[chermesh]

My system was infected by the Media Codec Zlob Trojen. I keep getting warning for replacement of my IE start page to softwarereferral.com, offers to installed a cleaning tool by pcsecuresystem and new icons by virusprotectionproonline, and error message on a lost c:\windows\privacy_danger.htm file.
In addition, my right-click display option is blocked, and when I access the display configuration thru my control panel, I see a "Modified Theme" message, and any selection of a new theme is blocked.
I read quite a few suggestions as to how to get rid of this monster trojan, but they all require access to the system via Safe Mode. And here comes my special problem:
My WinXP Pro Safe Mode has been unavailable for a long time. I got support suggestions from any possible source (including MS and IBM), but to no avail. Their final word was: Reinstall XP, which I resisted for clear reasons.
So, now I'm in trouble, trying to get rid of a trojan invasion without being able to access safe mode.
Most probably, if such an option is possible, it requires manual registry work, which I'm ready to take.
Can you offer assistance? Any direction will be appreciated.

Ran

p.s I tried the Windows Defender and the Ad-Aware combination, and it didn't work for me.