yes i am. i googled the problem and it seems that many have it as well. Not sure how to fix it though…

hmm… now its only 33 minutes.

edit: Stuck at 32 minutes

This is an MS recommendation for this problem

Remove any external hardware, such as attached devices that are not required for setup (for example, printers, external serial devices, and Universal Serial Bus [USB] devices other than the primary keyboard).

Remove any internal cards that are not required for setup, such as sound cards.

Disable items in the basic input/output system (BIOS), such as ports or power management features, and on-board devices that are not required for setup to complete, such as modems.

Ok was able to repair via restarting computer. I have my task bar now, only these problems exist:
-AdobeARM.exe not found- the ordinal 281 could not be located in the dynamic link library msi.dll"
-computer takes A LOT longer to start than it did before this incident.
-also, on the system tray, there is an icon to safely remove hardware, but there is an option to safely remove my hard drive! lol

thanks essexboy for helping me out and also helping people on other forums as well. I’ve seen your name on the geekstogo forums btw.

OK for Adobe - I would recommend that you uninstall and then re-install

Run a fresh OTS log and I will look at the start areas and see if there is any tweaking that could be done

I think I will just reformat my hard drive and install a newer OS.

But before you close this thread, i’d like to know what are some ways i can prevent mebroot/torpig from infecting my computer again, and how can i safely restore a critical file without causing all of this clutter again?

If you get windows 7 then the security on that (especially the 64 bit version) is more robust and all critical files are cached for repair if required

The main thing really is to be aware of what you are doing when online… The majority of malware is downloaded with the user assistance, via social engineering

To learn more about how to protect yourself while on the internet read our little guide How did I get infected in the first place ?