I ran avast virus scan last night and threat was found. After completing the scan, it recommend a full Windows scan or something, and switched to a light blue screen with Windows at the top. I was given the option to move threats to the virus chest as the scan progressed. It found 24 items and moved them to the virus chest, and recommended a system reboot. Now after signing on Windows as usual, none of my icons show up on my desktop and my start button and task bar are missing. I have run Maleware and Ad Aware but nothing seems to help.
I’m sorry to hear of your troubles. It sounds like the threat took a vital system(s) file with it.
Can you tell me exactly what you have in your Virus Chest - name of the file and name of the infection? A screen shot would be best if you can do this.
Next, please cut and paste your MBAM (Malwarebytes) log to your next post so we can see and analyze it.
As bad as things seem now, very often things can be fixed. But we need to start somewhere. For now, just do the things we asked for and try to stay off your machine in the meantime. Let Avast do the virus definition updates, but do not surf the Internet or read/get email for now until we fix your problem.
What version and product of Avast are you using now? (Free, Pro, AIS) Version 5.1.889 or another version?
Do you have any other security software on this machine besides what you already mentioned (MBAM and Ad-Aware)? Do you have a firewall? By the way, you really don’t need Ad-Aware if you have MBAM since MBAM is more up to date with it’s definitions and detection rate, so at some point, you can uninstall it with the vendor’s uninstaller tool.
Let us know if you have any questions. Thank you.
For some reason it is not letting me post (most likely I am doing something wrong!) Can you email me and I will send the info to you to post? PLEASE!? It tells me my file is too large, then it says “you’ve already posted this response”. Thats what I get for being a “newbie” but I really need your help. Thanks…ME
Gumshoe1
See if this fixes your problem:
http://ask-leo.com/my_taskbar_is_missing_and_i_have_no_start_button_what_do_i_do.html
Welcome to the forum.