All .exe extensions changed to *exe.vir. and quarantined. Pleeeeas Help!!

[Speedy Gonzales]

All .exe extensions changed to  *exe.vir. and quarantined. Pleeeeas Help!!

When evr I try to open any program, a windows error message pops up saying,
" Could not find C:\ WINDOWS\system32\rundll32.exe  .
No program runs. And when I look in the Quarantine folder, all the programs I tried to run are there with their exe files changed to fro ex. wmp.exe.vir and so on.
All and any tips are most welcome and highly appreciated. Thanks all.

[evilfantasy]

when I look in the Quarantine folder

What quarantine folder? McAfee?

Is it a paid version? Update it.....then let us know.

[patio]

Also in this instance more info would be a good idea...
Windows version ? ?
Protection apps installed currently ? ?
Any new software installed in the last month ? ?

[Speedy Gonzales]

Sorry guys!!
It is an IBM thinkpad T20 running win xp pro 2 edition.
McAfee antivirus, perpetual. But McAfee always says it is 19 months old when scanning. Latest software run was RockXp , just for product key retrieval.
P.s. The quarantine folder is located in c:\windows\Quarantine.
Any hope??

10X again ofr all the help, guys!!

[Speedy Gonzales]

More bkgd info, the laptop doesn't let me run anything. Even tried to update the McAfee, but says can't find ''Windows Installer''. Plus, the activity bar doubled and the start menu disapeared. And the CPU is almost always @ 100%.

Hope that helps.

[patio]

Probably not what you want to hear but with all your file extensions wonked and things seemingly getting worse a format and clean install of XP may be in order here...

[CBMatt]

You can run anything at all?  Not even HijackThis?  What about in Safe Mode?

This sort of infection is possible to clean, but I'll tell you right now that even if we can clean your infection, it probably won't be easy.