random startup items missing; shutdown prolonged

[artguy]

Not sure why or what exactly is going on but when I start Win XP Pro, my systray usually starts with things such as Zone Alarm, AVG antivirus, Google Desktop, among others and Outlook I have in my startup items to open on startup as well. In the past, they all started just fine. Now when I start my machine most of the time these items aren't there at all. I have to start each manually. I've checked to make sure they are set to start when windows starts up and they are.

Not sure if this is related, my it takes about 10-15 minutes for windows to shutdown/restart. I select Shut down, it blinks and then does nothing. I can't start any new items as it says windows is shutting down but I see no evidence of it until I walk away and come back later.

I've tried searching for this problem but must not be entering the appropriate keywords unless I'm the only one to run into this. If someone could point me in the right direction or offer any advice, I'd sure appreciate it.

Thanks.

Bob

 

[linney]

A goal of many virus infections is to disable your security programs. It would be a good first step to follow this procedure to see what is happening.

Removing adware & spyware
faq608-4650

 

[artguy]

I think I took care of the shutdown problem. It was a trojan. I thought it had to be something like that. Microsoft AntiSpyware (formerly Giant) found it. It shut down properly.

BUT...when it started back up, now Zone Alarm, AVG started up fine but Outlook didn't startup and Trillian didn't either.

Just thought I'd give an update.

Thanks in advance for any help on startup problem.

bob

 

[artguy]

Thanks, linney. Guess I was posting my followup post as you submitted yours. I will read that article. Thanks.

Bob

 

[garebo]

You can use "msconfig" from the run command on the start menu and make sure the progs you want to start up on startup are listed there and also that there is a check mark on them. Some trojans take the check mark off!!
Have known this for some time but i am also going thru trojan issues where my system locks up because the cpu is at 100% permanent, unless i reboot.
I went to RAV and they were the only online scan place to find anything. Norton found nothing, adaware, hijack this, spybot, etc, etc, all failed me.

http://www.ravantivirus.com/

if you want to check it out. It does says that its been sold to m\soft. I only hope m\soft didnt buy it to kill it!


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