SpySheriff? Thanks but...

OK. My computer is recovering from a SpySheriff/winstall.exe infection. After following ALL the instructions on this site, my winstall.exe infestation seems to have abated. The the majorgeeks crew, let me just say "THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH."

To other users experiencing this problem, I will give the following advice... follow the instructions exactly... hurrying or skipping steps inevitably leads to doing this three times ineffectively before finally doing it all by the book and succeeding... as I found out.

So, it's been nearly 50 minutes and no spysheriff popups, so I'm cured (I wonder if I'll still have a problem with winantivirus?) Thanks.

I must admit, I was somewhat heavy-handed with deletions when I was trying to eradicate winstall... and deleted all sorts of stuff that I didn't like the sound of... like NTUSER.DAT, NTUSER.DAT.LOG, NTUSER.INI... yeah. Those are the noteworthy ones that I killed... among others (Another result is that I nuked everything in my Start Menu... just to be sure). So, after finishing the cleansing process, my computer wouldn't boot, and just froze at the 'logging on' screen. I rebooted in safe mode, then back into normal mode and now I'm up and running... I suppose safe mode automatically replaced the innocuous (and essential) files that I deleted?

However, (back to my original purpose of this post)... I'm still experiencing some of the residual symptoms of the infection, which I've read about online (on other sites, although you probably have the same comments somewhere), most notably the inability to change my desktop background. Before eliminating winstall, the desktop backgrounds/wallpapers were deactivated, and I couldn't even select them. Now, I can select them and apply them, but they don't take effect. I get just a default colored background (the color of which I can actually change... but perhaps changes itself back after a short while). In any case, I can't apply any of the desktop preferences. So, I am moving in the right direction.

I'm aware that this is an issue with these items being locked out by the registry, which is why your instructions include a utility to reset these registry entries. But, when I ran the registry editor file (downloaded from your site) that corrects the registry information (including the option to change the wallpaper), I got an error message that reads:

"Cannot import [filename]; Not all data was successfully written the the registry. Some keys are open by the system or other processes."

Here's another one that I just ran across:

"Cannot Open USER environment section in registry. Possible registry corruption."

Another odd symptom, which I can't seem to explain (I just noticed it now) is the Window title bars are somewhat shrunken. The blue bar at the top of the window seems extra narrow, and the minimize, maximize, close (dot, square, x) symbols at the top right of the window are also shrunken, perhaps on 2/3 normal size. Odd. Connected?

As for my system, I'm using a Dell Inspiron 1.4GHZ, 504MB RAM, MS XP Home edition, version 2002, SP2; 22GB freespace.

So, what do you think?

My HJT log is attached... which is probably not applicable. I think I just need to get my registry tweeked back to normal.

Oh, in case I didn't make it clear enough... THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!

 

OK... and also, Outlook doesn't seemed to be installed now either. "Cannot Start Microsoft Outlook." Man... I got overzealous. I should have stuck to the program.