The never-ending story of my computer problems

Last Sunday (i.e., a week ago), I successfully re-installed Windows XP Home with my recovery CD and also installed some software I had on CD. 2 days ago, I went online to get as much of the software I’d had before, above all my beloved Opera browser. When I went to their website, I saw that it looked very different and new because version 9 had just come out a few days before. I also succeeded in theme-patching XP so I can use visual styles again, which is important for me because I like changing the look of my desktop. I also downloaded the latest version of AntiVir, a free German anti-virus software and ran it on Sunday morning. That’s where the trouble started. First of all, the virus-scan wouldn’t finish. A scan of the local hard drive normally takes about 45 minutes. This time, the search went on for more than 6 hours. I thought it was because the software actually unpacked all archives whereas it normally skips them. Anyway, at some point there was a virus warning. It kept popping up about 15 times and then it started again after a minute or so. Apparently the anti-virus software couldn’t handle or heal or delete that particular virus. I tried to go online to download an update for my anti-virus software, but the download wouldn’t start. So I shut down the computer and used my old laptop to go online to look up some info about the virus. Guess what, it’s a very nasty one. A backdoor hax or whatever. Gives 3rd parties access to my data. People in support forums say, a re-install of Windows is the best solution. Argh!!! Not again!! Other ways of getting rid of the Trojan thing were described as well, but they were way too complicated for me. They consisted of downloading several programms, running them and posting log files etc. I did download one thing called Haxfix.exe and that actually seemed to help cos the virus warning didn’t show up on the screen again. But the anti-virus software doesn’t seem to be working either and another attempt to download an update failed.

Is anybody still reading? I know this isn’t very interesting, but I just need to vent. I think part of the problem is that the recovery CD I installed from doesn’t have Service Pack 1, which I had on my computer before. This seems to make the system unstable. For instance, Ctrl+Alt+Del doesn’t make the task manager pop up on the screen now. But maybe that’s unrelated to the SP1 thing. I’ll try to get that service pack, but I think I’ll have to format the hard drive again anyway. I’m so sick of everything. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!