BAD PC problem HELP

Did you back up your registry before running the "cleaner?"When you say you cannot open any programs on your PC, what exactly do you mean? Are you just unable to find the icons to click on (missing Start menu, etc), or are you able to click on them but nothing happens? Do you get any error messages? Have you tried to boot to Safe Mode to see if you're able to access your programs there?Rule #1 of the Windows Registry: ALWAYS back up the registry before making any changes at all. If you backed it up (or the cleaner did it for you), you can easily restore the registry and all will be well. If not...messing with the registry, even using a program made for that purpose, is one of the quickest and easiest ways to screw up Windows badly enough to force a re-install.Do you have your WIndows XP install disk, or did your PC just come with a restore partition?With the install disk, you could try booting to the CD and you might be able to get Windows to either rebuild the registry hive or just re-install Windows on top of itself without wiping your programs or data, but honestly at that point you'd be better off just wiping and re-installing, because many things will likely not work even after the fix.

Go-back is good, when it works. I dont know about current versions, but 7 years ago or so it used to occasionally corrupt itself and make the computer unbootable with no way to use the restore either.Personally, I don't trust any consumer Norton products. Their enterprise antivirus is decent, but the consumer product line has always disappointed me.