Serious windows problem,please help!!

[iguana]

Hi everybody,
i use an ibm r40 laptop,windows xp...I uninstalled norton antivirus..i figured there was sometning wrong with the uninstall cause it only took 2 seconds...Next time i boot up it was a mess...No programs in the tray,all the icons displayed unormal with the lnk extension appearing,no programs in the start up menu..when i try to click on an icon i get the message that no program is ascociated with it ,click on the list to select program but no programs on the list ! I cant run .exe files cause i get the same message ,so i cant do system restore...i cant do anything.!
tried safe mode , but its the same..i would haveto tryied format but i cant backup any file so its impossible . I have to find a way
to restore the system..i really need to use my files and i have no idea what to do..Help or advice please...!
Thank you..

[Friedchicken100]

Ok here are some possibilities...
You might have a virus. I had experienced the same thing. When you have a virus and you go to install Nortons then everything is messed up. I had to have my hard drive crashed and I lost all my files. I don't know if its the same thing but it's very similar.
Another possibility is that Nortons wasn't installed properly. You might had had a corrupt system file and when Nortons tried to connect with that file everything might have gone haywire. I would contact Nortons tech support and/or ibm tech support.

[Beemer]

Have you tried System Restore? You'll find it in your System Tools.
Go to a date previous to your mishap.

Cheers!

[kendo]

booting with the XP cd will offer you the opportunity to repair the installation

***edit***
you will lose all previous service packs, restore points, critical updates etc etc, but the data will be intact

[iguana]

as i sayed i couldnt use system restore cause i couldnt execute any program in the system , it was completely collapsed.I did the reinstalation with the windows cd , it helped me recover and backup my files but i couldnt escape format cause many programs didnt work..I think it was the welchia virus that caused all this...

[thekingofpain]

If you had a virus before the un-install why didnt Norton pick it up? Did you use Nortons un-install via your start menu's program list?
What made you decide to remove Norton?

[nukes]

Maybe because its useless. Run your documents through a decent virus scanner that's up-to-date before trying to open them. You may just infect yourself again.