When I try to delete a picture in Windows XP – my pictures section, it will delete the photo and then instantly make a copy. Before I had over a hundred of one picture, but now it’s just one for one. If I delet copy 8 I get a new copy 102. I have gotten rid of all the adware and spyware I could find, switched out the mouse and keyboard, and this still happens. Any advice?
Very strange. You should check for a virus in addition to your spyware scans. I would recommend that you perform this in Safe Mode with System Restore turned off. You can start it again after the virus scans.
I had that twice. The first time, I punted and reformatted my hard drive. Cleared it right up. The second time was about a week later, and so I decided to try a more nuanced approach.
Close eveything that’s runnning. Use Ctrl+Alt+Delete to open the task manager, and click the Processes tab. Make it big enough to see everything in the list without scrolling. Hit Print Screen to take a full screenshot, close the task manager, open Paint, and select Edit => Paste. Save this image to a file, and set it as your wallpaper. (Temporarily)
Now hop on the net and go to google. Type in the exact image name for every process listed in the main google search, and look for explanations as to whether or not it’s a problem.
IIRC, it was FPROTECT.EXE (something with protect in its name, but not Norton’s) that was causing it. Google had a hit on the first page that detailed nice easy to follow step by step instructions on how to remove it completely. Worked like a charm, and I’ve never had problems since.
I still run Ad-Aware for the registry stuff, but google is my main method of dealing with spyware. Once you get everything cleaned, make a new image of your “legit” processes and you can always check back to see if something new has wormed its way in.