Vanishing Act

Q.

Lately, I have noticed that whenever I try to open the Task Manager or the Registry Editor in Windows XP, they flash for a second or two and then quit by themselves. Could you explain why this is happening?

A.

A vanishing Task Manager, Registry Editor or System Configuration Utility window are common symptoms associated with quite a few viruses. A quick workaround is to simply rename the files and run them. This can be done using Microsoft MVP Doug Knox's XP Emergency utility (www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/ xp_emerutils.htm) which creates usable copies of all three and saves them to a new folder called 'EmergencyUtils' on your hard drive. Once you have run the utility, simply navigate to C:\EmergencyUtils and double-click the file you wish to run.

While this is a temporary fix. You will need to obtain current antivirus software to actually protect your computer against most viruses, worms, Trojans. Etcetera. In case you do not have one already installed, we recommend you give ESET software's NOD32 antivirus a try (www.eset.com/download/free_trial_download_int.php), due to its superlative scanning speed and low consumption of system resources. After installation, download the latest virus definitions available and do a complete system-wide scan of your computer.