Why... why....

Since returning from Jakarta, I become more security conscious about my computer. This is primarily caused by the fact that most PCs that I interacted with in Jakarta contains some sort of virus or trojan.

I also noticed that my Norton Internet Security subscription expired not so long ago. I then decided to try Internet Security Suite from ZoneLabs (creator of Zone Alarms) as well as other anti virus/spyware software.

This, of course, requires numerous install / uninstall process.

Today I realized that I cannot uninstall any software. I can install new ones but not to remove existing ones. Somehow it'll stop at about 60%. Cancelling the process doesn't help either as it won't close and I'm stuck with an open window that refuse to be eliminated.

I then did the System Restore function from windows and revert back to the date when the system is running fine. This creates more problems.

Upon startup, windows fails to load a few processes such as CCProxy, IIS (need to run web server to test one of the apps I'm working on) and some other background processes.

To make things worse, some of my recently updated apps no longer works. This is true for Firefox, iTunes, Norton Anti Virus, WinDVD, MSN messenger, etc.

I've been spending the last two hours reinstalling those apps and occasionally it'll give funny screenshots. Here's a sample:


I suspect there's some kind of issue with installshield shell, but I cannot confirm this. I am now so tempted to do a full system restore and start fresh.

And no... I stil can't remove any program off my laptop.

Help.......