[big black dog]

Reboot in safe mode. Go to Accessories, System Tools, System Restore. Pick a date in the recent past and restore your system settings.

Thanks, I may try that if this happens again. I didn't realize you could operate XP in safe mode, but I looked it up and indeed you can.

I tried doing a system restore in the normal mode, and the virus gives me a message saying that the system administrator has blocked that.

[foolishboi]

The first thing these viruses do is wipe out the ability to system restore.