Computer error message question- XP

A friend has passed on to me a question regarding his PC. I don’t know why he thinks I will be able to answer- except maybe he has heard of my knowledgeable friends on the Dope (suck, suck).

I’ve never seen his computer but I understand it is pretty old and he is waiting for it to die before he gets a new one.

The OS is XP.

Everytime he starts the computer he gets the following error message:

Syntax:Cloaker(d:[(path)] appname[.ext]
Examples Cloaker c windows/Sol exe.
Cloaker sol

Enviroment variables checked
Debug(true/false)
Cloaker wait(true/false)

OK

I googled it and from what I can see it seems to be from malware or something. however every reference I found was quite a few years old.

He has run Nortons and I asked him to run the Microsoft malicious software removal tool.

Both these have come up with nothing.

Any ideas what it could be and how to get rid of it?

is it an HP computer? It might not actually be malware:

It might NOT not be malware either, though.

Thanks Jz- I saw some similar threads. If it is a HP it may just be a corrupted file?

Has he tried a system restore?

As a preliminary step, run msconfig, go to the Startup tab, and disable anything called Cloaker. Reboot and see what happens.

Thanks Number. I have been tied up and just got back to this.

Regarding a system restore, he has tried that but for some reason his aging system won’t allow it- it just refuses to do it.