Ack! What do I do?

I have a computer with a problem. When you put in the password to log in, it starts to log in, then immediately logs off. I'm tired of not successfully fixing the problem (probably a virus) and want to start over from scratch. Just one problem with that!

An overly helpful coworker dumped all of the company's CDs into a big ole box and was going to organize them by program, rather than by which computer they belonged to! (Sigh)

Anyway, I need to retrieve the product key for Office 2003 off this computer. I have the CDs to reinstall, but don't know which out of the pile is the right set! (Ironically, I was having my intern retrieve product keys from all computers to resolve this mess, but she hadn't gotten to this computer before this started!)

I cannot run Keyfinder Thing or a similar program on the computer because I cannot boot the system past the password screen.

However, I have a backup of the computers files, including a registry backup. Can anyone help me retrieve the product key using what I do have?

If anyone can help, I know this is the place to find you! :wave

 

Update: Turns out there is no registry backup file. Sorry for reporting this incorrectly in my first post.

Please help! I beg of you!

 

Windows Password, Dell Dimension Desktop, XP Pro

Thanks for the offer of help. Nobody was answering my post :crybaby, so I kept plugging away at the problem all day long. Turns out it was a trojan that renamed userinit.exe to userini.exe. After restoring the file, I was able to get back into the system. I've spent the day fixing things up that it messed up.

If anyone has a good suggestion of a trojan remover (just in case I was using a substandard one), I'd be happy to take the advice!

 

The best way to completely rid yourself of a trojan is to identify the name of the trojan your computer is infected with (usually your antivirus will pop up and tell you), Google for the specific removal program for that particular trojan, and follow the removal program's instructions exactly.

 

Our malware removal readme is extremely effective.

 

I'm sorry, but I just can't find it on your site. Can you let me know where it is? Thanks!

 

It's here: MALWARE REMOVAL: READ AND RUN ME FIRST

Be sure and follow the instructions exactly, and post the requested logs (I believe there's 3) in a NEW thread in this forum: Malware Removal

(Most malware, including trojans, are not completely gone after following the cleaning procedures, so specific help is required.)

Best of luck!