How do I recover from a bad virus infection?

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I have a question related to this one. I recently went away for a trip for 4 days and forgot to shut down my computer and most importantly my MSN Messenger 7.0 (terrible program when it came to security, I'm glad they pulled it!)and when I got back I was infected with over 200 adware and spyware items. I also had the WINIS.EXE virus and some REBATES.EXE program that would endlessly re-install itself.
Anyway, I have rid my computer of all virus and spyware infections, but the virus cause me to not be able to log in to MSN Messenger, Hotmail or any other Passport sites, and it is not allowing me to download from microsoft.com and a couple other sites once in a while. I can't reformat my computer as my CD-Roms were stolen from me and I also have an abundance of files that are near and dear to me.
When I enter my login and password to hotmail.com I get the "page cannot be displayed" message. When I log into Mesenger, it acts as if I don't have an internet connection, but when I click "help" it runs a test and tells me that I should be able to connect. When I open Outlook Express, I can check my emails from my ISP's mail, but once I click a Hotmail folder, I get an error in Shlwapi.dll and Outlook Express shuts down. I stupidly uninstalled Outlook Express and Messenger (I did back up my emails and my history for when I re-install) however, I didn't realize that now I cannot download anything from Microsoft.com!!! Then when I try to go to Windows Update, I'm told I clicked "no" to the trust certifcate or that my security settings are too high. This is not true, to the naked eye all these things should be working!
What kind of steps can I do (I'm very good with following directions on fixing things) to allow access to hotmail again and to allow MSN Messenger to work and to download from Microsoft. These problems don't occur on other machines, so I know it's only this one. Nobody can help me - can you? I beg you! Thanks!

I just emailed you a reply, then realized your address is @hotmail, which you can't get into. I'll post again here in case you don't get to another machine to check your mail for a bit...

try start>run and type in:

regsvr32 softpub.dll

and click OK. If that doesn't work, check the KB article below:

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=813444

i had a msn virus which i have now got rid of but when i got it, it took the sound and even though i have got rid of it the sound hasnt come back can u email plz letting me know what i can do

I have a computer that was running extremely slow and locking up from time to time.
I tried to do a restore but it won't go all the thru the install. It stops running in the middle.
I had a similar problems years ago and it turned out to be a boot sector virus. Is there anything out there that can be run on a computer without an operating system

Dear Leo,
I am a bit if a novice when it comes to computers. Recently, it seems like some nasty virus or whatever has invaded my computer. IE got a new toolbar and a whole bunch of programs kept trying to access the internet, but my firewall kept blocking it. I downloaded a few free anti virus programs(AVG, ad-aware se, spybot and hijack-this)and apparently it got rid of the whole system. Just today, however, the stuff has come back in more force, stopping all my anti virus programs opening and stopping firefox from working (I also have this problem with IE that it sais that my security doesn't allow downloading and i can't find the option to turn it off in the options dialogue box)I re-opnened firefox from the windows task manager and downloaded these anti virus programs, but now they just aren't getting rid if everything (adawre-se keeps on finding stuff, but half of my programs are still messed up. It does look like there are similar experiences here, however, I as I said I am a novice to computers and I don't want to mess things up.

I have a question for leo when i was on msn people were sending me files and they could of been carying viruses ( might not have been ) and the next day i was downloading backgrounds for my pc and it suddenly just went of so i thought i would have a chat on msn without people sending me files and when i was half way through a conversation with one of my friends it just went of and about 5 internet explorers came up and i couldunt get back onto the convo unless i sign out and back in agen or someone sends me a nudge and it also affects internet explorer when i load something up it just goes straight of or onto and different wesite it is happening now so please help me from daniel leather

I'm having trouble understanding your question, but it sounds like you simply need to run anti virus and anti virus scans. Review this article: http://ask-leo.com/how_do_i_keep_my_computer_safe_on_the_internet.html

how do you now that you have a virus and i need help getting rid of the trojan virus plz right back as fast as possible

Hi,
I came upon this site when trying to find a way to fix my msn. I'm having a similar problem to the like of the one that Phil O posted. I cannot open my msn (MSN Messenger 7.0), hotmail or any othe passport sites, and it is not allowing me to download from microsoft.com and a couple other sites once in a while.
When I enter my login and password to hotmail.com I get the "page cannot be displayed" message. When I log into Mesenger, it acts as if I don't have an internet connection, but when I click "help" it runs a test and tells me that I should be able to connect. What can I do? I tried following the help link that someone posted, but it's for an microsoft page and I can't access it. I've done numerous virus scans and nothing is coming up, and re-installing windows is an option I would leave to the utmost last if I can't fix this problem. No one else I knows is having this trouble...can someone please outline steps I can take to fix this problem?

You might try this article: http://ask-leo.com/how_do_i_resolve_my_msn_hotmail_sign_in_problems.html

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