A week or so ago, my computer was infected with a web browers hijacker, redirecting me to odd websites when typing in web addresses like google, etc.
This morning however on starting up the PC, i was slow to load to the desktop after typing in my password... the wallpaper loaded, but that was it. I Ctrl+Alt & Del to the task manager, killed explorer.exe then restarted it. Eventually the desktop icons loaded, but no Taskbar.
After playing with the task bar, I can get it to appear, only by enabling the 'links' option and locking the taskbar.
I am unable to do any system restore, nor Can I enable the MS firewall. I have no sound on the PC either. I cannot connect to the internet/ email, as the internet connection has been deleted from Control Panel/Internet connections tab - I cannot create a new connection.
When I first loaded up Task manager to restart explorer.exe, I noticed reader_s.exe running. I killed this .exe as it is reported as a virus?. It has not anymore, at any time after rebooting the comp, in either safe mode or normal mode. nor can I find it anywhere on the PC.