Windows 2000 - Many problems

My mom had windows 98 when she bought the computer. Since then, she has
installed 2000, and then ME, but removed ME. She now has 2000 only. The
problems are as follows.

1) Sluggish. I thought it may have been a virus, so we installed Norton
Works, which has a Anti-Virus on it. No virus that it can detect. I later
installed Webroot Spysweeper and Window Washer. They helped, but its still
sluggish. I think she may have erased things she was supposed to when she
"cleaned her computer" manually. How do I find out if she did.

2) The Norton Speed Disk seems to get stuck in a perpertual loop, restarting
after something "writes".

3) Everytime we try to install her printer, the computer freezes up. It says
"detecting new plug-in" and stops. Tried uninstalling/ reinstalling, no help.

4) Some of the desktop icons don't work. Double click on them and nothing.

5) My mother thinks there may be another program running that we can't shut
off.

6) When she's tried to download updates, it takes an eternity. Literally.

Can anyone in here help.

You may have a virus/spyware hijack

download the Stinger from here and run it to make sure that A-V-disabling
viruses are not present on your PC
http://download.nai.com/products/mca...rt/stinger.exe

- update your virus scanner and run a full system scan of all files.

Reboot to Safe Mode and run CWShredder - to remove variants of the
CoolWebSearch hijacker.
http://www.merijn.org/cwschronicles.html

Use CWShredder, the removal tool:
http://www.merijn.org/files/cwshredder.zip
http://www.merijn.org/files/CWShredder.exe
http://www.spywareinfo.com/downloads...CWShredder.exe
http://www.zerosrealm.com/downloads/CWShredder.zip

download AdAware SE Personal Edition from www.lavasoftusa.com, install,
update, and run it to remove spyware, adware, and other such nasties from
your system - then ruin it again, in Safe Mode, on the Full system scan
setting.

Oh - and get rid of Norton and install a decent AV!



--
Noel Paton (MS-MVP 2002-2005, Windows)

Nil Carborundum Illegitemi
http://www.btinternet.com/~winnoel/millsrpch.htm
http://tinyurl.com/6oztj
A Happy Xmas, and a Merry New Year to everyone!

Please read http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm on how to post messages to NG's

"Causa Veritas" <Causa > wrote in message
news:E0AC0471-FA44-43F3-88FE-...
> My mom had windows 98 when she bought the computer. Since then, she has
> installed 2000, and then ME, but removed ME. She now has 2000 only. The
> problems are as follows.
>
> 1) Sluggish. I thought it may have been a virus, so we installed Norton
> Works, which has a Anti-Virus on it. No virus that it can detect. I later
> installed Webroot Spysweeper and Window Washer. They helped, but its still
> sluggish. I think she may have erased things she was supposed to when she
> "cleaned her computer" manually. How do I find out if she did.
>
> 2) The Norton Speed Disk seems to get stuck in a perpertual loop,
> restarting
> after something "writes".
>
> 3) Everytime we try to install her printer, the computer freezes up. It
> says
> "detecting new plug-in" and stops. Tried uninstalling/ reinstalling, no
> help.
>
> 4) Some of the desktop icons don't work. Double click on them and nothing.
>
> 5) My mother thinks there may be another program running that we can't
> shut
> off.
>
> 6) When she's tried to download updates, it takes an eternity. Literally.
>
> Can anyone in here help.