I had a motherboard fail; upon putting in a new one I installed XP again adding a device or so at a time to bring it up. In getting some drivers off the net, I got a virus dropped on me which erased all "restore points" and put in one restore point (which of course protected itself) and labeled it "Last known good....." just like what you get when a boot fails and you restart and get that list of options to open windows. Slick.

I got rid of most of what it dropped on my by running AVG, AdAware and Spybot numerous times.

However, there is something still there which at intervals of a few minutes, or when you change websites, opens some random webpage for junk ads & stuff. Any idea what this is or how to get rid of it??

I am thinking of another restore; or, switching to Firefox.

Swamp Daddy

Scan, but that probably won't fix all the problems. I recommend you reboot.

try total security.

it will solve ur problem

Hi all: Well, I finally found the file that was causing the problem. It was called 'core.cache.dsk' and was located in Drivers folder in System 32.

However, once this file was erased you were ok during that session; but, on the next reboot it was right back. Now a minor nuisance rather than a major one.

Spy Hunter and Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware found the remaining hidden files and registry entries that totally eliminated the problem.

These last two programs are new to me and it was the first time my favorite combo of AVG, Spybot and AdAware failed to solve a problem.

The problem actually started because I got in a hurry to get a driver for a new system and had not yet installed security programs -- on the net and infected quickly.

I may try that "Total Security".

thanks, Harrt