BleepingComputer.com: "windows Cannot Find..." Control Panel Etc...

Hi, sorry my first post is a plea for help, but there y'go...

I'm running Vista Home Premium on Intel Core Duo 6600 running at 2.8GHz. All updates to date have been applied.

Since a while back, I have been getting these irritating dialogs which tell me Windows cannot find {a key} when I try to open system folders, the control panel, the Computer icon on my desktop etc. Meanwhile, the folder or applet I launched does, in fact, launch without an apparent problem. It's annoying and also a bit scary as it may mean eventually something horrible will happen.





Any advice please, anyone?

Thanks,
Steve

I'd suggest that you download this free program and use it to clean your temporary files: http://www.ccleaner.com/download
Please use the default settings to clear the temporary files. The more advanced features are dangerous to use, so please avoid them.

I'd also suggest that you use a couple of these free online scans to see if there are any traces of infection still on your system. Be advised that some of these scanners will pickup things in "quarantine" from other anti-virus programs - so review the results carefully:

http://housecall.trendmicro.com
http://www.pandasecurity.com/homeusers/solutions/activescan/
http://www.kaspersky.com/virusscanner
http://www.bitdefender.com/scan8/ie.html
http://support.f-secure.com/enu/home/ols.shtml
http://us.mcafee.com/root/mfs/default.asp
http://onlinescan.avast.com/
http://ca.com/us/securityadvisor/virusinfo/scan.aspx
http://www.eset.com/onlinescan/

<links compiled on 02/14/2008>