I've just cleaned my friends pc of over 1,000 items of malware, spyware and trojans. Yes, I did say over 1,000
Anyways, I do the odd spot of IT support for friends and I'm used to the problems expected from removing *ware and trojans e.g. winsock problems and complaints from XP and I usually just make the changes in the registry, with a little help from the Internet.
However, I've encountered a problem that is new to me. Once I removed the programs (I think they are all gone, but I have a feeling there is still something lurking in the registry) access to the contents of Device Manager is no longer available. I can open it, but there is no content, even if I plug in something that I know it has configured e.g. speedtouch modem... Nothing.
I have even tried to create a network connection with my own PC but the infected one wont even detect the NIC
I've tried doing a few searches on Google but didn't get far. My mood is now to reinstall from afresh, but my friend has applications for work that are too much hastle to get reinstalled, so would prefer to have the problem resolved without reinstalling XP Pro.
Suggestions?