I am an computer illiterate and I need some help. My computer will not let me open my IE or access My computer or My control panel... I have Windows XP. I tried to run Spider exe but nothing changed. Anyone have any thoughts? :confused:

Hi,
This may or may not solve the issue, but it's worth a try.
Turn on your computer, then immediately start pressing and releasing the F8 key, keep pressing and releasing until it stops at a menu option screen.
Use the up and down arrows on the keyboard to select "Last known good configuration", then press Enter.
This tells the computer to use the last known good Registry.
Then, re-boot the computer. Hopefully, it will solve the problems.
If not, please post back. Happy New Year.

Also it may be some kind of virus you could try it in safe mode by pressing F8 and choosing safe mode and if safe mode or last known good configeration work restart your PC again press F8 until the menu comes up then choose safe mode then a screen comes up and to work in safemode you would press yes but if you press no then you can use system restore to put your computer back a couple of days and see if that works.

Try the other two suggestions first. If they don't help, try booting to your XP CD and use the Repair option.

P.S. This really isn't a network problem. Its an OS or general PC problem. It helps people find questions of interest if you post in the appropriate category. Just a tip for future reference.

Try repair and before you reinstall or anything do fixmbr that's what normally sorts my computer out because I think it resets everything

Hi,
If you try the Repair Option as suggested, here is a good site with step-by-step instructions on how to do it; I apologize for this if you already know!

http://computing.net/windowsxp/wwwboard/forum/140403.html

Best of luck, and Happy New Year.