[HXC LOL]

Two days ago my computer became infected with malware claiming to be "Vista Security 2011." I'm sure many of you have heard about this issue before. It wouldn't let me open any web browser without giving me a warning that my computer was not protected, and then proceeding to run a fake virus scan. It would also do this when I tried running a virus scan.

The process that was running the messages and fake virus scans was "gow.exe"

I downloaded AVG Virus Protection and it deleted various corrupted files, but it missed "gow.exe" I did another quick scan and it caught the file and deleted it.

On to the point: After getting rid of "gow.exe" my computer can no longer open any programs by double-clicking an icon, or right-clicking and pressing Open. Now, there is a "start" button in the right-click menu that opens the program. The only things I can open by clicking Open are folders. Anything else gives me the "Open With..." window.

Here's a picture of the miraculous start button:

I have never seen this "start" button before, and I have no idea what the problem could be, since gow.exe didn't exist before the infection, but the problem only occurred after the deletion of gow.exe

If anyone has some insight on this issue, please let me know. This is the first issue I've run into after deleting this file, and I'm not sure what other things were affected by it.

Thanks in advance,

Oren

 

[DT Roberts]

Hello and welcome to TSF.

First try using this registry fix to try to repair .EXE file associations: When you run an .exe file on a Windows Vista-based or Windows 7-based computer, the file may start a different program

Let us know how it goes. Best of luck.

Devin

 

[HXC LOL]

Couldn't get very far in the process. "ERROR: Error opening the file. There may be a disk or file system failure."

 

[cluberti]

If you have a system restore point to before the infection, you may be able to simply use that. Most of those "security software" infections do monkey with the registry, and cleaning up after them can be difficult without a restore point.

 

[Fred Garvin]

Assuming you downloaded the Registry file to your desktop, right click on it and *Run as Administrator*.

 

[jenae]

Hi, few issues here, from your right click context menu you appear to have two anti virus programs AVG and Norton is this correct? If so this is not recommended as one or the other will conflict. You would be better served if you removed both (use their uninstaller google it). Download free Microsoft security essentials.

Yes, go to start all programs accessories and right click on command prompt select "run as administrator" for the .exe fix although this comes from MS,it is not complete, in your case you may need all default .exe registry defaults. See how you go.

Now the startup added to your context menu:- I would love to see the code the nasty used, just hope some of our mod's didn't contribute. As above open a command prompt as administrator and copy paste this:-

 regedit /e C:\Note.txt "HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AllFilesystemObjects\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers" & start notepad C:\note.txt

Copy the notepad contents here.

You will find a very useful utility called "shellEx View"

Download ShellExView 1.65 Free - Displays the details of shell extensions installed on your computer - Softpedia

It is most useful for tracking down these sorts of problems. We might need to use it, if the Reg entry does not help.