Several months ago i try to install a windows xp update (service pack 2) but had a trojan that terminated the installation and crashed the system. Dell help get things running but i still have after-effects such as named above. Since then i keep everything up-to-date. i scan with mcafee 6, spybot, ad-aware, and webroot spysweeper, and this seems to catch everything but still having issues. i'm a little supersititous as well and have not updated with any windows xp patches since the crash, which may be my problem. How do i know the pc is safe now to do so? i'm afraid of another crash and since all seems okay (except for control panel issue at times and slow startup) i hesitate on installing windows updates. Any advice?

Thanks.

Mowsart, welcome to Daniweb

Alrite, to start it off, you're gonna have to download a program called HijackThis (HJT) that helps diagnose problems on the compuer.

Download location, and directions for its use can be found here:

http://www.daniweb.com/techtalkforums/thread28196.html

After running the scan (heh, follow the directions please), save a log and copy/paste the log into a new post into this thread. After that, we'll work from there.

Thanks.