I recently had a horrible bout with Malware on my PC. It got to the point where it was so badly infected, I couldn't even open any programs anymore. I would just get the hourglass, then nothing. Which meant my Windows "registry" was corrupted (the part deep in windows that tells windows "open .exe files," that part was broken and wouldn't work.

A few programs (which I'll list here), and one very clever trick saved my system from a full reformat.

1. First things first, disconnect the infected computer from the internet. It will get worse and worse if you don't. You need access to another uninfected computer (and a small external HD to transfer programs/files to your infected computer).

2. Malewarebytes.
http://www.download.com/Malwarebytes-Anti-Malware/3000-8022_4-10804572.html
This is an extremely powerful anti-maleware program. Run it (if you can), and it could very well fix your problem by itself.

3. AdAware
http://www.lavasoft.com/single/trialpay.php
I love this program. It's been good to me for years. Very thorough anti-adware program.

4. Spyboy Search & Destroy
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html
Good spyware remover.

Try all of these. Run one right after the other. Download them with an uninfected machine, and transfer the install program over to your infected one.

Now, if you can't even open any programs because your registry is corrupted, do this:
Open the program's folder you're trying to open, and change the ".exe" file extension to ".com". Then open the program and it should work. That was ultimately how I fixed my problem.

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