Earlier this morning, my computer (Compaq Presario SR1834NX from early 2006, running Windows XP Service Pack 2, Media Center Edition, 1.0 GB memory, primary browser is latest version of Firefox) contracted the faux antivirus spyware XP Smart Security. Following some online instructions, I altered the registry with the following:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[-HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareClasses.exe]
[-HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareClassessecfile]
[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTsecfile]
[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT.exeshellopencommand]
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTexefileshellopencommand]
@=""%1" %*"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT.exe]
@="exefile"
"Content Type"="application/x-msdownload"
then downloaded SUPERAntiSpyware's free edition (currently the only antimalware protection I have, as I reformatted a couple of days ago) and performed a complete scan to remove the rest of it. I rebooted after the scan to find that, while XP Smart Security appears to be gone, I am prompted with the "Open With" dialogue box every time I attempt to open something. Additionally - and whether or not this is related, I could not say - task manager indicates that I am for some reason running about ten processes less on startup than I was the last time I booted. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.
I also attempted the solution suggested by Allan in
http://www.computerhope.com/forum/index.php/topic,102687.0.html, since the topic starter's problem appeared similar to my own. I restarted again after this, and nothing seems to have changed.
