I rechecked and there's no "Folder Options"
I'm unable to run "regedit.' I get a message that "Registry Editing has been disabled by your administrator."
A note on this. Previously, this was my sister's computer, until she got a notebook, and we both had accounts on it. I kept her account on it in case she needed to access it for whatever reason. On June 6, 2009, Windows XP crashed on start up ( just as the background appeared). A Windows reload failed and I had to do "Destructive" (as it was called) reformat. Windows XP and the programs on the computer were overwritten and re-installed, but the all data was saved. During the process, I renamed the comp, (assume) I made myself administrator, etc and I assumed I was the sole account user as I went straight to Windows XP during startup. However, when I go to safe mode, my old account appears along with HP Administrator with the old icons for my sister's and mine. The current folders in "Documents and Settings" are my original folder, "Application Data," "All Users" my current adminstrator folder, a folder with a variation of my administrator folder with truncated name and "~,"'s what seems to be my sister's folder when she was administrator called "HP_Adminstrator" (this is a HP computer) that has all her data, and a folder simply called "Administrator." When I originally attempted to download "DDS" and "Process Killer" in safe mode and the other times before then before I realized it, I had gone into my original account, instead of the HP_Administrator and downloaded them. Realizing my mistake when they didn't appear on the desktop, I went back and logged on HP_Administrator, downloaded them and they appeared, etc. Both programs appear in my current adminstrator folder in desktop. However, when I check the folder named "Administrator" and go to Desktop, the only things listed are "DDS" and Kill Process."
I don't know if any of the information is revelant, but I just want to provide as much as possible, just in case.
This is my third experience with virus or malware that has cause problems with computers I've owned. My first was one of the first Word macro virus, which my university snatched for their computer science department to experiment with in their labs. The second was with one of my college roommates screaming at 2 AM in the morning that my computer had crashed and Norton Utilities had frozen attempting to remove a virus when he was writing a term paper. Given the time of day, I did a reformat and full system re-install, which is 1996, meant everything was wiped. That was my fear here. That I would have to do a complete reformat, which I don't know is possible given the above experience.
