My Windows XP SP2 computer is stuck in the logon/logoff loop. I am confident that this is the cause of a virus, as the computer displayed many virus warnings. I ran a system scan, it deleted several viruses, but then this one took hold of the computer to the point I am at now.
I get into the Windows recovery console, and I discovered that I do not have a the file c:\windows\system32\userinit.exe. So I can't try any of the posts that talk about copying it to wsaupdater.exe, and updating the registry.
I also looked into restoring to a previous recovery image, but I don't have a "snapshot" directory.
So I've hit walls trying the suggested fixes that I have found so far.
What else can I try? If I can avoid reinstalling the os, that would be preferable.
Thanks for your help.