[Dr. Havoc]

A few days ago (last friday, I think) I switched on my PC to find that some of my desktop icons had vanished. Restarting was no help, so I performed a virus scan (using Avast! anitvirus) but found nothing. I went to perform a system restore only to find that most of the icons in the system tools folder in the start menu (along with other icons) had also vanished! I performed the system restore (going through the help & support option) which fixed the problem... for a day or so.

So now whenever I switch on my PC there's about a 50% chance of finding my shortcuts missing. It seems to be the same ones that are vanishing (though never all at once) including the shortcuts to avast, firefox and a few of my games. My Computer, My Documents etc. never vanish, though I'm starting to think it's only a matter of time. And system restore doesn't always work. The icons aren't in the recycle bin, they're just... gone.

Does anyone here have any idea what could be happening? I've done many searches but I can't find anything that matches my problem exactly. I tried a solution to something similar (it involved closing explorer.exe in the Task Manager and then deleting the icon cache in the Documents & Settings folder) but it didn't help. Any thoughts?

Thanks for your time.

(I'm running Windows XP Professional, Service pack 3)

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My mistake picked this up thinking is was a Waiting Room Malware forum.

Edited by emeraldnzl, 19 November 2009 - 02:50 PM.

[emeraldnzl]

My mistake picked this up thinking is was a Waiting Room Malware forum.

Edited by emeraldnzl, 19 November 2009 - 02:50 PM.

[Rorschach112]

Please go to the malware forum and follow the instructions at the top....Especially the CLICK HERE.

That will give you several steps that will help you clean up 70 percent of all problems by yourself. If at the end of the process you are still having difficulty--and you may not be-- then post an OTListIt log in THAT forum.