[G Dogg]

I was wondering if anyone here might be able to help me.

I recently was online (wireless) and lost my connection to my wireless network. After about a half hour of trying to re-connect, I decided to restart my computer. After restarting my computer, I still could not connect to the internet. After closing my browser window, I noticed that the Microsoft "flying flag" icon was overlaying many of my desktop icons. I could see the icons, but the flag was on top of all of them.

I ran my virus scan and nothing came up. I ran ad-aware and nothing was on the computer. I restarted again. This time all my icons had Microsoft flags on them. The flags slowly made their way onto every icon in every folder I viewed. Everything seemed to be working fine, except I still couldn't connect to the internet.

I was wondering if anyone might know what this is, and what may have caused it.

Thanks in advance for any and all replies.

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i have never heard of such a thing

Please go to the malware forum in my signature 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 a hijackthis log in THAT forum.

If you are still having problems after getting a clean bill of health from the malware expert, please return to this thread.

[dsenette]

i have never heard of such a thing

Please go to the malware forum in my signature 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 a hijackthis log in THAT forum.

If you are still having problems after getting a clean bill of health from the malware expert, please return to this thread.

[G Dogg]

I should have mentioned this in the first post and I have no idea why I did not. My apologies. But, this is no longer a problem for me and I was trying to find out what may have been the problem.

This was a problem a couple of months ago. I called the Dell support staff and my support person told me she thought it might be a virus. She then walked me through "delete[ing] the partition." I had no idea what it meant and she didn't give me any reason to be worried. I just graduated law school and had pretty much my entire law school career saved on that computer.

Needless to say, I deleted the partition and while putting everything back on my computer, I asked someone where I'd be able to locate all my notes, papers, resumes, cover letters, etc. The guy (new support person) told me I never would be able to get it back and asked if the previous support person had told me this. Well, no, she didn't. He then assured me (after apologizing endlessly) that I had a virus and it had probably infected everything and all of my work would have been useless even if I had saved it to a disk prior to deleting (NO, I didn't have a backup from the last two years of work - I know I'm an idiot).

Anyway, I've tried to find something on the problem my computer had, but found nothing anywhere other than in an article online, which I wasn't able to access without purchasing a $40 subscription.

Here's the link to the article:

http://www.windowsit.../7469/7469.html

So, I came here. I apologize for not including this in my first post.

Any ideas?

[dsenette]

that I had a virus and it had probably infected everything and all of my work would have been useless even if I had saved it to a disk prior to deleting

not completely true...there are only a few virii that infect ALL files on a computer...in most likely hood you would have (if given the chance) been able to back everything up and have no problems with the files ever...and if they were infected..you could have simply scanned the files with a virus scanner before reloading them....the answer you got was the official tech support CYA answer

(NO, I didn't have a backup from the last two years of work - I know I'm an idiot).

you said it not me

hehe...

i'm sure one of the malware guys may poke their head in here and shed a little more light on the subject..but i'll try to do a little research for you and see what i can find

[G Dogg]

the answer you got was the official tech support CYA answer

you said it not me

hehe...

Great. I figured. I suppose I am just still heart-broken that I lost roughly 3 years of my life that was saved on my computer. I still get upset thinking about it.

Anyway, thanks again and hopefully you or someone might find something on it!

I appreciate all your help.