I also have that wierd registry entry.
But I also had some malware and trojans etc...
Basically I went on old Gaming sites looking for a nocd file for CIV3.
I did not download anything from those sites. Yet they still infected my PC.
From the dates and time it looks like these events unfolded.
The Java 1.4xxx had a module changed, then a file called CmdLineExt.dll was dropped into Firefoxes temp folder.
(Java 1.4xx is on WinXP SP0 to SP2 but not found on SP3 or later, and it's not the Microsoft VM Java.)
Anyways the CmdLineExt seemed to use something from Civ3 called SecuRom to do stuff and hide it all.
It put two random named EXE files in the temp folder and hid them.
And it placed many other files all over the PC. I think 1 file was called ati97.dll and it was identified with having a "Virusless Virus"... It also infected a couple documents on C drive.
So, it turns out it really was just my luck to have Avast update the next day & started messing up.
Unfortunately Avast didn't stop any of it.
And just when I think the PC is cleared, I run a Avira and BitDefender LiveCDs and they still find stuff like "Script Trojans" and so on...
So, I'm going to wipe out that PC (I cant trust it now) and do a re-partition, followed by a disk format.
PS. I would've posted sooner but I had to wait for APC to send the replacement UPS, at least this older PC is still OK. (shrug)