Uncle Alex 04

Remember the spoof agony aunt email service that I set up some time ago, well something funny happened today. The email that I set up is genuine and I've received what looks like a genuine enquiry about a computer problem. I've no idea where they picked up the email but I presume the question is genuine because of all the information that it contains. It seems too elaborate for a joke.

Anyway, here's what it says:

Hello,

A friend of mine has a Toshiba Satellite laptop running Win XP Media Center Edition. It has a virus, I believe it is XP Antivirus Protection.

The laptop has McAfee on it and it gives this message:

McAfee has automatically blocked and removed a Trojan.

About this TrojanDetected: Gereric Packed (Trojan), Generic Packed (Trojan)Location: C:\Documents and Settings\Admin\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5\DUJSRVXE\tsstduhii[1].htm

Trojans appear as legitimate programs but can damage valuable files, disrupt performance, and allow unauthorized access to your computer.

System restore will not work. It starts to do the restore and then when the blue progress bar gets about half way finished it restarts the laptop and then when it comes back up, there is a message that System restore was not successful and cannot be restored.

I cannot disable anything in the MSCONFIG Startup tab, I get an error message “An Access Denied error was returned while attempting to change a service. You may need to log on using an Admistrator account to make the specified changes.”

However, I am logged in with an Admin account. I also cannot enter REGEDIT, I get a dialog box that states “Registry editing has been disabled by your administrator.” As an added bonus, the laptop gets the blue screen with white numbers and letters, something that looks like this (0x0000800). It goes away quickly, but I believe it says something about a physical dump and then turns itself off!

To make matters worse, she does not have the Win XP CD or restore disk. Is there anything I can do to fix this? Or should I throw it out of the window of a tall office building…or moving vehicle?

On an unrelated issue, we have a PC in the office that is running Vista and the password is lost. Now we cannot install a printer because the PC wants us to be logged on as an administrator. Is there anyway to reset the password or get around this so we can install a printer?

Thank you,

L..

This is my reply

Dear L

With regards your first question, the tall building option sounds good. However I advise caution with this approach. Firstly the building doesn't need to be too high because if you fail to let go of the laptop, when you throw it out of the window, you don't want to hurt yourself anymore than necessary and secondly it will help you avoid a charge of manslaughter by avoiding any pedestrians. You've already got enough problems without adding to them.

This solution is also good for your second question.

Uncle Alex