2 days ago while booting up my computer my ad-watch flashed right away with about 15 registry attempts to write. i denied all, then all of a sudden my desktop shortcuts turned to .lnks, when i try to make new ones they come up as "program name".exe.pif i can access some of my programs by right clicking on the .lnks and going to "open with" the finding the program in browse. i run windows 2000 professional,zone alarm,spy-bot,ad-ware se-plus, ad-watch, and avg. ive ran all in safe mode and only found one registry key wrong, with ad-ware. ive search google for some cure scans for .lnks but when i go to open them i get error message "access to the specified device, path, or file is denied" and when i download them to my desktop i cannot open them, i can click on them and does nothing. even tried to download one to desk of another computer and still didn't work. i,ve run dskchk found nothing, ran sfc /runnow ,said dir unavailable. the only microsoft help i've found on the issue only explained how to run regedit in windows nt, but was too different of instructions when i tried to use it. tried to download autoruns and make a hijackthis log but got the same result in trying to open. ad-watch flashes"ATTEMPT TO ALTER A PROTECTED OBJECT HAS BEEN DETECTED"-"ATTEMPT TO ADD A REGISTRY VALUE" hope some one can help, thanks in advance.RBW

Hi raisedbywolves, welcome to BC.
Ad-Watch has hosed your registry. Don't feel bad, you're not it's only victim.
Below are three reg files to repair the broken associations. Check Ad-Watch's settings and deselect any "automatic" file, file\lock associations before you begin.
Download the reg files and place them in a folder. (not on the desktop)
Since regedit is an executable (.exe) you won't be able to open it normally.
To work around it, open task manager (ctrl+alt+del) hold down the CTRL key and click File> New Task (Run). A command prompt window will open. Type "regedit.exe" (no quotes) and hit your enter key. Regedit opens. From the menu, select File>Import. Navigate to the individial reg files, double click and select ok when prompted for each. Accept the changes in Ad-Watch if it pops up on you. When you've done all three, reboot.

http://h1.ripway.com/HitSquad/2k_exe_fix.reg
http://h1.ripway.com/HitSquad/linkfile_fix.reg
http://h1.ripway.com/HitSquad/2k_com_fix.reg

thanks hit squad, it worked but for only 2 out of 3 of my accounts. any suggestions on proceeding with this. and is ad-watch not the program i want to be using?
thanks again, RBW

Why it did not work for all three is somewhat of a mystery. It should have. One thing that comes to mind is perhaps Ad-watch still had a hold on the problem account preventing the reg change.
Might want to try it again with Ad-Watch completely disabled , make sure it's that way on all accounts.
I would prevent it from running at startup as well.
Is the account that you ran the reg files from the same one that's screwed up? If it is, log on to a different account and do it again.
The only other suggestion I have is to salvage what you need out of it , delete it, then create a new one.
As far as Ad-Watch itself goes, I don't care for it and don't use it. In fact, I don't use any Ad monitoring software at all anymore. It's just that I've seen Ad-watch do what it did to you a hundred times before.