Zep I had suggested downloading Avast to a thumb drive from the computer being used as I presumed it was a clean computer and not the one with corrupt files. Mlou seems unable to download onto the troubled computer. I have had to do that when trying to clean infected computers. I found Avast could clean a computer enough to allow running Superantispyware or Malwarebytes to take care of other things causing the troubles. Mlou, is your recovery program on CDs or DVDs? If it is on a partition on the hard drive you have no idea if that too is corrupt so you really would need to clean the computer first.

O.K. dammccoy ~ I've been there exactly and here's what I get : 1. Download now for Windows 8 (Also, under "download now for W8, it says, "Buy Once, Read Everywhere:" - I thought it was free, so I figured I wasn't at the right place) but I continued to..... 2. View in Windows Store 3. Then the link goes to TWINUI ~ I know it's an application, but how do I know it's safe? I've seen it before but I don't really know what it is. I guess that's when I tuned off. EmmaR ~ This looks a little cleaner (clearer) but again it said to shop at the Windows 8 store - I'm still learning W8, so I always figure store = $ or the download would be on Amazon as I expected. Thanks to you both - I'll figure it out now, just feel silly to ask since I know I'm a couple of years behind. You get older, you lose brainpower. Not so LOL., but true. Darn.

Ok this is simple now. Just use Google and type edit registry and millions of hits appear. Look through the first few and you will find many tutorials with good graphics showing step by step. You are nervous and rightly so because of all the warnings about messing up a registry. HOWEVER, this is nothing more than making a correction to a spelling error if you look at it that way. First time just go into the registry working down to the needed page. Once there you can walk away and grab a coffee if you feel stress, or you can make the simple correction to the one entry in question. Those of us who help others always need to stress the importance of caution in the registry because of those who are so impetuous. my ex son in law is a good example, he goes into a computer like a bull in a china shop. Luckily I do not have to clean up behind him anymore :) Now I have learned how to put stuff into a flash drive and save my files. Why? You are going to back up the registry as a precaution, nothing more. To save your work, assuming it is stored in My Documents. Insert the thumb drive, cancel the popup right click Start click Explore Now you see Windows Explorer opened Look near the top on the left side and right click on My Documnts click Properties in the pop up Look to see how large the My Documents folder is and if you have enough room on the thumb drive. We'll assume you have room. OK.... Click My Documents to highlight On the right side click the top item to highlight Hold down the Shift key and tap the End key now all the right side is highlighted right click anywhere on the highlighted data click Copy in the pop up Scroll down the left side now to find the thumb drive right click on it in the pop up click Paste and the contents are copied to your thumb drive - or any other drive you designate. Done! Simple huh?

it sounds like you have an infection that has blocked you from getting programs that would try to clean it, see if it lets you go to any of these online scans to run. ESET Online Scanner BitDefender Online Scanner try this link to get the direct exe of malwarebytes it should open directly on your pc as a download box for the mbam exe. save it to your pc download Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware to your desktop. Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware * Double-click mbam-setup.exe and follow the prompts to install the program. * At the end, be sure a checkmark is placed next to Update Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware and Launch Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware, then click Finish. * If an update is found, it will download and install the latest version. * Once the program has loaded, select Perform full scan, then click Scan. * When the scan is complete, click OK, then Show Results to view the results. * Be sure that everything is checked, and click Remove Selected. * When completed, a log will open in Notepad. Please save it to a convenient location. The log can also be found here: C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Application Data\Malwarebytes\Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware\Logs\log-date.txt * Please post contents of that file in your next reply. if it will not let you run it as mbam.exe you may have to rename it, let me know