Computer error message question- XP

Factual Questions
1

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?

2

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

It might NOT not be malware either, though.

3

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

4

Has he tried a system restore?

5

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

6

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.