I am a new member of this group, so I confess I am unsure of the stipulations of the group and how much help I can expect to receive.  I am a newly-divorced single mother who is presently unemployed.  Frankly, I do not know where else to turn.

  Another member of this group (a good friend of mine) has been very amiable in trying to help me.  He posted before I became a member, delineating the problem at hand.

  The issue is apparently a worm that has been around for a long time.  The error message I received follows:

  Isass.exe - system error
  An invalid handle was specified

  The particular worm appears to be "wscript.kakworm.dr."  As my friend elaborated in his post, I had quarrantined the worm several days ago.  However, I would surmise that is not the issue at hand because despite performing a system restore, I was perplexed to find out I could barely boot my computer - - notwithstanding the fact I returned the settings back three months.  Obviously, it does lasting damage to the computer and I must now perform a repair installation (per a response from one of the members in this group).

  That is fine, although I am all thumbs when it comes to computers . . . and having to first configure the computer to start from the CD-ROM seems a significant obstacle at the moment; i.e., I have no idea how to perform this.

  However . . .

  I have two other issues.  Since I was fortunate enough to get it to (miraculously) boot this morning, I have to back-up the entire hard drive.  I was under the apparently erroneous impression that I could use CD's to do this.  From what I have read on the Net, that is not an option?

  Upon the repair installation, I would then need to reinstall the information from the back-up, not that I know how to do that as well.

  The remaining issue is in regards to Norton, i.e., Symantec.  This was working stupendously for me and then suddenly said it was lacking the scan engine.  My guess is that I mistakenly clicked on the set-up file from my desktop in absolute haste, rather than going through the program area to have proper access to it.  I do not know if I might have corrupted the program by mistakenly doing that?  As a result, I felt it best if I uninstalled and then reinstalled it.  When I went to reinstall it, there was a problem.  It became hung there for a very long time, whereupon I had no choice but to shut it down.  Now, when it came back up, it asked if I wanted to resume the installation.  I said yes, but it did nothing.  I would assume it aborted without any notice?  Or possibly malfunctioned in some way?  There was no further notice of anything happening with the reinstallation.  Nor do I see it listed in "programs," and this is worrying me.  I feel I might have done more damage trying to
 get Norton working again?  I have not done anything further in this regard to avoid making matters worse.  From what I understand from my friend who is a member here, Norton will go deep into the workings of your computer and is essentially very difficult, if not impossible, to remove in entirety.  Perhaps this is not a bona fide issue at the moment considering my other issues, but I felt it necessary to mention since I need virus protection now more than ever.

  I hope someone can help me, as it will affect my child's Christmas dramatically to have to hire someone to come to my house and work this out for me.  My child's father is in Iraq, and this is our only means of communication with him.  He must deal with mortars daily, so it is not a comfort issue per se.  There is not even a phone number to reach him.

  Many heartfelt thanks in advance . . .

  Diane


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