I was working on a neighbors computer today. I cleaned up their computer of numerous viruses. I then went to download Norton Anti-Virus 2006. During the installation, it said it needed to use the Windows Installer - not long after, I rec'd a fatal error.

 

After that time, when the computer boots up, only two applications load - IE and Outlook - the Icons look normal. The other applications do not load (icons are white and generic) and nothing happens when you double click them. The control panel does not work and when I click on the recycle bin, for example, it creates a shortcut on the desktop. It's acting funny.

 

I've tried to do a system restore via the command prompt. Didn't work as it accesses notebook.exe, which didn't load. I've tried to reinstall Windows Installer via the Microsoft site, but it can't validate the software - most likely because it's not fully loading. I called Norton and spoke w/ them for an hour. They finally said I needed to call Dell as they said it was a Windows Installer problem.

 

I believe I can re-install XP, but I don't want to lose any data. Any suggestions/steps I should try?

 

Thanks.

 

Michael