Error at XP Start-up

[Quimbly]

I recently installed some crappy software that I suspect was somewhat malicious. Now, whenever I boot my system, I get a run-time error '13' popup window. The title of the window is "CPP Change" -- real helpful.

I'm trying to figure out how to remove it from my system, permanently.

I have run a full system virus scan to no avail. The popup window is tracked to a svchost process (I believe -- going on memory here). There's no reference to anything out of the ordinary in the XP Startup folder. I also scoured the registry for anything to do with "cpp change", finding nothing.

I'm at a loss about what to do next. Any have any ideas on how to track this down?

 

[linney]

This is a good place to start.

Removing adware & spyware
faq608-4650

 

[Quimbly]

Solution:

There was an extra (and funny) value in the
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
registry key which was launching the bogus process.

The executable name was masquerading as svchost.exe.