So about a week ago, my brother got the "Hey is that you in that picture! :O [url] " message on WLM (Windows Live Messenger). He clicked the link ( ) and it downloaded a file to the desktop. He called me, and I quickly deleted the file. Everything seemed fine and the Norton scan didn't pick up anything. That night, my Dad started up WLM and suddenly files started being download to his desktop. I shut down WLM and uninstalled it. We took the computer into a local computer repair place. A couple days later we went and picked it up. He said by uninstalling WLM I had fixed the problem (Yay me! ). Yesterday however, I got a message from Norton (yes it was a Norton dialogue box, not something else) saying that a virus had attacked out computer and needed to reboot. I clicked yes and it rebooted normally... until it got to "Windows is starting up". After that it just sits there. Anybody else had this problem before? Can I fix it?

Spybot: Search And Destroy. Then run in safemode and delete it manually. (You'll have to uncheck some read-only folders)

OK I'll try it.

-EDIT- It still freezes on the "Windows is starting up" screen.

Does it freeze when booting into safe mode?

First, you should backup everything you don't want to lose. If you can't boot Windows, download a linux LiveCD or another 'OS on a disk' disk and boot into that. From there backup your files (wouldn't hurt to scan the hard drive for problems too). Now, you don't have to worry about making things worse or reinstalling the OS.

If you can get to the screen in Windows (I'm not exactly sure where it is in the startup sequence), use System Restore. If Safe Mode and System Restore fail, you will need boot from the Windows CD and use the recovery mode. If you can figure out exactly what line Windows is failing at you have a much better chance at fixing it. To see all the startup text, you will need to turn off Window's splash screen.

Well good news. I started up the computer trying to get it into safe mode. I didn't press F8 quickly enough though so it booted normally. I swore when it got to the Windows is starting up screen but then... it got to the log on screen!

I'm gonna go in and scan everything.