Re: major problems :\
 

Well... not neccesarily. From what I've heard, Windows XP MCE has many bugs and defects that make it vunlernable to things like this. Like I said, go get a Windows XP Pro disk from either the store or a friend. xD

Re: major problems :\
 

Personally I think having MCE on a laptop is the most pointless thing ever. As suggested, it would be best to get a proper XP disc, but a fair bit cheaper to order a restore disc from Dell. Depends whether you can put up with the amount of useless crap they insist on installing on their systems.

Re: major problems :\
 

I can put up with the popups everyonce and a while, but the explorer.exe is the devil.

Re: major problems :\
 

Mate, your computer (or, rather, Windows) is fubared, frankly what you can put up with is irrelevant; it'll be much better for you to get rid of all this crap and MAKE SURE you don't get it again. How you got that many issues with your PC to begin with, I have no idea...if it's someone else, I suggest you bar them from the thing. If its you, get some common sense because that's the one of the best defences against things like spyware.

Yes, AdAware and Spybot and an anti virus program are all fine and dandy, and very helpful if you do have a problem. But think about it, wouldn't it be better for that kind of junk to not get on your system because the people using it don't let it?

Don't click popups. Don't visit dodgy sites. Don't download programs that say they can help clean up your PC, or fix your registry or whatever. I mean, you're even using a screenshot from a rather dubious looking site to demonstrate your problems to us...perhaps that kind of thing is why you have such a huge amount of crap wrong with your system?

Also, your taskbar icons are hidden so I don't know what you have running, but do you actually have an anti-virus and firewall program running?

Re: major problems :\
 

I had McAfee on for the past couple months until I figured out why my games were freezing and my internet connection crapped out during online games.

I don't click any popups. Maybe dodgy sites... if you know what I mean. the only spyware program that I use is Adaware, which I have been using for the past couple years.

The only way I see how the spyware got on was when I downloaded some game demo. A bunch of them have a checkmark box that asks if you want something installed on your computer or not -- I must have accidently passed it up.

Re: major problems :\
 

The worst thing a (legit) game demo could do is install GameSpy. Which is bodering on spyware.

Are you sure there's not a recovery option somewehere in the "all programs" portion of your start menu. Trust me, even your dell came with some kind of recovery stuff.

If you call Dell tech support and are real nice, they'll often ship you a copy of Windows for free.

Re: major problems :\
 

It doesn't matter. The college I'm going to in three weeks has a free H.E.L.P. service that will install Xp Pro for free.

Re: major problems :\
 

That'll just end up being messy. I just deleted a lot of programs... I don't want to have re-uninstall them

EDIT: I don't know what program did it, but it seems like that explorer.exe thing went away.

Re: major problems :\
 

It was CCleaner! I know it :nodds:

Re: major problems :\
 

lol. I think it was. Thanks.