i'm having a common problem that i've been googling for answers but
without much success ... lots of people have similar symptons

setup: windows 2000 machine w/ sp4 installed
1) can't run windows update from the start menu (brief hourglass then nothing)
2) can't right click and open a new window in IE 6 sp1
3) can't start > search > find files (brief hourglass then nothing)
4) can't c&p files

no actual error msgs

i did find and remove the welchia virus using a tool from
www.norton.com earlier today

i've seen posts recommending that i regsvr32 /i various dll's ... i've
done that without success

i've seen posts indicating oleaut32.dll might be to blame ... i tried
reinstalling a new one without success

to claim this answer, i need an answer by wed morning 9am est or i'll
have to reinstall :(

i'll be actively monitoring so feel free to ask questions and i'll try
any suggestions .... many thanks to whoever can remove this giant
headache!

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Request for Question Clarification by endo-ga on 18 Nov 2003 17:14 PST

Hi,

Can you try running the following tool and see what it finds please?

FixBlast
http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.blaster.worm.removal.tool.html

Thanks.
endo

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Clarification of Question by swatkaizen-ga on 18 Nov 2003 19:38 PST

i ran fixblaster after running the welchia tool ... it didn't find anything ...
or were you suggesting that i check my services settings? i think
those are fine but it won't hurt to check

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Request for Question Clarification by endo-ga on 18 Nov 2003 20:20 PST

No sorry I was suspecting you had MSBlast. 
Thanks.
endo

Hi swatkaizen,

Have you tried rolling back to SP3? Some of your symptoms seem SP4
related, but the kicker is the virus you found and not sure what
remnants of that might be interacting. But from what I have heard, I
would first roll back to SP3 which seems to be much more stable.

-=clouseau=-

good suggestion, but unfortunately the problems existed before sp4, i
actually only had sp1 on it until yesterday, and i thought the upgrade
to sp4 would help ... i think the crux of the problem lies with what
all these components have in common ... if only i knew more about how
these components worked

other interesting note ... so start > search > find files doesn't
work, neither does windows key + F _BUT_ if i open windows eplorer,
then press search ... i can search my drive .... that's got be a big
clue ... i just don't know what it means

Hi again,

I did a bit of searching for you and I feel I have come across this
before, but can not locate the articles I saw previously. I'll keep
trying as time permits, but thought I would offer up a few more things
to read and perhaps try.

First, read this article:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;258774&Product=win2000


You mentioned running regsvr32, but with the /i switch. Try it without
and reboot to see if that has helped. Also try this with and without
the /i switch:

regsvr32 /i shell32.dll


Also read the following discussion that has what appears to be the
same problems you are experiencing:


http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&threadm=058201c379a4%245a389180%24a401280a%40phx.gbl&rnum=73&prev=/groups%3Fnum%3D100%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DISO-8859-1%26q%3Dwindows%2B2000%2B%252B%2522start%2Bmenu%2522%2B%252B%2522windows%2Bupdate%2522%2BOR%2B%2522search%2522%2B%252Berror%2BOR%2Bproblem%26sa%3DN%26tab%3Dwg

-=clouseau=-

thank you very much clouseau ... i tried many variants of the
regserv32 solution ... none of them worked

i think i will try the in place upgrade mentioned in the linked thread
and see where that gets me

still hoping ...

so in place upgrade did not work :(

looking bleak ...