Wanted to post in Omni...
OK my dumbass a while back opens up an email attachment which executes some file... Well since then when I turned off my laptop and rebooted it it is like when I bought it everything is fresh all settings are gone, everytime I reboot everything is started over again, software etc, I lose all settings bookmarks etc. and funny thing is NAV is deactivated.. now I ran a scan with my outdated NAV and pick up nothing. I think I have a virus, what is it and how do I stop it?

It depends on what OS you're using.

If you can, boot from clean, bootable Floppy or CD. Then run this free virus scan:

http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

If it was me, I would reimage my PC...

It sure sounds like you do. A up-to-the-minute virus scanner should remove the virus and you should be fine.

Never, never, never, never open ANY attachment except from someone you trust AND you are expecting it AND you have an up-to-the-minute virus checker RUNNING.

Viruses and worms will make it appear like someone you know sent you something to look at.

This morning I got a variant from my "email administrator" spoofing their email address and looking fairly legit.

I NEVER open attachments without the above. If I have ANY doubt I delete delete delete and I've never caught a virus.

To stop the worms, you need a good firewall. I wouldn't trust the MS "firewall" built into XP software. I use either a current version of Sygate, which is free for personal use, or, better yet, a decent router with the firewall turned ON.

Why is the built-in XP firewall from MS not suitable?

If you are running Windows XP, click Start, Control Panel, System and then System Restore. Pick a point in time you believe was before you picked up the nasty virus and have XP �go back� to this time and configuration. If this doesn�t fix it, go back a little further in time and restore it again.This has saved my butt more than a few times. There is also a program called GO Back or whatever that is even more robust and more configurable. Good luck.

MisterNice

the built-in one is just fine, it doesn't have all the bells and whistles of Zonealarm or Sygate but it's also much less intrusive. Richard just likes complaining about Microsoft

Yes, is true