BleepingComputer.com: Suspicious.Mystic Infection

Short version: I've got Suspicious.Mystic on my Windows XP Professional SP2 and no access to Task Manager and no Start button and no icons on my desktop. What do I do to ditch Suspicious.Mystic and whatever else might have come with it?

Long Version: I was just surfing the net, I left my computer for a half hour with the browser open while a streaming video loaded, I come back and the browser's closed & several error messages are open & two malware/antivirus doctor things I've never heard of are open & can't access Task Manager & Norton Antivirus is inoperable. I panicked, rebooted my computer, and when it starts up there's no icons on the desktop and there's no Start button & there's no bar at the bottom of the screen where the button would be & Norton Antivirus pops up saying it's found and removed Suspicious.Mystic every few minutes or so.

Some research and looking around on the net reveals that what my computer likely has is indeed Suspicious.Mystic, a nasty piece of work for which there are many guides to removing. There's just one problem with the instructions for removal I've seen so far, they require access to Task Manager and/or files.

I don't have access to Task Manager. I've booted the computer in safe mode and tried ctr + alt + delete and nothing happens. I tried ctr + shift + esc and nothing happens. I've right clicked the bottom of the screen and nothing happens.

The OS is Windows XP Professional SP2.

How do I fix this mess? Can I fix this mess?

This post has been edited by maxmouse713: 23 October 2010 - 04:15 PM

Nevermind. Figured it out myself. Just had to start up in Safe Mode With Command Line. taskmgr.exe is in C:\WINDOWS\system32 and runs fine from there.

But now I'm having trouble installing Ad-Aware since it wants to install Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime 9.0 Service Pack 1 and can't for some reason. The Error Message goes as follows:

Ad-Aware Setup
Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime 9.0 Service Pack 1 could not be installed. Please use Windows Update to manually install this update on your system.

Suggestions?

i had the icon problem too..I rebooted and pressed F11 .when screen came up i went down to restore last good connection and went from there.........working ok now

mvps.org is no longer recommending Spybot S&D or Ad-Aware due to poor testing results. See here - (scroll down and read under Freeware Antispyware Products). Ad-Aware has even been placed into the Installers Hall of Shame.

Further, most people don't understand Spybot's TeaTimer or how to use it and that feature can cause more problems than it's worth. TeaTimer monitors changes to certain critical keys in Windows registry but does not indicate if the change is normal or a modification made by a malware infection. The user must have an understanding of the registry and how TeaTimer works in order to make informed decisions to allow or deny the detected changes. If you don't have understanding how a particular security tool works, then you probably should not be using it. Additionally, TeaTimer may conflict with other security tools which do a much better job of protecting your computer and even prevent disinfection of malware by those tools.

More effective alternatives are Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and SUPERAntiSpyware Free.

• How to use Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware to scan and remove malware from your computer
  
• How to use SUPERAntiSpyware to scan and remove malware from your computer

once i had rebooted Norton loaded new updates and quaranyined the virus.....nor a problem since