Member Avatar for abdosagor

I performed a repair operation to my( XP professional SP2) system, two things occured ; !\ I lost internet explorer 8, failed to reinstal it ! ?
2\I failed completely to instal any antivirus . I used Google Chrome ,
opera to connect to the web .Can any body help ? THANKS in advance

  • 3 Contributors
  • 4 Replies
  • 132 Views
  • 2 Days Discussion Span
  • Latest Post Latest Post by Zman420

Dani AI

Generated

Short summary and context: fixed the immediate problem by reinstalling XP and then installing an antivirus, and earlier replies recommended using an offline scanner and vendor removal tools. That works, but a full reinstall is often avoidable. Note: Internet Explorer 8 does run on XP SP2 (it does not strictly require SP3), so a repair install can remove updates and leave IE components broken even when SP2 is present.

A compact troubleshooting checklist to try before reinstalling Windows:

  • Boot to Safe Mode (or Safe Mode with Networking) and look for leftover antivirus services/drivers; remove them if present.
  • Run System File Checker to restore core Windows/IE files. From an Administrator command prompt:
    sfc /scannow
msiexec /unregister
msiexec /regserver
net start msiserver

    (sfc may request the original XP CD.)

  • Check Services (services.msc) and ensure Cryptographic Services, BITS and Windows Update-related services can start; installers often fail when these are stopped.
  • Inspect the hosts file (C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts) for entries that block update/download sites and clear them if needed.
  • Review Event Viewer (Application/System logs) for MSI/installer errors to get exact failure codes.

Reinstalling IE and getting an antivirus to install:

  • Repair or reinstall missing IE components via Windows Update or the offline IE installer (if Update is unusable). Installing the latest XP service pack and critical updates first will reduce installer errors.
  • If a previous AV was present, use the vendor’s official removal utility (run in Safe Mode) before installing another product. If malware actively blocks installers, use a clean boot or an offline rescue environment to scan and remove the infection.

Final notes: always back up data first. Because Windows XP is long out of mainstream support, consider moving to a supported OS — running XP online is high risk and many modern security tools no longer update on that platform.

Recommended Answers

All 4 Replies

Member Avatar for Themonkman

Hi,
I have had a similar prob a while ago and the I did find a way to get things back to normal, hopefully this advice helps :)...
Download (on a clean computer)
Then write it to a disk (so that the virus cant change the Dr.webcureit file)
And run the Antivirus, it should remove the virus and enable you to put other antivirusses on your pc.

Not too sure about IE but this should work for the AV prob, if not then tell us :)

Best of luck! :)

OOOOOh yeah, dont forget to run Dr.WebCureIT in safe mode(F8) and not in normal mode...

Edited by Themonkman because: n/a
Member Avatar for Zman420

If you remember which antivirus program you had installed. Go to their website and download the remover for whichever version of antivirus software you had and run that in safe mode. As for IE 8, I believe your disk would have the earlier version IE 7 or 6 as IE 8 was an update in SP3. Once you have removed every trace of your old antivirus software (registry entries, dll files) it should let you install any antivirus you want.

Member Avatar for abdosagor

If you remember which antivirus program you had installed. Go to their website and download the remover for whichever version of antivirus software you had and run that in safe mode. As for IE 8, I believe your disk would have the earlier version IE 7 or 6 as IE 8 was an update in SP3. Once you have removed every trace of your old antivirus software (registry entries, dll files) it should let you install any antivirus you want.

Thank u for your great advice but unfortunately it doesnt work
My windows was severely infected ,I said (was)because I instaled a new windows XP professional SP2 And so putting an end to all my machine suffering ,I instaled an anti virus removed all the viruses.
the problem was solved

Member Avatar for Zman420

One of my favorite Virus fighting tools is a bootable rescue cd that comes with Kaspersky Antivirus. So far it has saved one system that had been infected by worms and it even boots up with network support to update the defintions. Plus it just seems cool to boot the computer into another operating system off of a cd.

Be a part of the DaniWeb community

We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.