Computer genius', help me!
 

My friend lent his laptop to his friend, and she has managed to download Privacy Centre onto it. It has now frozen on the privacy centre main screen, not allowing any access to the desktop, menus or even task manager.

How do I remove it, whilst not erasing all the info on the hard drive? Not sure if he has the recovery disk or not.

Please help!

P.S. It's an AdventQT5500 with Vista Ultimate, service pack 1 installed.

Regards
Phil

Re: Computer genius', help me!
 

It looks as if Privacy Centre is one of those rogue 'hold your PC to ransom' scams. There's some info here:

http://remove-malware.net/how-to-rem...-anti-spyware/

Re: Computer genius', help me!
 

Bah humbug, my problem is not listed!

I followed the steps, but can't even use some letters on the keyboard in the command prompt, as some come out as numbers or symbols!

Re: Computer genius', help me!
 

boot into safe mode, do a system restore to before you installed it.

Re: Computer genius', help me!
 

Already done. :(

Re: Computer genius', help me!
 

Done this?

start, run, msconfig, untick them all, apply. Then restart

Re: Computer genius', help me!
 

Is there any spyware/malware removal tools that run at boot up, before windows starts, that could get rid of it?

Re: Computer genius', help me!
 

When windows is started, there is only a black background, with the privacy centre window in front!

There is no Start menu.

When you ctr-alt-del, there is no task manager option either!

Re: Computer genius', help me!
 

Stupid question, but does it have a numlock (numbers on the qwerty part of the laptop keyboard) that the malware activates? Most users don't know how to deactivate it.

It's usually the Function key (FN in blue usually) plus the numlock button. this should allow you to do what you want at the command prompt.

Hope it works out.

Re: Computer genius', help me!
 

Even in safe mode?