Having similar problems here.
Two nights ago, I noticed my desktop icons suddenly started doing weird things (most all changed to either a blank shortcut arrow and/or outstretched hand)... Before rebooting I ran an Avast system scan and it came up with the following (copied and pasted from Warning log):
5/5/2007 10:25:12 PM 1178418312 HP_Administrator 3744 Sign of "Win32:Adware-gen. [Adw]" has been found in "D:\I386\APPS\APP24364\src\CompaqPresario_Spring06.exe\%MAINDIR%\w6Setp.EXE\[Embedded#5a868]" file.
5/5/2007 10:28:50 PM 1178418530 HP_Administrator 3744 Sign of "Win32:Adware-gen. [Adw]" has been found in "D:\I386\APPS\APP24364\src\HPPavillion_Spring06.exe\%MAINDIR%\w6Setp.EXE\[Embedded#5a868]" file.
5/5/2007 10:34:29 PM 1178418869 HP_Administrator 3744 Sign of "Win32:Adware-gen. [Adw]" has been found in "D:\System Volume Information\_restore{106CF321-99A3-4E3A-9103-1BD027606A99}\RP51\A0009162.exe\%MAINDIR%\w6Setp.EXE\[Embedded#5a868]" file.
5/5/2007 10:34:50 PM 1178418890 HP_Administrator 3744 Sign of "Win32:Adware-gen. [Adw]" has been found in "D:\System Volume Information\_restore{106CF321-99A3-4E3A-9103-1BD027606A99}\RP51\A0009163.exe\%MAINDIR%\w6Setp.EXE\[Embedded#5a868]" file.
i.e., 5 infected files. I took the advised action and moved them all to the virus chest, then scheduled and ran a boot-time scan just to make sure there was nothing else. The boot scan was clean, as was the follow-up scan done a few hrs. ago.
Most of the icons have returned to the desktop (except for My Documents shortcut and one for saved games); but many of the folder icons and system shortcut links to folders within the C:\ drive itself are still missing.
They've been replaced by the "unknown file"-looking thingy when Windows doesn't know what a file is associated with; although the ones I've tried still seem to work.
This is all *Very* get-out annoying, since this is barely a two-month old new Windows XP Media Center pc and here it's been messed with by some low-life idiot with nothing better to do than cause unknown people grief!
... How can I restore the missing icons? I had made a DVD backup of the restore partition (good thing, as some files on the D:\ drive seem to have been altered); but I'd prefer to avoid reinstalling the OS if at all possible I was still in the process of transferring old files from previous PC to new, adding programs and otherwise and customizing settings, etc., and so don't have any backups of the files and changes I've made to it so far.
Regarding the earlier suggestions, a) I've heard that rootkit detectors should only be used by those very technically-savvy who know exactly what they're doing (I'm not there yet -- far from that!).
. b) I had a copy of the AVG Anti-Spyware, but it's on my other desktop PC and the trial has expired... Are you permitted to have more than one free scanner installation; and if so can it be used non-resident after the trial expires? c) I'm stuck with a *verrrrrry slow* dialup connection and for some odd reason, Ad-Aware has been returning error messages after 5% update file is downloaded. After several weeks and no change/improvement on that situation, I gave up. I remember reading somewhere that Lavasoft had run into some type of legal trouble; and that coupled with increasing reports of unreliability and security professionals who no longer recommend it, I'm hesitant to download/install it again.
P.S. I do have Spybot S&D and have run two or three scans subsequent to this annoying incident. they have found nothing.
