[NoviceinNJ]

I'm new at this so I'm not sure I'll have all the right information on the first go round.

I have a virus in XP explorer.exe. I run Avast 5.0677 virus def 101024-1 which located the virus and moved it to "moved to chest". I tried to repair it through Avast but it could not be repaired. Avast labeled the threat Win32:Bamital-AF. This all came about when I attempted to upgrade Explorer. The problem preexisted the upgrade but the upgrade pointed to a real problem. After I upgraded Explorer (with Bing) when I rebooted and selected a user all I got was my Wallpaper (no icon, Start button, clock, running programs, nothing). All I could do was bring up Windows Task Manager. I used it to start programs to try to determine what was going wrong. I eventually was able to restore the system back before I installed the newest Explorer. When I ran a full Avast scan it can up with the explorer.exe virus. One of the symptoms that indicated that the problem preexisted the installation was that when I searched for a Google query if I selected the returned subject I was often sent to a wrong site. If instead when I copied and pasted the actual URL and was sent to the correct site. Avast is now continuously indicating Malware that it doesn’t forward. I think I have a good explorer.exe from Service PackFiles\i386\explorer.exe I have it on a memory stick but I don’t know it I can copy it over the explorer.exe that is the Windows directory and the one that has the virus. I know that in order to install it I will have to stop Advast and before that I will make sure I’m disconnected from the internet.

I know I was very wordy but I’m assuming that this information is critical in understanding the problem and offering a solution. I have a few additional questions;
1) If I don’t have an uninfected explorer.exe application where would I go to get one? I have a couple of other laptops in the house but not sure what operating system they run, 2) is Avast an appropriate virus scan program, if not which are better, 3) I’m not running any Malware program, should I be and which are good ones, 4) lastly what else should I have on my system to protect it. I just bought a Seagate backup drive which I now have to inspect to make sure that the virus hasn’t migrated to it.

Thanks for any help you can offer.