmenting the drive too. Now that you have SP 2 installed you need to visit Windows Update to get patched up to date.

If you went on the internet without SP 2 it is possible that you picked something up. I suggest you do the following ....

Download and install the 30 day trial version of Ewido Anti-Spyware

Run the program either from the Desktop icon if you chose to install one or from Start > Programs. On the main screen select the Update icon followed by the "Update now" link and click on the Start Update button. The update will start and a progress bar will show the updates being installed.

When the update has completed select the Scanner icon at the top of the window and click on the Settings tab.

On the Settings screen click on Recommended actions and then on Quarantine.

Under Reports select Automatically generate report after every scan and deselect Only if threats were found.

Close Ewido Anti-spyware. Do not run a scan just yet.

Boot into Safe Mode and log onto your usual account.

Do not open any other windows or programs while Ewido is scanning as this may interfere with the scanning proccess.

Start Ewido Anti-spyware by double-clicking the icon on your desktop or from Start > Programs and select the Scanner icon at the top of the window followed by the Scan tab and click on Complete System Scan. The scanning process will start and may take some time.

When the scan is complete if any infections were detected you will prompted for an action - select Apply all actions.

Then select the Reports icon at the top of the window and click on the Save report as button in the lower left hand corner of the screen and save it as a text file (be sure to remember where you saved that file, this is important).

Close Ewido and reboot your system back into Normal Mode.

Download HijackThis through Quicklinks in my signature and save it to a folder on your hard drive, say C:\HJT - not to the Desktop or a temporary location. When entries are fixed with HJT a backup is made to the folder from which HJT is run and this must be in a permanent location.

Open the folder in which you placed HJT and double click on hijackthis.exe and select Scan and save a log file - this will be saved in the folder from which you ran HJT.

Reboot into Normal mode and post the Ewido log and the HJT log in a new thread in the Removing Spyware & Viruses forum - give the background to your problem - XP repair, etc.

 

You're welcome I strongly recommend running Ewido at this time in addition to the others you mentioned.

 

You can split the Ewido report over 2 or more posts if you like. I will look at your HJT log, but may leave it to those more expert than I am in analysing HJT logs than I am to comment.