can't access safe mode in xp pro

Hi, hope you can help. My level is now that of a fairly advanced user. A friend had just gone online using broadband - with NO virus checker & NO firewall (aargh!). He phoned, saying his home page had been hijacked by a porn site, and he had suddenly become worried (!). So I went round, managed to delete (through Add/Remove Progs) stuff that was hijacking home page (also checked Internet options). He's using XP Pro. Then I downloaded Sygate personal firewall, then small anti-virus prog from Major Geeks. He wanted Kazaa as well, so got only version I could find (2.1). Then went to Trend pccillin & downloaded trial version, because it's always been fine as far as I've found. HELP! Rebooted. Got to WinXP start page, desktop appeared, Kazaa appeared in Systray (even tho I'd set it not to be launched at startup), pccillin flash screen appeared, then hourglass symbol. Splash screen went down to taskbar. Hourglass over task bar, won't let me access anything at all, anywhere. Cntrl/alt/del won't work. Can't access safe mode booting up - tried F8, F5, Esc, Del. He hasn't got XP disk cos already installed when he bought pc. I feel so embarrassed. Any advice, pls?
Cheers

 

well he should have got the OEM disk even if it came pre-installed.

If your that desperate, try hitting the reset button whilst its booting up. that will give you the boot menu once it restarts. Once you have got in it may be an idea to use system restore, if he had it running.

 

Sushi. Thanks, will try that on reboot. Don't know where you're based, but in UK people hardly ever get OEM disk if buying new pc's. Reasons are: 1 people don't always know to ask for it
2 Many retailers aren't altogether as honest as the day is long
3 If you do ask, they tell you airily that you can get it from inside the system and, let's face it, most newbies don't so when it crashes, you're a bit knackered!


In response to AbbySue, can't get to Start. It's locked!!! If I could get to Start, Run, I'd be laughing. Well, smiling hopefully, anyway...

 

thats fine private-e2.oh and bear in mind that you might need the Administrator password (not a administrator user, the user called Administrator) not sure if safe more requires it, but in any case, best to know. (i think default is no password, so you'll probably be fine anyway).

 

Try to hold down the SHIFT key when booting Windows it should disable any programs which runs at startup.

 

Hi, thanks everyone for advice. Unfortunately, it didn't work. I pressed F everything on innumerable reboots, and even uttered F words in case it may help. It didn't BUT F5 actually showed the the safe mode option. The arrow keys wouldn't work, so it sat on the line "Windows will start normally in ..x.. seconds." It basically said, "D'you wannit? Huh? Huh? Tough."
It didn't start normally either. Someone said to me last night that they know someone else with the problem. and their's stemmed from kazaa.exe sitting in the startup folder. But I can't get rid of this, can I, given all the above?