Hello,

The stupid part is, I had my husband uninstall a bunch of "programs" that were identified by Revo Uninstaller as what looked like registry keys, thinking at the time that they were associated with widgets (don't ask). Hindsight quickly told me I may have made a really big mistake.

Add to this a lot of recently-installed programs some of which were themes, etc.

Plus a history of connectivity problems (which are hopefully resolved at this point).

And one last thing - our default browser is Firefox so we don't really monitor the IE homepage, but we noticed it was set at google-s/alltalkmedia or something like that. Does that sound right to anybody?

Yesterday, we went through the malware removal program you've outlined, and had negligible results (we regularly run AntiVir and until recently, Counterspy). We also made preliminary and post HijackThis scans.

This morning, we decided to restore to a time previous to the uninstall of the registry-looking "programs" (were these maybe hotfixes?), but we are unable to restore to any previous points.

So, are we looking at problems that may have been caused by uninstalling things that shouldn't've been touched? Or, are we looking at maybe a rootkit that is slipping by undetected though normal means?

Do you think your PC may be infected with malware? If so, other than the different homepage in IE, has anything else happend which makes you suspect malware?

Have a look in Add/Remove programs (XP) or Programs and Features (Vista) to check for any programs that you don't want installed or no longer use and un-install them.

Just incase you did un-install any hotfixes visit Windows Update and see if there is anything to install.

No, nothing much has happened except some erratic behavior. I use a laptop exactly the same at work, and it has been fine. With today's rootkits, I don't know what kind of unusual behavior might be reason to be suspicious. I personally have never seen XP fail to complete a system restore, so for me that's a big red flag. Between that and the strange google homepage setting, I just have to wonder.

I always figure better safe than sorry, so I ran scans and have looked for problems myself. Not finding any, I ask people who know more than me!

We did go to Updates, and SP3 (!) was the only thing available. I chose to delay that until I feel the system is healthy.

If you post a HJT log in /f67-Hijackthis_Spyware_Viruses_Worms_Trojans_Oh_My.html someone will help you.

Before posting the log, try changing the IE homepage to something else, rebooting and see if it has been changed again.