Ok I went to http://www.singingfool.com to watch some music videos, a little box appeared and I clicked yes without thinking before I new it there were 5 new icons on my desktop and I couldn’t delete them with add or remove programs, so I targeted there root files and deleted them manually, then the weirdest thing happened, this internet explorer page appeared in the background of my desktop that I couldn’t get rid of, I tried ending it in task manager but my computer froze, so I updated Norton anti-virus and scanned my Hard drive, it came up clean. I installed spybot search and destroy and updated it, it too came up clean. So I tried going into the registry and finding the files but I couldn’t find anything that matched what they looked like. I really don’t want to reformat my drive so I hope you can help I took a screen shot of the “background virus” heres a link:

http://www.geocities.com/genus3041/backvirus.jpg

Thanks,

-Eric

If it changed your background then head into your display settings and change the background.

Also download HiJackThis and scan your computer. Post the log here. This checks for any malware that may be running.

 

Download and run CWShredder to fix anything that might have been installed by CoolWebSearch. It sounds like this is what happened.

 

Also might want to download AdAware.

It is possible that it did not change the backgrond, but in fact it is a legitimate, if not a bit annoying, program which just put an Active Desktop item on your desktop to deliver advertising.

Also, get Spybot: Search and Destroy. Free spyware detection program.

There really is no legitimate advertising system that alters active desktop settings without user consent - active desktop can do really nasty things to a system, and always impacts performance.