Opened an attachment - You-know-what hit the fan!

Got several e-mails from oceanfree indicating from the heading that my e-mail acount with them was about to be suspended. Opened e-mail that said that more info was contained in the attached zipped document.

Tried to open the document to no avail,. The net effect is that I am unable since to access my computer. When I turn it on I get just the wallpaper with none of the icons that would normally be in view. No way of accessing any applications by any other way either. When I press ctrl-alt-del, it shows the few applications that are running. When I delete them I just get reverted to the wallpaper screen.

I don't know a great deal about IT but I know when it looks serious and this does. My fear is that my hard drive, containing some important info, has been wiped. Can anyone offer any suggestions? Is there anywhere good that I could bring my PC to have it restoered to its former glory? It's running Windoes 98.

Any help appreciated.

Magoo

As ever in these situations start with this thread.

your explorer.exe shell is banjaxed but your data is probably there intact .

to run explorer , hit the combination of <ctrl> <alt> <del> keys , then into task manager, then into processes and file menu new task.

type

explorer.exe

the desktop should appear. if you have a burner start backing up.

otherwise ask tech friend to put hard drive into their machine, copy data to cd or dvd , check its all there and then put the HD back in your own box and scrub it (format drive and reinstall operating system)

keep your anti virus up to date from now on