Recently, I was asked to try to correct a problem with a five year old Dell XP Home machine. The machine has had only two user accounts set up during the entire 5 years of its lifetime. Both those accounts had administrator privileges. I used Belarc Advisor to get an inventory of the machine, and its report indicated the "Administrator" account had never been used. There are a number of run of the mill functions which no user can perform, including setting wallpaper, activating the screen saver, opening certain, but not all, programs, and the list goes on. I set up a new user account, again with administrator rights, and ran into the same problem using that account. In most cases, the problem exhibits in this manner: Go to folder options, click on the button to display hidden files and folders, click apply, and click okay. It appears that this action has been carried out as desired. However, immediately go back to the same process, and the option to display hidden files has reverted back to NO display of hidden files. This same problem exists with respect to many different activities, including inability of one account user to see programs installed by another user, even though both users are identified as having administrator privileges. This very unique problem (in my experience at least) has me stumped. Any ideas out there?Just for kicks and giggles...

Has this computer ever been updated VIA Windows/Microsoft Update?It was up to date until SP3 began to be pushed out a week or so ago - that's when I checked the machine. It's pretty much current. As an afterthought - I should mention this: the only two users (ever) of this machine are a retired couple. The husband never touches the computer; the wife only does internet shopping and email - she is not the type to have ever even been aware of such a thing as a computer administrator, let alone tried to tinker with anything the least bit arcane (to her).Possible malware infection?

Pretty much has me stumped, as well.Quote

Possible malware infection?