Something kills open programs and windows

I have run into an issue where any window that is opened (IE; regedit, msconfig, anti-virus software installer) will be closed automatically before anything useful can be done with that program.

Sometimes I can sidestep this by booting into safe mode and disabling all the trash applications being launched in startup, but other times this does not help. do you guys know of any specific malware app or virus which can trigger this kind of behavior on a windows machine?

Sorry, I know this isn't very specific, but I don't have a computer in front of me right now which is doing this. any little tidbits you can pass along to me will be greatly appreciated.

 

It may in fact be a virus but I'm not sure of the exact one. I would first make sure you don't have any updates that need installing from www.windowsupdate.com and then I would make suer that your antivirus is up to date. If it is then run a full system scan with it. Have you tried running spybot and adaware? They might catch up on something also.

 

That does seem more like a virus than spyware/malware/wtfeverware doesn't it? Maybe I'll post this same question on the virus forum. Thanks for the speedy reply.

I had a laptop which was doing this, and it would close LiveUpdate as soon as you opened it, would kill the AVG installer window, as well as the installers for Spybot S&D and AdAware. Nasty, huh? I ended up wiping the drive and reloading the OS because I couldn't figure out anything else to do. In that particular instance, the hard drive activity was throught the ceiling the entire time the computer was turned on. The LED was almost solid green and stayed that way.

 

Try running and updating your antivirus program in safe mode.

 

Re: Something kills open programs and windows - SOLVED!!

I got this little bugger fixed.

I had to boot into safe mode, open regedit and navigate to the Run & Run services directories, where I deleted the keys for Network Services Manager and netsvc.exe, which is a file used by AGOBOT virus strains. I then ran an advanced search on drive C for netsvc.exe and deleted it. I booted back into windows and the problem is solved.

Thanks for your help! Hope this fix helps someone else.....