weixifan

I have two problems now. The first is described in detail in this thread here.

The second problem is under Windows XP Home on my friend's computer. It currently has quite a bit of malware in it, and I suspect that's what's causing the problem. The problem is threefold:

1) Some operating system functions are abnormal. The search pane (to the left of each Explorer window that you can open by clicking "Search" on the tool bar) lacks everything: it just has the search assistant, and the rest is blue background. There are no fields to enter anything, no links to choose search settings, and no speech bubble from the dog (search assistant) either. His computer won't change the appearance from the classic theme to the WinXP Blue theme. It won't make any other theme changes either. The "Find... (on This Page)" function and dialogue box in Internet Explorer is weird also: everytime the dialogue box appears, the "Find Next" button is disabled, and no matter how many letters you type in the search field, the button would still be disabled. Even the cancel button fails to exit the dialogue box.
2) Norton Antivirus told him that there was a critical virus on the computer (The virus is w32.klez.gen@mm. The Symantec response told him to get an MS-DOS based program "FixKlez.com" from their website. That program found no virus under safe mode). He ignored the warning. He then reinstalled Norton. He then discovers that Norton won't start due to "Unable to restore the security settings..." and Norton gave him this article. He couldn't start Norton Antivirus ever since this past weekend when all of this happened.
3) System restore will not start. A blank frame with a title bar with "system restore" is all it ever got to. After an overnight wait, the frame is still empty.

After all of this happened, he called me over. I deleted as much malware as I possibly could and I reinstalled Service Pack 2 for him and the problem still isn't fixed. Is this caused by one common source? Or are they separate problems all caused by different things? Should I get him to install Adaware and have his system checked? Apparently an online virus scan from Norton told him his system was clean only one day ago...hmm...

It seems to me like a virus (but what about that clean scan?) or a malware that's stopping System Restore and Windows Search and IE Find and Norton. I asked him for a Hijack This log and will be ready to be posted. Meanwhile, please post your thoughts on these two issues on this thread. Thank you for your time!